Problems with WLAN and "ipw3945"

Bad bug: there's no problem description in "I own a Lenovo Thinkpad Z61m, which has a built-in Intel 802.11abg WLAN adapter."

If there's an actual problem with Ubuntu on your Thinkpad, describe it and re-set the status to "Unconfirmed"

Sorry - I hit the wrong button, and you were faster than I could finish my bug report... ;)

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status unconfirmed
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status unconfirmed
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Problems with WLAN and "ipw3945"

 status unconfirmed
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Hi Martin,

Could you take a shot at describing the problem accurately?

How can you recreate the problem? (steps involved)
What do you expect should happen, and what actually happens?
Is there anything outside the laptop (With the network etc) that affects the situation?

It is not clear from your description as to whether this is a wpasupplicant problem, or a problem with the ipwxxxx driver etc - hence the request.

Thank you.

Hi Carthik,

sorry for the delay. Here are the steps to reproduce the problem:

1. Save some money and buy a Lenovo ThinkPad Z61m 9453-A11 (which includes an Intel 802.11abg wireless card).
   The problem will probably occur on other laptops with the same card, though.

2. Install "Kubuntu Edgy 6.10" with the latest updates.

3. Get a (decent ?) WLAN router, set it up to use WPA2-PSK and install the packages "wireless-tools" and
   "wpasupplicant".

4. Edit "/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf" as recommended by the man pages:

      ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
      eapol_version=1
      ap_scan=0

      network={
         ssid="..." # enter ssid here
         scan_ssid=0
         proto=RSN
         key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
         pairwise=CCMP
         group=TKIP CCMP
         psk="..." # enter psk here
      }

5. Run the following commands:

      sudo modprobe ipw3945
      sudo ipup eth1

6. If you're lucky, the connection will come up and will work for a long (or even very long...) time. If you're not,
   the WLAN LED will start to flicker, and nothing will work until you run the following commands:

      sudo ipdown eth1
      sudo modprobe -r ipw3945

   The flickering will *always* start when you run "ipdown eth1", and it of course ends when you unload the driver.

7. If everthing works fine, repeat steps 5 and 6 until it doesn't... ;)

8. If you cannot connect to the WLAN network at all, set "ap_scan" in "wpa_supplicant.conf" to 2 and repeat
   steps 5 and 6.

I just found out today that if you remove "ap_scan=..." from "wpa_supplicant.conf", you can always connect to the
network, even if the WLAN LED flickers. I stay with my parents for a few days, though, so it may be different when
I return home (fingers crossed...).

Another thing to take into account: I didn't upgrade Kubuntu to "Edgy", but did a fresh install. "/etc/hostname"
was empty until I noticed and entered my hostname today.

Have a nice Christmas (if you celebrate it), and thanks a lot!

Martin

Hi!

I am back home now and so are my problems, while my wireless configuration worked flawlessly at my parents' WLAN:

I could always reconnect by running a simple "sudo ifup eth1" after a "sudo ifdown eth1" at my parents' WLAN (even though the WLAN LED flickered for a while), but back home my interface "eth1" gets lost after "sudo ifdown eth1".

Here is my current "wpa_supplicant.conf" (unchanged, except that I removed the "eapol_version" and "ap_scan" options):

   ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant

   network={
       ssid="some_ssid"
       scan_ssid=0
       proto=RSN
       key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
       pairwise=CCMP
       group=TKIP CCMP
       psk="some_psk"
   }

And here is a sample session with these settings (at my home):

> ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:169

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
          RX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:100 (100.0 b) TX bytes:100 (100.0 b)

> sudo modprobe ipw3945

> ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:169

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:82 Base address:0xa000 Memory:edf00000-edf00fff

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
          RX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:100 (100.0 b) TX bytes:100 (100.0 b)

> iwlist eth1 scan
eth1 Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
                    ESSID:"some_essid"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11bg
                    Mode:Master
                    Channel:6
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              11 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
                              48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Quality=78/100 Signal level=-56 dBm Noise level=-56 ...

Hi!

It's me again...

I forgot to add that I *have* to reload the "ipw3945" module with "modprobe". Switching the WLAN adapter's kill switch off and on again doesn't work.

BTW, I currently use a patched version of the "ipw3945" module, according to Launchpad bug #63418.

Greetings,

Martin

Similar or identical to bugs.launchpad.net/ipw3945/+bug/134515 ?

This still does not work for me after upgrading to Gutsy.

Additionally, it spams messages of "Detected geography" in dmesg.

The 18 month support period for Edgy Eft 6.10 has reached it's end of life. As a result, we are closing the linux-source-2.6.17 Edgy Eft kernel task.

Hardy Heron 8.04 was recently released. It would be helpful if you could test the new release and verify if this is still an issue - http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . You should be able to test your bug using the LiveCD. Please let us know your results. Thanks.

Hi Sergio,

so far the WLAN adapter has been running fine in Hardy. There are some problems with the driver, but they've got nothing to do with the above-mentioned problem and are dealt with elsewhere on Launchpad, so you can close this bug. ;)

All the best from Germany,

Martin

Ok, marked as fixed.

Thanks for your feedback.

Per a decision made by the Ubuntu Kernel Team, bugs will longer be assigned to the ubuntu-kernel-team in Launchpad as part of the bug triage process. The ubuntu-kernel-team is being unassigned from this bug report. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies for more information. Thanks.