Which tool to diagnose wireless connection problem?
 

Hello,

I never really understood wireless in linux, it has always "just
worked". I use wicd although I don't really even know what that
means. I have no clue what is a wpa supplicant, ndis, etc.

I now have a problem. Please point me toward the tools I should use
to diagnose and fix the problem. I tried to fix this problem by
running wicd-client from the command line hoping to see some stderr
messages to help diagnose, but no luck. Also dmesg is not helpful.

Problem:

I used a linksys router for years. It appeared as a single SSID that
I connected to. Configured with wicd-client. Everything worked great
under gentoo.

I throw away the linksys and purchase a new "apple airport express".
This router works fine with my apple machines. On gentoo, wicd-client
shows two SSIDs with identical names for this one router! One is on
"channel 11" and one is on "channel 157". Not sure this matters. I
specify my password for both of them and specify one of them to
"connect automatically". The connection with one (or both?) of the
SSIDs stays live for 5-10 minutes, then disconnects. I can get it to
reconnect by simply opening wicd-client, highlighting one of the two
SSIDs, and clicking connect. Repeat every 5-10 minutes.

Question: What tools or logs can I use to understand why my wireless
connection disconnects every 5-10 minutes?

FYI this is what dmesg says during one of these disconnect/reconnect cycles:

[55519.603007] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
[55520.041137] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: L1 Enabled; Disabling L0S
[55520.041381] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Radio type=0x0-0x3-0x1
[55520.195568] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[55520.494633] e1000e 0000:00:19.0: irq 44 for MSI/MSI-X
[55520.595455] e1000e 0000:00:19.0: irq 44 for MSI/MSI-X
[55520.598916] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[55550.414298] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: L1 Enabled; Disabling L0S
[55550.414523] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Radio type=0x0-0x3-0x1
[55550.551957] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[55966.719991] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: L1 Enabled; Disabling L0S
[55966.720250] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Radio type=0x0-0x3-0x1
[55966.863374] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[55967.147380] e1000e 0000:00:19.0: irq 44 for MSI/MSI-X
[55967.248317] e1000e 0000:00:19.0: irq 44 for MSI/MSI-X
[55967.251736] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[55967.301004] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: L1 Enabled; Disabling L0S
[55967.301252] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Radio type=0x0-0x3-0x1
[55967.452333] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[55969.637135] wlan0: authenticate with 7c:d1:c3:cd:b9:be
[55969.641690] wlan0: send auth to 7c:d1:c3:cd:b9:be (try 1/3)
[55969.643564] wlan0: authenticated
[55969.643873] wlan0: associate with 7c:d1:c3:cd:b9:be (try 1/3)
[55969.647304] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 7c:d1:c3:cd:b9:be (capab=0x431
status=0 aid=1)
[55969.654396] wlan0: associated
[55969.657270] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready

Thank you,

Chris

Which tool to diagnose wireless connection problem?
 

On Oct 11, 2012 10:25 AM, "Chris Stankevitz" <chrisstankevitz@gmail.com> wrote:

>

> Hello,

>

> I never really understood wireless in linux, it has always "just

> worked". *I use wicd although I don't really even know what that

> means. *I have no clue what is a wpa supplicant, ndis, etc.

>

> I now have a problem. *Please point me toward the tools I should use

> to diagnose and fix the problem. *I tried to fix this problem by

> running wicd-client from the command line hoping to see some stderr

> messages to help diagnose, but no luck. *Also dmesg is not helpful.

>

> Problem:

>

> I used a linksys router for years. *It appeared as a single SSID that

> I connected to. Configured with wicd-client. *Everything worked great

> under gentoo.

>

> I throw away the linksys and purchase a new "apple airport express".

