Problems with ZyDAS wi-fi dongle

[Alberto Berti]

After upgrading to Karmic Koala final release, the dongle connects only at 1 Mbit/ sec, becoming in almost useless connection.
With jaunty it was connecting at 40 Mbit/sec, allowing also to stream some video content
Maybe related/connected to https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/232315 which also affect my dongle during bootstrap.

root@baley:/home/azazel# iwconfig wlan0
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"lizardnet"
          Mode:Managed Frequency:2.422 GHz Access Point: 00:16:B6:D8:FE:86
          Bit Rate=1 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm
          Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:ED9D-605E-7EF1-991C-A38C-5657-8984-1A3F [2]
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=33/100 Signal level=33/100
          Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

root@baley:/home/azazel# lsusb
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0ace:1215 ZyDAS WLA-54L WiFi
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 2304:0236 Pinnacle Systems, Inc. [hex]
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 1130:6605 Tenx Technology, Inc.
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

root@baley:/home/azazel# lsusb -v -s 001:004
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0ace:1215 ZyDAS WLA-54L WiFi
Device Descriptor:
  bLength 18
  bDescriptorType 1
  bcdUSB 2.00
  bDeviceClass 255 Vendor Specific Class
  bDeviceSubClass 255 Vendor Specific Subclass
  bDeviceProtocol 255 Vendor Specific Protocol
  bMaxPacketSize0 64
  idVendor 0x0ace ZyDAS
  idProduct 0x1215 WLA-54L WiFi
  bcdDevice 48.10
  iManufacturer 16 ZyDAS
  iProduct 32 USB2.0 WLAN
  iSerial 0
  bNumConfigurations 1
  Configuration Descriptor:
    bLength 9
    bDescriptorType 2
    wTotalLength 46
    bNumInterfaces 1
    bConfigurationValue 1
    iConfiguration 0
    bmAttributes 0x80
      (Bus Powered)
    MaxPower 500mA
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength 9
      bDescriptorType 4
      bInterfaceNumber 0
      bAlternateSetting 0
      bNumEndpoints 4
      bInterfaceClass 255 Vendor Specific Class
      bInterfaceSubClass 0
      bInterfaceProtocol 0
      iInterface 0
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength 7
        bDescriptorType 5
        bEndpointAddress 0x01 EP 1 OUT
        bmAttributes 2
          Transfer Type Bulk
          Synch Type None
          Usage Type Data
        wMaxPacketSize 0x0200 1x 512 bytes
        bInterval 0
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength 7
        bDescriptorType 5
        bEndpointAddress 0x82 EP 2 IN
        bmAttributes 2
          Transfer Type Bulk
          Synch Type None
          Usage Type Data
        wMaxPacketSize 0x0200 1x 512 bytes
        bInterval 0
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength 7
        bDescriptorType 5
        bEndpointAddress 0x83 EP 3 IN
        bmAttributes 3
          Transfer Type Interrupt
          Synch Type None
          Usage Type Data
        wMaxPacketSize 0x0040 1x 64 bytes
        bInterval 1
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength 7
        bDescriptorType 5
        bEndpointAddress 0x04 EP 4 OUT
        bmAttributes 3
          Transfer Type Interrupt
          Synch Type None
          Usage Type Data
        wMaxPacketSize 0x0040 1x 64 bytes
        bInterval 1

root@baley:/home/azazel# lsmod
Module Size Used by
cryptd 8008 0
aes_x86_64 8992 2
aes_generic 28480 1 aes_x86_64
arc4 2144 2
ecb 3296 2
zd1211rw 52520 0
mac80211 210040 1 zd1211rw
cfg80211 109144 2 zd1211rw,mac80211
nfsd 306112 9
lockd 78068 1 nfsd
nfs_acl 3552 1 nfsd
auth_rpcgss 47808 1 nfsd
sunrpc 225800 8 nfsd,lockd,nfs_acl,auth_rpcgss
snd_hda_codec_realtek 277860 1
fbcon 41344 71
tileblit 3136 1 fbcon
font 8832 1 fbcon
bitblit 6688 1 fbcon
softcursor 2336 1 bitblit
snd_hda_intel 31880 2
snd_hda_codec 87456 2 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep 9128 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm_oss 44480 1
snd_mixer_oss 18688 2 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 92296 3 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_dummy 3460 0
snd_seq_oss 33216 0
smsc47m192 17424 0
snd_seq_midi 8192 0
hwmon_vid 3968 1 smsc47m192
snd_rawmidi 26912 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 8448 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
iptable_filter 3872 0
dvb_usb_dib0700 58184 10
snd_seq 60480 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
dib7000p 19272 2 dvb_usb_dib0700
i915 246792 2
i2c_i801 11452 0
dib7000m 16836 1 dvb_usb_dib0700
snd_timer 26928 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
ip_tables 21168 1 iptable_filter
drm 193280 2 i915
dvb_usb 19276 1 dvb_usb_dib0700
snd_seq_device 8308 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
i2c_algo_bit 7076 1 i915
x_tables 25768 1 ip_tables
dvb_core 104528 1 dvb_usb
lp 11908 0
snd 76808 12 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
dib3000mc 14344 1 dvb_usb_dib0700
intel_agp 32752 2 i915
dibx000_common 4196 3 dib7000p,dib7000m,dib3000mc
psmouse 57124 0
video 23612 1 i915
soundcore 9088 3 snd
dib0070 8868 2 dvb_usb_dib0700
snd_page_alloc 10928 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
output 3680 1 video
serio_raw 6596 0
parport 40528 1 lp
xfs 534624 4
exportfs 5472 2 nfsd,xfs
usbhid 43936 0

[Alberto Berti (azazell)]

root@baley:/home/azazel# uname -a
Linux baley 2.6.31-14-server #48-Ubuntu SMP Fri Oct 16 15:07:34 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Brice (brice-copy)]

I have the same wifi dongle, on Karmic, here's a quick workaround :

sudo iwconfig wlan0 rate 54M
sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

if this works out, you can force this settings in /etc/network/interfaces :

iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wireless-key (...)
wireless-essid (...)
wireless-rate 54M

[^_Pepe_^ (jose-angel-fernandez-freire)]

Can you please try installing the following package? It contains an updated compat wireless stack which may help.

linux-backports-modules-wireless-karmic-generic

If the issue still remains even after this, I'd encourage you to also try installing the latest compat-wireless stack from upstream -
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download . This will allow us to escalate this issue to the upstream developers. Please let us know your results.

Thanks.

[jhansonxi (jhansonxi)]

I tried linux-backports-modules-wireless-karmic-generic (currently version 2.6.32-19) on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) beta 1 with my CompUSA 802.11g USB device (0ace:1211) but it still defaulted to 1Mbps (zd1211rw driver, firmware 4605). I have all the current updates.

[jhansonxi (jhansonxi)]

I tried 10.04 beta 2 and saw a 100% improvement. It connected at 2Mbs. :D

[Robert (roband)]

I had the same problem (bit rate locked to 1 Mbps) and then installed linux-next compat-wireless release (from today, 2010-06-05) as suggested in comment 3. This seems to fix the problem for me.

linux-backports-modules-wireless-karmic-generic version 2.6.31.22.35 did not solve the problem though.

[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 release http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . 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.

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