AR5212 Random connectivity issues. [Re-opened]

dohtem · n00b Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 22 Location: Augusta, GA

I have a Lenovo (IBM) Thinkpad R61 with an atheros wifi card in it. I have been fighting with getting wifi to work with it for a long time, having tried several distro's with no luck I have decided to fight it out with Gentoo since it is my favorite, and if all else fails, I will have to go with an XP install just for wifi to work (the laptop is useless to me without wireless net).

In any case, I have crawled up and down google for months and tried so many things i don't quite know where to begin, so here's the basic info.

lspci calls my card:
Atheros Communications Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)

however...dmesg says:
ath5k_pci etc etc etc...
ath5k phy0: Atheros AR5424 chip found

My kernel is compiled with ath5k built in (not a module).
ifconfig shows wlan0
iwconfig shows and controls wlan0

and here is where i start to run into problems...

dhcpcd wlan0 will either stall after "waiting for carrier" and time out, or will successfully get an IP address. It's about 50/50 chance either way.
If I do get an IP, about 50% of the time I can get network activity, the other 50% of the time, all dns lookups fail and I cannot even ping my router.
In ALL cases, the connection never lasts more than a minute, and i loose connection to my router. The biggest problem is, dmesg shows no errors, ifconfig and iwconfig both show all settings are fine and that i still have a connection, and dhcpcd continues to run until i close it. According to my computer, at least everywhere I know to look, my wifi works fine, but I can never get anything across it.

I will provide whatever other details I can by request. Oh, and of course, my kernel info...2.6.27-gentoo-r10 (Portage uses only stable packages so far on this distro)

Tekeli Li · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Jan 2009 Posts: 95

1. Try madwifi
2. Use ndiswrapper if all else fails, with an XP driver

EDIT: Just checked ath9k list of supported chipsets, see if that one works first:

http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k#supportedchipsets

ath9k driver is in kernel, Device Drivers -> Network -> Wireless LAN somewhere.

mgrela · Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 8:21 am Post subject:

Hi,

First, try the *newest* kernel (ATM vanilla-sources-2.6.29.1 kernel or even the 2.6.30_rc1). Don't install madwifi for now, try to enable the ath5k and ath9k drivers. Enable debugging for them. See if it works.
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dohtem · n00b Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 22 Location: Augusta, GA

Recompiling now with ath9k in the current kernel. I had tried kernel-2.6.29-gentoo-r1 and that didnt do any different, so I hadn't bothered with vanilla sources since it's the same version number, but I guess I should go ahead and give that a shot too. we'll see how it goes after this rebuild.

poly_poly-man · Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:06 am Post subject:

compile these as modules, not in-kernel. Some wireless card drivers need that.

Worst-case scenario (you probably won't need this) - use ndiswrapper.
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d2_racing · Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:12 am Post subject:

Can you post this files :

dohtem · n00b Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 22 Location: Augusta, GA

/etc/conf.d/net is empty, i let it default to dhcp (via dhcpcd) but i do everything manually for wifi anyways. only my eth0 tries to start at boot, and i test with it unplugged

i don't have wpa_supplicant installed yet, my router at home is just an open system (i live in the back of a large property and if someone is stealing my wireless they are trespassing and face greater dangers than a wpa key)

i recompiled with ath9k instead of ath5k and my wireless card was not recognized, i'm going to try again with ath5k as a module and see what happens.

dohtem · n00b Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 22 Location: Augusta, GA

just as a quick update, i recompiled with ath5k as a module, I am getting "slightly" better results. I am emerging (via cabled net) X windows to do some more in depth testing of my wifi that way. pings and dns lookups were MUCH more reliable so far, but we will see how it works in the long term. I do not have great expectations so far since I have been able to get net to work in the past and then it seems to just *STOP* randomly without errors later on.

Thanks to all for the help so far. I will follow up with my results after X windows is fully emerged.

Tekeli Li · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Jan 2009 Posts: 95

mgrela · Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 9:23 pm Post subject:

dohtem · n00b Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 22 Location: Augusta, GA

With ath5k built as a module, i seem to be getting better results. I've only just now gotten a GUI installed (had some issues with circular dependencies) and am working on testing a bit this evening. Thanks to all who have contributed so far!

kmare · Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2009 10:21 pm Post subject:

well.. i can only add that i've been having the same problems on my laptop (tried ubuntu and fedora). I solved them by manually installing the drivers found on http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Download. Dont know how well they'll work on gentoo, but can give it a shot.

ps: it's an atheros chip using the ath5k module.
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dohtem · n00b Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 22 Location: Augusta, GA

well it's working pretty well, i am showing very low signal strengths, even when i'm in the same room as the router, but other than a few delays here and there, wireless is working better than ever. It still seems odd to me that webpages will load halfway almost instantly, then stall for up to a minute sometimes, before they finish loading pictures. Is this normal, or just normal for ath5k?

