error getting ESSID for device eth1: Resource temporarily unavailable [iwl3945]

[Thomas Novin]

Binary package hint: network-manager

Ubuntu Gutsy fails to configure my wireless network interface correctly. I have a HP nc8430 laptop with a ipw3945 wireless card. I'm connecting to a Linksys 4400N b/g/n-draft access point.

I've had some problems before on Feisty but it seems something has happened now because I cannot use it at all.

$ iwconfig
eth1 unassociated ESSID:"MYSSID"
          Mode:Managed Frequency=2.452 GHz Access Point: 00:1A:70:38:91:A0
          Bit Rate:0 kb/s Tx-Power:16 dBm
          Retry limit:15 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

$ iwlist eth1 scan
eth1 No scan results

I'm attaching /var/log/daemon.log output.

Edit: Updating summary to iwl3945 instead of ipw3945.

[Gian Mario Tagliaretti (gianmt)]

I have the same laptop and the same problem of course :)

The only way I found to solve this issue is using ndiswrapper using the netw4x32 driver.
Now the wireless is up and runnig flawlessly.

[Thomas Novin (thomasn80)]

I've had two or three successful connections since I did this bug report. I'm posting daemon.log from one of these successful sessions.

Mostly it doesn't work though.

Another laptop in the house using Windows XP has no problems using the wireless network. Also with an Intel Wireless card but I'm not sure of the exact model.

[Thomas Novin (thomasn80)]

I read about the Mini Hug Day for NetworkManager. I will try to get the debug data as described in https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingNetworkManager later tonight.

[Thomas Novin (thomasn80)]

Didn't really get the part about tail -n0 /var/log/syslog > /tmp/syslog, this just produces an empty file? However, I have attached a syslog with some comments. Other than that it didn't work the first two-three times I tried to connect I also got a crash. The fifth time (I think) it worked and I got an IP.

I have discovered when I'm at my desk in my living room I have never got the Wireless to work. Works fine in XP on the same PC though. If I go to the kitchen it works after a while.

This is from having the PC in my living room (where I cannot get a connect but it works fine when I'm there)

thnov@pc-thnov-ubuntu:~$ s iwconfig eth1
[sudo] password for thnov:
eth1 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"MYSSID"
          Mode:Managed Frequency:2.452 GHz Access Point: 00:1A:70:38:91:A0
          Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:15 dBm
          Retry limit:15 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:C3B8-F7E6-26CD-D3CB-D4EA-1097-31D6-C5E8 Security mode:open
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=88/100 Signal level=-46 dBm Noise level=-47 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:2 Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:148 Missed beacon:0

thnov@pc-thnov-ubuntu:~$ s iwlist eth1 scan
eth1 Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:1A:70:38:91:A0
                    ESSID:"MYSSID"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11bg
                    Mode:Master
                    Channel:9
                    Frequency:2.452 GHz (Channel 9)
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
                              9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
                              48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Quality=92/100 Signal level=-38 dBm Noise level=-38 dBm
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    Extra: Last beacon: 0ms ago

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

You may want to try to activate the -proposed repository.
It may help at least to avoid the crash, even if I doubt it will help for more.
To activate it, open Synaptic, open Menu Settings/Repositories, select Update tab, there I hope you will find the pre-released updates (gutsy-proposed). And then click Reload, and see if you get new version for update-manager package. This is associated with bug #145683.

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

>Didn't really get the part about tail -n0 /var/log/syslog > /tmp/syslog, this just produces an empty file?
Yeah, I had the same problem. I edited the page to add -f option (follow the file) that way, it just wait that new information be written to /var/log/syslog and write it in /tmp/syslog.
Reread https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingNetworkManager

[Thomas Novin (thomasn80)]

I have upgraded to network-manager 0.6.5-0ubuntu16.7.10.0 and this seems to have helped! Just now I successfully connected to my wireless network at home for the first time without any problem (except for that I got a prompt about the WPA2 PSK).

