Wireless disconnects in Lucid

Bug #567961 reported by Thomas Novin
58
This bug affects 11 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
linux (Ubuntu)
Expired
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

In Lucid my wireless networks keeps disconnecting and it won't reconnect without a reboot.

It worked fine in Karmic.

WORKAROUND: linux-backports-modules-wireless-lucid-generic-pae.

Apr 21 15:23:53 thonov-ubuntu kernel: [ 8400.436070] No probe response from AP 00:1a:70:38:91:a0 after 500ms, disconnecting.
Apr 21 15:23:53 thonov-ubuntu wpa_supplicant[1103]: CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED - Disconnect event - remove keys
Apr 21 15:23:53 thonov-ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: completed -> disconnected
Apr 21 15:23:53 thonov-ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: disconnected -> scanning
Apr 21 15:23:56 thonov-ubuntu wpa_supplicant[1103]: WPS-AP-AVAILABLE
Apr 21 15:23:56 thonov-ubuntu wpa_supplicant[1103]: Trying to associate with 00:1a:70:38:91:a0 (SSID='NOVIN' freq=2417 MHz)
Apr 21 15:23:56 thonov-ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: scanning -> associating
Apr 21 15:23:56 thonov-ubuntu kernel: [ 8402.962743] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:1a:70:38:91:a0 (try 1)
Apr 21 15:23:56 thonov-ubuntu kernel: [ 8403.160135] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:1a:70:38:91:a0 (try 2)
Apr 21 15:23:56 thonov-ubuntu kernel: [ 8403.360067] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:1a:70:38:91:a0 (try 3)
Apr 21 15:23:56 thonov-ubuntu kernel: [ 8403.560099] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:1a:70:38:91:a0 timed out
Apr 21 15:24:01 thonov-ubuntu NetworkManager: <debug> [1271856241.004019] periodic_update(): Roamed from BSSID 00:1A:70:38:91:A0 (
NOVIN) to (none) ((none))
Apr 21 15:24:06 thonov-ubuntu wpa_supplicant[1103]: Authentication with 00:1a:70:38:91:a0 timed out.
Apr 21 15:24:06 thonov-ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: associating -> disconnected
Apr 21 15:24:06 thonov-ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: disconnected -> scanning
Apr 21 15:24:08 thonov-ubuntu wpa_supplicant[1103]: WPS-AP-AVAILABLE
Apr 21 15:24:09 thonov-ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 8 -> 3 (reason 11)
Apr 21 15:24:09 thonov-ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): deactivating device (reason: 11).
Apr 21 15:24:09 thonov-ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): canceled DHCP transaction, dhcp client pid 1783
Apr 21 15:24:09 thonov-ubuntu NetworkManager: <WARN> check_one_route(): (wlan0) error -34 returned from rtnl_route_del(): Sucess#
012
Apr 21 15:24:09 thonov-ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): writing resolv.conf to /sbin/resolvconf
Apr 21 15:24:09 thonov-ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) starting connection 'Auto NOVIN'
Apr 21 15:24:09 thonov-ubuntu NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 3 -> 4 (reason 0)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: linux-image-2.6.32-21-generic 2.6.32-21.32
Regression: Yes
Reproducible: Yes
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: AD198x Analog [AD198x Analog]
   Subdevices: 2/2
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
   Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: thonov 1611 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xfe220000 irq 17'
   Mixer name : 'Analog Devices AD1984'
   Components : 'HDA:11d41984,17aa20bb,00100400'
   Controls : 29
   Simple ctrls : 18
Card29.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:29 'ThinkPadEC'/'ThinkPad Console Audio Control at EC reg 0x30, fw 7KHT24WW-1.08'
   Mixer name : 'ThinkPad EC 7KHT24WW-1.08'
   Components : ''
   Controls : 1
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card29.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'Console',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [on]
Date: Wed Apr 21 18:16:48 2010
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=b8c91b16-3934-4a9b-89d8-7f06251a1f20
MachineType: LENOVO 6458VJJ
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic root=UUID=223e48c4-0eba-4836-8d29-c7fb1ce7b9d3 ro quiet quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_DK.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
RelatedPackageVersions: linux-firmware 1.34
SourcePackage: linux
WpaSupplicantLog:

dmi.bios.date: 05/11/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 7LETC6WW (2.26 )
dmi.board.name: 6458VJJ
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr7LETC6WW(2.26):bd05/11/2009:svnLENOVO:pn6458VJJ:pvrThinkPadT61p:rvnLENOVO:rn6458VJJ:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 6458VJJ
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad T61p
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO

Revision history for this message
Thomas Novin (thomasn80) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Chris Johnston (cjohnston) wrote :

I do have this issue on one system running lucid amd64.

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Andres (andres-cuberos) wrote :

me too

Revision history for this message
Dave Boutcher (boutcher) wrote :

me too. No problems going back to Dapper but the damn thing disconnects frequently now.

