Centrino wireless networking does not connect (herd 5)

[Neil Curry]

I have just installed Ubuntu 7.04 (herd 5) for testing, first major issue I find is that wireless networking no longer works!

My router is set to no SSID broadcast, and WPA security.

I manually tried to join my network, both dots remain gray as if no attempt to join is being made and eventually they turn back to No Network Connection icon.

I allowed my network to broadcast the SSID and tried joining that way, same result as above.

I remove security from my network and tried to join that way, still the same as the first attempt.

I am using a Acer Laptop with Centrino chipset, this works fine under Edgy Eft 6.10.

[Neil Curry (neilmsn)]

Could this be the new networking manager introduced in herd 3?

Herd 5 is the first test I have done with Fiesty.

I will try and check out how to manually set a network connection in the next couple of days and see if I can connect that way.

[Neil Curry (neilmsn)]

All looks to be going well in this log, all the wpa_supplicant parts seem OK, but this last part is where it fails:

ubuntu NetworkManager: <information>^IActivation (eth0/wireless): association took too long
ubuntu NetworkManager: <information>^IActivation (eth0):(>60s), failing activation
ubuntu NetworkManager: <information>^IActivation (eth0):failure scheduled
ubuntu NetworkManager: <information>^IActivation (eth0):failed for access point (Zippy)
ubuntu NetworkManager: <information>^IActivation (eth0):failed
ubuntu NetworkManager: <information>^IActivation (eth0):Deactivating device eth0

[Neil Curry (neilmsn)]

Done some more testing, think this issue is with wpa_supplicant

I can connect to non secure and WEP networks, as long as they are not the same SSID as a failed WPA connection.

Sometimes a WPA connection will work if you change the security of a WEP to WPA and re-connect.

Will never connect on WPA to my actual network name and password, although has connected on Zippy and testest, as soon as I change the password it fails.

This is very odd!

[tvrg (tom-vergote)]

I'm running in to problems with my acer centrino also.
My access point is not broadcasting SSID and is using wep open.

I can't get it to connect, but i see a similarity, the first time I entered the wrong authentication details, and now i can't completely delete the connection.

[Neil Curry (neilmsn)]

Just tried using Wicd instead of Network Manager, and I connected first time.

Odd, will do some more investigating.

[Ben Collins (ben-collins)]

Please attach (do not paste into comments) the output of "lspci -vv". I'm guessing this is a ipw3945 wireless. If so, make sure you have the restricted-modules package installed. Most likely you want to run this command and reboot:

sudo apt-get install linux-generic

[Neil Curry (neilmsn)]

Just checked it's the ipw220bg, does that make a difference?

I assume the command above is what installs the resticted packages? Just about to try.

[Neil Curry (neilmsn)]

Sorry for the typo, it should be ipw2200bg as I am sure you saw in the lspci output.

Anyway I have installed the restricted packages and I still cannot connect, as before the two gray connecting dots do not even turn green at all when I try and connect.

[Neil Curry (neilmsn)]

Someone in the feisty forum said their issue was fixed by enabling SSID broadcast on their router.

I just tried this and I connected first time, maybe this narrows the problem down?

I am certainly not leaving the SSID broadcast enabled on my router.

My router is Netgear DG834GT for reference.

On first connection my WPA key was stored in a keyring, if I disconnect and try and re-connected with SSID hidden it still fails, enable the SSID broadcast and it works. This is repeatable.

[notoriousdbp (david-baird-parker)]

I've had the same problem with my Acer Aspire since the introduction of the .10 kernel. I have to stick with the .9 kernel to get online. Yesterday I did manage to get online using the .12 kernel but today I tried and Network Manager made no attempt to connect even though it could clearly see my wireless network.

[afonic (afonic)]

Hi,

I was the one who originally reported about enabling SSID fixing it, although I don't know if it can be reproduced in every case.

I can reproduce this problem with two routers, both a Thomson Speedtouch 585 modem/router and a Netgear WGT624 router.

My wireless card is a Netgear WG511T PCMCIA card. (Atheros chip - Mad wifi driver). OS is Feisty with all updates installed. (the problem is happening for more than 20 days I am using Feisty in my laptop now - none of the kernel or nm-applet updates seems to have fixed it)

- if I have SSID broadcast off, the network manager applet will not connect. I enter all the info it tries to connect ~30 secs and then gives up. Changing the security from None to WEP and WPA does not work. If I disable network manager and manually configure wpa-suppliant.conf and /etc/network/interfaces I can connect fine.

- if I enable SSID broadcast in the settings of my router, nm-applet works just fine just as it was working in Edgy. It asks for a WPA password and connects.

Please feel free to contact me for any more info.

[Ben Collins (ben-collins)]

No SSID broadcast would not affect the driver. The broadcast only affects scanning, which is not needed to associate.

This may be a problem network-manager.

[Neil Curry (neilmsn)]

I agree, that was my first thought.

Can we pass it to the relevant person.

Thanks.

[afonic (afonic)]

Indeed, this should be a network-manager problem, as I already said I *can* connect by manually configuring my connect but not through network manager.

Thanks.

[afonic (afonic)]

I can confirm this bug still exists in Network-Manager in Ubuntu 7.04 final. I would note that I think it is pretty critical as an it can prevent a user from connecting to internet at all if he hides SSID broadcast in his router.