[regression] [intrepid] intel 3945ABG with driver iwl3945 doesn't connect

[metronomo]

Hi!

I've a intel 3945 ABG wireless card, and I use a fresh installation of Ubuntu 8.10 . Network Manager can see wireless network, but when it try to connect, after a few second it says "Disconnect" and if there is an ethernet connection it uses it, so I can't use wireless connection. I've kernel 2.6.27-7 generic (X86_64).

The only "strange" thing about the problem is this, that came from command "iwlist wlan0 scanning"

          Cell 01 - Address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
                    ESSID:"metronomoNET"
                    Mode:Master
                    Channel:1
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                    Quality=97/100 Signal level:-29 dBm Noise level=-127 dBm
                    Encryption key:off
                    IE: Unknown: 000C6D6574726F6E6F6D6F4E4554
                    IE: Unknown: 010882848B962430486C
                    IE: Unknown: 030101
                    IE: Unknown: 050400010000
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0100
                    IE: Unknown: 2F0100
                    IE: Unknown: 32040C121860
                    IE: Unknown: DD060010180200F4
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Extra:tsf=00000000875a018a
                    Extra: Last beacon: 4ms ago

I don't know what "IE: Unknown" means.
How can I solve it?

[Magnus S (magnuss)]

I might be affected by this bug, but i am not sure yet since i don't have the "IE: Unknown: numbersandletters" message in my output from iwlist scanning. My problem more precisely is that i am unable to connect to my WPA-encrypted network. However i can connect to my unencrypted network without problems.

@metronomo:

I guess the developers wants more information to be able to understand what the problem is.
So run the following in a terminal:
* lshw -C network >> lshw_network
* iwconfig >> iwconfig

Then run the following:
* tail -f /var/log/kern.log >> tail-of-kern.log
* tail -f /var/log/messages >> tail-of-messages (in a second terminal)
* tail -f /var/log/debug >> tail-of-debug (in a third terminal)

Now: try to connect and reproduce the bug. In your home directory you'll hopefully find 5 files with the output from the commands above. Attach them to your next comment!

//magnus

[metronomo (metronomo90)]

Today I am very busy... tomorrow I'll do what you say (maybe this evening...), I think however that the problem is different, since I can't connect to my net, that is unencrypted. (Things however are a little bit changed, I have done a re-installation of ubuntu and the "IE: Unknown ......" disappeared, but the problem of connection hasn't change...)
Thanks for the answers!

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Can you try installing the linux-backports-modules-intrepid package and see if that helps. It has an updated version of the compat-wireless stack. Please let us know your results. Thanks.

[metronomo (metronomo90)]

I installed linux-backports-modules-intrepid package, but nothings changed...

[metronomo (metronomo90)]

Here are all the results of the commands suggested me by Magnus... I hope they will help in the solution of the problem... Thanks!

[Magnus S (magnuss)]

Hi metronomo,

unfortunately those logs aren't making me any wiser. But now i know 3 things that i didn't know before:

1. cupsd likes to put text in the logs - not related to our issue of course.
2. Your computer seems to try to contact the access point, but not getting an answer. So it times out.
3. I am not affected by this issue. Good for me - bad for you.

I hoped to see lines looking like this in your logs: "NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 3 -> 4" so we could see what is going on. I am sure there are ways to get backtraces and more informative words from network-manager, but i'am gonna leave that to the people ho actually knows what they are doing.

You can always try to reset your router, but i bet you already tried that a few times, right?

[metronomo (metronomo90)]

Yes, I've already tried the solution of reset my router, but no changes... What a strange problem... I'm quite sure is a problem of kernel or of new module iwl3945, since in ubuntu 7.10 my wireless is perfect, but in new 8.04 and 8.10 no. I don't want come back to 7.10... there are a lot of good function in the last release... Install all this function manually, it's a hard work...

[Magnus S (magnuss)]

Hi,

Nobody seems to have a problem similar to yours. You are having problems with 8.04 too? That's weird, hardy worked fine for me and many others.

Try follow the instructions at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingNetworkManager and post any output/logs it generates. I *guess* you could use a live-cd/live-usb-stick for this, if you are afraid of killing your system.

//magnus

[Geek87 (geek87)]

Hi,

I didn't write any comment on this bug but I'm also affected by this. If I have the time I'll try to follow the instructions you linked.