> This router works fine with my apple machines. *On gentoo, wicd-client

> shows two SSIDs with identical names for this one router! *One is on

> "channel 11" and one is on "channel 157". *Not sure this matters. *I

> specify my password for both of them and specify one of them to

> "connect automatically". *The connection with one (or both?) of the

> SSIDs stays live for 5-10 minutes, then disconnects. *I can get it to

> reconnect by simply opening wicd-client, highlighting one of the two

> SSIDs, and clicking connect. *Repeat every 5-10 minutes.

>

> Question: What tools or logs can I use to understand why my wireless

> connection disconnects every 5-10 minutes?

>

> FYI this is what dmesg says during one of these disconnect/reconnect cycles:


...snip


Personally, I stay away from any h/w that has the name apple on it. Why not another linksys? Just my .02.

Which tool to diagnose wireless connection problem?
 

On Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 1:20 PM, Chris Stankevitz
<chrisstankevitz@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I never really understood wireless in linux, it has always "just
> worked". I use wicd although I don't really even know what that
> means. I have no clue what is a wpa supplicant, ndis, etc.
>
> I now have a problem. Please point me toward the tools I should use
> to diagnose and fix the problem. I tried to fix this problem by
> running wicd-client from the command line hoping to see some stderr
> messages to help diagnose, but no luck. Also dmesg is not helpful.
>
> Problem:
>
> I used a linksys router for years. It appeared as a single SSID that
> I connected to. Configured with wicd-client. Everything worked great
> under gentoo.
>
> I throw away the linksys and purchase a new "apple airport express".
> This router works fine with my apple machines. On gentoo, wicd-client
> shows two SSIDs with identical names for this one router! One is on
> "channel 11" and one is on "channel 157". Not sure this matters. I
> specify my password for both of them and specify one of them to
> "connect automatically". The connection with one (or both?) of the
> SSIDs stays live for 5-10 minutes, then disconnects. I can get it to
> reconnect by simply opening wicd-client, highlighting one of the two
> SSIDs, and clicking connect. Repeat every 5-10 minutes.
>
> Question: What tools or logs can I use to understand why my wireless
> connection disconnects every 5-10 minutes?
>
> FYI this is what dmesg says during one of these disconnect/reconnect cycles:
>
> [55519.603007] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
> [55520.041137] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: L1 Enabled; Disabling L0S
> [55520.041381] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Radio type=0x0-0x3-0x1
> [55520.195568] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
> [55520.494633] e1000e 0000:00:19.0: irq 44 for MSI/MSI-X
> [55520.595455] e1000e 0000:00:19.0: irq 44 for MSI/MSI-X
> [55520.598916] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
> [55550.414298] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: L1 Enabled; Disabling L0S
> [55550.414523] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Radio type=0x0-0x3-0x1
> [55550.551957] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
> [55966.719991] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: L1 Enabled; Disabling L0S
> [55966.720250] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Radio type=0x0-0x3-0x1
> [55966.863374] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
> [55967.147380] e1000e 0000:00:19.0: irq 44 for MSI/MSI-X
> [55967.248317] e1000e 0000:00:19.0: irq 44 for MSI/MSI-X
> [55967.251736] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
> [55967.301004] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: L1 Enabled; Disabling L0S
> [55967.301252] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Radio type=0x0-0x3-0x1
> [55967.452333] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
> [55969.637135] wlan0: authenticate with 7c:d1:c3:cd:b9:be
> [55969.641690] wlan0: send auth to 7c:d1:c3:cd:b9:be (try 1/3)
> [55969.643564] wlan0: authenticated
> [55969.643873] wlan0: associate with 7c:d1:c3:cd:b9:be (try 1/3)
> [55969.647304] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 7c:d1:c3:cd:b9:be (capab=0x431
> status=0 aid=1)
> [55969.654396] wlan0: associated
> [55969.657270] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
>
> Thank you,
>
> Chris

Check the log in /var/log/wicd for errors. Also, inside of wicd's
configuration there's a "debug" option... enabling that increases the
messages dumped into the log(s) there quite a bit, if what's already
there doesn't say anything useful.

--
Poison [BLX]
Joshua M. Murphy