Ralink wifi card works but must be reset each boot

[funkadelic]

I got this card working by toggling the checkbox in Admin> Network off and then on again. After reboot, my router is still detected in Network, but it no longer works and I no longer see ra1 in network monitor. If I toggle the checkbox again, it sometimes works.

 lspci -v output:

02:04.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2561/RT61 802.11g PCI
        Subsystem: Linksys WMP54G ver 4.1
        Flags: bus master, slow devsel, latency 32, IRQ 18
        Memory at fead0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>

This card was working flawlessly in Herd 4 if that helps.

It has never worked with network manager (roaming mode).

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat Mar 24 01:19:41 2007
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 7.04
Uname: Linux bozo-desktop 2.6.20-12-generic #2 SMP Wed Mar 21 20:55:46 UTC 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

[Tony Rick (tonyr-hevanet)]

I see this, too.

 System: Dell Inspiron 2650
 Wifi card: Zonet 1701 (Ralink 2560)
 DistroRelease: Ubuntu 7.04
 Uname: Linux playroom 2.6.20-13-generic #2 SMP Sun Mar 25 00:21:25 UTC 2007 i686 GNU/Linux
 Date: Sun 31 Mar 1007 17:50 (PDT)

I use a static IP address behind a Linksys WRT54G.

During boot the card's activation light comes on briefly, then goes out.

Toggling Admin->Network->Wireless does not ever restart it for me. The card's activation light comes on briefly in this case, also. The only things that work to restart it are commands "ifup" and "/etc/init.d/networking":

 : sudo ifup ra0

or

 : sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

The attached syslog file is the only one I could find that had any detailed trace of the failed network activation (actually, activation then de-activation)'. The last lines of that file, separated by a few minutes from the boot trace, are from my cli invocation of "/etc/init.d/networking restart".

"sudo lspci -v" shows, for the wifi card:
 02:04.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ601/6912/711E0 CardBus/SmartCardBus Controller
 Subsystem: Dell Unknown device 00f3
 Flags: bus master, stepping, slow devsel, latency 168, IRQ 10
 Memory at e8001000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
 Bus: primary=02, secondary=03, subordinate=06, sec-latency=176
 Memory window 0: 30000000-33fff000 (prefetchable)
 Memory window 1: 38000000-3bfff000
 I/O window 0: 00003400-000034ff
 I/O window 1: 00003800-000038ff
 16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001

 03:00.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2500 802.11g Cardbus/mini-PCI (rev 01)
 Subsystem: RaLink Unknown device 2560
 Flags: bus master, slow devsel, latency 64, IRQ 10
 Memory at 38000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
 Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

"/etc/network/interfaces" is
 # This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
 # and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

 # The loopback network interface
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback

 # The primary network interface
  iface ra0 inet static
 address 192.168.1.101
 netmask 255.255.255.0
 gateway 192.168.1.1
 wireless-essid <my-real-essid-instead-of-this-ersatz-essid>

[Tony Rick (tonyr-hevanet)]

Correction.

The command "sudo ifup ra0" produces a message that says
something like "device ra0 already configured", and the card
is remains off. I have to run "sudo ifdown ra0" first in order
for the card to be initialized successfully by ifup.

My current workaround is to put the line
    /etc/init.d/networking restart
in the file /etc/rc.local .

[KaT (kat-fiade)]

My Conceptronic PCI 54 MBPS (C54Ri) worked fine since dapper. I upgraded from edgy to feisty beta and since then, once the system is up, the wifi card is detected (as ra0) but it does not get an ip.

I used static ip configuration and then tried dhcp, the results are always the same; i must write:

me@ubuntu:~$ sudo ifdown ra0
SIOCDELRT: No such process
me@ubuntu:~$ sudo ifup ra0

and then it works, until next reboot, of course.

I am using WEP with 128 bit hexadecimal key.

My "/etc/network/interfaces" (key and essid modified!) is:

#START
iface ra0 inet static
address 192.168.2.102
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.2.1
wireless-essid myessid
wireless-key restricted MYHEXPASSWORD

auto ra0
#END

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Unfortunately we can't fix it, because your description doesn't yet have enough information.
Please include the following additional information, if you have not already done so (please pay attention to lspci's additional options), as required by the Ubuntu Kernel Team:
1. Please include the output of the command 'uname -a' in your next response. It should be one, long line of text which includes the exact kernel version you're running, as well as the CPU architecture.
2. Please run the command 'dmesg > dmesg.log' and attach the resulting file 'dmesg.log' to this bug report.
3. Please run the command 'sudo lspci -vvnn > lspci-vvnn.log' and attach the resulting file 'lspci-vvnn.log' to this bug report.
For your reference, the full description of procedures for kernel-related bug reports is available at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies . Thanks in advance!

[KaT (kat-fiade)]

1. Linux ubuntu 2.6.20-13-generic #2 SMP Sun Mar 25 00:21:25 UTC 2007 i686 GNU/Linux
2 dmesg.log

[KaT (kat-fiade)]

3. lspci-vvnn.log

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Kat and Tony - Feisty ships with network-manager a tool that was not included with Edgy. network-manager is designed to: "NetworkManager attempts to keep an active network connection available at all times. It is intended only for the desktop use-case, and is not intended for usage on servers. The point of NetworkManager is to make networking configuration and setup as painless and automatic as possible". By having your wireless networks configured in '/etc/network/interfaces' network-manager will not manage the devices and this can cause a conflict. I recommend removing the configuration lines from '/etc/network/interfaces' and allowing network-manager to configure the interface with the essid and wep key.

[KaT (kat-fiade)]

I uninstalled network-manager and network-manager-gnome without editing my /etc/network/interfaces and now it works fine. I think this must be considered as a bug (but i am not sure how to report it) because the upgrade breaks the network for people who uses manual configuration.

Thanks for your help

[Jeremiah McConnell (miah)]

I have this same problem with a Linksys WMP54G. I can confirm that removing network-manager and network-manager-gnome makes the problem go away. Also this issue doesn't exist in xubuntu.

[chris_van_ackeren (chris-van-ackeren)]

This looks like the same bug as https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/78037

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Beginning with the Hardy Heron 8.04 development cycle, all open Ubuntu kernel bugs need to be reported against the "linux" kernel package. We are automatically migrating this bug to the new "linux" package. However, development has already began for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. It would be helpful if you could test the upcoming release and verify if this is still an issue - http://www.ubuntu.com/testing . If the issue still exists, please update this report by changing the Status of the "linux" task from "Incomplete" to "New". We appreciate your patience and understanding as we make this transition. Thanks!