[Thomas Novin (thomasn80)]

I'm afraid that was a bit too hasty. I only managed to connect that one time, the following maybe 20-30 connects have failed but it works fine if I try to boot up XP instead. This is still very much an issue.

[Thomas Novin (thomasn80)]

I'm attaching output from commands suggested in the Wiki. I have made some in-line comments in the logfile.

[Thomas Novin (thomasn80)]

Maybe this attachment can be useful, a logfile containing a successful connect with another PCCARD which I inserted in the same laptop as I have problems using the Intel card on.

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

Reading syslog_small.txt, I find surprising the following:
Nov 27 21:11:02 localhost NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth1) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.
Nov 27 21:11:02 localhost kernel: [ 2716.304000] ipw3945: Detected geography ABG (13 802.11bg channels, 23 802.11a channels)
Nov 27 21:11:10 localhost NetworkManager: <WARN> nm_device_802_11_wireless_get_essid(): error getting ESSID for device eth1: Resource temporarily unavailable
Nov 27 21:11:10 localhost kernel: [ 2723.900000] ipw3945: Detected geography ABG (13 802.11bg channels, 23 802.11a channels)
Nov 27 21:11:12 localhost ntpd[6640]: Deleting interface #5 eth1, fe80::218:deff:fe6f:5cfe#123, interface stats: received=0, sent=0, dropped=0, active_time=2400 secs
Nov 27 21:11:17 localhost kernel: [ 2731.500000] ipw3945: Detected geography ABG (13 802.11bg channels, 23 802.11a channels)
Nov 27 21:11:25 localhost kernel: [ 2739.100000] ipw3945: Detected geography ABG (13 802.11bg channels, 23 802.11a channels)
Nov 27 21:11:32 localhost kernel: [ 2746.700000] ipw3945: Detected geography ABG (13 802.11bg channels, 23 802.11a channels)
Nov 27 21:11:40 localhost kernel: [ 2754.304000] ipw3945: Detected geography ABG (13 802.11bg channels, 23 802.11a channels)
Nov 27 21:11:48 localhost NetworkManager: <WARN> nm_device_802_11_wireless_get_essid(): error getting ESSID for device eth1: Resource temporarily unavailable

What is that? ntpd (time synchronization protocol) deciding to delete eth1?
It makes me wonder if removing ntp package (you have it installed?) would help.

I note that bug #163981 have the same message with same card, but is about firmware not loading (probably not releted, but who knows for sure).

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

bug #139642 (state:new) may have some related info, notably links to forums.

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

Searching for bugs around ipw3945 show many:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs?field.searchtext=ipw3945&orderby=-importance&search=Search&field.status%3Alist=NEW&field.status%3Alist=INCOMPLETE_WITH_RESPONSE&field.status%3Alist=CONFIRMED&field.status%3Alist=TRIAGED&field.status%3Alist=INPROGRESS&field.status%3Alist=FIXCOMMITTED&field.assignee=&field.bug_reporter=&field.omit_dupes=on&field.has_patch=&field.has_no_package=

Among them, bug #72925 is similar.

[Thomas Novin (thomasn80)]

About ntpd, I think that is only that it deletes eth1 from it's source of possible interfaces to reach an ntp server.

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

Also bug #134915 have some strange tricks.
I don't understand much of that as a bug triager.

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

Possibly that bug #113645 is a duplicate.

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

Zorael of bug #134915 suggest in:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=205586&page=2
that maybe the driver module is sleeping (which would explain 'ressource temporarily unavailable' and give a link to the documentation of the driver:
http://ipw3945.sourceforge.net/README.ipw3945 that give some info about power management inside ipw3945 module.

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

hum, did I mention:
http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/cs-006205.htm

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

Where I have said bug #134915, you should have read :-) bug #134515

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

bug #139642 have a surprising to me workaround: blacklist IPV6

Andy Leeman wrote:
In a terminal;
sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Then add;
#still trying to fix the gd wireless (or some other comment so you rememberwhy it was done)
blacklist ipv6

May be worth to try.