Hardware: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)

No obvious errors, though I do occasionally (not every time) crash in cleanup. I think this is a side-effect though.

May 17 19:55:22 hound kernel: [654236.356137] iwl3945 0000:03:00.0: Aborted scan still in progress after 100ms
May 17 19:55:24 hound kernel: [654237.927880] ------------[ cut here ]------------
May 17 19:55:24 hound kernel: [654237.927912] WARNING: at /build/buildd/linux-2.6.32/net/wireless/core.c:614 wdev_cleanup_work+0xa7/0xd0 [cfg80211]()
May 17 19:55:24 hound kernel: [654237.927918] Hardware name: 2008VEP
May 17 19:55:24 hound kernel: [654237.927922] Modules linked in: vmnet parport_pc vsock vmci vmmon binfmt_misc ppdev dm_crypt snd_hda_codec_analog snd_hda_intel snd_hda_codec snd_hwdep snd_pcm_oss snd_mixer_oss snd_pcm thinkpad_acpi snd_seq_dummy snd_seq_oss snd_seq_midi snd_rawmidi pcmcia arc4 snd_seq_midi_event snd_seq snd_timer snd_seq_device yenta_socket rsrc_nonstatic iwl3945 iwlcore pcmcia_core nsc_ircc mac80211 snd soundcore led_class irda snd_page_alloc psmouse serio_raw cfg80211 crc_ccitt nvram lp parport fbcon tileblit font bitblit softcursor vga16fb vgastate radeon ttm drm_kms_helper drm video output ahci intel_agp agpgart i2c_algo_bit e1000e
May 17 19:55:24 hound kernel: [654237.928071] Pid: 9, comm: events/0 Not tainted 2.6.32-22-generic #33-Ubuntu
May 17 19:55:24 hound kernel: [654237.928076] Call Trace:
May 17 19:55:24 hound kernel: [654237.928095] [<c014c3d2>] warn_slowpath_common+0x72/0xa0
May 17 19:55:24 hound kernel: [654237.928111] [<f8211ea7>] ? wdev_cleanup_work+0xa7/0xd0 [cfg80211]
May 17 19:55:24 hound kernel: [654237.928126] [<f8211ea7>] ? wdev_cleanup_work+0xa7/0xd0 [cfg80211]
May 17 19:55:24 hound kernel: [654237.928134] [<c014c41a>] warn_slowpath_null+0x1a/0x20
May 17 19:55:24 hound kernel: [654237.928150] [<f8211ea7>] wdev_cleanup_work+0xa7/0xd0 [cfg80211]
May 17 19:55:24 hound kernel: [654237.928159] [<c016369e>] run_workqueue+0x8e/0x150
May 17 19:55:24 hound kernel: [654237.928176] [<f8211e00>] ? wdev_cleanup_work+0x0/0xd0 [cfg80211]
May 17 19:55:24 hound kernel: [654237.928184] [<c01637e4>] worker_thread+0x84/0xe0
May 17 19:55:24 hound kernel: [654237.928192] [<c0167740>] ? autoremove_wake_function+0x0/0x50
May 17 19:55:24 hound kernel: [654237.928201] [<c0163760>] ? worker_thread+0x0/0xe0
May 17 19:55:24 hound kernel: [654237.928207] [<c01674b4>] kthread+0x74/0x80
May 17 19:55:24 hound kernel: [654237.928214] [<c0167440>] ? kthread+0x0/0x80
May 17 19:55:24 hound kernel: [654237.928223] [<c0104087>] kernel_thread_helper+0x7/0x10
May 17 19:55:24 hound kernel: [654237.928228] ---[ end trace ac304e9934bf3f80 ]---

Revision history for this message
Dave Boutcher (boutcher) wrote :

Problem solved by doing:

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-wireless-2.6.32-21-generic

Revision history for this message
Thomas Novin (thomasn80) wrote :

I instead went with linux-backports-modules-wireless-lucid-generic-pae and this seems to have had a good effect on my machine. My wireless has worked very nicely since. Before upgrade it wouldn't even connect to my home network sometimes.

@Dave: Why did you go with just that version, 2.6.32-22 is also available (+the version I chose)?

Revision history for this message
Mouxbar (surveystuff-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

My Acer Aspire netbook has suffered with this problem and after many days of searching this seems to have sorted me.

I'm a linux dunce so please interpret around what I have gleaned as sceptically as you need to!

Suffice to say there are numerous forum threads and bug reports along these lines for 10.04 and wireless disconnects. My guess is that certain types of wireless cards / chipsets are affected by this. The most common cause of the fault seems to be usage of larger than normal surfing ie. YouTube, BBC iPlayer or even a system update! Wireless will then go down for a few minutes (for some) or require a reboot or Network Manager fiddle to get going again. The fault cannot be replicated at will but will be frequent enough to demonstrate within 10 minutes or so.

