[madwifi] Gutsy: network manager + madwifi drivers = disconnects

[Chris Rowson]

Maybe dupe of 64173

Binary package hint: network-manager

Using network manager and the madwifi drivers (atheros chipset) cause the user to be disconnected from the access point at regular intervals.

This bug seems to be knocking around in lots of incarnations and the problem seems to be this:

1) The madwifi drivers don't support 'background scanning'
2) Network manager instructs the atheros based card to scan for access points in the background whilst it is already associated with an access point.

Because the madwifi drivers don't support background scanning, when the instruction to begin background scanning is given then the network card disassociates with the access point, disconnecting the user.

This bug is a show stopper for any new user, as they are unlikely to dig into the problem to find out what's causing it.

Bugs with similar info:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/37821/
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-restricted-modules-2.6.20/+bug/105637

Changing network manager so that it only scans for access points, when the card is not connected to an access point seems to fix the problem.

[Chris Rowson (christopherrowson)]

linux-restricted-modules-2.6.20 ships with madwifi 0.9.1 - Current WEXT compliance should have been added to this release as requested here http://madwifi.org/ticket/462

Is it worth just applying the patch which has already been submitted for this? It looks like the problem could possibly lie with network manager after all. http://launchpadlibrarian.net/6824480/reconnect-timeout.diff.gz

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Mon, Jul 30, 2007 at 10:20:44AM -0000, Chris Rowson wrote:
> linux-restricted-modules-2.6.20 ships with madwifi 0.9.1 - Current WEXT
> compliance should have been added to this release as requested here
> http://madwifi.org/ticket/462

So maybe start using generic wext driver when we see ath_pci kernel
driver would cure us?

 - Alexander

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

i would really like to investigate if using other wpa_supplicant driver helps. Can you ping me on irc.freenode.net (asac) ... channels: e.g. #ubuntu-devel #ubuntu-mozillateam

[Chris Rowson (christopherrowson)]

Hi Alex,

I just noticed that the latest upgrade from network-manager 0.6.5-0ubuntu7 to 0.6.5-0ubuntu9 in Gutsy applys a patch to increase the timeout. Crossed fingers, so far it seems to be OK (although I haven't had much time to test for long). Do you still want to investigate wpa_supplicant?

Chris

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

for now lets assumed that this is fixed in 0.6.5-0ubuntu9. If you ever see this again, please ping me in given channel.

Thanks,

 - Alexander