Wi-fi with WPA an ipw2200 disconnects

[Alberto Fornasier]

Binary package hint: linux-image-2.6.24-17-generic

I've installed Ubuntu 8.04 on an IBM Thinkpad R50e: everything works straight out of the box, including wireless LAN. Only issue: if i try to start a file transfer (e.g. using scp) inside my LAN, the connection is lost after minimal file transfer (aroud 600KBs).
I found an old bug wich seems to be related, see https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.17/+bug/56894. It should be solved in this release, so maybe it's something different.
When the connection is lost I see this in syslog:
May 4 01:51:50 palbfor1 kernel: [ 348.527468] N/A: Michael MIC verification failed for MSDU from 00:17:c2:2c:46:fb keyidx=0
May 4 01:51:50 palbfor1 kernel: [ 348.527477] eth1: MSDU decryption/MIC verification failed (SA=00:17:c2:2c:46:fb keyidx=0)
May 4 01:51:50 palbfor1 kernel: [ 348.536287] N/A: Michael MIC verification failed for MSDU from 00:17:c2:2c:46:fb keyidx=0
May 4 01:51:50 palbfor1 kernel: [ 348.536293] eth1: MSDU decryption/MIC verification failed (SA=00:17:c2:2c:46:fb keyidx=0)
May 4 01:51:50 palbfor1 NetworkManager: <info> Supplicant state changed: 0
May 4 01:52:09 palbfor1 last message repeated 6 times
May 4 01:52:10 palbfor1 NetworkManager: <info> eth1: link timed out.
After the disconnect Network Manager connects again to the wireless network, but asks me for the passphrase, which he should find in the keyring.
Less network-intensive tasks (web browsing and downloading up to 200 KB/sec, VPN, ODBC connections...) work fine, only file transfers between pcs in the local network cause the issue.
This issue does not show up on my other wireless machine, using b43 driver, BCM4318 chipset, same version of Ubuntu, same kernel.
I've tried booting with maxcpus=1 (generic kernel tells me to be SMP in Hardy...), since i have only one CPU, but the issue is still here.
Relevant files are attached, full syslog.0 instead of dmesg output.

[Christiansen (happylinux)]

Hi Alberto,

The connection issue looks a little the same as I experience on a Thinkpad with the ipw2200 chipset too. You could try to have a look at the binary files I've attached in the "Network-Manager-0.6.6-0ubuntu6~test1.tar.gz" archive in bug #217006, which solve the connection/passphrase issue in 8.04 for me.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

There hasn't been any recent activity in this bug report and we were wondering if this is still an issue? The Ubuntu kernel team is actively working on the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. If you could please test the latest Alpha release for Intrepid it would be much appreciated - http://www.ubuntu.com/testing . Please let us know your results. If the issue still exists, please also provide the appropriate debugging information as outlined at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies . Thanks in advance.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

The Ubuntu Kernel Team is planning to move to the 2.6.27 kernel for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. As a result, the kernel team would appreciate it if you could please test this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. There are one of two ways you should be able to test:

1) If you are comfortable installing packages on your own, the linux-image-2.6.27-* package is currently available for you to install and test.

--or--

2) The upcoming Alpha5 for Intrepid Ibex 8.10 will contain this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. Alpha5 is set to be released Thursday Sept 4. Please watch http://www.ubuntu.com/testing for Alpha5 to be announced. You should then be able to test via a LiveCD.

Please let us know immediately if this newer 2.6.27 kernel resolves the bug reported here or if the issue remains. More importantly, please open a new bug report for each new bug/regression introduced by the 2.6.27 kernel and tag the bug report with 'linux-2.6.27'. Also, please specifically note if the issue does or does not appear in the 2.6.26 kernel. Thanks again, we really appreicate your help and feedback.

[whiteguysamurai (whiteguysamurai)]

This is still a problem, and has to do with the "open source" intel wireless driver.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

When running Intrepid, can you attach your dmesg output after triggering this bug? Thanks.

