Linux Mint WiFi Issues

[Harryc]

In Linux Mint Elyssa, I ran a speed test at speakeasy.net. The results were;

377 kbps down / 635 kbps up

In XP, I ran a speed test to the same site. The results were;

2985 kbps down / 709 kbps up

Why?

This is on a T61 running Linux Mint Elyssa with an Intel 3945b/g mpci card.

Note: I am sitting here with a brand new Atheros card in my hand ... just looking at it. Should I?

Take a look at the below link. Are the Intel drivers for the 3945abg really this bad?
http://clearpixels.net/2008/07/slow-int ... n-3945abg/

Elyssa has the 2.6.24 kernel and includes the iwlwifi drivers.

[gator]

I am sitting here with a brand new Atheros card in my hand ... just looking at it. Should I?

Yes, and yes ... I had troubles to no end with that intel card on my T60, mostly connectivity and staying on (it would turn itself off automatically after ~90s in XP, nothing I did fixed this). Speeds were really bad too ... All issues went away with atheros.

[Harryc]

Well, it went from bad to worse. I installed the Atheros card, and again XP works flawlessly. Linux Mint is another story. lspci sees the AR5212 card. My network shows up in control panel, network, but not in the NM applet. I can enable roaming, but my network doesn't show up in NM applet while roaming. Under restricted drivers Atheros HAL and the Atheros Driver show installed and in use. iwconfig shows ath0, but it does not see my WEP encryption turned on. I hate to install Mint yet again, but it may come down to that unless someone has an idea. I may just go back to OpenSuse or SLED 10.

[GomJabbar]

IPV6 issue?

[Harryc]

Uh...I just found a thread at the Ubuntu forums that says I need to blacklist the ath5k open source driver. I'll try that and post back.

[Harryc]

That was it! Speakeasy.net - 2854 kbps down, 730 kbps up..YES

[Marin85]

@Harryc: when blacklisting, was it enough just to edit etc/modeprobe.d/blacklist or you had to do some additional changes? I´m asking this because your issue with the Atheros adapter you have described above sounds to me somewhat similar to a major issue I´m currently experiencing with the Atheros card in my ThinkPad under Ubuntu . AFAIK Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu.

Thanks

Marin

EDIT: Here is my thread

[Harryc]

I just added blacklist ath5k to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and rebooted. Then I just left clicked on the NM applet in the system tray and set up encryption, and clicked on connect. You do need to make sure that Atheros HAL and support for Atheros cards are both in the 'hardware' config in Control center and in use/enabled.

[Marin85]

Both Atheros HAL and support for Atheros cards are listed in "hardware drivers" (and with both boxes checked). Just blacklisting ath5k didn´t solve the problem for me



EDIT: hardware control -> "hardware drivers" and some emotions removed for rationality

[Harryc]

If you left click on the NM applet in the system tray, do you see your networks SSID? What happens if you then click on the network name? In my case I get another prompt to enter encryption values. What does 'iwlist ath0 scanning' command show? iwconfig?

harryc@harryc-laptop ~ $ iwlist ath0 scanning
ath0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:0F:66:0B:C2:DC
ESSID:"fragpipe1"
Mode:Master
Frequency:2.422 GHz (Channel 3)
Quality=60/70 Signal level=-35 dBm Noise level=-95 dBm
Encryption key:on
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
Extra:bcn_int=100


Note: Some real fans of the original Quake might get the meaning of the SSID name. It was my favorite level in Quake, multiplayer - 'fragpipe'

[Marin85]

Thanks for your reply. When I left click on the NM system tray icon it shows all the wireless networks in my area. If I select a particular SSID by clicking on it, depending on whether it has some kind of encryption or not, I´m prompted to enter an encryption key or it just starts trying connecting right away. Here comes the weird part: in both cases (of course, after entering an encryption key if applicable) the NM just stays at trying connecting forever without actually being able to establish any real connection. After blacklisting the ath5k there is a slight improvement: this thing doesn´t last forever but just for a while and again it fails to establish connection to the network. For the record, the Intel 3945 card as well as ethernet work flawlessly.
Here is the output of iwconfig:

Code: Select all

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

irda0     no wireless extensions.

wifi0     no wireless extensions.

ath0      IEEE 802.11a  ESSID:"dlink"  Nickname:""
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:5.2 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Bit Rate:1 Mb/s   Tx-Power:8 dBm   Sensitivity=1/1  
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=127/70  Signal level=0 dBm  Noise level=-98 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:2418  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

In this case the network was a free hotspot. The iwlist ath0 scanning has listed all networks Ubuntu can see with the Atheros card including their properties:



Thanks

Marin


P.S: My favourite level was "the edge" in Quake II for mutiplayer I ddn´t like the next releases of Quake.

EDIT: I have removed the long part of ath0 scanning due to its lenght.

[gongo2k1]

i've never had an atheros-based card, so please forgive me if this is stupid...
you have wpa_supplicant installed, right? i'm assuming madwifi is timing out trying to negotiate the wpa key?

PS: i was a huge fan of digital paintball for q1. love the oldschool quake days... back when gaming on a 56k could pass for being lpb... lol

[Marin85]

I think I have wpa_supplicant installed. I believe it´s included in the distro, what is more, the Intel card works properly with any type of key, so I guess I have it installed. Besides, this issue also occurs when trying to connect to wireless networks with no encryption, but I don´t know if wpa_supplicant is needed also in that case I´ll check all that out.

Marin

Update: I can successfully run sudo wpa_supplicant, but I don´t have the wpa_supplicant.conf in /etc. Should I create one?

[Marin85]

Update: I found this on Ubuntu Forums. It seems that the issue I´m currently experiencing with my Atheros card isn´t that uncommon. I´m going to try out the suggested solution tomorrow and will post back.

Cheers

Marin

[lightweight]

I just added blacklist ath5k to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and rebooted.

Harry, only FYI, next time you blacklist or need to unload a module you can save yourself the reboot by doing a

Code: Select all

lsmod |grep ath5k

As a rule of thumb, you can unload any dependencies right to left. So, if you see multiple modules with dependencies on any given module, just start unloading with a sudo modprobe -r <module1> <module2>, where <module1> is replaced as the furthest right module, and <module2> the second furthest to the right, and so on.

Rebooting when done with whatever work you're doing is good practice to ensure /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist is respected, of course.