[Thomas Novin (thomasn80)]

I have tried blacklisting ipv6 but that doesn't seem to help and also played with iwpriv set_power but found that it is default to disabled (6 (AC) OFF) if AC is connected.

I have been able to get my connection twice after unloading (modprobe -r) ipw3945 and re-loading (modprobe) it again. After a restart I tried it again but now I've tried it three times without managing to get a connection.

I also get lots of rows about 'Detected geography ABG ...' and after enabling logging from ipw3945d I can see in that file that I very frequently get 'WARNING: In scan; requesting concurrent scan.'

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

Thank you Thomas for this fast response.
Well, frankly I was surprised that ipv6 had a link with that.

>I also get lots of rows about 'Detected geography ABG ...'
yeah, seen that, others have reported that too, I don't know what to think, at least I am not convinced it is an error message.

>after enabling logging from ipw3945d I can see in that file that I very frequently get 'WARNING: In scan; requesting concurrent scan.'
nice, how to you enable that logging?
>'WARNING: In scan; requesting concurrent scan.'
much like if scan was not supported and never finished, so an other scan request come in before the first one finished

I begin to have a new vague hypothesis.
In your log you have:
Nov 27 21:11:48 localhost NetworkManager: <WARN> nm_device_802_11_wireless_get_essid(): error getting ESSID for device eth1: Resource temporarily unavailable
Note the 802_11 part, refering to wireless protocol as far as I know.
In the ipw3945 it is said:
3.6. IEEE 802.11h Details
-----------------------------------------------
Only BASIC reporting is supported; CCA and RPI are optional and not
implemented. The driver currently does not respond with the appropriate
refusal frame if it receives a request that it will not provide a
report for.

Maybe this is exactly what is going on, driver receiving a request for which it is not responding with appropriate refusal frame.

Well, I begin to think that I am clueless.

It really begin to feel like a kernel bug to me.
So I guess I will just ask you the usual information for kernel bug, then confirmed this bug so as to let a real developer take a look.
Please include the following additional information, if you have not already done so (pay attention to lspci's additional options), as required by the Ubuntu Kernel Team:
1. Please include the output of the command "uname -a" in your next response. It should be one, long line of text which includes the exact kernel version you're running, as well as the CPU architecture.
2. Please run the command "dmesg > dmesg.log" after a fresh boot and attach the resulting file "dmesg.log" to this bug report.
3. Please run the command "sudo lspci -vvnn > lspci-vvnn.log" and attach the resulting file "lspci-vvnn.log" to this bug report.

For your reference, the full description of procedures for kernel-related bug reports is available at [WWW] http://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies. Thanks in advance!

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

I am just now realizing that Intel now consider ipw3945 driver deprecated.
The new driver being iwlwifi.
It is at: http://intellinuxwireless.org/
They have also their mac80211 project.
And is in the main linux kernel at:
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=tree;f=drivers/net/wireless/iwlwifi;h=ddfe649a582a964cd84f63eb965add036e74448d;hb=4150c57212ad134765dd78c654a4b9906252b66d

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

And there is many bug similar on http://intellinuxwireless.org/ for the deprecated ipw3945 project:
http://bughost.org/bugzilla/buglist.cgi?short_desc_type=allwordssubstr&short_desc=&product=IPW3945&long_desc_type=allwordssubstr&long_desc=&bug_file_loc_type=allwordssubstr&bug_file_loc=&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=REOPENED&emailassigned_to1=1&emailtype1=substring&email1=&emailassigned_to2=1&emailreporter2=1&emailcc2=1&emailtype2=substring&email2=&bugidtype=include&bug_id=&changedin=&chfieldfrom=&chfieldto=Now&chfieldvalue=&newqueryname=&field0-0-0=noop&type0-0-0=noop&value0-0-0=&order=bugs.bug_id

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

Hardy seems to support both drivers: ipw3945 and iwl3945.
Some bug info I read suggest that iwl3945 is also available on 7.10 (Gutsy).
Seems unlikely that ipw3945 will be fixed.
So I guess you could forget requested information.
What will really needed is to test latest Hardy.
A new test version (Hardy Alpha 3) should come thursday (tomorrow), most probably accessible by friday.
So what would really be helpful would be to test it.
Watch http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/