[metronomo (metronomo90)]

I've done what there is in the wiki about Network manager; if I have to do something different tell me... no problem! thanks!
PS: Yes I had similar problems on 8.04

[MadMage (daniele-calisi)]

I have exactly the same problem with exactly the same wireless card / driver and exactly the same outputs.

What happened is that until 8.04 I upgraded and I had a eth1 in my ifconfig, now that I reinstalled from scratch, I have a wlan0, so I supposed to have upgraded from ipw3945 to the new iwl3945 drivers

Until then (i.e., when I was using eth1, i.e. ipw3945) everything was fine; I even do not use NetworkManager, but I configure from command line using ifconfig / iwconfig (and killing NetworkManager if it's active)

I think that the most important thing is the dmesg log that says:

[ 49.256926] wlan0: associate with AP 00:0f:b5:cd:08:84
[ 49.259121] wlan0: RX ReassocResp from 00:0f:b5:cd:08:84 (capab=0x461 status=0 aid=1)
[ 49.259136] wlan0: associated
[ 49.262119] wlan0: disassociating by local choice (reason=3)

let me know if you need more from me; I also tried the backports

[Geek87 (geek87)]

Does someone have the meaning of the lines "device state change" and the lines "supplicant interface state change" ? I already found the meaning of the line "supplicant connection state change" on that page but didn't find more : http://hostap.epitest.fi/wpa_supplicant/devel-0.4/defs_8h.html#a28.

[MadMage (daniele-calisi)]

One thing that I noticed is that it seems that we are all using NETGEAR access points.
Moreover, I have a 64bit Linux

[Geek87 (geek87)]

No I'm using a Fonera + access point.

Le samedi 08 novembre 2008 à 10:19 +0000, MadMage a écrit :
> One thing that I noticed is that it seems that we are all using NETGEAR access points.
> Moreover, I have a 64bit Linux
>

[Magnus S (magnuss)]

Changing status to confirmed.

(this could still be a duplicate of another known bug, though. Keep an eye open for updates in update-manager and let us know if something has changed.)

[MadMage (daniele-calisi)]

Thanks Magnus. We are waiting for helping developers in giving all the information they need.

[metronomo (metronomo90)]

I agree with MadMage, if developers need some extra information I'll do all I can... thanks!

[MadMage (daniele-calisi)]

After some updates, there are still some IE: Unknown: line in iwlist scan output, but they are only one or two for each network.

Also, more important, it seems that the wireless card is able at least to associate (as seen in iwconfig), although the "disassociating by local choice (reason=3)" message still appears in the dmesg log.

I cannot try any other thing (like to see if it really works or not), but it seems that something more is working.

[Jakob Rohrhirsch (jakob-rohrhirsch)]

I'm affected as well. It only happens with the "la fonera" router. I can connect to the unencrypted network and if I try a couple of times I sometimes can connect to the encrypted as well. I haven't had any problems with any other router. I'm pretty sure it's a kernel bug since this happens with the gnome and kde network manager. It worked in 8.04 but back then i was using a proprietary driver. Tell me if I can help with any debug information.

[Geek87 (geek87)]

As MeisterLampe, I only had this bug with my Fonera + router. And if I keep tying to connect until it connects succefully it will work.

[Luca Casagrande (luca-casagrande)]

Same here..using Fonera.
If I keep trying it works..

[otrojake (otrojake)]

I've also been running into this issue. More specifically, I'm running into the dmesg error "disassociating by local choice (reason=3)." Encryption doesn't seem to be the issue as I'm having problems connecting to open networks as well. I used a dirty workaround to get "connected."

My wireless is having very little problem authenticating and associating to APs, but it's not doing so well on receiving (or accepting) DHCP offers. So I set up a manual connection (static IP/subnet mask/default gateway/DNS servers) through network manager and lo and behold I connected and am now able to access the internet.

I really have no idea what's causing the issue, whether it's network manager, the IWL3945 driver or what, but I am experiencing the same problems as described in this bug. I'd be happy to post any command outputs if needed.

[openmoho (openmoho)]

I can confirm the workaround using static ip addresses. i'm using ubuntu 8.10 on a thinkpad x61 with intelABG and iwl3945. my router is a fonera using the freewlan-addons.
any updates on this bug?

[Eetu Huisman (eh)]

I was able to connect my La Fonera's private network after I configured it to use WPA2 and AES. I'm still having problems connecting my other wireless access point, a D-Link DWL-2000AP+ though. According to "wlink wlan0 scanning" it's using WPA1 and TKIP. Maybe the authentication/encryption method has something to do with this problem...

