[SOLVED] Wifi keeps breaking the connection

turboscrew · 07-06-2014, 05:56 AM

Im running Slackware 14.1 on IBM Thinkpad T42, and I'm using only wifi. I'm using my ADSL-modem as dhcp-server and a Buffalo WHN-G300N as a hotspot.

Everything works fine with my wife's minilaptop Samsung N150 / Win7 and my desktop HP Pavilion a6622sc Vista/Ubuntu 14.04 dual boot.
I run Mint13/MATE on this laptop for years, but no problems with network, so I don't think the problem is in HW.

With my StinkBad/Slackware the problem is that using Network Manager the connection breaks every now and then - maybe once per hour on the average using AES/WAP. With TKIP it breaks the connection a bit more often.

With wicd the breaks take place mayne every 5 minutes on the average using TKIP. With AES/WPA it shows in the bottom all kinds of stuff, then at the end:
"Connected to kotiverkko-G-AES "Nickname: " JAA-SLACK at 84%" and then something else.
It shows it about 1 second and says "Not connected".

I selected autoconnection usage for both wicd and NM, but it doesn't autoconnect. While connection was broken I checked rfkill list and nothing was blocked. Also iwlist scanning looked normal even when connection was broken.

A funny thing: with wicd, when I connect, the /var/log/wicd/wicd.log:

Code:

2014/07/05 15:42:10 :: DHCP connection successful
2014/07/05 15:42:10 :: not verifying
2014/07/05 15:42:10 :: Connecting thread exiting.
2014/07/05 15:42:10 :: ifconfig eth1
2014/07/05 15:42:10 :: IP Address is: 192.168.1.40
2014/07/05 15:42:10 :: Sending connection attempt result success

But when the break occurs, nothing is added to the log.

The wpa_supplicant log (I guess the NM uses that):

Code:

bash-4.2# tail -f /var/log/wpa_supplicant.log 
eth1: Associated with 00:1d:73:73:88:ea
eth1: WPA: Key negotiation completed with 00:1d:73:73:88:ea [PTK=CCMP GTK=CCMP]
eth1: CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to 00:1d:73:73:88:ea completed [id=0 id_str=]
Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant
nl80211: Driver does not support authentication/association or connect commands
eth1: Trying to associate with 00:1d:73:73:88:ea (SSID='kotiverkko-G-AES' freq=2437 MHz)
eth1: Associated with 00:1d:73:73:88:ea
eth1: WPA: Key negotiation completed with 00:1d:73:73:88:ea [PTK=CCMP GTK=CCMP]
eth1: CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to 00:1d:73:73:88:ea completed [id=0 id_str=]
eth1: WPA: Group rekeying completed with 00:1d:73:73:88:ea [GTK=CCMP]
eth1: CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED bssid=00:1d:73:73:88:ea reason=3 locally_generated=1
eth1: Trying to associate with 00:1d:73:73:88:ea (SSID='kotiverkko-G-AES' freq=2437 MHz)
eth1: Associated with 00:1d:73:73:88:ea
eth1: WPA: Key negotiation completed with 00:1d:73:73:88:ea [PTK=CCMP GTK=CCMP]
eth1: CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to 00:1d:73:73:88:ea completed [id=0 id_str=]

This is break, disconnecting, reconnecting.
Last line before disconnecting was:
eth1: WPA: Group rekeying completed with 00:1d:73:73:88:ea [GTK=CCMP]

It looks like in neither case (wicd, NM) the break is not recognized, because the gui shows "connected" status even if web browser doesn't get anywhere (wit other machines browsing works fine at the same time), and the autoconnect doesn't autoconnect.

I really don't know which other logs to look into - or if some more logging should be turned on or something, to find out the reason of the connection breaks.

Aha: a break again. iwlist scanning shows:

Code:

eth1      Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:1D:73:73:88:EA
                    ESSID:"kotiverkko-G-AES"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11bg
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s
                              9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
                              48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Quality=80/100  Signal level=-49 dBm  
                    IE: WPA Version 1
                        Group Cipher : CCMP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    Extra: Last beacon: 76ms ago

(I've learned to check connection by refreshing some other page before trying to submit a posting.)

