ipw2200 firmware error detected, restarting with 2.6.12-3.3

[Gustavo Franco]

Laptop: Sony Vaio VGN-FS570.

I've installed Ubuntu Hoary on this and everything worked well except for the
audio. It has
the same problems reported in #11696 (ipw2200 related too), so i decided to
install the
breezy kernel (2.6.12-3.2 and yesterday 2.6.12-3.3).

The sound is now being recognized, the driver wasn't there and now it's
(snd_hda_intel) my
problem is still the ipw2200 unstable behaviour. Using "iwlist eth0 scanning" it
shows
the AP around without problems, but if i try configure it using
gnome-network-preferences
it doesn't work. I tried wpasupplicant too, since i'll need it anyway and
nothing. The related
kernel messages are below:

ieee80211: eth0: Unknown management packet: 0
ipw2200: Firmware error detected. Restarting.
ipw2200: Firmware error detected. Restarting.
ipw2200: failed to send ASSOCIATE command
ieee80211: eth0: Unknown management packet: 0
ipw2200: Firmware error detected. Restarting.

It happens when i run 'ifup eth0' (it isn't auto but listed in
/etc/network/interfaces issuing dhcp
requests). With wpasupplicant running as daemon i see the messages above and
some times it:

ipw2200: failed to send SSID command
ipw2200: failed to send ASSOCIATE command
ipw2200: failed to send SYSTEM_CONFIG command
ipw2200: ipw_send_system_config failed
ipw2200: No Space for Tx
ipw2200: failed to send WEP_KEY command
...

lspci output:
0000:06:04.0 Network Controller: Intel Corp. PRO/Wireless 2200BG (rev 05)

It's ipw2200 1.0.4, of course.

The weird thing to me is that after reboot 'iwconfig eth0' output shows:

eth0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"therightessid"
       Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 Ghz Access Point: the right one!
       (...)

wpasupplicant scanned and choose an AP around and in a way or another talked with
ipw2200, right? After that errors the 'iwconfig eth0' output shows:

eth0 unassociated ...

With these changes in the output it seems that the ipw2200 is really restarting.Can
it be a problem with the firmware sitting at /lib/hotplug/firmware/ ?

Best regards,
Gustavo Franco -- <email address hidden>

[Gustavo Franco (stratus)]

Hi Fabio,

I tried to compile ipw2200 1.0.4 from sf.net, it needs a small tweak but compiles.
The problem is that it isn't working well, i've the same problems as in 1.0.4
shipped
with 2.6.12-3.3 kernel.

After downloading ipw2200 from sf.net, build-essential and gcc 3.4 from ubuntu
repository
i tried to run 'make' without success. The tweak needed described above is just
remove
"is_multicast_ether_addr" reference to work around "error: previous definition of
'is_multicast_ether_addr' in include/linux/etherdevice.h:67"

After compiling i moved ipw2200.ko to
/lib/modules/2.6.12-3-686/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ipw2200
rebooting the machine, same problems. After this first test i did the right
thing moving the ieee stuff
like in: ieee80211*.ko to /lib/modules/2.6.12-3-686/kernel/drivers/net/wireless
, the results are the same!

My conclusion is that ipw2200 1.0.4 module even with ieee80211 stuff from ubuntu
latest kernel is
having problems, it seems to be something below ieee80211 or in ipw2200.

If you're reading this bug and needs to use the latest ubuntu kernel (2.6.12-3.3
now) with ipw2200, 1.0.0
from upstream works, 1.0.4 not, i haven't tested others. If you've more time
than me do the tests, i need to
deliver this laptop configured to a co-worker travel soon.

Thanks,
Gustavo Franco -- <email address hidden>

[Ante Karamatić (ivoks)]

I'm using ipw2200 from Ubuntu Breezy 2.6.12 kernel and I don't have this kind of
problems. I use it on a daily basis and find it to work much better than those
in Hoary.

"ipw2200: Firmware error detected. Restarting." - ??

Did you download latest firmware? In /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware directory, there
should be *2.3*.fw files. 1.0.4 driver works only with these, latest firmware.

[Gustavo Franco (stratus)]

(In reply to comment #2)
> I'm using ipw2200 from Ubuntu Breezy 2.6.12 kernel and I don't have this kind of
> problems. I use it on a daily basis and find it to work much better than those
> in Hoary.
>
> "ipw2200: Firmware error detected. Restarting." - ??
>
> Did you download latest firmware? In /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware directory, there
> should be *2.3*.fw files. 1.0.4 driver works only with these, latest firmware.

Ante,

Are you using Ubuntu Breezy or just Ubuntu Hoary with the latest kernel on Breezy ?
FYI, i'm using the latest firmware because it's shipped together with the
kernel. As
i said to Fabio the md5sum matches with upstream ones.

Can you paste related lspci output and dmesg output ?