That said, iwl3945 is known to have bugs:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/177624 (very poor signal reception)
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.22/+bug/176271 (upload and download speed very different, not conviced it is a bug)
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/181255 (wireless LED is never on)
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/178530 (not working on Hardy alpha 2 for him)
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.22/+bug/176602 (On Gutsy, cannot connect to encrypted (WEP or WAP) fixed in Hardy)
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.22/+bug/130457 (supposedly just fixed in Hardy, Failure to suspend, shutdown, or hibernate)
Well, that's mostly it.
iwl3945 does not need anymore a daemon like ipw3945 did (ipw3945d).

Well, good luck!

[Thomas Novin (thomasn80)]

I have now tried with Hardy Alpha 3 and I had problems but I have attached an attempt which finally succeeded. I could not choose my network but I had to manually connect to it. I can't see that it's any better than before. There is a new error message now and the new one reads:

Jan 14 21:21:21 ubuntu NetworkManager: <WARN> request_and_convert_scan_results(): card took too much time scanning. Get a better one.
Jan 14 21:21:50 ubuntu last message repeated 2 times
Jan 14 21:22:04 ubuntu NetworkManager: <WARN> request_and_convert_scan_results(): card took too much time scanning. Get a better one.

[Thomas Novin (thomasn80)]

I have now two times in a row successfully connected to my WLAN! For the first time ever without having to write my WPA2-PSK.

Got something strange in the syslog though:

Jan 30 20:19:05 pc-thnov-ubuntu kernel: [ 80.269883] WARNING: at /build/buildd/linux-2.6.24/net/mac80211/rx.c:1486 __ieee80211_rx()
Jan 30 20:19:05 pc-thnov-ubuntu kernel: [ 80.269890] Pid: 0, comm: swapper Tainted: P 2.6.24-5-generic #1
Jan 30 20:19:05 pc-thnov-ubuntu kernel: [ 80.269924] [<f8af015f>] __ieee80211_rx+0xb7f/0xcb0 [mac80211]
Jan 30 20:19:05 pc-thnov-ubuntu kernel: [ 80.270037] [<f8b41faf>] iwl_rx_queue_restock+0xbf/0x140 [iwl3945]
Jan 30 20:19:05 pc-thnov-ubuntu kernel: [ 80.270076] [<f8ae231d>] ieee80211_tasklet_handler+0xdd/0xf0 [mac80211]
Jan 30 20:19:05 pc-thnov-ubuntu kernel: [ 80.270087] [hrtimer_get_next_event+0xe4/0xf0] hrtimer_get_next_event+0xe4/0xf0
Jan 30 20:19:05 pc-thnov-ubuntu kernel: [ 80.270153] [tasklet_action+0x4d/0xc0] tasklet_action+0x4d/0xc0
Jan 30 20:19:05 pc-thnov-ubuntu kernel: [ 80.270168] [__do_softirq+0x82/0x110] __do_softirq+0x82/0x110
Jan 30 20:19:05 pc-thnov-ubuntu kernel: [ 80.270190] [do_softirq+0x55/0x60] do_softirq+0x55/0x60
Jan 30 20:19:05 pc-thnov-ubuntu kernel: [ 80.270198] [irq_exit+0x6d/0x80] irq_exit+0x6d/0x80
Jan 30 20:19:05 pc-thnov-ubuntu kernel: [ 80.270200] [do_IRQ+0x40/0x70] do_IRQ+0x40/0x70
Jan 30 20:19:05 pc-thnov-ubuntu kernel: [ 80.270224] [common_interrupt+0x23/0x30] common_interrupt+0x23/0x30
Jan 30 20:19:05 pc-thnov-ubuntu kernel: [ 80.270245] [native_set_wallclock+0x4b/0x1b0] native_set_wallclock+0x4b/0x1b0
Jan 30 20:19:05 pc-thnov-ubuntu kernel: [ 80.270258] [<f886f3e7>] acpi_idle_enter_bm+0x25b/0x2ce [processor]
Jan 30 20:19:05 pc-thnov-ubuntu kernel: [ 80.270292] [cpuidle_idle_call+0x7c/0xb0] cpuidle_idle_call+0x7c/0xb0
Jan 30 20:19:05 pc-thnov-ubuntu kernel: [ 80.270302] [cpu_idle+0x45/0xd0] cpu_idle+0x45/0xd0
Jan 30 20:19:05 pc-thnov-ubuntu kernel: [ 80.270312] [start_kernel+0x30a/0x3a0] start_kernel+0x30a/0x3a0
Jan 30 20:19:05 pc-thnov-ubuntu kernel: [ 80.270321] [unknown_bootoption+0x0/0x1e0] unknown_bootoption+0x0/0x1e0
Jan 30 20:19:05 pc-thnov-ubuntu kernel: [ 80.270348] =======================