Didier Spaier · 07-06-2014, 06:39 AM

Something looks weird. How come an eth<n> interface can support scanning?

turboscrew · 07-06-2014, 06:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

Something looks weird. How come an eth<n> interface can support scanning?

Probably, because eth1 is really wlan IF.
For some reason Slackware installer wanted to name it eth1 instead of wlan0.

turboscrew · 07-06-2014, 06:45 AM

This is what I mean:

Code:

Executing install script for qemu-2.0.0-i486-2_SBo.tgz.
Package qemu-2.0.0-i486-2_SBo.tgz installed.


Done upgrading/installing package.

Processing aqemu

aqemu:
aqemu not found in /var/cache/sbopkg.
--2014-07-06 11:36:49--  http://downloads.sourceforge.net/aqe...-0.8.2.tar.bz2
Resolving downloads.sourceforge.net (downloads.sourceforge.net)... failed: Connection timed out.
wget: unable to resolve host address 'downloads.sourceforge.net'

aqemu:
Would you like to continue processing the rest of the
queue or would you like to abort?  If this failed
package is a dependency of another package in the queue
then it may not make sense to continue.

(Y)es to continue, (N)o to abort, (R)etry the build?:

Irritating!

coralfang · 07-06-2014, 07:03 AM

First try killing wpa_supplicant, it might be because more than one instance is running and interfering with your connection;

Code:

# killall wpa_supplicant

"CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED ... reason=3" usually comes up when failing to get a dhcp lease (at least, that's what i've noticed).

If there is no change after killing that, can you stay connected using wpa_supplicant directly?

Code:

# wpa_passphrase "your_essid" "your_password" > /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
# wpa_supplicant -B -i eth1 -Dwext -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
# dhclient eth1

I've found it often lets me get online when networkmanager (or wicd) stops working for an unknown reason. Might be a temporary solution.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

Something looks weird. How come an eth<n> interface can support scanning?

I've had several kinds of wireless cards/dongles show up as eth* in the past. Not sure why it does that.

turboscrew · 07-06-2014, 07:52 AM

Thanks, coralfang.
Maybe I should re-run netconfig?

turboscrew · 07-06-2014, 01:42 PM

Netconfig didn't help.

Quote:

tail -f /var/log/wpa_supplicant.log
eth1: WPA: Key negotiation completed with 00:1d:73:73:88:ea [PTK=CCMP GTK=CCMP]
eth1: CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to 00:1d:73:73:88:ea completed [id=0 id_str=]
Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant
nl80211: Driver does not support authentication/association or connect commands
eth1: Trying to associate with 00:1d:73:73:88:ea (SSID='kotiverkko-G-AES' freq=2437 MHz)
eth1: Associated with 00:1d:73:73:88:ea
eth1: WPA: Key negotiation completed with 00:1d:73:73:88:ea [PTK=CCMP GTK=CCMP]
eth1: CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to 00:1d:73:73:88:ea completed [id=0 id_str=]
eth1: WPA: Group rekeying completed with 00:1d:73:73:88:ea [GTK=CCMP]
eth1: WPA: Group rekeying completed with 00:1d:73:73:88:ea [GTK=CCMP]
# here the connection was gone
#Then I disconnected
eth1: CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED bssid=00:1d:73:73:88:ea reason=3 locally_generated=1
#then I connected again
eth1: Trying to associate with 00:1d:73:73:88:ea (SSID='kotiverkko-G-AES' freq=2437 MHz)
eth1: Associated with 00:1d:73:73:88:ea
eth1: WPA: Key negotiation completed with 00:1d:73:73:88:ea [PTK=CCMP GTK=CCMP]
eth1: CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to 00:1d:73:73:88:ea completed [id=0 id_str=]

I also checked:

Quote:

root@JAA-SLACK:~# ps axu | grep wpa
root 690 0.0 0.2 6332 2156 ? Ss 17:10 0:00 /usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant -B -u -f /var/log/wpa_supplicant.log -P /var/run/wpa_supplicant.pid
root 2833 1.0 0.0 2748 876 pts/1 S+ 18:35 0:00 grep wpa

BCarey · 07-07-2014, 04:36 PM

Quote:

nl80211: Driver does not support authentication/association or connect commands

That doesn't look good. Can you try the wext driver?

