GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 335711
Wireless frequently disconnecting from network
Last modified: 2008-01-25 23:55:05 UTC
Please describe the problem: I'm having an issue with 0.6.1 of NetworkManager where the connection is dropping from a wireless network. I'm using Ubuntu Dapper with a rtl8180 based wireless card using ndiswrapper. After about 2 minutes the connection drops and re-connects to the network causing downtime. This keeps repeating also, until NetworkManager is killed and then things run fine. I'm guessing this could be related to this thread http://mail.gnome.org/archives/networkmanager-list/2006-March/msg00002.html NM says the driver for my device is 'rtl8180' not 'ndiswrapper', which could be why the patch that was released into CVS isn't working for me. Also I remember reading that NM scans for new networks every 120s unless you're playing with the applet, then it's every 20s. This could Steps to reproduce: 1. Plug in network card 2. Connect to a network 3. Wait Actual results: The connection drops. Expected results: Seamless connection to the network is expected. Does this happen every time? This always happens. Other information:
A minor update to the issue. I'm not using the ndiswrapper plugin. dmesg is printing out lines that say 'rtl8180' and 'rtl_ieee80211_crypt' and NetworkManager says it's 'rtl8180' for the driver. This issue still exists on NM-0.6.2
This happens to me too. You are not alone ! I'm using 0.6.3 on Edgy. What does NM queries/scans/asks the card so frequently?
I have been noticing with this in Edgy and Feisty. However, I have an atheros card, so this does not appear to be a card-specific issue. Further debugging notes: -Appears to happen more often when the signal is weaker (however, the signal is still very strong), although occasionally happens when I within 5 feet of the router. -Random disconnections are not something I have seen before I installed NM -When it disconnects, it tends to do it again in several times in 30 minutes or so. -disconnections are completely random, with no apparent rhyme or reason, beyond the above statement.
Atheros drivers have been known to be flaky in the past. Can you run 'iwevent' from a terminal as root and post the output during when the connection drops? If you see an event for SIOCSIWAP of 00:00:00:00:00:00, that means the driver thinks the connection dropped and there's not much NM or wpa_supplicant can do if that happens.
I see the same thing with a (very slightly) loose connection on an ethernet interface. Without NM running I would never even notice it. However with NM, whenever I physically move the machine slightly, NM disconnects and rerequests DHCP which takes about 10 seconds. Kill nm-applet and the NIC functions normally. Obviously as you, Dan, noted, these are cases of flakey hardware. But it may be beneficial to have NM wait some amount of milliseconds before declaring the interface down and doing the song and dance.
been in needinfo for year, closing INVALID
Whoops I must have glanced over the email requiring info. Either way I've just bought a new laptop so my hardware worries are a thing of the past concerning this bug. It was probably an issue with the rtl8180 driver, which is still pretty flaky on 7.10.