[Eetu Huisman (eh)]

Oops, I just found out I had set up MAC address based filtering on the DWL-2000AP+...

Other La Fonera owners, if you're able to access the configuration interface of your router, you could try if changing the authentication/encryption protocol helps you the way it helped me.

[Geek87 (geek87)]

Le samedi 07 février 2009 à 09:25 +0000, Eetu Huisman a écrit :
> I was able to connect my La Fonera's private network after I configured
> it to use WPA2 and AES. I'm still having problems connecting my other
> wireless access point, a D-Link DWL-2000AP+ though. According to "wlink
> wlan0 scanning" it's using WPA1 and TKIP. Maybe the
> authentication/encryption method has something to do with this
> problem...
>
I don't think so because I have problems with a WP2/AES encryption.

[Eetu Huisman (eh)]

On Sat, Feb 7, 2009 at 11:53, Geek87 <email address hidden> wrote:
> Le samedi 07 février 2009 à 09:25 +0000, Eetu Huisman a écrit :
>> Maybe the authentication/encryption method has something to do with this
>> problem...
>>
> I don't think so because I have problems with a WP2/AES encryption.

I suppose you're right. Now I'm no longer able to connect to the
Fonera either. I'll see whether debugging NetworkManager gives any
useful information.

[benben456 (xnedb456)]

i have the same problem with you, but when i see dmesg, it showed authentication timed out error.
lspci output:
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub [8086:2a00] (rev 0c)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a02] (rev 0c)
00:02.1 Display controller [0380]: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a03] (rev 0c)
00:1a.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 [8086:2834] (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 [8086:2835] (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 [8086:283a] (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller [8086:284b] (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 [8086:283f] (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 [8086:2841] (rev 03)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3 [8086:2843] (rev 03)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4 [8086:2845] (rev 03)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 5 [8086:2847] (rev 03)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 6 [8086:2849] (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:2830] (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:2831] (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:2832] (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 [8086:2836] (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [8086:2448] (rev f3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801HEM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller [8086:2815] (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller [8086:2850] (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller [8086:2829] (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller [8086:283e] (rev 03)
04:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5906M Fast Ethernet PCI Express [14e4:1713] (rev 02)
0c:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection [8086:4222] (rev 02)
0e:06.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller [1180:0832] (rev 05)
0e:06.1 SD Host controller [0805]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter [1180:0822] (rev 22)
0e:06.2 System peripheral [0880]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter [1180:0592] (rev 12)

lshw -C network output
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       pro...

[metronomo (metronomo90)]

Now I returned to 7.10 but I don't surrender...
I am not very "expert" but I am thinking that maybe the problem might be in the couple wireless card - router... I can't try my wireless card on another router (NETGEAR DG834G), but since it seems that this card work for the most people, know that the problem is with the router could help for the solving... What model is your router?

[hebeallrusty (hebeallrusty)]

I had a similar issue when I first started using Intrepid. The way which worked for me was to add

options iwl3945 qos_enable=0

to the end of the /etc/modprobe.d/options file
You either restart the computer or restart the wireless driver afterwards.

[Eetu Huisman (eh)]

Thanks hebeallrusty, that worked for me too (on Jaunty beta).

[Geek87 (geek87)]

That doesn't work for me because the option qos_enable isn't recognized by my driver. Using iwl3945 from the backports modules on Jaunty RC.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi @Geek87,

Could you attach your dmesg output when running the latest Jaunty kernel (currently 2.6.28-11) with linux-backports-modules-jaunty installed. Just curious what sort of error messages (if any) are getting logged. Thanks.

[Geek87 (geek87)]

Hi,

Sorry to be late… Here is the dmesg output after starting my laptop and waiting it to connect to my home wifi. It never connected and it gave up after a long trial.

