I'm on the road connecting to various wireless access points and
sometimes I'm unable to connect and I get the (try 1) (try 2) (try 3)
(timed out) messages in dmesg which makes sense. Other times I get a
different series of messages in dmesg when I'm unable to connect which
don't make sense to me. The interface connects, then disconnects,
then connects, then disconnects, over and over until it finally
decides to fail permanently. I can run iwconfig throughout this
process and see that the interface periodically becomes fully
associated with a good bitrate. I've tried iwconfig and wicd. The
log looks like this:

wlan2: authenticate with 40:4a:03:d2:f5:71 (try 1)
wlan2: authenticated
wlan2: associate with 40:4a:03:d2:f5:71 (try 1)
wlan2: RX AssocResp from 40:4a:03:d2:f5:71 (capab=0x471 status=0 aid=2)
wlan2: associated
wlan2: deauthenticating from 40:4a:03:d2:f5:71 by local choice (reason=3)
cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
wlan2: authenticate with 40:4a:03:d2:f5:71 (try 1)
wlan2: authenticated
wlan2: associate with 40:4a:03:d2:f5:71 (try 1)
wlan2: RX AssocResp from 40:4a:03:d2:f5:71 (capab=0x471 status=0 aid=2)
wlan2: associated
wlan2: deauthenticated from 40:4a:03:d2:f5:71 (Reason: 7)
cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
wlan2: authenticate with 40:4a:03:d2:f5:71 (try 1)
wlan2: authenticated
wlan2: associate with 40:4a:03:d2:f5:71 (try 1)
wlan2: RX AssocResp from 40:4a:03:d2:f5:71 (capab=0x471 status=0 aid=2)
wlan2: associated
wlan2: deauthenticating from 40:4a:03:d2:f5:71 by local choice (reason=3)
cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
wlan2: authenticate with 40:4a:03:d2:f5:71 (try 1)
wlan2: authenticated
wlan2: associate with 40:4a:03:d2:f5:71 (try 1)
wlan2: RX AssocResp from 40:4a:03:d2:f5:71 (capab=0x471 status=0 aid=2)
wlan2: associated
wlan2: deauthenticated from 40:4a:03:d2:f5:71 (Reason: 7)
cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
wlan2: authenticate with 40:4a:03:d2:f5:71 (try 1)
wlan2: authenticated
wlan2: associate with 40:4a:03:d2:f5:71 (try 1)
wlan2: RX AssocResp from 40:4a:03:d2:f5:71 (capab=0x471 status=0 aid=2)
wlan2: associated
wlan2: deauthenticating from 40:4a:03:d2:f5:71 by local choice (reason=3)
cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain

Does anyone know why this happens?

- Grant

On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 12:30 PM, Grant <emailgrant@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm on the road connecting to various wireless access points and
> sometimes I'm unable to connect and I get the (try 1) (try 2) (try 3)
> (timed out) messages in dmesg which makes sense. *Other times I get a
> different series of messages in dmesg when I'm unable to connect which
> don't make sense to me. *The interface connects, then disconnects,
> then connects, then disconnects, over and over until it finally
> decides to fail permanently.

Have you tried disabling power saving mode? Something like:

iwconfig wlan0 power off

>> I'm on the road connecting to various wireless access points and
>> sometimes I'm unable to connect and I get the (try 1) (try 2) (try 3)
>> (timed out) messages in dmesg which makes sense. *Other times I get a
>> different series of messages in dmesg when I'm unable to connect which
>> don't make sense to me. *The interface connects, then disconnects,
>> then connects, then disconnects, over and over until it finally
>> decides to fail permanently.
>
> Have you tried disabling power saving mode? Something like:
>
> iwconfig wlan0 power off

I love this list. I don't want to speak too soon, but Paul, it looks
like you fixed it. I've been struggling with this for a very long
time. The problem would manifest with 2 different rt73 USB wireless
adapters.

- Grant

On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 2:11 PM, Grant <emailgrant@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I'm on the road connecting to various wireless access points and
>>> sometimes I'm unable to connect and I get the (try 1) (try 2) (try 3)
>>> (timed out) messages in dmesg which makes sense. *Other times I get a
>>> different series of messages in dmesg when I'm unable to connect which
>>> don't make sense to me. *The interface connects, then disconnects,
>>> then connects, then disconnects, over and over until it finally
>>> decides to fail permanently.
>>
>> Have you tried disabling power saving mode? Something like:
>>
>> iwconfig wlan0 power off
>
> I love this list. *I don't want to speak too soon, but Paul, it looks
> like you fixed it.

I hope so!

> I've been struggling with this for a very long
> time. *The problem would manifest with 2 different rt73 USB wireless
> adapters.

I had unstable connections and poor speeds on my laptop, and power
saving turned out to be the reason why. Some cards have intermediate
power-saving levels, too, which might give you a good compromise
between performance and battery life, if battery life is even a
concern.