[karmic] Intel WiFi Link 5300 sometimes not working on 5 GHz

[Evil Genius]

I'm using karmic (with latest updates) and I experienced my Intel Wifi Link 5300 sometimes fails to operate after system startup. dmesg gives repeatedly "iwlagn 0000:03:00.0: ERROR: No TX rate available." (see attachment). A dhcp lease is aquired, but no further data transmission is possible. Reboot sometimes helps, but often several reboots are required until I can get this to work. Unloading and reloading the iwlagn modules does NOT help.
If it works after a startup, it does so at excellent speed and stability for hours even at high thoughput rates.
This behavior is unchanged from 2.6.31-5-generic up to 2.6.31-8-generic (versions before I did not try).
This bug only appears when using the 5GHz band, 2.4GHz is unaffected.

Since ubuntu-bug does not open a window after colecting and sending data I have to report this one this way.

Googling about that gives only one serious hit, but there it is some incombatibility with the closed-source fglrx-driver, wich in my case is not in use (not even installed).

Additional Information:
System: Lenovo ThinkPad T500 with Intel WiFi Link 5300 (a/g/n) using Kubuntu Karmic amd64
WLAN-AP: Linksys WRT610N using latest stock firmware
WLAN-Config: WPA2 (AES), N-Standard only in 5GHz band, wide channels (40MHz), automatic frequency selection activated

Please see attached dmesg-logs.

[Evil Genius (jan-petrischkeit-de)]

Still existent.

I did some testing: If you leave the computer alone after startup for 1 or 2 minutes it often works, but almost never if you try to transfer data immediately after aquiring a ip address.

I have another notebook with an Intel 3945abg wireless card wich does not have this issue (using the same network).

[falstaff (falstaff)]

I have a EliteBook 8530w, with Intel WiFi 5300 too, and bought a new D-Link DIR-855 with 5GHz WLAN and 802.11n. I've got the exact same message.

uname -a
Linux alpha 2.6.31-12-generic #41-Ubuntu SMP Wed Oct 7 19:37:12 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux

iwconfig wlan0 says something interessting:
wlan0 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:"my_wlan_5ghz"
          Mode:Managed Frequency:5.22 GHz Access Point: 00:24:01:34:41:1C
          Bit Rate=0 kb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm
          Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=69/70 Signal level=-41 dBm Noise level=-91 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

Bit Rate=0 kb/s?

rmmod iwlagn & modprobe iwlagn helps for me. Sometimes i need to do it several times, then suddenly ping works, and sometimes for longer times, sometimes only for a few seconds...

bye
falstaff

[H.i.M (hir-i-mogul-gmail)]

I would like to confirm this bug. Using intel 5300AGN with Dell Latitude E6400.
2.4Ghz fine.
5Ghz stoped working after first connection.

see log 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz

[H.i.M (hir-i-mogul-gmail)]

If you need anything else please give me a hint were i can find it.

hen@karmic:~$ iwconfig wlan0
wlan0 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:"kdstv_bodensee_300mbit"
          Mode:Managed Frequency:5.18 GHz Access Point: 00:1F:3F:9F:9F:93
          Bit Rate=0 kb/s Tx-Power=5 dBm
          Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=68/70 Signal level=-42 dBm Noise level=-94 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

"Bit Rate=0 kb/s"....

[H.i.M (hir-i-mogul-gmail)]

There is a similar bugreport with intel 4965 -> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/437990
With 4965 same error in "WifiSyslog.txt":
Sep 27 23:33:15 mondo kernel: [ 1697.705198] iwlagn 0000:03:00.0: ERROR: No TX rate available. [excerpt]

Such a bug has to be fixed before release. There is a huge number of Notebooks with 4965 and 5300 on the market.

[ktp (kari-petersen)]

My hardware is also an EliteBook 8530w. The access point is an AVM Fritz!Box 7270 configured for g & n. Sometimes I get a connect and sometimes it tries and asks me for the passphrase repeatedly. When it does this, and i look at iwconfig wlan0 in second steps then it switches between "Access Point: DE:AD:BE:EF" and "Access Point: Not-Associated". The ESSID is the one of my accesspoint as long as the connection try lasts.

I have this behavior since I upgraded from Jaunty to Karmic. Everything worked until then. This sucks.

It would be nice if the importance of this bug would be set an the bug assigned to s.o. Leaving this unassigned and unfixed doesn't shed a good light on Ubuntu, since this chipset is wide spread.

[Kwinz (ldm)]

I have the same "ERROR: No TX rate available." issue on my Intel 5300 on Ubuntu Karmic.
I am using a NETGEAR AP.

