Comment 20 for bug 303802

Well, after a short stint with Debian Lenny and a large amount of time where my laptop was away for repairs (motherboard died), I'm back and with Kubuntu Jaunty 9.04. Problem is, this bug STILL exists! In fact, if anything, I'd say it's gotten worse.

I've done some extra research into the issue, and I've found that this bug report may possibly be a duplicate of this one: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/264104

So, following the instructions some people gave concerning that bug, I tried killing my wireless card:

sudo modprobe -r ipw2200

...and then getting it back up again with the hwcrypto setting turned off:

sudo modprobe ipw2200 hwcrypto=0

The effect of this is to allow the card much more up-time than without the option, although the card STILL randomly fails. It now also throws additional errors in dmesg like so:

[snip]
[82404.381577] ipw2200: Failed to send SSID: Command timed out. # my wireless drops, but the card still stays active
[82411.277154] ipw2200: Failed to send SCAN_REQUEST_EXT: Command timed out.
[82512.977996] ipw2200: Failed to send SCAN_REQUEST_EXT: Command timed out. # I realize this, and reconnect the wireless using the network management applet
[82631.977113] ipw2200: No space for Tx
[82631.977126] ipw2200: Failed to send SCAN_REQUEST_EXT: Reason -16
[82751.980508] ipw2200: No space for Tx
[82751.980522] ipw2200: Failed to send SCAN_REQUEST_EXT: Reason -16
[82871.978260] ipw2200: No space for Tx
[82871.978274] ipw2200: Failed to send SCAN_REQUEST_EXT: Reason -16
[82991.978370] ipw2200: No space for Tx
[82991.978385] ipw2200: Failed to send SCAN_REQUEST_EXT: Reason -16
[83111.979798] ipw2200: No space for Tx
[83111.979812] ipw2200: Failed to send SCAN_REQUEST_EXT: Reason -16
[83231.977437] ipw2200: No space for Tx
[83231.977453] ipw2200: Failed to send SCAN_REQUEST_EXT: Reason -16
[83266.152499] ipw2200: No space for Tx
[83266.152511] ipw2200: Failed to send CARD_DISABLE: Reason -16
[83266.196169] ipw2200 0000:05:09.0: PCI INT A disabled # card commits suicide, processor begins running at 100%
[snip] # here, the card is modprobe -r'ed, then modprobe hwcrypto=0'ed
[83676.146350] ipw2200: Firmware error detected. Restarting. # wireless drops out until the firmware has been restarted...note that I *just* re-enabled the card not too long ago!!! >.<
[snip]
# taken from the attached dmesg log, comments added by me

These errors are taken from the session I'm currently running. An interesting thing to note is that, through this, I've found a workaround for keeping the system up while getting the wireless to work. If the card throws the "ipw2200: Firmware error detected. Restarting." error and kills itself, I can modprobe -r the driver and then modprobe it again and it will begin working again. This has made the bug manageable, but still a royal pain to deal with.

Going back to the other bug report, I tried using "associate=0" and "debug=0x43fff" options as well, but with no luck. Jaunty doesn't seem to understand the associate=0 command, and when I use debug=0x43fff, eth1 doesn't come back, but an eth2 is created. The effect of that is for me to have wireless, but no programs know it's there (because eth2 doesn't exist on my machine, even though it is getting "connected" by using the debug flag).

So, I would say that this bug still exists, still affects a large number of users, and is still severely gimping Ubuntu overall.

Another interesting thing to note is that, when I was running Debian Lenny, this bug did not exist and my wireless card worked absolutely fine. I would also like to note that I was using a self-compiled kernel on Lenny (from vanilla 2.6.28-10 sources, using the config from the stock kernel)...and, right now, on Kubuntu I am using a self-compiled kernel from the same sources, but using the config from Kubuntu's stock kernel (linux-image-2.6.28-11-generic). So, if this really IS a kernel issue, the problem lies in the differences between the config file for Lenny's stock kernel, and Kubuntu's stock kernel. Otherwise, this is NOT a kernel issue, and has something to do with some other system difference.

If a serious look could be taken at this bug, I for one would greatly appreciate it. And, as always, if there's anything I can do as a user to help move this thing along faster, all you need do is ask. =)

Attached is the dmesg from the session I've been running for the past day or two. I've been using the internet heavily (downloading files, playing World of WarCraft through Wine, so on and so forth) so there should be a large number of error scenarios for you to look at.