[Geek87 (geek87)]

I'm not sure I gave you the output you asked me, if you wanted the output when trying to load the iwl3945 driver with the qos_enable=0 option here is what dmesg gives me :
[247239.086344] cfg80211: Regulatory domain changed to country: US
[247239.086350] (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
[247239.086355] (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2700 mBm)
[247239.086360] (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 1700 mBm)
[247239.086364] (5250000 KHz - 5330000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[247239.086369] (5490000 KHz - 5710000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[247239.086374] (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 3000 mBm)
[247280.432107] cfg80211: Using static regulatory domain info
[247280.432112] cfg80211: Regulatory domain: US
[247280.432116] (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
[247280.432121] (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (600 mBi, 2700 mBm)
[247280.432126] (5170000 KHz - 5190000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (600 mBi, 2300 mBm)
[247280.432130] (5190000 KHz - 5210000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (600 mBi, 2300 mBm)
[247280.432135] (5210000 KHz - 5230000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (600 mBi, 2300 mBm)
[247280.432139] (5230000 KHz - 5330000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (600 mBi, 2300 mBm)
[247280.432144] (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (600 mBi, 3000 mBm)
[247280.451562] cfg80211: Calling CRDA for country: US
[247280.486106] cfg80211: Regulatory domain changed to country: US
[247280.486112] (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
[247280.486117] (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2700 mBm)
[247280.486122] (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 1700 mBm)
[247280.486127] (5250000 KHz - 5330000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[247280.486131] (5490000 KHz - 5710000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[247280.486136] (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 3000 mBm)
[247280.500526] iwl3945: Unknown parameter `qos_enable'

[Tom Chiverton (bugs-launchpad-net-falkensweb)]

I have a
$ lspci|grep Net
0b:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)

and would get reams of (in wpa_supplicant.log)
Trying to associate with 00:18:39:8a:8c:35 (SSID='house_edge' freq=2422 MHz)
Associated with 00:18:39:8a:8c:35
Authentication with 00:18:39:8a:8c:35 timed out.
CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED - Disconnect event - remove keys
CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS
Trying to associate with 00:18:39:8a:8c:35 (SSID='house_edge' freq=2422 MHz)
Associated with 00:18:39:8a:8c:35
Authentication with 00:18:39:8a:8c:35 timed out.
CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED - Disconnect event - remove keys
CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS
Trying to associate with 00:18:39:8a:8c:35 (SSID='house_edge' freq=2422 MHz)
Associated with 00:18:39:8a:8c:35
CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED - Disconnect event - remove keys
Authentication with 00:00:00:00:00:00 timed out.

under Intrepid, as of the last week or so - must have been caused by an update of something.

Installing the backport modules package has fixed it, and Network Manager now connects immediately at boot, as it did last month:
CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS
Trying to associate with 00:18:39:8a:8c:35 (SSID='house_edge' freq=2422 MHz)
Associated with 00:18:39:8a:8c:35
WPA: Key negotiation completed with 00:18:39:8a:8c:35 [PTK=CCMP GTK=CCMP]
CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to 00:18:39:8a:8c:35 completed (auth) [id=0 id_str=]

[Tom Chiverton (bugs-launchpad-net-falkensweb)]

I say intrepid, I mean jaunty - 9.04. oops.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

For those of you still seeing issues with the latest Jaunty 9.04 release and having installed linux-backports-modules-jaunty, could you do one more round of tests with the latest upstream compat-wireless stack - http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download . If this issue remains we'll likely want to have you open an upstream bug report. Thanks.

[tonio (o-launchpad-vava-org)]

to be a little more precise this problem is
no connection on open (no key) Wifi networks, the connection failed just after assiging IP Adress

The problem is still there with Jaunty 9.04 release and having installed linux-backports-modules-jaunty

As advised, I installed the latest upstream compat-wireless stack with solved the problem

Thanks.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Thanks for the feedback tonio. Don't suppose you'd be willing to test the latest Karmic 9.10 Alpha release? http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/karmic/ . The reason I ask is Karmic should have a newer version of the compat-wireless stack and I'd like to confirm it also will resolve this issue. Thanks.

[Geek87 (geek87)]

Hi!
With daily built live CD from yesterday the problem is solved for me (I couldn't connect to my Fonera+ with WPA2).

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Marking this Fix Released for now against Karmic based on the previous comments. Thanks.

[Junky (junkybutt25)]

I have been using version 10.04 Lucid Lynx and frequently throughout the day my PC loses the Wireless connection. I right click and turn off Wireless and Networking and then click to enable Networking and Wireless and it connects back OK. If I don't disable and reenable when I tried to connect using the Correct WEP Password it says check password or something and acts as if my password in not valid. I know the password is correct and If I do the above sequence it accepts the password as correct.

A few months back it was working OK and I have noticed that It happens frequently now. I just now got around to dealing with it, so I don't know what update exactly caused it.