wireless internet problem on WG111v3 (RTL8187b)

[tarung1793]

Hi ,

I its some time i am using linux , ubuntu especially . I am happy with other things besides one problem .:
" that my wireless card card is not supported by ubuntu ..: " it is netgear wg111v3 having RTL8187B chipset . It was not working in jaunty and neither it is working 'satisfactorily' in karmic . I even tried updating to kernel 2.6.32 rc5 after performing an dist-upgarde ( i installed karmic from the beta cd )(through my ethernet)but that thing also didn't worked out ..

Karmic detects the device right also it displays my network correctly but when i try to connect to it , karmic wont connect, it again and again keeps on asking for the password , i tried both wpa 1 and 2 (I am sure to enter the password right )., tried to set the mtu value to 1492 but none works ..

It connected only once but drops out fast. i am trying to connect to it for a week now and finally decided to file a bug for it..

I could not get to attatch the files through ubuntu , so i did it through mediafire. Sorry for this..

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=345986bfa1c8a9a0ab1eab3e9fa335caa4dfc49de1de54d8

I hope Ubuntu Team would take it seriously( As many other people are also facing problems ) . And pls if you are able to , Include this bug fix in the final release of karmic

Thanking you..
---
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: tarun 1329 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'NVidia'/'HDA NVidia at 0xefff4000 irq 23'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC1200'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0888,103c2a64,00100101'
   Controls : 37
   Simple ctrls : 20
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'HDMI'/'HDA ATI HDMI at 0xef9fc000 irq 16'
   Mixer name : 'ATI R6xx HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:1002aa01,00aa0100,00100100'
   Controls : 4
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card1.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [off]
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Frequency: Once a day.
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Beta i386 (20100318)
Lsusb:
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bda:0151 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Mass Storage Device
 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0846:4260 NetGear, Inc. WG111(v3) 54 Mbps Wireless [RealTek RTL8187B]
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
MachineType: HP-Pavilion NC633AA-ACJ a6740in
Package: linux (not installed)
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-19-generic root=UUID=ee5250e4-e6d3-403c-a652-67cc09059292 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_IN
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-19.28-generic 2.6.32.10+drm33.1
Regression: No
RelatedPackageVersions: linux-firmware 1.32
Reproducible: No
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
Tags: lucid networking needs-upstream-testing
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-19-generic i686
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
WifiSyslog:

dmi.bios.date: 12/02/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
dmi.bios.version: 5.21
dmi.board.name: Napa
dmi.board.vendor: FOXCONN
dmi.board.version: HP P/N
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologies,LTD:bvr5.21:bd12/02/2008:svnHP-Pavilion:pnNC633AA-ACJa6740in:pvr:rvnFOXCONN:rnNapa:rvrHPP/N:cvnHewlett-Packard:ct3:cvr:
dmi.product.name: NC633AA-ACJ a6740in
dmi.sys.vendor: HP-Pavilion

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

Hi tarung1793,

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? Can you try 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 run the following command from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p linux 459732

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. 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 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

    [This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[tarung1793 (tarung1793)]

I have tried with lucid-beta release also , This still remains a problem,but a bit altered, Wg111v3 will connect to the network now but after 2-3 mins it drops out , and tries to reconnect, sometimes taking 2-3 mins to reconnect and then it repeats the cycle , but the card is working perfectly in windows.

I have also tested the kernel 2.6.33, that doesnt works either. I have no internet access through ubuntu , so if you could tell me how generate the logs/info you want as log files, i will uplaod them via windows.

[tarung1793 (tarung1793)]

apport information

[tarung1793 (tarung1793)]

apport information

[tarung1793 (tarung1793)]

apport information

[Vince McIntyre (vmcintyr)]

I am seeing similar things.

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu lucid (development branch)
Release: 10.04

$ uname -a
Linux ubuntu 2.6.32-21-generic #32-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 16 08:10:02 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux

$ lsusb
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 003: ID 0403:6001 Future Technology Devices International, Ltd FT232 USB-Serial (UART) IC
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 046d:c03d Logitech, Inc. M-BT96a Pilot Optical Mouse
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 03f0:3611 Hewlett-Packard PSC 2410 PhotoSmart
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 413c:2003 Dell Computer Corp. Keyboard
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0846:4260 NetGear, Inc. WG111(v3) 54 Mbps Wireless [RealTek RTL8187B]
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

What I observe in syslog is the card deauthenticating from the wireless network,
every 5 minutes or less, with 'Reason: 4), e.g.