Dave Bouchers post above has nailed my problem. Unfortunately I have no idea what this installation does! At a guess, a set of generic wireless drivers... (you can stop laughing now).

I've joined just to let the community know that this has worked for me. As there are numerous threads and bugs along the same lines I'll leave it to those who know what they are doing to take whatever action they need.

I'll keep an eye on this thread for a while anyway if anyone needs further information. Please keep in mind I'm utterly useless at anything that isn't mouse driven so any terminal type requests need to be written for the simple minded...

And my big thanks to Dave !

Revision history for this message
Mouxbar (surveystuff-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Hmmm, now encountering the fault again on seesaw (UK telly on-line site) so perhaps not as fixed as I'd hoped.

Others still seem fine. I'll post further info if it comes to light.

Revision history for this message
Dave Boutcher (boutcher) wrote :

Mouxbar motivated me to comment on this bug again. I have the following observations:

1) the problem is not solved for me by using the linux-backports-modules-wireless, but it does become less frequent.

2) I've the two backports (-21 and -22) seem about the same

3) I think this is something power related (i.e. tx-power.) I say that because (and don't laugh at this anecdotal evidence) I live right beside a train line, and in addition to heavy traffice (e.g. youtube) the other thing that seems to correlate with wireless drops is trains going by. I suspect they are using some kind of 2.4GHz wireless gear on the trains which interfere with wifi. This was never a problem before 10.04. I note that 10.04 includes the following in the relase notes: "Setting wireless regulatory domain via module option no longer supported". I wonder if this is related

Revision history for this message
Mouxbar (surveystuff-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Down the pub at the moment after a day of fairly longterm trials. Forgive any drunken typos :-)

Currently testing all OK at the new location on a two bar signal. Earlier at home, normal streaming radio was fine - hadn't been previously. Other Flash sites as previously commented also excellent.

Seesaw working fine at the pub so I'll try that at home again tomorrow for comparison. My reading on this over the last few days may also implicate certain routers. This is totally incidental though although Netgear seems to come up more than often...

Sorry if it's all a bit vague. Perhaps a combination of kit.

With Dave and his trains, most modern services do run wi-fi in the UK so there's always room for channel interference on the router - er, possibly. I guess it depends on how much signal overlap occurs and how much power they assign to their kit. I would think pretty high as a guess. I wouldn't discount it anyway.

And thanks Dave, not perfect yet but 95% of the way there!

Cheers!

Revision history for this message
Mouxbar (surveystuff-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Back home this morning. All usual sites now failing again although available bandwidth seems to be low on my main system with even radio delivery glitching. As such, not a good environment to get proper opinions.

Point noticed is that when netbook starts to poll for more data just before disconnection signal strength drops to two bars despite being 2ft from the router!

Revision history for this message
krahim (karim-rahim) wrote :

yes,

I just upgraded and i'm having this problem.

Revision history for this message
krahim (karim-rahim) wrote :

Actually I now have this problem with my wired connection too using gnome network manager.

The network disconnects and then reconnects. I thought I would add this on the chance the bug can be better located.

Revision history for this message
Mouxbar (surveystuff-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Further tests today under good broadband conditions. Everything seems fine bar Youtube tests which simply appears to be the site under heavy load on the popular items selected (recent TV shows).

Also tested wired connection as per Krahim above. Same results. No disconnections. So good news here!

I'll just add that as per other threads it is worth repeating that 10.04 users are hitting wireless faults regardless of the product being an upgrade or fresh install. In all cases, people were fine under Karmic previously.

Another "fix" I've come across is to untick Hardware Accleration in the Flash options of Youtube etc. Personally, I've suffered these faults both ticked and unticked although others report this as usefull.

Revision history for this message
krahim (karim-rahim) wrote :

after i changed to wicd the problems went away.

Revision history for this message
krahim (karim-rahim) wrote :

I wrote too soon. I'm still having random wireless disconnects with wicd.

Revision history for this message
krahim (karim-rahim) wrote :

So, for me wireless with wicd disconnects and reconnects fairly regularly now. I wonder if something is timing out somewhere.

I use the broadcom B43 wireless driver fwcutter version. When I tried to use the Broadcom STA my wireless simply would not operate.

Revision history for this message
Mouxbar (surveystuff-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

It is difficult to get an immediate "feel" for the error level.

Using streaming audio on the we7 site I get a dropped connection about every 20 minutes or so. Still a vast improvement on the initial 10.04 upgrade which would break as soon as looking at Youtube etc!

Interestingly, the site seems to fetch the entire audio track that is playing when a track starts. The network connection drops just when the tracks seems to finish downloading. I've also noted the same issue with Youtube - the network dropping out when the video reaches the end of its fetching from the site.

