ipw2200: Firmware error detected. Restarting.

[tdn]

I get this error in dmesg all the time.
Also my network connection seems to go on and off very often.

The network goes down and goes up again in a second or so.

This is probably a driver problem.
Please let me know how I can help fix this.

[Bart Cerneels (stecchino)]

I have the same problem with a intel 2200BG wifi chip, here is the lspci line:
02:02.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection (rev 05)

I recently switched my network from G-only to B/G mixed. I believe this is triggering a bug in the firmware.

I'm using Gutsy with kernel 2.6.22-14-generic.

[Greg Taylor (gtaylor)]

This problem is somewhat of a show-stopper for those of us with the issue. The problem has been here since the beginning, confirmed before Dapper beta went live. It'd be great to get this addressed.

This seems to only happen when using encryption on my Toshiba Tecra A4.
Gutsy
Linux tecra 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Tue Dec 18 08:02:57 UTC 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

[tdn (spam-thomasdamgaard)]

I can add that I have the problem even without any encryption!
I have also had the problem since before Dapper was released.
I both have the problem on G-only and B/G mixed.
I am using an IBM Thinkpad T42.

I really hope that someone will take a look on this problem.

Is there anything else that I, as a user, can do to help?

Additional hardware info:
$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to I/O Controller (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to AGP Controller (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 81)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV350 [Mobility Radeon 9600 M10]
02:00.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI4520 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
02:00.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI4520 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82540EP Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Mobile) (rev 03)
02:02.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection (rev 05)

[Kenji Yamamoto (kenji.yamagen)]

Same problem here:
Issue: Wireless connection breaks every now and then, sometimes just stopping the connection so that i have to reconnect to the network, sometimes bringing the wireless connection to a complete halt. If that happens killing NetworkManager and restarting it helps, sometimes killing NetworkManager and reloading the ipw2200 module helps, sometimes only restarting the complete system helps. Happens mostly when wireless usage is very high, e.g. downloading a file fullspeed, having many different connections at the same time (mail is beeing checked by kmail, firefox running and loading, watching Zattoo, being connected via ssh, using FTP and skypeing). It also seems to not work nicely at all using a vpn connection. Happens with WEP, WPA and no encryption.

Error msg:
[32615.828000] ipw2200: Firmware error detected. Restarting. (only when i get "kicked out" of my wireless connection. simply reconnecting usually works fine)

Haven't got any error msgs when it comes to a complete halt. Will try to update this post when I caught one.

My hardware:
A (still original) IBM Thinkpad R51 Type 1829 running Kubuntu Gutsy on 2.6.22-14-generic.

lspci:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to I/O Controller (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to AGP Controller (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 81)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV250 [Mobility FireGL 9000] (rev 02)
02:00.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI4520 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
02:00.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments Unknown device 802a (rev 01)
02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82540EP Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Mobile) (rev 03)
02:02.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection (rev 05)

Also a friend of mine has the same problem with a brand new Dell Laptop running Gutsy. But he has a ipw39xx or something wireless adapter. Will try to convince him to file the bug.