Apr 19 07:45:10 ubuntu kernel: [149791.540484] wlan1: associated
Apr 19 07:45:10 ubuntu kernel: [149791.546125] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan1: link becomes ready
Apr 19 07:45:13 ubuntu dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on wlan1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 6
Apr 19 07:45:13 ubuntu dhclient: DHCPREQUEST of 192.168.13.12 on wlan1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
Apr 19 07:45:20 ubuntu kernel: [149801.892009] wlan1: no IPv6 routers present
Apr 19 07:48:49 ubuntu kernel: [150010.760375] wlan1: deauthenticated from 00:09:5b:dd:8f:3a (Reason: 4)

This appears to be some kind of activity timeout, if the code is an official 80211 code.
The message appears to be coming from
/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.32/net/mac80211/mlme.c
The timeout seems to be defined in
/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.32/drivers/net/wireless/hostap/hostap_ap.c

This is weird because I am sending syslog packets (udp) to this machine,
ie there is wireless network traffic directed to that interface, every 10-60 seconds.

I set up a cron job to do an outbound ping (box -> router) every 4 minutes.
Made no difference.

I changed the cron job to do an ifdown wlan1; sleep 5; ifup wlan1; every 4 minutes.
This at least kept the interface up most of the time, but I still got (Reason: 4).

I don't have network-manager or wicd installed. I do have wpasupplicant but I am
using wep, so that should not matter, correct. /etc/network/interfaces contains:

auto wlan1
iface wlan1 inet dhcp
  wireless-ap any
  wireless-essid mylittlenet
  wireless-key d00b-ed00-6b
  wireless-mode managed

I installed linux-backports-modules-wireless-lucid-generic, made no difference.

The normal mode for this system is to sit quietly under a desk with nobody logged in.
I don't know why that should matter. I had a deauthentication while collating this report.

[Vince McIntyre (vmcintyr)]

PS. There is nothing wrong with the access point I am using, the other machines on the network (including one sitting on the desk the affected machine is located under) don't see this problem.

[Vince McIntyre (vmcintyr)]

This appears to be fixed for me, after the following upgrades (excerpted from /var/log/apt/history.log)

Install:
  linux-headers-2.6.32-22 (2.6.32-22.33),
  linux-image-2.6.32-22-generic (2.6.32-22.33),
  linux-backports-modules-wireless-2.6.32-22-generic (2.6.32-22.13)
  linux-headers-2.6.32-22-generic (2.6.32-22.33)

Upgrade:
   linux-headers-generic (2.6.32.21.22, 2.6.32.22.23)
   linux-image-generic (2.6.32.21.22, 2.6.32.22.23)
   linux-backports-modules-wireless-lucid-generic (2.6.32.21.22, 2.6.32.22.23),
   linux-libc-dev (2.6.32-21.32, 2.6.32-22.33)
   linux-generic (2.6.32.21.22, 2.6.32.22.23)
   linux-source-2.6.32 (2.6.32-21.32, 2.6.32-22.33)

There were other upgrades but I doubt they were relevant.

The changelogs were not especially helpful, there was one reference to #567016
which addresses another realtek driver (rtl8192se).

The relevant bit of git history _may_ be here somewhere:
http://kernel.ubuntu.com/git?p=ubuntu/ubuntu-lucid.git;a=history;f=drivers/net/wireless/rtl818x;h=f0819aaf4948e34a44d9d685615ddee74271cd70;hb=f0819aaf4948e34a44d9d685615ddee74271cd70

In particular, the rfkill patch, at a guess:
http://kernel.ubuntu.com/git?p=ubuntu/ubuntu-lucid.git;a=commit;h=1abb41521040db929998e107a067879978c3ec9b

Thanks folks!

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

tarung1793,
    Can you confirm Vince's findings above?

