rt2500: network-manager fails to join wireless networks

[Pieter Ennes]

Binary package hint: network-manager

Network manager is unable to join wireless networks except some unencrypted ones on my rt2500 chipset.

This is on Gutsy (2.6.22-10-generic).

Possibly related: network-manager fails to set the wlan0 mode to ad-hoc when trying to join a computer-computer network.

In both cases, it does associate with the network correctly when running the commands from the command-line.

[Jonathan Austin (mailforwho)]

I have this problem too. rt2500 PCI

In Feisty I could avoid using NM and connect to the networks 'conventionally' but now even that won't work.

The device is wlan0 - so we're obviously using the new driver now. I just can't connect to my WEP encrypyted network.
Gutsy Tribe 5.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Sat, Sep 01, 2007 at 01:07:00AM -0000, Who wrote:
> I have this problem too. rt2500 PCI
>
> In Feisty I could avoid using NM and connect to the networks
> 'conventionally' but now even that won't work.
>
> The device is wlan0 - so we're obviously using the new driver now. I just can't connect to my WEP encrypyted network.
> Gutsy Tribe 5.
>

OK, please attach syslog and daemon.log

 - Alexander

[TJ (tj)]

This thread offers some clues.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=584657

Also, I helped a user a couple months ago during the Gutsy development cycle and discovered the problem where the /etc/network/interfaces 'set' commands fail. Trouble is, at the time I didn't realise this is a more general issue so I didn't make notes as to what solution we found.

[Ludwik Trammer (ludwik)]

The same problem here. I work for a high-school in Warsaw, Poland. We have more than 20 laptops with ASUS rt2500-based PCI cards we use in classrooms. In previous Ubuntu versions, at least since 6.06 our WiFi cards worked great. But after upgrading to Gutsy WiFi stopped working properly.

The Network Manager shows all the available networks, but when we try to connect, at least to our WPA-protected (TKIP) network, it asks for the key and than tries to connect for about 30 seconds, but than fails.

The lspci information for the card is:
07:00.0 Network controller [0280]: RaLink RT2500 802.11g Cardbus/mini-PCI [1814:0201] (rev 01)

There are some instructions in Ubuntu Forums that includes disabling the default driver shipped with 7.10 and compiling rt2x00.serialmonkey.com driver, but I haven't tried it yet:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=584657

[Ludwik Trammer (ludwik)]

There is another method, that claims to work with a default built-in driver, just by adding "pre-up sleep 20" to the configuration. I'll try it tomorrow:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=587727

[BigBoy_PDB (bigboy-pdb)]

When I installed Gutsy (the released version), it initially connected to networks without problems. After some time it would no longer connect. Also, the Live CD is still able to connect when I boot from it.

The problem was that the graphic which is shown when network manager would try to connect wasn't changing and there was no connection with the WAP. You can check the link from the previous post, which is a link to a thread thread I posted on Ubuntu Forums, for more information regarding the problem and how I fixed it.

[Ludwik Trammer (ludwik)]

BigBoy's solution with adding "sleep 20" didn't work form me. Odiseo's one, with installing the legacy driver worked perfectly, though. It can be found under http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=3595458&postcount=6

[Steven Brown (steven-w-j-brown)]

I've had this same problem. Now trying Odiseo's solution (pointed out by Ludwik) of building the rt2500 driver from source and blacklisting the provided rt2500pci driver. Seems to be working so far. I hope I never have to do another "sudo ifdown ra0 && sudo ifup ra0" :P

I think this problem is quite severe. It breaks network connectivity in hardware that previously (in Feisty) worked. It would be good if an update could be released, but that seems at odds with itself, as it requires the network (which times out with the provided driver). Anyway, it would be great if a formal solution could be provided.

[freechelmi (michel-memeteau)]

With a Fresh Gutsy install and a PCMCIA RT2500 card , I had the same problem trying to join adhoc non encrypted networks.

Actually network Manager failed to put the card in adhoc mode.

WICD could not do it as well.

But doing manually with "iwconfig wlan mode ad-hoc" worked

How can this be possible ?