I know this should be posted in the hardware forums (maybe). But I think the Slackware community is the most knowledgeable and most likely to provide help in this case. Also, I am running Slackware. :-)

If I'm running Slackware -current with the 3.8.13 (smp) kernel, my WiFi performance is spotty (my laptop is an HP DV6.6135dx, for reference sake). This isn't distro specific, I have spotty performance on any other distro, and any kernel greater than 3.2.x. I'm not sure what changed from 3.2.x to current kernels in wireless modules but my WiFi cuts out a lot, or is slow (and using wicd, networkmanager, netcfg, netctl or even just pure wpa_supplicant does not help).

I have already tried:

- Disabling 'N' speeds on router
- Compiling driver from Ralink's website (it causes a kernel panic)

Any ideas on how I might improve performance?

Thank you in advance. ;-)

AFAIC, you won't get it any better than it is. Wifi just isn't quite 'there' yet in Linux, IMO. I was having the same troubles as you, with two different routers from two different companies and still had the trouble and wicd and networkmanager.

We just need more people to get in on the wifi thing with linux, like engineers and such, to help get it where it needs to be. Until then, I suggest going back to wired - it's fast, steady, reliable and 'just works'.

I'm curious as to why there would be a regression in performance though ...

Meh...it happens, I suppose. I saw it with the module build for older Philips webcams when the kernel people suddenly said they didn't want it to be able to tap in, so for a long time us Philips owners got the shaft, then suddenly it's 'built in' in the kernel but doesn't work nearly as well as the old way of installing it and using it did, so I have a perfectly good (even if it is 'old' it's *still* got a better picture than most of the 'new' webcam pics I've seen) webcam gathering dust.

Hopefully word will get out about the newer kernels not working as well as older ones with wifi and things will 'get fixed'. Can't never tell though.

For drivers that use the rt2800lib module someone messed around with the tx power. It causes the rt2800pci (and probably other) drivers to revert to the bandwidth of smoke signals on a cloudy day. The patch here fixes it:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug...iple&id=950735

Mike

1 members found this post helpful.

Thank you romberg! Guess I'll be jumping to the testing kernel!

There is no testing kernel that I'm aware of. You need to:

- download the source to the vanilla 3.8 or later.

- Apply the patch mentioned above.

- build and install.

Mike

P.S. I'm not sure who marked this thread as "SOLVED". It clearly is not solved. This is just a repair at sea. The boat still has a hole in it.

Is this patch being incorporated upstream in 3.9?

Not that I'm aware of. That is why I'm out doing my best to be a "squeaky wheel"

Mike

We need to make that happen, I don't want to be forced into patching all kernels. Have you also posted the bug here? https://bugzilla.kernel.org/

Let me know how I can compound your squeakiness!

If you wanna report this to kernel.org that might help. I just have too many kernels hanging around on this system and this is starting to resemble "work".

Building a vanilla kernel is really not all that difficult.

- Download the source from ftp.kernel.org.

- Apply the patch "cat patchfile > patch -p1" (might be -p0 or p2 but I think p1 does it)

- copy in a .config file from another kernel build. Say, the one your distribution uses. On fedora they are stashed under /boot

- "make oldconfig; make; make modules_install; make install"

Mike

1 members found this post helpful.

I'll report upstream when I get a chance, I need my WiFi!

Submitted!
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=59261

Fix being incorporated upstream! Yay!

http://marc.info/?l=linux-wireless&m...6920914837&w=2