[SOLVED] Unstable connection on recently installed Debian with rt2500 card

Hi guys,

I reinstalled Debian Testing a few hours ago since I was using the i386 version and decided to change to amd64. I'm on a desktop PC behind a WPA-PSK connection. My wireless chipset is Ralink rt2500, which works with the rt2x00 driver. Well, the problem is that for some reason after installation the connection is really unstable and every now and then drops. Also, sometimes when attempting to reconnect (or after a reboot), I get a message telling wpasupplicant didn't close cleanly and hence I must remove /var/run/wpa_supplicant and connect again with NetworkManager (either by the GUI or by the CLI). Everything seems to work for a while, but after a few minutes (maybe half an hour or so), the connection drops again and I have to restart it.

What I've done so far:

Installed network-manager-kde to manage the connection and edited /etc/network/interfaces and /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf like this:

interfaces:

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
auto wlan0
allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
        wpa-ssid MyEssid
        wpa-psk  MyKey

NetworkManager.conf

[main]
plugins=ifupdown,keyfile

[ifupdown]
managed=true

I also disabled ipv6 just in case by creating a file named "disableipv6.conf" inside /etc/sysctl.d with the following line: net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6=1. Then I restarted the system but the problem persists.

These are the last lines on /var/log/syslog for the latest connection drop:

Oct  4 21:59:10 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: ip-config -> activated (reason 'none') [70 100 0]
Oct  4 21:59:10 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> Policy set 'waraira' (wlan0) as default for IPv4 routing and DNS.
Oct  4 21:59:10 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> Activation (wlan0) successful, device activated.
Oct  4 21:59:10 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 5 of 5 (IPv4 Commit) complete.
Oct  4 21:59:10 debian dbus[2534]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.nm_dispatcher' (using servicehelper)
Oct  4 21:59:10 debian dbus[2534]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.nm_dispatcher'
Oct  4 22:00:40 debian kernel: [ 2459.324017] ieee80211 phy0: wlan0: No probe response from AP 00:12:0e:34:59:70 after 500ms, disconnecting.
Oct  4 22:00:40 debian wpa_supplicant[2695]: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED bssid=00:12:0e:34:59:70 reason=4
Oct  4 22:00:40 debian kernel: [ 2459.372052] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
Oct  4 22:00:40 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: completed -> disconnected
Oct  4 22:00:40 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: disconnected -> scanning
Oct  4 22:00:41 debian wpa_supplicant[2695]: wlan0: SME: Trying to authenticate with 00:12:0e:34:59:70 (SSID='waraira' freq=2462 MHz)
Oct  4 22:00:41 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: scanning -> authenticating
Oct  4 22:00:41 debian kernel: [ 2460.589062] wlan0: authenticate with 00:12:0e:34:59:70 (try 1)
Oct  4 22:00:41 debian kernel: [ 2460.788021] wlan0: authenticate with 00:12:0e:34:59:70 (try 2)
Oct  4 22:00:42 debian kernel: [ 2460.988021] wlan0: authenticate with 00:12:0e:34:59:70 (try 3)
Oct  4 22:00:42 debian kernel: [ 2461.188023] wlan0: authentication with 00:12:0e:34:59:70 timed out
Oct  4 22:00:42 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: authenticating -> disconnected
Oct  4 22:00:42 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: disconnected -> scanning
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <warn> (wlan0): link timed out.
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: activated -> disconnected (reason 'supplicant-timeout') [100 30 11]
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> (wlan0): deactivating device (reason 'supplicant-timeout') [11]
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> (wlan0): canceled DHCP transaction, DHCP client pid 11586
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian avahi-daemon[2594]: Withdrawing address record for 192.168.1.2 on wlan0.
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian avahi-daemon[2594]: Leaving mDNS multicast group on interface wlan0.IPv4 with address 192.168.1.2.
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian avahi-daemon[2594]: Interface wlan0.IPv4 no longer relevant for mDNS.
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian dbus[2534]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.nm_dispatcher' (using servicehelper)
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: scanning -> disconnected
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> Auto-activating connection 'waraira'.
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> Activation (wlan0) starting connection 'waraira'
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: disconnected -> prepare (reason 'none') [30 40 0]
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled...
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started...
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) scheduled...
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) starting...
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: prepare -> config (reason 'none') [40 50 0]
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> Activation (wlan0/wireless): connection 'waraira' has security, and secrets exist.  No new secrets needed.
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> Config: added 'ssid' value 'waraira'
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> Config: added 'scan_ssid' value '1'
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> Config: added 'key_mgmt' value 'WPA-PSK'
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> Config: added 'psk' value '<omitted>'
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> Config: set interface ap_scan to 1
Oct  4 22:00:56 debian dbus[2534]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.nm_dispatcher'
Oct  4 22:01:00 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: disconnected -> scanning
Oct  4 22:01:22 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <warn> Activation (wlan0/wireless): association took too long.
Oct  4 22:01:22 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: config -> need-auth (reason 'none') [50 60 0]
Oct  4 22:01:22 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <warn> Activation (wlan0/wireless): asking for new secrets
Oct  4 22:01:22 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <warn> Couldn't disconnect supplicant interface: This interface is not connected.
Oct  4 22:01:22 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <warn> Couldn't disconnect supplicant interface: This interface is not connected.
Oct  4 22:01:25 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: scanning -> inactive
Oct  4 22:03:22 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <warn> No agents were available for this request.
Oct  4 22:03:22 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: need-auth -> failed (reason 'no-secrets') [60 120 7]
Oct  4 22:03:22 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <warn> Activation (wlan0) failed for access point (waraira)
Oct  4 22:03:22 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> Marking connection 'waraira' invalid.
Oct  4 22:03:22 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <warn> Activation (wlan0) failed.
Oct  4 22:03:22 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: failed -> disconnected (reason 'none') [120 30 0]
Oct  4 22:03:22 debian NetworkManager[3633]: <info> (wlan0): deactivating device (reason 'none') [0]

Does anyone have any idea about what can be wrong? I didn't have issues before with Debian Sid on this machine; and my laptop -in which I have just installed Debian Testing amd64- works fine with the same router.

Thank you in advance for your help!

---

Well, I kept getting errors and things went worse since it didn't even connect to my router. I checked the logs and there was an error saying something like "Deauthenticating from <router's MAC address> by local choice (reason 3)". I did a web search and found this; seems to be a driver issue with this card. I added iwconfig wlan0 power off to /etc/rc.local, restarted the system and it's been working fine so far (1:30 hours uptime).

I will let the machine on overnight to see how it behaves before marking this as solved, but I think the problem is gone now (I had this same issue when I installed Debian Testing last year, but I had forgotten how to solve it and since the logs were giving different errors, I thought this a different problem).

Regards.