I'd like to add that I also have serious speed problems:
In 802.11g the speed is sometimes limited to ~100kb/s even when I am right next to the AP.
ifup and ifdown on the interface helps.
In 802.11n mode the speed is also sometimes limited to absurdly low throughput of ~750kb/s, again down/up-ing helps.

cat wpa_supplicant.conf
ap_scan=1
network={
        ssid="private"
        scan_ssid=1
        proto=RSN
 pairwise=CCMP
        group=TKIP
        psk="removed"
}

[ktp (kari-petersen)]

I found a webpage on which s.o. described how he fixed this for his Intel 5100 chipset. Since this is the same driver as for the 5300 chipset in my hw8530w i tried and my wlan works again now. Shame on Ubuntu for releasing such a buggy distribution like 9.10.

Here is what worked for me:

go to http://linuxwireless.org/download/compat-wireless-2.6/
download the newest drivers (I downloaded compat-wireless-2009-11-05.tar.bz2)
unpack them
sudo make && sudo make install && sudo shutdown -r now

HTH.

[bertrand (bcrubli)]

Downloaded, compiled and installed compat-wireless-2009-11-06.tar but it did not work for me.

I am running the x86_64 kernel :

# uname -a
Linux xxxxxxx 2.6.31-14-generic #48-Ubuntu SMP Fri Oct 16 14:05:01 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Removing and modprobing iwlagn says. :

#modprobe iwlagn
FATAL: Error inserting iwlagn (/lib/modules/2.6.31-14-generic/updates/cw/iwlagn.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

dmesg shows :

501.927579] iwlcore: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_start_tx_ba_cb_irqsafe
[ 501.927590] iwlcore: Unknown symbol ieee80211_start_tx_ba_cb_irqsafe
[ 501.928430] iwlcore: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_alloc_hw
[ 501.928436] iwlcore: Unknown symbol ieee80211_alloc_hw
[ 501.928687] iwlcore: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_register_hw
[ 501.928693] iwlcore: Unknown symbol ieee80211_register_hw
[ 501.929347] iwlcore: disagrees about version of symbol __ieee80211_get_radio_led_name
[ 501.929353] iwlcore: Unknown symbol __ieee80211_get_radio_led_name
[ 501.929587] iwlcore: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_wake_queue
[ 501.929592] iwlcore: Unknown symbol ieee80211_wake_queue
[ 501.929807] iwlcore: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_get_tkip_key
[ 501.929813] iwlcore: Unknown symbol ieee80211_get_tkip_key
[ 501.930055] iwlcore: disagrees about version of symbol __ieee80211_get_tx_led_name
[ 501.930065] iwlcore: Unknown symbol __ieee80211_get_tx_led_name
[ 501.930566] iwlcore: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_find_sta
[ 501.930574] iwlcore: Unknown symbol ieee80211_find_sta
[ 501.930947] iwlcore: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_tx_status_irqsafe
[ 501.930955] iwlcore: Unknown symbol ieee80211_tx_status_irqsafe
[ 501.931681] iwlcore: disagrees about version of symbol __ieee80211_get_rx_led_name
[ 501.931689] iwlcore: Unknown symbol __ieee80211_get_rx_led_name
[ 501.932205] iwlcore: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_stop_tx_ba_cb_irqsafe
[ 501.932213] iwlcore: Unknown symbol ieee80211_stop_tx_ba_cb_irqsafe
[ 501.933038] iwlcore: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_wake_queues
[ 501.933047] iwlcore: Unknown symbol ieee80211_wake_queues
[ 501.933599] iwlcore: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_stop_queue
[ 501.933607] iwlcore: Unknown symbol ieee80211_stop_queue
[ 501.933961] iwlcore: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_stop_queues
[ 501.933968] iwlcore: Unknown symbol ieee80211_stop_queues
[ 501.934337] iwlcore: disagrees about version of symbol __ieee80211_get_assoc_led_name
[ 501.934346] iwlcore: Unknown symbol __ieee80211_get_assoc_led_name
[ 501.934729] iwlcore: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_scan_completed
[ 501.934736] iwlcore: Unknown symbol ieee80211_scan_completed
[ 501.936699] iwlcore: Unknown symbol ieee80211_beacon_get
[ 501.938036] iwlcore: disagrees about version of symbol ieee80211_rx_irqsafe
[ 501.938043] iwlcore: Unknown symbol ieee80211_rx_irqsafe

[Bernhard Schmidt (berni)]

> Downloaded, compiled and installed compat-wireless-2009-11-06.tar but it
> did not work for me.
did you reboot as ktp told you to? compat-wireless includes the whole
Wifi stack, you cannot mix the vanilla parts and the new parts

[bertrand (bcrubli)]

>did you reboot
Yes

After reboot in Network-manager the "enable wlan" checkbox did no longer appear.