Thanks,
Gustavo Franco -- <email address hidden>

[Ante Karamatić (ivoks)]

Breezy all the way...

0000:02:03.0 Network controller: Intel Corp. PRO/Wireless 2200BG (rev 05)

ieee80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'NULL'
ipw2200: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver, 1.0.4
ipw2200: Copyright(c) 2003-2004 Intel Corporation
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:03.0[A] -> Link [LNKB] -> GSI 7 (level, low) -> IRQ 7
ipw2200: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection

[Gustavo Franco (stratus)]

(In reply to comment #4)
> Breezy all the way...
>
> 0000:02:03.0 Network controller: Intel Corp. PRO/Wireless 2200BG (rev 05)
>
> ieee80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'NULL'
> ipw2200: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver, 1.0.4
> ipw2200: Copyright(c) 2003-2004 Intel Corporation
> ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:03.0[A] -> Link [LNKB] -> GSI 7 (level, low) -> IRQ 7
> ipw2200: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection

Hi Ante,

I forgot to ask if you're using WEP. Can you elaborate a bit about your wifi setup ?

Thank you again,
Gustavo Franco -- <email address hidden>

[Ante Karamatić (ivoks)]

No. I don't use WEP. I used 1.0.4 on 4 different networks. All are MAC filtered,
so no WEP. But, sometimes Breezy doesn't shutdown properly. I noticed that last
lines are about ipw2200 firmware - ipw2200: Firmware error detected. Restarting.
This happend after partitions were unmounted. I didn't notice that before you
said it too, and it happend about an hour ago :(

Cause of that, I will confirm that there is a problem with ipw2200 firmware/driver.

[Gustavo Franco (stratus)]

(In reply to comment #6)
> No. I don't use WEP. I used 1.0.4 on 4 different networks. All are MAC filtered,
> so no WEP. But, sometimes Breezy doesn't shutdown properly. I noticed that last
> lines are about ipw2200 firmware - ipw2200: Firmware error detected. Restarting.
> This happend after partitions were unmounted. I didn't notice that before you
> said it too, and it happend about an hour ago :(
>
> Cause of that, I will confirm that there is a problem with ipw2200
firmware/driver.

Hi Ante,

I've tested that, only in a WEP setup maybe WEP is a blocker on this and without WEP
you can put it to work.

You're saying that you can reproduce the bug now even if not using WEP ? Is it
working
and after some time stops, if you reboot it works again ? Did you see the
messages but
the connection seems to be ok, or what ?

I'll check again the reported issues to the upstream and see if Fabio can do
something too.

Thanks,
Gustavo Franco -- <email address hidden>

[Gustavo Franco (stratus)]

> Cause of that, I will confirm that there is a problem with ipw2200
firmware/driver.

Hi Ante,

I'm not with the buggy laptop in my hands atm, if you can reproduce this problem now
please test the workaround described in the upstream bugzilla(0):

rmmod ipw2200
modprobe ipw2200 hwcrypto=0

- Configure your network and see if the bug happens again.

(0) = http://www.bughost.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=697

--
Gustavo Franco -- <email address hidden>

[Ante Karamatić (ivoks)]

(In reply to comment #7)
> You're saying that you can reproduce the bug now even if not using WEP ? Is it
> working
> and after some time stops, if you reboot it works again ? Did you see the
> messages but
> the connection seems to be ok, or what ?

I can't reproduce it intentionaly. I've beeing using it now for 4 hours without
problems (i never had problems while computer is working). To sum it, there are
no errors while using ipw2200. Error occur only sometime in the shutdown
procedure. After all services are stoped, disks umounted, there should be ACPI
call for shutdown. Then, before ACPI call it prints that message, and laptop
never powers off.

I don't use any network with WEP (4 locations).

[Gustavo Franco (stratus)]

Created an attachment (id=2918)
ipw2200 hardware crypto enable/disable right before card reset.

(In reply to comment #9)
> (In reply to comment #7)
> > You're saying that you can reproduce the bug now even if not using WEP ? Is
it
> > working
> > and after some time stops, if you reboot it works again ? Did you see the
> > messages but
> > the connection seems to be ok, or what ?
>
> I can't reproduce it intentionaly. I've beeing using it now for 4 hours
without
> problems (i never had problems while computer is working). To sum it, there
are
> no errors while using ipw2200. Error occur only sometime in the shutdown
> procedure. After all services are stoped, disks umounted, there should be
ACPI
> call for shutdown. Then, before ACPI call it prints that message, and laptop
> never powers off.
>
> I don't use any network with WEP (4 locations).

Hi Ante,

Thank you for your feedback. I've a dirty workaround that i'll test in that
laptop
when he came back to me, hopefully in the next week. It's untested but i'll
attach
here anyway if a brave came before me.

Thanks,
Gustavo Franco -- <email address hidden>

[Charles Majola (chmj)]

fixed in 2.6.12-4.4