Network Manager connection to "(none)" (Broadcom STA Driver)

[Craig Setera]

I'm not entirely sure where to report this bug. I wrote a request for forum help a few days back (see http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6494394#post6494394) but it definitely appears to be some kind of bug in either the Broadcom STA wl driver or Network Manager's dealing with the driver.

I'm testing out a new Netgear WNDR3300 Dual Band router (firmware V1.0.29_1.0.29NA) with my Dell Inspiron E1505. My laptop has Broadcom Draft N wireless card:

*-network
       description: Wireless interface
       product: BCM4328 802.11a/b/g/n
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:0b:00.0
       logical name: eth1
       version: 01
       serial: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=wl ip=192.168.0.2 latency=0 module=wl multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abgn

I'm using the Broadcom STA wl driver and things are working ok when connected to the G network SSID (using wpa/tkip). When I switch over to the N network, I get a message that "You are now connected... " showing the correct SSID. Once connected, Network Manager shows no connection in the icon (all grey signal bars) and the hover text says: "Wireless network connection to '(none)'". The network is still alive (I'm posting this via the N network) and yet it doesn't appear to be quite right. The speed is double that of the G network, so it seems to be working at least to some extent. The driver doesn't seem to be reporting valid information when connected to the N network:

> iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth1 IEEE 802.11 Nickname:""
          Access Point: Not-Associated

eth0 no wireless extensions.

pan0 no wireless extensions.

> iwlist eth1 rate
eth1 no bit-rate information.

I've just installed the latest restricted drivers for Intrepid. While they didn't seem to break anything, they also don't seem to have solved this problem. I will go ahead and attach the rest of the requested information.

[Craig Setera (craigjunk)]

Looking at the Network Manager code (version 0.7), it appears that the "(none)" string originates in the file nm-device-wifi.c . Digging around, it *seems* like this may be an issue with a failure of some of the expected IOCTL's in "n" mode.

In the function "nm_device_wifi_get_ssid" there is an IOCTL call to retrieve the SSID. I wonder if that is somehow failing? While I'm a programmer, this is getting beyond my skills with Linux development.

 memset (ssid, 0, sizeof (ssid));
 wrq.u.essid.pointer = (caddr_t) &ssid;
 wrq.u.essid.length = sizeof (ssid);
 wrq.u.essid.flags = 0;
 strncpy (wrq.ifr_name, nm_device_get_iface (NM_DEVICE (self)), IFNAMSIZ);

 if (ioctl (sk, SIOCGIWESSID, &wrq) < 0) {
  nm_warning ("Couldn't get SSID: %d", errno);
  goto out;
    }

It appears that at some point the SSID was correct, but then switches according to daemon.log:

Jan 6 18:46:34 ubuntu-laptop avahi-daemon[4877]: Registering new address record for 192.168.0.2 on eth1.IPv4.
Jan 6 18:46:34 ubuntu-laptop dhclient: bound to 192.168.0.2 -- renewal in 60998 seconds.
Jan 6 18:46:35 ubuntu-laptop NetworkManager: <info> (eth1): device state change: 7 -> 8
Jan 6 18:46:35 ubuntu-laptop NetworkManager: <debug> [1231289195.494675] periodic_update(): Roamed from BSSID 00:22:3F:36:6A:C8 (seteran) to (none) ((none))
Jan 6 18:46:35 ubuntu-laptop NetworkManager: <info> Policy set 'Auto seteran' (eth1) as default for routing and DNS.
Jan 6 18:46:35 ubuntu-laptop NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth1) successful, device activated.
Jan 6 18:46:35 ubuntu-laptop NetworkManager: <info> Activation (eth1) Stage 5 of 5 (IP Configure Commit) complete.

[David Ring (n1ea)]

Hello, I might have a similar problem. Up until two days ago, I was able to access my hidden wifi network protected by WEP. Now I cannot connect, even though the nm applet reports other networks (none open so cannot try).

My network appears in the list but when I try to connect, I cannot.

I do not know if this problem is due to a new kernel, a problem with the broadcom source code, the nm-applet, or a problem with blacklisting of the module, but I am willing to help.

Knoppix Adrienne also has this problem with Broadcom-Sta and I've notified Klaus Knopper about this.

# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

eth2 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:""
          Mode:Managed Frequency:2.447 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
          Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:24 dBm
          Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Managementmode:All packets received
          Link Quality=5/5 Signal level=0 dBm Noise level=-89 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

vboxnet0 no wireless extensions.

# lshw -C network
  *-network
       description: Wireless interface
       product: BCM4312 802.11b/g
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:04:00.0
       logical name: eth2
       version: 01
       serial: 00:23:4e:c0:3b:f8
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=wl0 driverversion=5.60.48.36 latency=0 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg
       resources: irq:18 memory:f4700000-f4703fff
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: NetLink BCM5906M Fast Ethernet PCI Express
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:07:00.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 02
       serial: 00:23:5a:17:01:6e
       size: 100MB/s
       capacity: 100MB/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm vpd msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=tg3 driverversion=3.102 duplex=full firmware=sb v3.04 ip=192.168.100.150 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100MB/s
       resources: irq:31 memory:f4600000-f460ffff
  *-network DISABLED
       description: Ethernet interface
       physical id: 1
       logical name: vboxnet0
       serial: 0a:00:27:00:00:00
       capabilities: ethernet physical
       configuration: broadcast=yes multicast=yes

Thanks!

DR

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.