[falstaff (falstaff)]

For me the workaround works... I can connect to 5ghz networks, and it seems to be stable...

[Evan Jeffrey (ejeffrey)]

For me the problem seems to be 802.11g vs n, not 2.4 GHz vs 5 GHz. A 2.4 GHz only 802.11n network also doesn't work.

[alm (alm)]

As a workaround, installing linux-backports-modules-2.6.31-14-generic 2.6.31-14.16 also appears to have fixed it for me.

[bertrand (bcrubli)]

I limited the maximum rate on my wlan accesspoint to 54M (it is a Netgear WNDR 3700).
Now i got a stable connection for over an hour.

Perhaps the driver has a problem negotiating rates higher than 54M ?

[Kwinz (ldm)]

@ktp, bertrand

I installed the driver ktp recommended.
2,4 ghz mode no problems.
5,18 ghz mode same problem as bertrand.
I hava a WNDR3700 AP too.

~/ sudo iwconfig wlan0 rate 54M
ping test succeeds
iwconfig shows: Bit Rate=54 Mb/s

~/ sudo iwconfig wlan0 rate auto
ping test immediately fails
iwconfig shows: Bit Rate=0 kb/s

[Evil Genius (jan-petrischkeit-de)]

Confirming that the installation of linux-backports-modules-2.6.31-14-generic solved the problem for me. However, iwconfig still shows "Bit Rate=0 kb/s", while network-manager says 9 MBit (2m with line-of-sight from Router).
A quick 1 min iperf-test to my desktop-machine (Win7, sorry, for-gaming-only ;-) ) gave me a throughput about 100MBit sending and 60MBit receiving data.
So, its running quite well, at least sufficient for me.

[bertrand (bcrubli)]

Tried linux-backports-modules-2.6.31-14-generic
and linux-backports-modules-2.6.31-14-karmic
with exactly the same result: Unstable connections above 54Mb/s on 2.4GHz and 5GHz.

With all driver versions the connection is rock solid if the
accesspoints (Netgear WNDR 3700) maximum rate is limited to 54Mb/s.

Did anybody see iwconfig show a bit rate higher than 54Mb/s ?

IMO the driver appears to have a problem with higher bitrates.

[Kwinz (ldm)]

@ bertrand

From what I have seen iwconfig never displays any bitrate higher than 54 Mb/s.

I am curious why 2,4 ghz mode works with me and not with you.
My Netgear WNDR 3700 settings are:
Wireless Network (2.4GHz b/g/n) Up to 130 Mbps
Wireless Network (5GHz a/n) Up to 300 Mbps
What are yours?

[bertrand (bcrubli)]

@Kwinz

Sorry, i should have been more precise: Both, 2.4GHz and 5GHz connections are reliable if
the Netgear WNDR3700 settings are 54Mbps.

Mit current settings are :

Wireless Network (2.4GHz b/g/n) Up to 54 Mbps
Wireless Network (5GHz a/n) Up to 54 Mbps

Before i had both set to 300Mbps which did not work.
I did not try the 130Mbps setting though.

[Kwinz (ldm)]

@bertrand

Try connecting in 2.4 Ghz mode (give the 2.4 ghz ap another ssid than the 5Ghz so you can identify them),
"Up to 130 Mbps" setting at the WNDR3700 and
normal "~/ sudo iwconfig wlan0 rate auto" setting in ubuntu.
Works with me.

What does not work see my previous post.
I am considering uninstalling the module from ktp and try the backport package next.

[Kwinz (ldm)]

Update: tried more settings

GHZ | AP up to 130 Mbps setting | AP up to 300 Mbps setting
2,4 | X | X
5 | O | O

0: DOES NOT WORK, or only works for about 10 seconds and the fails, unless you set "sudo iwconfig rate 54M"
X: WORKS, iwconfig displays "Bit Rate=0 kb/s"

My conclusions:

1. AFIK not AP's fault
2. iwlagn is broken for 802.11n on 5 Ghz
3. iwconfig tool has to be updated not to display rates bigger than 54Mbit/s as 0

[bertrand (bcrubli)]

@Kwinz
Confirmed:
2.4GHz works at all speeds (i had problems with 2.4G before, they are gone now).
5GHz works only at 54Mbit, higher speeds die after a few seconds.