Thanks!

~JFo

[tarung1793 (tarung1793)]

i was not able to directly upgrade to the new kernel, but i installed kernel v2.6.34.rc-7-lucid, from the ubuntu mainstream kernel site,

WG111v3 NOW WORKS, but only after 2-3 restarts, i dont know why it happens, but i hv tried it twice.....

if read the changelog for the versions between the two kernels, there has been some activity in the rtl series chipsets, that might be the reason for this.....

Thank you all.

[tarung1793 (tarung1793)]

This seems to be only a temporary workaround, You may or may NOT get your wifi working permanently, it may happen that you just login in to your system and your card is working and the next time it is not..

I have also tried the kernel version 2.6.32-22 , still no always working fix.

[tarung1793 (tarung1793)]

@Vince : can you post clearly of what you did..

[Vince McIntyre (vmcintyr)]

I don't see what more I can say but here goes:
 * This machine is a clean install of lucid, I did not dist-upgrade from karmic.
 * Before upgrading, to keep the network up some of the time I had a cron job that did
     'ifdown wlan1 && sleep 10 && ifup wlan1'
    every 4 minutes (the disassociation occured every 5 minutes).
   I disabled this cron job.
 * I did an aptitude full-upgrade on 2010-05-10 (or 09, not sure), which pulled in the packages noted in #12.
 * I rebooted, with the USB device attached.
 * The system is normally left running with nobody logged in to a gnome session. I did not try logging in to gnome and looking for instability.
 * I don't have wicd or network-manager installed.
    I have an entry for the device in /etc/network/interfaces, so it should be getting configured by 'ifupdown' (see #10).
 * As far as I can tell from 'dbus-monitor --system' dbus is not controlling the device,
   although there is a control file for network interfaces in /etc/dbus-1/. This might change if I start a gnome session
   but I haven't tried this.

Questions for tarung1793:
 * Do you have the linux-backports-modules-wireless-lucid-generic package installed.
    I suspect that is where the fix was applied.

 * When you say 'not always working' what exactly do you mean - for example:
    - "it works every other boot", or
    - "it works one boot in 10", or
    - "it randomly fails and resumes even without rebooting."
 * I think it would help to post some dmesg or syslog excerpts of boots where the device is working and where the device failing (while you are running 2.6.32-22), to help the maintainers understand what is happening differently in the "works" and "not working" cases.
 * What is controlling the network device - wicd, nm, ifupdown?
 * Is your machine running a fresh install of lucid or did you dist-upgrade? It could be there is some cruft left behind by the upgrade.

[CoolDreamZ (chris-thompson-stormfolio)]

I had a similar problem with 10.04, I am using WPA2-Personal security on my wireless router and I am repeatedly asked for the passphrase. I switched to WEP security and the link worked with no problem.

I solved the original WPA2 problem by downloading, compiling and installing the Realtek 8187L kernel module (driver) version 1039 from the Realtek site [URL="http://www.realtek.com/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=24&PFid=1&Level=6&Conn=5&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false&Downloads=true"]here[/URL]

My conclusion is that there is a bug with WPA2 support in the RTL8187 module included in 10.04

[tarung1793 (tarung1793)]

@vince : I didnt have the linux backports wireless module installed,, but now after installing it wg111v3 seems to work fine,,.

Thanks,,

the ubuntu team must consider it pulling from the backports to the mainstream..

[Sundaram Ramaswamy (legends2k)]

Like tarung1793 says it's sometimes up and sometimes down for me, even with the linux-backports-modules-wireless-lucid-generic packages installed. It's a shame that supporting a thing as simple as WiFi takes weeks and why wouldn't it drive people away from Linux, in general?

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

This bug report was marked as Incomplete and has not had any updated comments for quite some time. As a result this bug is being closed. Please reopen if this is still an issue in the current Ubuntu development release http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ . Also, please be sure to provide any requested information that may have been missing. To reopen the bug, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Rogerio Luz Coelho (rogerio-luz-coelho)]

Ok I have the same problem with this card.

There seems to be hope, even for 64bit cards in a new patch that is being tested.

bug # 215802