wifi connection drop (b43 eapol timeout)

[monochromec]

Experiencing problems with a BMC4331 wlan chip controlled by the b43 kernel driver with the following environment:

- Stock raring with b43 wifi driver on a 3.0.8-31 generic kernel on a Macbook Pro 8,1 (although this problem has been around since kernel version 3.2),
- Router is a D-Link 625 with Openwrt Attitude Adjustment (12.09, r36008),
- Wireless cell is 2.4 GHz with WPA2 PSK authentication.

The symptoms:

- Openwrt hostapd issues a WPA rekeying request for the group temporal key (GTK),
- B43 / wpa_supplicant times out (the router log showing a "EAPOL-Key timeout" error message),
- Openwrt issues another GTK handshake message,
- The sequence repeats four times after which the router unauthorises the Mac,
- Ubuntu drops the connection and wpa_supplicant initiates a re-authentication sequence after a while.

I have a pretty good idea of what's happening on the router side, but fail to increase the logging level of wpa_supplicant on the Mac. "wpa_cli level" rejects any attempts to increase the level from "msgdump" to "excessive" so I am at a loss why wpa_supplicant / b43 fails to acknowledge the GTK re-keying request (the b43 module debugging is already turned on).

First step would be to convince the running wpa_supplicant instance to generate more debugging information to see why the request is not answered. Happy to provide more information once this is achieved.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: linux-image-3.8.0-31-generic 3.8.0-31.46
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-31.46-generic 3.8.13.8
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-31-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8.3
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: root 2314 F.... pommed
                      christoph 3394 F.... enlightenment
                      christoph 3662 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA:
 country DE:
  (2400 - 2483 @ 40), (N/A, 20)
  (5150 - 5250 @ 40), (N/A, 20), NO-OUTDOOR
  (5250 - 5350 @ 40), (N/A, 20), NO-OUTDOOR, DFS
  (5470 - 5725 @ 40), (N/A, 26), DFS
Date: Tue Oct 8 17:43:10 2013
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=b3b2afbf-edea-40c5-9506-44b7f0cbf4d2
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-05-16 (509 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425)
MachineType: Apple Inc. MacBookPro8,1
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-31-generic root=UUID=8f6ad9f9-1f9b-42b8-8da4-664a38a3422c ro resume=/dev/sda4
PulseList: Error: command ['pacmd', 'list'] failed with exit code 1: No PulseAudio daemon running, or not running as session daemon.
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.8.0-31-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.8.0-31-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.106
SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to raring on 2013-04-27 (164 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 01/24/12
dmi.bios.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.bios.version: MBP81.88Z.0047.B27.1201241646
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag#
dmi.board.name: Mac-94245B3640C91C81
dmi.board.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.board.version: MacBookPro8,1
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: Mac-94245B3640C91C81
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAppleInc.:bvrMBP81.88Z.0047.B27.1201241646:bd01/24/12:svnAppleInc.:pnMacBookPro8,1:pvr1.0:rvnAppleInc.:rnMac-94245B3640C91C81:rvrMacBookPro8,1:cvnAppleInc.:ct10:cvrMac-94245B3640C91C81:
dmi.product.name: MacBookPro8,1
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: Apple Inc.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the latest v3.12 kernel[0].

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, for example it will not boot, please add the tag: 'kernel-unable-to-test-upstream'.
Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug as "Confirmed".

Thanks in advance.

[0] http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12-rc4-saucy/

[monochromec (monochromec)]

Hi Joseph,

Thanks for the quick reply!

Strange error: Just tried to install a nightly DRM build (image + headers) and encountered an odd dependency when I tried to install the header:

dpkg -I linux-headers-3.12.0-994-generic_3.12.0-994.201310080405_amd64.deb

produces the following output:

 new debian package, version 2.0.
 size 1050954 bytes: control archive=37520 bytes.
     617 bytes, 16 lines control
  603391 bytes, 5669 lines md5sums
    3531 bytes, 126 lines * postinst #!/usr/bin/perl
 Package: linux-headers-3.12.0-994-generic
 Source: linux
 Version: 3.12.0-994.201310080405
 Architecture: amd64
 Maintainer: Ubuntu Kernel Team <email address hidden>
 Installed-Size: 12403
 Depends: linux-headers-3.12.0-994, libc6 (>= 2.14)
 Provides: linux-headers, linux-headers-3.0
 Section: devel
 Priority: optional
 Description: Linux kernel headers for version 3.12.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
  This package provides kernel header files for version 3.12.0 on
  64 bit x86 SMP.
  .
  This is for sites that want the latest kernel headers. Please read
  /usr/share/doc/linux-headers-3.12.0-994/debian.README.gz for details.

The package depends on itself?!?!?

Needless to say, installing this will be tricky... :-)

What's the problem? An issue when packaging the deb? BTW: Can I boot the kernel without the headers installed? I suppose I only need the headers when going to compile modules from source code or is there any other reason to install them?

BTW: I encountered the original wifi problem with kernel version 3.9.-030900 back in April already when I gave the the then current mainline kernel a spin. So not sure if this has been fixed in 3.12...

[monochromec (monochromec)]

PS: same dependency issue surfaced with the Saucy RC4 kernel you mentioned in your post.

[monochromec (monochromec)]

Took Saucy 3.12 RC4 for a spin. Unfortunately, the symptoms remain the same. Seems to be a B43 issue as all devices (a few Droids (Gingerbread + ICS), Window machines and even the OSX driver on the same machine) handled a second re-keying request the way it is supposed to be: when getting a second request they simply send the correct answer instead of running into another time-out according to the OpenWRT logs.

Any thoughts? Now if I only could increase the debugging level of wpa_supplicant on the Mac to see if where exactly it's all going south...

[monochromec (monochromec)]

PS: Tagging this as requested.

[monochromec (monochromec)]

Problem is gone after a complete fresh install of Saucy Salamander on the same machine.

I suspect a problem between the b43 kernel driver and the proprietary firmware as I noticed a different URL when running firmware-b43-installer as part of the wireless installation. The previous installation of the machine dates back to Precise so quite a few update cycles were done.

If somebody upstream wants to have more details, please update this bug so that I can get in touch.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]