GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 557789
wireless functionality no longer works with NM 0.7 (ubuntu 8.10 beta)
Last modified: 2008-11-04 10:37:01 UTC
Please describe the problem: Problem and details are fully described here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6025379#post6025379 This could be a configuration problem and I hope it is. I don't think it is the ubuntu version, although it is still a beta for another week, so I can accept that. However, as the ubuntu forums post shows, this was a problem in ubuntu Hardy 8.04 as well, but I had a work-around, which only made it a minor annoyance. Now, I cannot get the wireless to work at all Steps to reproduce: 1. Start up Network Manager 2. Select my wireless connection Actual results: see the Ubuntu Forums link for /var/log/syslog details Expected results: Does this happen every time? Yes Other information: I had a similar problem with NM 0.6.6, but was able to overcome with the Manual Configuration option, which is no longer in the nm-applet, as far as I can gell
I still cannot connect with the official release of 8.10 out today. I did a fresh install. Interestingly, it looks like Network Manager is getting close to doing all the right things with a WPA2 key - see the attached file for a segment from /var/log/syslog. It looks like the key is negotiated just fine but the connection cannot be made. I'm now thinking the problem may be in the hostap driver or even in the firmware of my Prism 2.5 device. In the attachment, I also included output of lshw and ifconfig. I also cannot get the wireless to connect with all security in my router disabled. The message in my log file indicates there is an association to either WEP (used previously) or WPA2 keys. Note that the hostap driver DID work under 8.04 only if I did a manual configuration - see this post http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=858714
Created attachment 121718 [details] diagnostics segments of /var/log/syslog and output of lshw and ifconfig
A little more information. After rebooting, examining /var/log/syslog for info on network manager's attempts to auto-connect (router has wireless security off while I'm working through this), the following sequence of messages (I presume are coming from hostap) occur every 60 sec: [code] Oct 31 08:18:53 hplaptop kernel: [ 1017.681226] __ratelimit: 1 callbacks suppressed Oct 31 08:18:53 hplaptop kernel: [ 1017.681269] wlan0: dropped unencrypted RX data frame from 00:21:29:63:78:1c (drop_unencrypted=1) Oct 31 08:18:53 hplaptop kernel: [ 1017.684465] wlan0: dropped unencrypted RX data frame from 00:21:29:63:78:1c (drop_unencrypted=1) Oct 31 08:18:53 hplaptop kernel: [ 1017.688365] wlan0: dropped unencrypted RX data frame from 00:21:29:63:78:1c (drop_unencrypted=1) Oct 31 08:18:53 hplaptop kernel: [ 1017.692280] wlan0: dropped unencrypted RX data frame from 00:21:29:63:78:1c (drop_unencrypted=1) Oct 31 08:18:53 hplaptop kernel: [ 1017.696707] wlan0: dropped unencrypted RX data frame from 00:21:29:63:78:1c (drop_unencrypted=1) Oct 31 08:18:53 hplaptop kernel: [ 1017.700340] wlan0: dropped unencrypted RX data frame from 00:21:29:63:78:1c (drop_unencrypted=1) Oct 31 08:18:53 hplaptop kernel: [ 1017.704377] wlan0: dropped unencrypted RX data frame from 00:21:29:63:78:1c (drop_unencrypted=1) Oct 31 08:18:53 hplaptop kernel: [ 1017.707615] wlan0: dropped unencrypted RX data frame from 00:21:29:63:78:1c (drop_unencrypted=1) Oct 31 08:18:53 hplaptop kernel: [ 1017.711424] wlan0: dropped unencrypted RX data frame from 00:21:29:63:78:1c (drop_unencrypted=1) Oct 31 08:18:53 hplaptop kernel: [ 1017.715098] wlan0: dropped unencrypted RX data frame from 00:21:29:63:78:1c (drop_unencrypted=1) [/code]
Can you do a manual wpa_supplicant connection at all? That would narrow it down to a driver problem or a NetworkManager problem...
