ath5k: works only occasionaly

ath5k: works only occasionaly

[Daniel Mierswa]

i'm facing issues with ath5k and my laptop ever since i first installed
it, linux 2.6.24 or somewhere around there.
i get occasionaly associated and working wireless lan at home though any
attempt to access public wifi (university/schools/cafes) results in
"CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED -- remove keys" or "noise floor calibration
timeout" errors from wpa_supplicant (don't worry i already tried every
wpa_supplicant version from 0.6.1 to trunk, whereas the newer ones even
with the -Dnl80211 option). sometimes wpa_supplicant associates me but
packets will just time out (dhcp, ping, etc) and it will disassociate me
shortly after that attempt, also tried using nohwcrypt=1 as module
parameter and different kernels (as of request in
#linux-wireless/Freenode) which didn't cause any effect at all.
as you can imagine it's hard to provide you with useful debug
information right now, since i'm at home but i'm thankful for any
suggestions and guides on how to give you more useful information than that.

-- 
Mierswa, Daniel

If you still don't like it, that's ok: that's why I'm boss. I simply
know better than you do.
               --- Linus Torvalds, comp.os.linux.advocacy, 1996/07/22

Re: ath5k: works only occasionaly

[Pavel Roskin]

On Thu, 2009-05-28 at 17:32 +0200, Daniel Mierswa wrote:
> i'm facing issues with ath5k and my laptop ever since i first installed
> it, linux 2.6.24 or somewhere around there.

The current kernel version is more important than the one you tried
initially.  Also, the chip revision from the kernel log may be useful.

> i get occasionaly associated and working wireless lan at home though any
> attempt to access public wifi (university/schools/cafes) results in
> "CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED -- remove keys"

The reason for disconnect should be printed before that line.

>  or "noise floor calibration
> timeout" errors from wpa_supplicant

It must be from the driver, not from wpa_supplicant.

>  (don't worry i already tried every
> wpa_supplicant version from 0.6.1 to trunk, whereas the newer ones even
> with the -Dnl80211 option).

Using -Dwext or -Dnl80211 should have no effect on disconnects.

>  sometimes wpa_supplicant associates me but
> packets will just time out (dhcp, ping, etc) and it will disassociate me
> shortly after that attempt, also tried using nohwcrypt=1 as module
> parameter and different kernels (as of request in
> #linux-wireless/Freenode) which didn't cause any effect at all.
> as you can imagine it's hard to provide you with useful debug
> information right now, since i'm at home but i'm thankful for any
> suggestions and guides on how to give you more useful information than that.

If you can, try connecting to an access point with known good signal to
see if the problem is caused by low signal.

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin

Re: ath5k: works only occasionaly

[Daniel Mierswa]

On 28.05.2009 18:29, Pavel Roskin wrote:
> The current kernel version is more important than the one you tried
> initially.  Also, the chip revision from the kernel log may be useful.
Tried several stable releases from 2.6.24 to 2.6.29, current one is
2.6.30-rc6 tag from wireless-testing.git

> The reason for disconnect should be printed before that line.
I will log and save, once I'm at university again.

> It must be from the driver, not from wpa_supplicant.
Figured as much, otherwise it'd be very surprising if wpa_supplicant was
broken over a decade without anyone but me noticing. :)

> Using -Dwext or -Dnl80211 should have no effect on disconnects.
good to know, one thing less.

> If you can, try connecting to an access point with known good signal to
> see if the problem is caused by low signal.
Problem is that I don't have any "known working" APs in public. :-/

-- 
Mierswa, Daniel

If you still don't like it, that's ok: that's why I'm boss. I simply
know better than you do.
               --- Linus Torvalds, comp.os.linux.advocacy, 1996/07/22

Re: ath5k: works only occasionaly

[Bob Copeland]

On Thu, May 28, 2009 at 12:53 PM, Daniel Mierswa <impulze@impulze.org> wrote:
> On 28.05.2009 18:29, Pavel Roskin wrote:
>> If you can, try connecting to an access point with known good signal to
>> see if the problem is caused by low signal.
> Problem is that I don't have any "known working" APs in public. :-/

Have you used other drivers for comparison purposes?

If it works in madwifi or ndiswrapper/Windows, that would tend to indicate
a driver bug (or missing feature like noise reduction), otherwise you may
have a hardware problem, e.g. with the antenna connection.

-- 
Bob Copeland %% www.bobcopeland.com

Re: ath5k: works only occasionaly

[Daniel Mierswa]

On 28.05.2009 19:27, Bob Copeland wrote:
> Have you used other drivers for comparison purposes?
I will do that and log the results accordingly and report back once done
(most likely around next week). But iirc madwifi used to work fine (a
very old version, 0.9.3 or something) but i'll make sure once i'm at
university again.

-- 
Mierswa, Daniel

If you still don't like it, that's ok: that's why I'm boss. I simply
know better than you do.
               --- Linus Torvalds, comp.os.linux.advocacy, 1996/07/22