Ubuntu
linux package

Intel wifi cards fail (temperature-dependently?)

Bug #528161 reported by nh2
8
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Intel Linux Wireless
Unknown
Medium
linux (Ubuntu)
Won't Fix
Medium
Unassigned

Bug Description

At university, we suffer from wifi disconnections with notebooks using the iwlagn driver, especially with the Intel WiFi 5100 card.

It seems the hotter the air or the device is, the more it rejects to connect to any type of wifi network. In dmesg, messages like the following appear:

[ 84.893229] wlan0: direct probe to 00:1c:4a:44:44:e7 (try 1)
[ 85.092149] wlan0: direct probe to 00:1c:4a:44:44:e7 (try 2)
[ 85.292149] wlan0: direct probe to 00:1c:4a:44:44:e7 (try 3)
[ 85.492147] wlan0: direct probe to 00:1c:4a:44:44:e7 timed out
[ 96.318074] wlan0: direct probe to 00:1c:4a:44:44:e7 (try 1)
[ 96.516177] wlan0: direct probe to 00:1c:4a:44:44:e7 (try 2)
[ 96.716086] wlan0: direct probe to 00:1c:4a:44:44:e7 (try 3)
[ 96.916169] wlan0: direct probe to 00:1c:4a:44:44:e7 timed out

... and so on.

For some of my friends, the problem is not that serious as it appears only in very hot rooms with their laptops.
For others, like me, the problem is critical because our machines do not connect to _any_ network if the temperature is below 10°C.

The problem started in January 2010 and (whyever) gets worse. Until February, I had decent disconnects, but could still connect at home, while now, at the end of February I cannot connect to networks anymore.

I *guess* the problem was introduced with one of the 2.6.32-rc kernels. The killer flaw is that it does not go away switching back to one of the old kernels (.31 from Karmic, .28 from Jaunty) which worked fine over months before or forward to .33.

It seems to have done something hardware/firmware related or any other crazy voodoo.
The problem is present over (most probably) all distributions - we use Debian, Ubuntu and Arch Linux. It might be possible that more people will run into this with Lucid.

Someone reported it here: new upstream bug: http://bugzilla.intellinuxwireless.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2171
(old bug was http://bugzilla.intellinuxwireless.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2157)

See original description
Revision history for this message
Anzenketh (anzenketh) wrote :

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug in the upstream bug tracking system this is a tremendous help. Launchpad has the ability to watch lots of upstream bug trackers and this can be done by following the procedure documented at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Watches. I've added the bug watch for this bug report.

affects: ubuntu → linux (Ubuntu)
affects: linux → intellinuxwireless
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in intellinuxwireless:
status: Unknown → In Progress
Revision history for this message
Anzenketh (anzenketh) wrote :

Changed to In Progress to match upstream.

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → In Progress
Brian Murray (brian-murray)
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: In Progress → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
nh2 (nh2) wrote :

updated watch to new upstream bug

description: updated
Changed in intellinuxwireless:
status: In Progress → Unknown
Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in intellinuxwireless:
status: Unknown → Confirmed
Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in intellinuxwireless:
status: Confirmed → In Progress
nh2 (nh2)
summary: - Intel wifi cards fail temperature-dependently
+ Intel wifi cards fail (temperature-dependently?)
Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)
tags: added: kernel-series-unknown
Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in intellinuxwireless:
importance: Unknown → Medium
status: In Progress → Unknown
Revision history for this message
penalvch (penalvch) wrote :

nh2, 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? If so, could you please test for this 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 please run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

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

Also, could you please test the latest upstream kernel available following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds ? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Please do not test the kernel in the daily folder, but the one all the way at the bottom. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested and remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

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 text:
needs-upstream-testing

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tags:
kernel-fixed-upstream
kernel-fixed-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the following tags:
kernel-bug-exists-upstream
kernel-bug-exists-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested.

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, please comment as to why specifically you were unable to test it and add the following tags:
kernel-unable-to-test-upstream
kernel-unable-to-test-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested.

Please let us know your results. Thank you for your understanding.

Helpful Bug Reporting Links:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_Reporting_Etiquette
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#A3._Make_sure_the_bug_hasn.27t_already_been_reported
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Adding_Apport_Debug_Information_to_an_Existing_Launchpad_Bug
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Adding_Additional_Attachments_to_an_Existing_Launchpad_Bug

tags: added: kernel-therm needs-kernel-logs needs-upstream-testing
description: updated
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Medium
status: Confirmed → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Po-Hsu Lin (cypressyew) wrote :

Closing this bug with Won't fix as this kernel / release is no longer supported.
Please feel free to open a new bug report if you're still experiencing this on a newer release (Bionic 18.04.3 / Disco 19.04)
Thanks!

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Invalid
status: Invalid → Won't Fix
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