Last night I was connected wirelessly to my access point and all worked fine.
Well, towards the end the connection was bobbing up and down as far as my
unreliable broadcom NIC is concerned (nothing wrong with the router). I
decided to shut it down and go to bed.

Today the AP is just not there! Not there as far as this stupid broadcom
wireless NIC is concerned. The same machine booted into MSWindows has no
problem seeing the AP and associating with it. Another laptop can also see
the AP and connect to it.

How come the broadcom cannot see it in Gentoo, but it can see all the
neighbours APs which have a much weaker signal and even associate and get an
IP address from one of them?! I am lost as to what might be causing this.

Could it be some lock file that was not removed when the machine is rebooted
or the wlan0 interface taken down? Any ideas how I can troubleshoot this?
--
Regards,
Mick

On 18 April 2010 22:28, Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com> wrote:
> Last night I was connected wirelessly to my access point and all worked fine.
> Well, towards the end the connection was bobbing up and down as far as my
> unreliable broadcom NIC is concerned (nothing wrong with the router). *I
> decided to shut it down and go to bed.
>
> Today the AP is just not there! *Not there as far as this stupid broadcom
> wireless NIC is concerned. *The same machine booted into MSWindows has no
> problem seeing the AP and associating with it. *Another laptop can also see
> the AP and connect to it.
>
> How come the broadcom cannot see it in Gentoo, but it can see all the
> neighbours APs which have a much weaker signal and even associate and get an
> IP address from one of them?! *I am lost as to what might be causing this.
>
> Could it be some lock file that was not removed when the machine is rebooted
> or the wlan0 interface taken down? *Any ideas how I can troubleshoot this?

OK, I found what the problem was ... the AP is currently transmitting
on channel 13, which it seems is outside the capabilities of the b43
driver. I am blaming the driver here because the Windows 7 OS has no
problem using channel 13, while iwlist wlan0 in Gentoo shows only up
to channel 11. :-(

Will need to wait for the driver to hopefully improve.
--
Regards,
Mick

On 18 Apr 2010, at 23:35, Mick wrote:

...
OK, I found what the problem was ... the AP is currently transmitting
on channel 13, which it seems is outside the capabilities of the b43
driver. I am blaming the driver here because the Windows 7 OS has no
problem using channel 13, while iwlist wlan0 in Gentoo shows only up
to channel 11. :-(


There might be an option to change the region of your wifi NIC.
Channels 12 & 13 are legal in Europe, IIRC, but not in the USA.


You should be able to change the channel of the AP - typically they
have a drop-down which will choose either "auto" or a specific
channel. Likewise I have seen some APs ask what region you're in when
they're first setup.


Stroller.

On Monday 19 April 2010 18:26:14 Stroller wrote:
> On 18 Apr 2010, at 23:35, Mick wrote:
> > ...
> > OK, I found what the problem was ... the AP is currently transmitting
> > on channel 13, which it seems is outside the capabilities of the b43
> > driver. I am blaming the driver here because the Windows 7 OS has no
> > problem using channel 13, while iwlist wlan0 in Gentoo shows only up
> > to channel 11. :-(
>
> There might be an option to change the region of your wifi NIC.
> Channels 12 & 13 are legal in Europe, IIRC, but not in the USA.
>
> You should be able to change the channel of the AP - typically they
> have a drop-down which will choose either "auto" or a specific
> channel. Likewise I have seen some APs ask what region you're in when
> they're first setup.

I've set it up for UK so it has 13 channels. On the other hand your hint
pointed me to wpa_supplicant.conf on my laptop, in which I had the country
parameter commented out. I set that up to UK, but it still seems to show 11
channels. :-(

I'll reboot later to see if it makes any odds.
--
Regards,
Mick

On Monday 19 April 2010 20:24:18 you wrote:
> On Monday 19 April 2010 18:26:14 Stroller wrote:
> > On 18 Apr 2010, at 23:35, Mick wrote:
> > > ...
> > > OK, I found what the problem was ... the AP is currently transmitting
> > > on channel 13, which it seems is outside the capabilities of the b43
> > > driver. I am blaming the driver here because the Windows 7 OS has no
> > > problem using channel 13, while iwlist wlan0 in Gentoo shows only up
> > > to channel 11. :-(
> >
> > There might be an option to change the region of your wifi NIC.
> > Channels 12 & 13 are legal in Europe, IIRC, but not in the USA.
> >
> > You should be able to change the channel of the AP - typically they
> > have a drop-down which will choose either "auto" or a specific
> > channel. Likewise I have seen some APs ask what region you're in when
> > they're first setup.
>
> I've set it up for UK so it has 13 channels. On the other hand your hint
> pointed me to wpa_supplicant.conf on my laptop, in which I had the country
> parameter commented out. I set that up to UK, but it still seems to show
> 11 channels. :-(
>
> I'll reboot later to see if it makes any odds.

