F17 cannot keep wireless online; must reboot to recover wireless connection!

robertdaleweir · 11-29-2012, 10:11 PM

Hi
I have purchased a Laptop for my wife and installed F17 on it. She uses it with a wireless connection, which connects seamlessly. The problem occurs randomly that her Laptop is disconnected from the Wireless service. We have tried to see if it is periodic, but are unable to see any pattern.
I reinstalled Win 7 and all is well, it works endlessly. My hardware is:
The lspci command shows the Wireless Adapter as follows --->
03:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter (rev ff)
Kernel is: 3.6.1-1.fc17.x86_64
Using Gnome 3.4.2
The Laptop is an Acer Aspire E1-571-6482
Any assistance on how I might track down this gremlin, would be greatly appreciated...
Robert

markush · 12-04-2012, 04:26 PM

Could you please post the output of

Code:

lspci -k | grep -iA3 atheros

this will show the kernelmodule in use.

Which tools do you use to connect to the wireless network?

Markus

robertdaleweir · 12-05-2012, 12:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markush

Could you please post the output of

Code:

lspci -k | grep -iA3 atheros

this will show the kernelmodule in use.

Which tools do you use to connect to the wireless network?

Markus

Hi Markus
I am using F17 and NetworkManager looks after both wired and wireless, I believe. The results of the query on the Laptop is:

Code:

root@sysresccd /root % lspci -k | grep -iA3 atheros
03:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Lite-On Communications Inc Device 6617
	Kernel driver in use: ath9k
	Kernel modules: ath9k
root@sysresccd /root %

Thank you for any help you can provide. Cheers...
Robert

markush · 12-05-2012, 01:41 AM

When you use the wireless connection, do you have a wired connection at the same time? What I mean is, I think NetworkManager should decide if it uses wireless or wired, but do you sometimes change between the two.

Normally what I would do is checking if the connection is stable without NetworkManager. If it is, you can be sure that the module ath9k is the appropriate one for your interface.

Do you have wpa_supplicant installed?

Markus

robertdaleweir · 12-07-2012, 07:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markush

When you use the wireless connection, do you have a wired connection at the same time? What I mean is, I think NetworkManager should decide if it uses wireless or wired, but do you sometimes change between the two.

Normally what I would do is checking if the connection is stable without NetworkManager. If it is, you can be sure that the module ath9k is the appropriate one for your interface.

Do you have wpa_supplicant installed?

Markus

Hi markush
I do not use a wired with the Laptop at anytime. It uses only Wireless and it connects at boot up without any problems.
I am not sure how to use the wireless without NetworkManager? I use Mac Address Filtering and use no Encryption. Because it appears random, could it be an interruption caused by suspending or some power saving aspect. I have tried an ASUS dongle, in lieu of the built in adapter, and it drops out even more frequently but can be restarted without rebooting. This same dongle works seamlessly on a Desktop with the same exact F17.
I suspect a service running that is causing the interruption but do not know how to identify it. I do appreciate your help and thanks...
Robert

markush · 12-07-2012, 08:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robertdaleweir

...
I use Mac Address Filtering and use no Encryption. Because it appears random, could it be an interruption caused by suspending or some power saving aspect. ...

I've never had _this_ problem with Linux but with Windows. With Windows I had to disable the powersaving for the adapter.

I've found in a german forum that someone had problems with the adapter because of the 802.11b+g setting of the router. You could check with which specification of your wifi the router is configured, if it is 802.11b+g try 802.11g+n instead. But I don't know if there are also any settings at the adapter necessary/useful.

Markus

TabletGuy · 12-07-2012, 02:36 PM

This is very similar to the problem I'm having with a Dell Inspiron 4150 and a Dell PCMCIA card (reported by lspci as a Dell TrueMobile 1300 WLAN PC Card, 14e4:4320). The OS is a clean install of Fedora 17 XFCE spin.

The wireless connection just keeps dropping and presents a window for me to re-enter the password for the network.

This problem could be caused by NetworkManager switching between the four access points in the area as determined by some internal "which AP has the best signal" algorithm. There's apparently a problem with NetworkManager not always playing nice with the keyring, thus the request to re-enter the password.

I tried to remove NetworkManager and run wicd. Big mistake. The wicd program can't save passwords at all on my system, gets flagged about an internal error, and doesn't do much other than show me that there are a lot of wireless access points with the same name, different channel in my area. Restoring NetworkManager has been a real difficult task.

robertdaleweir · 12-09-2012, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markush

I've never had _this_ problem with Linux but with Windows. With Windows I had to disable the powersaving for the adapter.

I've found in a german forum that someone had problems with the adapter because of the 802.11b+g setting of the router. You could check with which specification of your wifi the router is configured, if it is 802.11b+g try 802.11g+n instead. But I don't know if there are also any settings at the adapter necessary/useful.

Markus

Hi Markus
I will have a look at this. I believe that it is on Auto or something like that. I believe that it may be a bit of a bug with F17. Never had the problem with F16. Another dongle I used also kicks out but can be reinvoked without rebooting. Windows on the same machine works seamlessly (Win7).
Thank you so much for your reply...
Robert

robertdaleweir · 12-09-2012, 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TabletGuy

This is very similar to the problem I'm having with a Dell Inspiron 4150 and a Dell PCMCIA card (reported by lspci as a Dell TrueMobile 1300 WLAN PC Card, 14e4:4320). The OS is a clean install of Fedora 17 XFCE spin.

The wireless connection just keeps dropping and presents a window for me to re-enter the password for the network.

This problem could be caused by NetworkManager switching between the four access points in the area as determined by some internal "which AP has the best signal" algorithm. There's apparently a problem with NetworkManager not always playing nice with the keyring, thus the request to re-enter the password.

I tried to remove NetworkManager and run wicd. Big mistake. The wicd program can't save passwords at all on my system, gets flagged about an internal error, and doesn't do much other than show me that there are a lot of wireless access points with the same name, different channel in my area. Restoring NetworkManager has been a real difficult task.

Hi TabletGuy
I hope you did not damage your distro in an effort to help me

Even though F17 is on systemd you can still use (as root)

Code:

systemctl -a | grep anager

systemctl. This will show the status of the NetworkManager if it exists. You can use "systemctl" to enable and disable the NetworkManager for experimental reasons. Never remove a service such as NetworkManager.

Code:

systemctl stop NetworkManager.service

to stop NetworkManager and

Code:

systemctl start NetworkManager.service

to start it back up.
You can see all of your Service by using

Code:

systemctl -a

by itself. It helps you see the status of all the services available to you, on a running system. I may post a Bug on my problem as it appears that it is one. Thanks for your reply...
Robert