I cannot do any manual connection either. In fact, I'm not sure of the best way to do that. If I 'sudo /etc/init.d/NetworkManager stop', Then wlan0 and wifif0 do not even seem to be available to do the ifconfig and iwconfig dance. The new NetworkManager seems to be taking over so much (which I actually like), it is not clear what I need to touch (i.e. /etc/network/interfaces or any other files) to make this work. With Hardy, I just could put the sequence of iwconfig, ifconfig, dhclient calls in a shell script. Note that I have tried NO security, WPA2, WEP - WEP is what I have traditionally used as WPA is beyond my old laptop's chipset. One other interesting observation is that, my ssid is 6 chars long, but if I execute iwconfig (no args) it returns ESSID:"123456?" - added one extra garbage character. I then made my ssid on my router = "123456x" and then iwconfig shows ESSID:"123456x " - it added a non-displayable char. I also have a Dell XPS m1330 laptop with ubuntu 8.04 and the output of iwconfig is as expected - no extra characters. Also, Below is output of iwconfig - note the funny extra character. Note also the "invalid crypt" and "Invalid misc". On my working xps m1330 these are always 0. wlan0 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:"SanPatx" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: 00:21:29:63:78:1C Bit Rate:2 Mb/s Retry short limit:8 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Power Management:off Link Quality=24/70 Signal level=-65 dBm Noise level=-90 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:1784 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:9 Missed beacon:0 Finally, for more info, here is an excerpt from syslog with WEP. It looks like some of the negotations are working. It just never connects - keeps popping up the dialog to re-enter my WEP key (over and over...)Oct 31 23:15:58 hplaptop NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete. Oct 31 23:15:58 hplaptop NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) starting... Oct 31 23:15:58 hplaptop NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 4 -> 5 Oct 31 23:15:58 hplaptop NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0/wireless): connection 'SanPatWEP' has security, and secrets exist. No new secrets needed. Oct 31 23:15:58 hplaptop NetworkManager: <info> Config: added 'ssid' value 'SanPatx' Oct 31 23:15:58 hplaptop NetworkManager: <info> Config: added 'scan_ssid' value '1' Oct 31 23:15:58 hplaptop NetworkManager: <info> Config: added 'key_mgmt' value 'NONE' Oct 31 23:15:58 hplaptop NetworkManager: <info> Config: added 'auth_alg' value 'OPEN' Oct 31 23:15:58 hplaptop NetworkManager: <info> Config: added 'wep_key0' value '<omitted>' Oct 31 23:15:58 hplaptop NetworkManager: <info> Config: added 'wep_tx_keyidx' value '0' Oct 31 23:15:58 hplaptop NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete. Oct 31 23:15:58 hplaptop NetworkManager: <info> Config: set interface ap_scan to 1 Oct 31 23:15:58 hplaptop NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state change: 0 -> 2 Oct 31 23:16:23 hplaptop NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0/wireless): association took too long. Oct 31 23:16:23 hplaptop NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 5 -> 6 Oct 31 23:16:23 hplaptop NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0/wireless): asking for new secrets Oct 31 23:16:23 hplaptop NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state change: 2 -> 0 Oct 31 23:16:38 hplaptop NetworkManager: <info> wlan0: link timed out.
oops - in that above WEP example, I configured the connection with a static IP, just to take dhclient out of the picture. I just think the Rx packets are not authenticating resulting in thousands of "invalid crypt"s
This NOT a Network Manager problem, thankfully. I was able to get my wireless with hostap_pci driver to connect manually (ifconfig, iwconfig, dhclient) to my linksys wrt160n router ONLY using channel 9. I then reinstalled fresh from the live iso and it switched the driver to orinoco_pci, which worked just fine. I quite like the new NM 0.7, so keep up the good work. If only it were easy to pinpoint wireless issues to OS, NetworkManager, driver, router, ... An odd observation for ubuntu is that the alternate iso installs hostap_pci for the Intersil Prism 2.5 chipset while the live iso uses the orinoco_pci.
Interestingly, after the install, a kernel update was done and hostap was re-selected as the driver of choice. I blacklisted it and orinoco is back and NM 0.7 still works sweetly.