[LarusNagel (larus-nagel-deactivatedaccount)]

Hello,

if have tried the following solution:
rmmod iwlagn
modprobe iwlagn fw_restart50=1

since I done this, I had a stable W-Lan connection with 5GHz and full-speed.
(I tested this only some hour, and no reboots)

OT: I missed the file "/etc/modprobe.d/options" in the new Ubuntu-Version, so I created the
file "/etc/modprobe.d/options.conf" and add the line "options iwlagn fw_restart50=1"**.
I hope this set the option on every boot, but I do not know it.

My Hard and Software-Details:
lspci: 03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless WiFi Link 5300
uname -a: Linux laptop 2.6.31-15-generic #50-Ubuntu SMP Tue Nov 10 14:53:52 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Ubuntu: 9.10

LarusNagel

[Kwinz (ldm)]

Just wanted to let you know:
I reported the iwconfig issue upstream to it's author Jean Tourrilhes from HP.
That was on 2009-11-08, but I have not gotten any response yet.

[Alan LaMielle (alan.lamielle)]

I'm also experiencing this issue. As was stated earlier, but 437990 looks to be a duplicate of this one. I'll refrain from posting any details unless someone needs more information. Let me know if there is something that needs testing, I'd love to help get this bug fixed.

[Kwinz (ldm)]

I upgraded to 2.6.31-15-generic.
Just now I am getting a working wireless connection at university on 5 GHz:

wlan0 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:"eduroam-wu"
          Mode:Managed Frequency:5.24 GHz Access Point: 00:23:EB:0C:6F:DF
          Bit Rate=0 kb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm
          Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=68/70 Signal level=-42 dBm Noise level=-91 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

[Kwinz (ldm)]

With the current solution iwlagn often consumes 100% of one cpu.
The error message is " iwlagn 0000:03:00.0: Can not allocate SKB buffers".
See bug 250139. As a result I am looking for an alternative driver again.

Still no response from Jean. Looks like he has better things to do than fixing bugs.

[lightning9 (mh-lightning9)]

Hello,
if anybody's interested, I had the same issue and got this to work on my 8530w (Intel 5300 chipset).
I compiled and installed compat-wireless-2009-12-11.tar.bz2 from http://linuxwireless.org/download/compat-wireless-2.6/ and it now works flawlessly with my 5GHz N AP. However, unfortunately, the darn led starts blinking again so you have to create a file such as /etc/modprobe.d/iwlcore.conf containing "options iwlcore led_mode=1" to stop it. The other fix of creating an /etc/network/if-up.d script doesn't work because the /sys/class/leds/iwl-phy0 device (?) no longer exists.
lightning9

[Alan LaMielle (alan.lamielle)]

Thanks lightning9, it's good to know there is a workaround available. I'm not willing to try it quite yet as using 5GHz N isn't a mission critical feature for me; it's more of an annoyance that I cannot use it. I'm going to wait a while and hopefully someone will fix the iwlagn driver. Thanks for the workaround though!

[Kwinz (ldm)]

Now I tried compat-wireless-2010-02-01.
 * connecting to 5 GHz crashes the computer
 * connecting in ad-hoc mode crashes the computer

I am seriously frustrated by the quality of the compat-wireless drivers.

[Kwinz (ldm)]

I have installed the backports package.
Now I still don't get a working connection, but at least the system does not freeze any more.
I will investigate further if i have more time.
I keep using modprobe iwlagn 11n_disable50=1 in the meantime.

Thanks linux for being broken for half a year now!

[chielchiel (chiel)]

Is this bug still open? I want to buy this new wireless card, but are a bit held back because of the comments above.

[Kwinz (ldm)]

@chielchiel:
No I think not. I am using 2.6.32-23 + the backports package and 2.4 and 5 GHz 802.11n both work. However the iwlagn driver has never been very stable when I used various versions during the past 18 months. When one bug is fixed another one emerges (e.g. Bug #352228). Also my Ubuntu now sometimes crashes when there is an unencrypted AP in reach (could not track this down yet).

Why am I still using Intel wifi if it is so bad?
1. My thinkpad has a BIOS check that only permits using Intel cards so I would have to patch my BIOS to switch.
2. There is not a big range of 5 GHz capable cards for mini pcie to begin with.
3. Other drivers are even worse.

I hope I could help you. :)

[chielchiel (chiel)]

Wel, I just ordered the Intel 5300 a week ago and it's still not stable. I have a complete system freeze four times this week, before that none. I just inserted my previous Intel wifi because I need a stable system. Using a Dell XPS M1530 laptop.

$ uname -a
Linux laptop 2.6.35-25-generic #44-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jan 21 17:40:44 UTC 2011 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Using the iwlagn driver. Anybody got it working stable?

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug was filed against a series that is no longer supported and so is being marked as Won't Fix. If this issue still exists in a supported series, please file a new bug.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.