[Valentin Neacsu (valentin.neacsu)]

I've been having random problems with my ipw2200 card on a HP nc6220 running a fresh Intrepid x86. For starters, I've enabled the LED following the instructions here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/21367

On random occasions I've seen the LED blink while connected, sound/music sometimes stutters when that happens, then everything goes back to normal until it blinks again at a radon time. I haven't given it much attention until now.

Lately I've been having this problem where the wireless just disconnects (while other wireless clients remain attached and working). So far the work-around has been to disable and re-enable the wireless card using the wireless button on my laptop. That has worked until now, when this happened again. I tried disabling networking by right clicking on the nm-applet icon, and re-enabling it again to see if that makes it work without having to resort to the on/off wireless button. That didn't work so I tried the old method of disabling the wireless and re-enabling it from the button. Weirdly enough that didn't work either. The only way I could make it work again was to reboot.

What I'm speculating right now is that when the LED blinks, the wireless disconnects and reconnects again for some weird reason. But sometimes it just can't re-connect and goes dead. Why it stopped working at all today I have no clue.

Please see the attached (edited) daemon.log. If there are any other files needed, please let me know.

[Valentin Neacsu (valentin.neacsu)]

It just happened again. I was having Pidgin connected to MSN and Y!M, Banshee streaming from Last.fm, an OpenVPN session active and Deluge downloading a torrent at about 50 KB/s.

Just as before, I couldn't revive it with the on/off wireless button and I had to reboot. Just before rebooting I did a dmesg, the output of which is attached.

[Valentin Neacsu (valentin.neacsu)]

Please take a look at this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.15/+bug/40763

They seem to be related/duplicates.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi Valentin,

Can you test the latest pre-release of Jaunty, Alpha 3 - http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/jaunty/ . You should be able to test via a LiveCD. Please let us know your results. Thanks.

[Javier Jardón (jjardon)]

We'd like to figure out what's causing this bug for you, but we haven't heard back from you in a while. Could you please provide the requested information? Thanks!

[Valentin Neacsu (valentin.neacsu)]

I haven't been able to test this any sooner as the laptop that has the problem is my main work laptop, and I need it working. I had some spare time this evening so I've tested the Beta CD, and the problem hasn't manifested itself while doing some browsing, torrent download and upload and some continuous pinging. I'll further test Jaunty once it hits final.

It would help me a lot if you could provide me with some steps that you believe could trigger this bug.

Thanks.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

I'm closing this bug as the most recent comment indicated this appeared to be resolved with Jaunty Beta. If you are able to reproduce the issue with Jaunty's final release as well as the lastest Karmic Alpha release please feel free to reopen by setting the status back to New. Thanks.

[Kirk Wolff (kirk-stpaulinternet)]

I am seeing this also. I've been using ubuntu testing for greater than a year and the problem persists. I am have a Dell D830 were lspci shows "Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN". The laptop is interacting with an Asus router running DD-WRT and am using WPA encryption. The error I see in syslog when my connection drops is (xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx is my router's ethernet mac):

Aug 24 10:51:08 laptop kernel: [111559.898893] eth1: Michael MIC verification failed for MSDU from xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx keyidx=0
Aug 24 10:51:08 laptop kernel: [111559.898913] key[0] alg=TKIP key_set=1 tx_pn=000000026c26 rx_pn=00000004c311 replays=80 icv_errors=0 local_mic_failures=2
Aug 24 10:51:08 laptop kernel: [111559.898916] : TKIP stats from module: Ucast
Aug 24 10:51:08 laptop NetworkManager: <info> (eth1): supplicant connection state: completed -> disconnected

It seems to happen when a there is a demand for a burst of data. It most often is noticeable when watching an HD video with mythtv over the wireless link as the interruption immediately stops the video. There are points in some videos when the datastream bandwidth varies and at that point the connection will drop 4 out of 5 times.