No change :-(

# iwlist wlan0 channel
wlan0 11 channels in total; available frequencies :
Channel 01 : 2.412 GHz
Channel 02 : 2.417 GHz
Channel 03 : 2.422 GHz
Channel 04 : 2.427 GHz
Channel 05 : 2.432 GHz
Channel 06 : 2.437 GHz
Channel 07 : 2.442 GHz
Channel 08 : 2.447 GHz
Channel 09 : 2.452 GHz
Channel 10 : 2.457 GHz
Channel 11 : 2.462 GHz
Current Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)

Short of hacking the firmware (which even if I knew how to, I am not allowed)
or waiting for the linux driver to mature, I am not sure if there's anything I
can do.
--
Regards,
Mick

On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 2:24 PM, Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Monday 19 April 2010 18:26:14 Stroller wrote:
>> On 18 Apr 2010, at 23:35, Mick wrote:
>> > ...
>> > OK, I found what the problem was ... the AP is currently transmitting
>> > on channel 13, which it seems is outside the capabilities of the b43
>> > driver. I am blaming the driver here because the Windows 7 OS has no
>> > problem using channel 13, while iwlist wlan0 in Gentoo shows only up
>> > to channel 11. :-(
>>
>> There might be an option to change the region of your wifi NIC.
>> Channels 12 & 13 are legal in Europe, IIRC, but not in the USA.
>>
>> You should be able to change the channel of the AP - typically they
>> have a drop-down which will choose either "auto" or a specific
>> channel. Likewise I have seen some APs ask what region you're in when
>> they're first setup.
>
> I've set it up for UK so it has 13 channels. On the other hand your hint
> pointed me to wpa_supplicant.conf on my laptop, in which I had the country
> parameter commented out. I set that up to UK, but it still seems to show 11
> channels. :-(
>
> I'll reboot later to see if it makes any odds.

I think the proper country code is GB not UK, maybe that's why it didn't work.

With iw try:

iw reg set GB

or in your wpa_supplicant config:

country=GB

On 20 April 2010 02:27, Paul Hartman <paul.hartman+gentoo@gmail.com> wrote:

> I think the proper country code is GB not UK, maybe that's why it didn't work.
>
> With iw try:
>
> iw reg set GB
>
> or in your wpa_supplicant config:
>
> country=GB
>
>
Thanks Paul, good pointer. It seems that the UK also has GB as well
'UK' as its alpha2 code. Anyway, I changed 'country=GB' in my
wpa_supplicant but unfortunately it is not being picked up:

# iwlist wlan0 freq
wlan0 11 channels in total; available frequencies :
Channel 01 : 2.412 GHz
Channel 02 : 2.417 GHz
Channel 03 : 2.422 GHz
Channel 04 : 2.427 GHz
Channel 05 : 2.432 GHz
Channel 06 : 2.437 GHz
Channel 07 : 2.442 GHz
Channel 08 : 2.447 GHz
Channel 09 : 2.452 GHz
Channel 10 : 2.457 GHz
Channel 11 : 2.462 GHz
Current Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)

then:

# iw reg set GB

# iw reg get
country US:
(2402 - 2472 @ 40), (6, 27)
(5170 - 5190 @ 40), (6, 23)
(5190 - 5210 @ 40), (6, 23)
(5210 - 5230 @ 40), (6, 23)
(5230 - 5330 @ 40), (6, 23)
(5735 - 5835 @ 40), (6, 30)

# iw list
Wiphy phy0
Band 1:
Frequencies:
* 2412 MHz [1] (27.0 dBm)
* 2417 MHz [2] (27.0 dBm)
* 2422 MHz [3] (27.0 dBm)
* 2427 MHz [4] (27.0 dBm)
* 2432 MHz [5] (27.0 dBm)
* 2437 MHz [6] (27.0 dBm)
* 2442 MHz [7] (27.0 dBm)
* 2447 MHz [8] (27.0 dBm)
* 2452 MHz [9] (27.0 dBm)
* 2457 MHz [10] (27.0 dBm)
* 2462 MHz [11] (27.0 dBm)
* 2467 MHz [12] (disabled)
* 2472 MHz [13] (disabled)
* 2484 MHz [14] (disabled)

Hmm, it's stuck in US mode for some reason. Firmware?
--
Regards,
Mick

On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 5:21 AM, Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hmm, it's stuck in US mode for some reason. Firmware?