Brian

onebuck · 07-07-2014, 06:26 PM

Hi,

Please provide the output for 'lspci -vv |grep -i wireless'. What about 'dmseg' section for your wireless via 'dmesg |grep -i wireless'. Looking at your link it shows me that laptop uses the 'Intel PRO/Wireless 2200B' so check that the driver/module is correct via lsmod since.Intel Pro is supported. Confirm your firmware is up to date. Here's a old thread that may help: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...2200bg-598597/

Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

turboscrew · 07-08-2014, 12:56 AM

root@JAA-SLACK:~# lspci -vv |grep -i wireless
02:02.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG [Calexico2] Network Connection (rev 05)

I didn't know what to search in dmesg, so I browsed through it all, but I didn't find anything out of the ordinary (errors or complaints about wireless, eth1 or the wifi-chip.

In connection information it says that the driver is ipw2200.

If that has any meaning here, wicd used wext:
2014/07/04 04:59:19 :: did not find wpa_driver in configuration, setting default
wext
But wicd worked much worse that Network Manager.

BCarey · 07-08-2014, 01:01 PM

The person in http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2011191 has the same card, same problem and same output. Perhaps his solution will work for you.

Brian

turboscrew · 07-08-2014, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BCarey

The person in http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2011191 has the same card, same problem and same output. Perhaps his solution will work for you.

Brian

Not quite the same issue:

Quote:

Connects stays for about 10 secs then ask for key again.

With Network Manager my connection may keep up sometimes even a couple of hours, but
typically about a half to full hour, with WPA (WPA works a bit better than TKIP).

It doesn't ask for key, because it looks like the upper layers don't even realize that the connection is lost. I can only tell when web browser can't find servers all of a sudden.
I have to disconnect manually and then reconnect. The key is not asked once it was given.

And all the tine (even during the connection break) the iwlist scanning shows sensible values about nearby networks. It looks like the lower level works, but somehow on the way to upper layers something goes wrong.

mrclisdue · 07-08-2014, 05:34 PM

For almost 24 months I had an issue, similar to yours, with a single netbook's wifi. I'm in the habit of running -current, so the issue persisted through many iterations of slackware.

The wireless network I was running was open, as I was no where near anyone else, plus I have no issue with easily sharing my internet access when the need arises.

I found that I could generally stay connected a *bit* longer with NetworkManager than I could with wicd, but the connection still dropped randomly, suddenly, and seemingly for no reason, regardless.

Then, somewhere, (and I apologize for not furnishing a link), I stumbled across a post stating that wireless N *required* WPA2 authentication to function properly.

I changed from an open network to one requiring WPA2, and my issue was resolved. Don't know if this helps....

cheers,

BCarey · 07-08-2014, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrclisdue

For almost 24 months I had an issue, similar to yours, with a single netbook's wifi. I'm in the habit of running -current, so the issue persisted through many iterations of slackware.

The wireless network I was running was open, as I was no where near anyone else, plus I have no issue with easily sharing my internet access when the need arises.

I found that I could generally stay connected a *bit* longer with NetworkManager than I could with wicd, but the connection still dropped randomly, suddenly, and seemingly for no reason, regardless.

Then, somewhere, (and I apologize for not furnishing a link), I stumbled across a post stating that wireless N *required* WPA2 authentication to function properly.

I changed from an open network to one requiring WPA2, and my issue was resolved. Don't know if this helps....

cheers,

This was also the solution for the person whose post I linked to.

Brian

turboscrew · 07-08-2014, 11:28 PM

You mean the Laptop's wifi-HW requires WPA2?
(BTW, the laptop can't do N. It's only B/G capable.)