[iwl3945] network manager looses connection to WPA2 router after some time

[Wolf Rogner]

Intrepid Ibex beta, network-manager 0.7.0

Linux 2.6.27-6-generic #1 SMP

Network manager looses connection after a certain period (not even till key change). It queries the key but does not log into WPA2 again.

In seahorse, the key is not stored but a psk is stored instead. This is the same key as produced by wpa_password with the key as passphrase.
However, if the key in seahorse is replaced with the correct key again, login mostly succeeds (mostly only because this is not reproducable but requires several attempts).

On 8.0.4.1 network manager 0.6.6 it works fine (logon is slow though)

[c49 (c49)]

I have same bug. Network Manager looses connection, and does not connect again automatically.

It is very annoying thing, it needs me to check network connection and reconnect manually periodically, so download any bigger file is almost impossible.
Sometimes it asks me again about key, it is strange because key was not changed and is saved already ( key field is filled when it asks me )
In hardy it was working fine. Same network, same router, same key, only intrepid instead of hardy.

NetworkManager v0.7.0

[c49 (c49)]

One more thing, I use not beta release, but official Intrepid upgraded from Hardy

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

reproduce and attach your complete syslog after that please.

[c49 (c49)]

HI
When connection is lost NM tryies to recconnect, sometimes it reconnects without any problem, but sometimes for some reason it asks me for network key, what is nonsense in my opinion because it has the key already in his key database, and i only need to click OK to confirm that key is proper ( key field in form is filled already ).
I think it should try to connect again and again until succesfully connected, and never ask for key until manually changed.

My syslog attached, it happened several times in this file, succesful recconnects and reconnect attempts with key-asking.
It almost never happens when signal is strong.

Cyprian

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

what kind of network is that? a, g, n?

[Wolf Rogner (war-rsb)]

In my case its a g network with netgear enhancements (supports up to 108 Mb/s). My notebooks connect using pure 801.11g (54Mb/s).

My observation:

In my are there is a high density of WiFi routers (50+). They are not operated on a regular basis but rather turned on and off irregularly. Before disconnect I see 10+ router announcements, after reconnect, there are usually only 2 - 4 networks available.

To me it seems as if the local database of announced SSIDs has a hard coded limit. When this exceeds, the connection terminates (just a hypothesis).

Most of the routers operate on channels that I do not use (default settings 6 and 11).

Please fix the wrong password issue at least. NM takes the wrong key from the seahorse repository.

[maho (maho)]

I have very similar problem. Network manager restarts connection(during few weeks, it happened always near 02:00 AM, so it looked like it's forced by cron).

Next it fails 2 times with credentials it uses, and asks me for password for WPA2 network. Regardless what I typed there - it always fails to connect.

The cure is /etc/init.d/NetworkManager restart . Then it connects without any problem.

ii network-manager 0.7~~svn20081018t105859-0ubuntu1.8.10.1 network management framework daemon
ii network-manager-gnome 0.7~~svn20081020t000444-0ubuntu1.8.10.1 network management framework (GNOME frontend)

$ uname -a
Linux maho-laptokl 2.6.27-11-generic #1 SMP Thu Jan 29 19:28:32 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Julien Dehee (julien-dehee)]

I'm having the same issue running Network Manager 0.7 on Ubuntu Jaunty.
It just disconnects after a while (no precise timing) and can't reconnect. Asks for the WPA2 passphrase but does not work whatever I fill in. This bug is very annoying !

network-manager 0.7.1~rc4.1.cf199a964-0ubuntu2
network-manager-gnome 0.7.1~rc4.1-0ubuntu2
NetworkManager Applet 0.7.0.100

syslog attached.

[Julien Dehee (julien-dehee)]

silly and dirty but simple workaround :

The connection doesn't seem to stop if you have something going on the network.

# ping -i 60 google.com

and you'll stay connected (sends a packet every minute, keep the connection alive)

[Wolf Rogner (war-rsb)]

-> Julien Dehee:
Sorry to contradict you. The problem occurs whether there is an incoming, outgoing or no connection.

[c49 (c49)]

Wolf Rogner pisze:
> -> Julien Dehee:
> Sorry to contradict you. The problem occurs whether there is an incoming, outgoing or no connection.
>
>
I am not sure, but but it occur intependently of connection type.

[CybArc (cybarc)]

I second that "sudo /etc/init.d/NetworkManager restart" solves this issue. I'm running Ubuntu 9.04 x64

[Fabi (fabsi-deactivatedaccount)]

Same here an Kubuntu 10.04 x86
KNetworkManager: v0.9
network-manager 0.8 RC2

only chance to reconnect is
"rmmod iwl3945"
"modprobe iwl3945"
or restart

"service network-manager restart"
don't work

With a USB-WLAN Stick (other driver) i can reconnect and there are no connectioninterrups, so its not a knetworkmanager bug i think

[Thomas Hood (jdthood)]

Can anyone reproduce this in Ubuntu 12.04?

Possibly a driver problem.

[Wolf Rogner (war-rsb)]

As far as I am concerned, this still happens every now and then.

In my case, the connection gets reset and then the password dialog appears. It has the correct password set (or entered) but still does not reconnect. Only solution to this is:

sudo service network-manager restart

As I have pointed out in a previous version, the code reconnecting to a WPA2 network uses the already encrypted key, encrypts it again and then sends it. This will never work.

I haven't confirmed but am pretty sure that this code has never changed.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Wolf Rogner, this bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? If so, could you please test for this with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .

If it remains an issue, could you please run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

Also, could you please test the latest upstream kernel available following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds ? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Please do not test the kernel in the daily folder, but the one all the way at the bottom. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested and remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the text:
needs-upstream-testing

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tags:
kernel-fixed-upstream
kernel-fixed-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the following tags:
kernel-bug-exists-upstream
kernel-bug-exists-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, please comment as to why specifically you were unable to test it and add the following tags:
kernel-unable-to-test-upstream
kernel-unable-to-test-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

Please let us know your results. Thank you for your understanding.

[Wolf Rogner (war-rsb)]

The issue still occurs frequently on 12.04.

I haven't tested 12.10 mainly because I haven't got the time so far.

From what I have learned from the source code: Initial connection is made by taking an encrypted key from the key store. On reconnect (especially when the connection has been interupted by an upcomming new router) the reconnect algorithm is a different funtion which encrypts an already encrypted value. Needless to say: This is not what the other side expects.

I don't think this has been fixed.

[Wolf Rogner (war-rsb)]

Upgraded to 12.10.

It is worse than ever. Whenever a router is turned on in our house any existing connection breaks.
The authentication dialog appears and wants a password
Entering it does not help, the dialog reappears.

service network-manager restart helped in 12.04. It does not any more. The problem persists.
Only a reboot helps (until the next wireless router is turned on).

The issue is definitely that the password dialog tries to encrypt an already encrypted password hash.

[Wolf Rogner (war-rsb)]

Refer to #1073662
Still happily lurking around

The code in nm-applet still uses two ways to connect to the WiFi network.

This does not explain why the connection gets lost when a new router announces its service though

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]