dohtem · n00b Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 22 Location: Augusta, GA

first off, sorry for *another* double post....

so i fooled around with my wifi and it was working perfectly, i did a bunch of emerges, updated some software, got my laptop all setup to be put to actual use. i was able to watch video streams without ANY stuttering, and pages loaded like lightning.

i came home from work today, and wanted to check up on the news, and suddenly, i could not get connected, or if i did get connected, i could only get spotty connectivity. a ping to google.com would stall for a second then hit once or twice with slow response times. and pages were not loading.

after screwing with it for a nice bit longer, i realized that for some reason, NetworkManager doesnt seem to be setting the channel properly. My router runs on channel 1 (2.412GHz) Some reason even manually setting the channel and frequency with iwconfig, i could not get my card onto the same channel. Finally, i used ifconfig, took wlan0 down, then back up, and got it onto channel 1 and my internet is lightning fast again.

So.....

Why is NetworkManager not doing this, and is it normal to have to set the channel?! Everything I have read says pick the essid, and latch a dhcp client onto it. I want my wife to be able to use this laptop, and she is not about to fight with a terminal just to get on the internet for email etc. Any ideas on why this is happening?

EDIT:::::

This is still not solving the problem...I guess my main concern at this point is finding a way to diagnose this issue. I can fiddle around with it and get it to associate and authenticate, but the connections are not lasting long. I get no helpful output on dmesg, other than the card associating. Not even a connection failure output.

pvantoorn · n00b Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 13

I have a similar problems both with my atheros 5413 wireless chip as well as my sitecom usb (zd1211rw driver)

see my posting about dhcpcd and kernel 2.6.28

However, I encounter the problem only with the 2.6.28 kernel, and not with the older ones.

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-760085.html

Peter van Toorn

dohtem · n00b Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 22 Location: Augusta, GA

my kernel is the 2.6.29-gentoo-r1 currently, perhaps i need to go back to an older one

i was also advised to try the newer kernels, even vanilla-sources

honestly, i was hoping someone would offer a tool to diagnose the problems i am experiencing, according to all output, the connection is fully functional.

mgrela · Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 10:36 am Post subject:

Have you tried to enable debug output for the ath5k driver in the kernel ? If so, please do that and see what's showing up in dmesg.
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dohtem · n00b Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 22 Location: Augusta, GA

debug output is enabled, i still only get very basic messages, associating, associating failed. I can post exact output once I get back to my laptop, but it's all very simple working, failed type output, not even a reason for the failure.

i have had better luck doing the following (in order):
ifconfig wlan0 down
ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig wlan0 essid linksys
iwconfig wlan0 ap ##:mac-address:##
dhcpcd wlan0

most of the time it will suceed if i do things in that order, but i cant use gnome's nm-applet for ease of use, i guess i'm gonna have to try getting the modular networking set up for my wifi and hope that it works well enough

i still have not tried madwifi however, and will probably give that a shot as well, but as i had read in the past, most of the development from that group has moved onto the ath5k driver instead of madwifi. is that not the case? what is the module name from the madwifi package?

yetanothern00b · n00b Joined: 10 Apr 2008 Posts: 13 Location: Nodnol

yea they say dont bother with madwifi anymore...

mgrela · Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 7:51 am Post subject:

Hi,

How about a different approach. Have you tried using a different AP ? Sometimes the firmware in them has issues (like my WRT54GC). Maybe search for a software update for it ? It could also be very useful to post a bugreport on bugzilla.kernel.org
_________________
Maciej Grela
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.

dohtem · n00b Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 22 Location: Augusta, GA

i have tried other APs and the problem still persists. i also use other wifi devices in (and outside of) my house without any issue. :/

Tekeli Li · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Jan 2009 Posts: 95

I don't understand why you didn't try madwifi yet. They're not exclusive, you can blacklist ath5k and use madwifi, and vice versa. But you can have both in the system as modules.

dohtem · n00b Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 22 Location: Augusta, GA

as a recap, i have tried madwifi, i have not tried it recently on the current gentoo kernel, but i tried it on ubuntu and it was an epic fail. i am getting flawless results when i follow the exact directions i listed earlier, but when i use network manager i am getting varied results. Is there any reason that i would need to ifconfig wlan0 down, before setting up the connection each time, and why madwifi would not require this each time? I will give it a try as well and see what happens, but the main problem at this point is that nm-applet is unable to handle connectivity for me.

mgrela · Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 4:44 pm Post subject:

Have you tried asking for advice on the networkmanager mailing list ?
_________________
Maciej Grela
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.

LoSeR_5150 · Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 12:28 am Post subject:

I dont care who says madwifi should only be used as a workaround... if ath5k isn't working try madwifi. I still cant get ath5k to work um reliably with my atheros card. It gets faster transfer rates and better latency, if it connects and if it doesnt hard lock my computer. however madwifi still works reliably as ever, no hard locks, no issues, just a tainted kernel oh well. just my humble opinion.
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