Maybe you're right, I googled and found some info that the old
broadcom driver didn't support channels 12 and 13 for some reason with
certain hardware. However, it appears b43 is the "old" driver, and the
new one which should support those channels and setting regulatory
domain is the Broadcom STA driver, which is in portage for ~x86 and
~amd64 (net-wireless/broadcom-sta). Try to emerge it, blacklist your
old b43 driver and hope it works.

Here's the Broadcom STA docs: http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/README.txt

(I don't have a broadcom card so this is all guessing, hope it helps!)

On Tuesday 20 April 2010 15:25:14 Paul Hartman wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 5:21 AM, Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hmm, it's stuck in US mode for some reason. Firmware?
>
> Maybe you're right, I googled and found some info that the old
> broadcom driver didn't support channels 12 and 13 for some reason with
> certain hardware. However, it appears b43 is the "old" driver, and the
> new one which should support those channels and setting regulatory
> domain is the Broadcom STA driver, which is in portage for ~x86 and
> ~amd64 (net-wireless/broadcom-sta). Try to emerge it, blacklist your
> old b43 driver and hope it works.

Thanks Paul. This is confusing me ... I thought that the b43 (as opposed to
the legacy bcm43xx) is the latest in kernel driver and that's why I chose it.
It is probably still under development.

I am just emerging gentoo-sources-2.6.33-r1 and I'll see if the situation
improves. Otherwise I will have to remove it and emerge the proprietary
drivers instead, until the b43 matures a bit more.
--
Regards,
Mick

On Tuesday 20 April 2010 22:24:41 Mick wrote:
> On Tuesday 20 April 2010 15:25:14 Paul Hartman wrote:
> > On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 5:21 AM, Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Hmm, it's stuck in US mode for some reason. Firmware?
> >
> > Maybe you're right, I googled and found some info that the old
> > broadcom driver didn't support channels 12 and 13 for some reason with
> > certain hardware. However, it appears b43 is the "old" driver, and the
> > new one which should support those channels and setting regulatory
> > domain is the Broadcom STA driver, which is in portage for ~x86 and
> > ~amd64 (net-wireless/broadcom-sta). Try to emerge it, blacklist your
> > old b43 driver and hope it works.
>
> Thanks Paul. This is confusing me ... I thought that the b43 (as opposed
> to the legacy bcm43xx) is the latest in kernel driver and that's why I
> chose it. It is probably still under development.
>
> I am just emerging gentoo-sources-2.6.33-r1 and I'll see if the situation
> improves. Otherwise I will have to remove it and emerge the proprietary
> drivers instead, until the b43 matures a bit more.

OK, the 2.6.33-r1 seems better so far:

# iwlist wlan0 freq
wlan0 14 channels in total; available frequencies :
Channel 01 : 2.412 GHz
Channel 02 : 2.417 GHz
Channel 03 : 2.422 GHz
Channel 04 : 2.427 GHz
Channel 05 : 2.432 GHz
Channel 06 : 2.437 GHz
Channel 07 : 2.442 GHz
Channel 08 : 2.447 GHz
Channel 09 : 2.452 GHz
Channel 10 : 2.457 GHz
Channel 11 : 2.462 GHz
Channel 12 : 2.467 GHz
Channel 13 : 2.472 GHz
Channel 14 : 2.484 GHz
Current Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)

and

# iw list
Wiphy phy0
Band 1:
Frequencies:
* 2412 MHz [1] (20.0 dBm)
* 2417 MHz [2] (20.0 dBm)
* 2422 MHz [3] (20.0 dBm)
* 2427 MHz [4] (20.0 dBm)
* 2432 MHz [5] (20.0 dBm)
* 2437 MHz [6] (20.0 dBm)
* 2442 MHz [7] (20.0 dBm)
* 2447 MHz [8] (20.0 dBm)
* 2452 MHz [9] (20.0 dBm)
* 2457 MHz [10] (20.0 dBm)
* 2462 MHz [11] (20.0 dBm)
* 2467 MHz [12] (20.0 dBm) (passive scanning, no IBSS)
* 2472 MHz [13] (20.0 dBm) (passive scanning, no IBSS)
* 2484 MHz [14] (20.0 dBm) (passive scanning, no IBSS)

# iw reg get
country 00:
(2402 - 2472 @ 40), (6, 20)
(2457 - 2482 @ 20), (6, 20), PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS
(2474 - 2494 @ 20), (6, 20), NO-OFDM, PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS
(5170 - 5250 @ 40), (6, 20), PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS
(5735 - 5835 @ 40), (6, 20), PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS

I guess country 00 means no country code?
--
Regards,
Mick