I'm now running linux-image-2.6.24-5-generic (2.6.24-5.8).

$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=8.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=hardy
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu hardy (development branch)"

[Thomas Novin (thomasn80)]

Hmm, next two boots wireless was completely unuseless.

$ iwlist wlan0_rename scan
wlan0_rename No scan results

$ iwconfig wlan0_rename
wlan0_rename IEEE 802.11g ESSID:""
          Mode:Managed Channel:0 Access Point: Not-Associated
          Tx-Power=0 dBm
          Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2346 B
          Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

Tried scan for 10-20 times but nothing showed, it only hung for a couple of extra seconds a couple of times.

Next boot of the PC 30 minutes later it worked immediately, without writing PSK just as the other successful times.

What is needed to take this bug from incomplete to confirmed?

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

hum, well, I'll confirm the bug and see what a network-manager developer will say.

[Thomas Novin (thomasn80)]

Ok. If anyone can point me to a way to setup the connection manually without NetworkManager I could try that. I have NEVER had any problems connecting to my wireless at my workplace which is just WEP encrypted so the problem is either with iwl3945 or wpa_supplicant (my guess).

[Paul Dufresne (paulduf)]

There was https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WPAHowTo but it seems outdated.
I suggest you ask at:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+addquestion

[Thomas Novin (thomasn80)]

Thist must be a driver problem so I'm moving it to linux-ubuntu-modules (which holds the iwl3945.ko).

[Thomas Novin (thomasn80)]

It works much better in a current kernel. I have never been forced to reboot, it can just fail the first time so I have to choose my AP and connect again. I'm attaching output from one successful attempt and one unsuccessful.

[Thomas Novin (thomasn80)]

I've read some stuff about other getting the "<WARN> request_and_convert_scan_results(): card took too much time scanning. Get a better one." problem and got the explanation that some timeout has changed in NM. Is it possible that NM is to blame after all?!

[Thomas Novin (thomasn80)]

>It works much better in a current kernel. I have never been forced to reboot, it can just fail the first time so I have to choose my AP and connect again. >I'm attaching output from one successful attempt and one unsuccessful.

After rebooting maybe five times I eventually got a session where I could not by any means get a successful connect. I re-tried it 3-4 times without succeeding. After rebooting it worked.

[Thomas Novin (thomasn80)]

I have now tried with latest iwlwifi drivers available. I have installed using instructions from http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Download. I see the same problems with this release.

[Gian Mario Tagliaretti (gianmt)]

I guess this can be now closed since it works on hardy

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Is this still an issue with the more recent Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release? I'm going to automatically move this bug forward to target the linux kernel package since during the Intrepid development cycle the linux-ubuntu-modules package was merged with the linux kernel package. Thanks.

[Thomas Novin (thomasn80)]

I don't have that laptop any longer. Now I have a laptop with Intel 4965 AGN and have more problems than ever :) For me it's OK to close the bug.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Since Thomas is the original bug reporter and no one else has commented, I'll go ahead and close this out.