Wireless drops connection

[Matthew Woerly]

Binary package hint: linux-source-2.6.17

I have two computers with BCM4306 chipsets. I used fwcutter to obtain the firmware, and they worked fine with Dapper. They are connected on startup, but every few hours, they still think they're connected, but are unable to access anything via the network (no Internet, no ping the router, etc.).

demsg says this:

[17268649.188000] bcm43xx: Controller RESET (TX timeout) ...
[17268650.220000] bcm43xx: Controller restarted

The rate reverts to 1 Mb/s as listed by iwconfig. Everything else looks fine. I've found that this command brings it back up:

sudo iwconfig eth0 rate 11M ap auto

Some more information that may be useful:
lspci -v

00:0e.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)
        Subsystem: Linksys Unknown device 0015
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 10
        Memory at febfe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]

[Dave Love (fx-gnu)]

Confirmed in edgy with

02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)
        Subsystem: Linksys WPC54G
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
        Memory at d2000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>

Syslog:

[18290083.940000] NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth1: transmit timed out
[18290083.940000] bcm43xx: Controller RESET (TX timeout) ...
[18290084.432000] bcm43xx: Controller restarted

I need ifdown/ifup to get the connexion back. This happens
at intervals of a few hours in use.

[Matthew Woerly (nattgew)]

It seems to have gotten worse. Before, the iwconfig command would always bring up the network again. Now, it does it for about the first time and then won't work. The ap claims "Invalid," and I have to ifdown/ifup. After that, I have to set the rate to 11M, the ap to auto, and then "iwlist scanning" to get the ap again.

[Andrew (keen101)]

I seem to be having a similar problem. Mine stays connected, but loses the Internet. I am now on using Edgy live CD because mine lost it and it seems ok right now from cd. For awile I thought it might be the network manager, but it does not appear to be installed.

should i downgrade my network-admin to the dapper version which works fine?

[Matthew Woerly (nattgew)]

I tried that on my computer a while ago, and you pretty much have to go back to Dapper for all of the dependency issues you'll get.

[Matthew Woerly (nattgew)]

Okay, I updated to Feisty and totally didn't notice until now that I replaced some config files in the upgrade, and I've been using the bcm43xx. The only difference is the rate.
2.6.20-15-generic
lsmod doesn't have ndiswrapper running, and it's working fine with the bcm43xx.

[Dave Love (fx-gnu)]

This appears to be fixed in Feisty, but that loses wireless
(and USB) through suspend/hibernate on my Thinkpad.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

The 18 month support period for Edgy Eft 6.10 has reached its end of life. As a result, we are closing the linux-source-2.6.17 Edgy Eft kernel task. 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!