Wireless issues with Realtek card, NetworkManager, and wpa_supplicant

Rotten194 · 05-10-2013, 07:12 AM

I'm currently having issues trying to connect to wireless that appeared after an update. When I try to connect, it simply enters an infinite reconnect loop, asking me for the password each time. I can connect to unencrypted networks fine with the ifconfig/iwconfig/dhclient method (haven't tried it on my encrypted network yet, since I'm not near it at the moment), but NetworkManager just freaks out.

This is the common bit of the log of trying to connect to an unencrypted network (the same one I'm currently on using dhclient) and trying to connect to my encrypted network. I'll get the full log of failing to connect to my encrypted network when I get back to it later.

Code:

May 10 07:48:49 not-skynet NetworkManager[1029]: <info> Config: set interface ap_scan to 1
May 10 07:48:49 not-skynet NetworkManager[1029]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: disconnected -> scanning
May 10 07:48:59 not-skynet NetworkManager[1029]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: scanning -> authenticating
May 10 07:49:04 not-skynet NetworkManager[1029]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: authenticating -> disconnected
May 10 07:49:05 not-skynet NetworkManager[1029]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: disconnected -> scanning
May 10 07:49:14 not-skynet NetworkManager[1029]: <warn> Activation (wlan0/wireless): association took too long, failing activation.

I've upgraded wpa_suppliant from 1.0 to 2.0, didn't help. Using the newest version of Xubuntu (13.04) on a liveusb didn't help.

Code:

$ NetworkManager --version && wpa_supplicant -v | grep v && uname -r
0.9.6.0
wpa_supplicant v2.0
3.5.0-28-generic

Code:

$ lsmod | grep rtl
rtl8192ce              53546  0 
rtl8192c_common        48656  1 rtl8192ce
rtlwifi                74703  1 rtl8192ce
mac80211              549341  3 rtl8192ce,rtl8192c_common,rtlwifi
cfg80211              211134  2 rtlwifi,mac80211
compat                 14950  7 rtl8192ce,rtlwifi,mac80211,cfg80211,bnep,rfcomm,bluetooth

Pearlseattle · 05-10-2013, 01:45 PM

Hi

What do you mean with...

Quote:

to connect to wireless that appeared after an update.

?

What appeared after an update?
What did you update?
Was it working before [whatever you did]?
Is it to your own wlan access point that you're trying to connect to or is it something else?

Cheers!

thorkelljarl · 05-10-2013, 04:39 PM

What distro...

Which linux and which desktop are you using? I found that I could best manage my wireless internet connections using NetworkManager with the Gnome NetworkManager applet.

I use the KDE desktop on openSUSE 12.2 but the applet can be installed and run without a problem.

I ran into the same sort of problem as yours at one time and could use the applet to remove all the settings from previous connection attempts and then configure the connection. The applet seems to be quite good at picking up the wireless at boot. Is it worth a try?

Rotten194 · 05-10-2013, 07:47 PM

I've been messing around for a while and the problem seems to be getting an IP address from DHCP.

Quote:

Listening on LPF/wlan0/7c:4f:b5:72:fb:7f
Sending on LPF/wlan0/7c:4f:b5:72:fb:7f
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 3
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
etc etc

(excuse any typos, I had to retype this by hand since it's on another computer with no internet, hence the post...)

Installing wicd led to a bad password error, which apparently can be wicd misinterpreting a failed dhcp request, so both NetworkManager and wicd are having this problem.

How can I fix this?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pearlseattle

Hi

What do you mean with...

?

What appeared after an update?
What did you update?
Was it working before [whatever you did]?
Is it to your own wlan access point that you're trying to connect to or is it something else?

Cheers!

The network problems appeared
I think it was a kernel update. I want to keep it around because it seems to have fixed a null pointer deref that caused random kernel panics
Yes, it was working fine - or as fine as wireless on linux can work, anyways

Yes, it's my access point (WPA2)

Quote:

What distro...

Xubuntu 12.10. And I don't think a different applet will fix this.

Rotten194 · 05-10-2013, 08:42 PM

So this gets weirder and weirder...

I used a program called Connectify to set up a WPA-PSK hotspot on a Windows netbook. Same encryption as the network I was trying to connect to earlier, and all it does is bridge to that network...

I connected to it, and it works perfectly. WTF?