Alas, it's not constant, but a noted point of failure.

"Normal" browsing continues to be largely trouble free - it seems that high data loads seem to be the constant factor in triggering the error.

Revision history for this message
Mouxbar (surveystuff-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

I was getting a little concerned that this error was Flash centric - as this is when I normally see it.

Fear not, 80mb system upgrade yesterday tripped out the wireless four times during download.

It almost certainly is caused by large data movements imho.

Revision history for this message
Mouxbar (surveystuff-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Browsing forums today to see if I could find any up to date progress on this. This seems to cover possibly a couple of issues but it is likely they are related. Definitely reflects this issue here though:

http://swiss.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1475006&page=1

As said previously, there are numerous threads on 10.04 wireless issues so don't think that this is by any means definitive!

Revision history for this message
Koopee (koopee1234) wrote :

Found out that I was able to reconnect to wireless network by running
sudo /etc/init.d/network-manager restart

Somehow I felt that I had more problems with the network, when there was only one wireless network available. Where I live, there are multiple networks and I have not had to resort to network-manager restart so often.

Revision history for this message
Kevin Christmas (kachristmas) wrote :

I primarily use system connections with network-manager and I haven't experienced this issue. My brother uses user level connections and complained about this issue. We both have Intel based wireless cards. I don't have access to my brother's hardware to test if using system level connections makes a difference or not.

If someone wants to try, there's a checkbox that you can enable when you configure a specific wireless connection. You should end up with a corresponding file in /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections

Revision history for this message
Mouxbar (surveystuff-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Should have news by Wednesday about differences between WPA and WEP protected routers after a visit to my local pub!

Previous usage at the pub has been trouble free which reflects on comments in my link posted above.

I've not tested definitively so I'll give this a run and report back. Too wussy to be playing about with my own router settings as well...

If anyone wants to try in the meantime, please, be my guest.

Revision history for this message
Mouxbar (surveystuff-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

OK, testing at the pub last night was fine on their WEP enabled router - no drop outs. Bringing the unit back home on to my WPA router, problems return.

As one post recommended in the link above, I switched my router to WPA2-PSK with AES only.

After an hours testing with no drop outs, I'm happy enough to say that I'm pretty sure I'm all OK now. As an aside I also think the performance is somewhat better - a subjective view though!

Obviously this is not a proper fix but a workaround. It will not suit everyone as I understand that this newer standard is not great with old hardware. However, this may be of help to the group here and I hope some of you can try this just to confirm.

Revision history for this message
Dave Boutcher (boutcher) wrote :

Interesting.

- My router was on crappy 40 bit WEP (too lazy to change the same key I've been using for a decade.) Experiencing drops
- Changed it to WPA2-PSK AES + TKIP, still experienced the drops
- Changed it to WPA2-PSK AES and I haven't experienced a drop in the last hour. If this holds up long term I'll update here.

Revision history for this message
Dave Boutcher (boutcher) wrote :

Spoke too soon....continue to experience drops even with WPA2-PSK AES

Revision history for this message
Mouxbar (surveystuff-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Promised to keep an eye...

I can just confirm that I'm absolutely fine now after extended usage.

As per the link above, WPA2-PSK with AES only was recommended (read page 5 of the posting for full details). I doubt if this is will solve all problems but if it kind of helps some of you...

The comments on encryption/security are interesting anyway.

For the record, I believe I was fine connecting to my pubs router on WEP beforehand. Never had a drop out bar poor signal issues anyway.

Revision history for this message
vadimo (michalgejdos-azet) wrote :

Hello,

i have the same problem. When downloading large data from torrent or any iso and my laptop shut down the LCD (i think only LCD) by idle time, then my wifi disconnect. But, when i setting in torrent maximum downloading rate to 55KiB/s, then network dont disconnect. If i working on my laptop and it don`t go to idle state, then wifi working very good.

Michal.

Revision history for this message
mozafary (mozafarymohammad) wrote :

Same problem on Acer Aspire 4810T - Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

Revision history for this message
Bertrand Chevrier (chevrier-bertrand) wrote :

Same problem on a Samsung Q320 - Ubuntu Lucid Lynx - Upgraded from Karmic.

Revision history for this message
João Taborda (joao-taborda) wrote :

i had this porblem for a long time... still didn't find how to fix it.... a workaround, is to setup your router as WPA2-PSK with AES ;)
tnx...

tags: removed: regression-potential
penalvch (penalvch)
tags: added: regression-release
penalvch (penalvch)
description: updated
Revision history for this message
penalvch (penalvch) wrote :

ThomasNovin, this bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? Can you try with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .

If it remains an issue, could you run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text.

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, for example it will not boot, please add the tag: 'kernel-unable-to-test-upstream'.

Please let us know your results. Thanks in advance.

tags: removed: networking
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Expired
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