NetworkManager forgets WEP key repeatedly

[Jason Toffaletti]

Every time I wake my laptop up from suspend, NetworkManager takes about 10
minutes to join the wireless network here. It asks me for the WEP key 3 or more
times during this 10 minutes. Also, if for some reason it loses wireless
connectivity for a second, it starts trying to join a different network, which
doesn't work because I don't have access to that network. I think the timeout
before trying to connect to a different network needs to be longer. I'm not sure
why it loses connectivity in the first place, my laptop is usually just sitting
still on my desk 15ft from the base station when it happens. My wireless driver
is ipw2200. I'm using network-manager 0.4.1+cvs20050618-2.

[Jason Toffaletti (jason)]

After further investigation this appears to be a problem with ipw2200 and
suspend to ram. I restarted my laptop and before it finished shutting down I
noticed kernel messaging being printed to the console from ipw2200. After
restart, NetworkManager jumped right on the network without asking for a WEP
key. I'm using the current 2.6.12 686 kernel image from breezy.

[Jason Toffaletti (jason)]

/var/log/messages
Jul 1 15:14:57 localhost kernel: [4302012.359000] ipw2200: Intel(R)
PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver, 1.0.4
Jul 1 15:14:57 localhost kernel: [4302012.359000] ipw2200: Copyright(c)
2003-2004 Intel Corporation
Jul 1 15:14:57 localhost kernel: [4302012.360000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt
0000:02:0b.0[A] -> Link [LNKD] -> GSI 9 (level, low) -> IRQ 9
Jul 1 15:14:57 localhost kernel: [4302012.360000] ipw2200: Detected Intel
PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
Jul 1 15:14:58 localhost kernel: [4302013.155000] ieee80211: eth1: Unknown
management packet: 0
Jul 1 15:15:08 localhost kernel: [4302023.613000] ieee80211: eth1: Unknown
management packet: 0
Jul 1 15:15:11 localhost kernel: [4302025.835000] ieee80211: eth1: Unknown
management packet: 0

This is what is written to the log while NetworkManager is trying to connect to
the network. This is, however, NOT what I saw being printed to the console
during the restart. I also noticed some errors about firmware in dmesg:

[4301603.067000] ipw2200: Firmware error detected. Restarting.
[4301606.731000] ieee80211: eth1: Unknown management packet: 0
[4301607.079000] eth1: no IPv6 routers present
[4301622.616000] ipw2200: Firmware error detected. Restarting.
[4301628.229000] ieee80211: eth1: Unknown management packet: 0
[4301630.552000] ieee80211: eth1: Unknown management packet: 0
[4301640.428000] eth1: no IPv6 routers present
[4301677.168000] eth1: no IPv6 routers present

[Jason Toffaletti (jason)]

I can repeat this without having to suspend the laptop. It seems to happen more
when I'm downloading large files. For example, every time I try to update my
Breezy install it takes about 30 tries and I have to keep reentering the WEP key
because it drops off the wireless network over and over. This happens right
after a boot, and it is always accompanied by the log messages in the other comment.

[Markus Kienast (elias1884)]

I get disconnected repeatedly from my unsecured WLAN. It happens about ever 60 seconds. I recognized that while downloading larger files as well as while making VoIP phone calls with Skype or SIP based phones. Sometimes I get over one cycle and am connected for up to 2 minutes, amazing isn't it.

I suspected wpasupplicant, but I can't proof that.

However, it suspect that this happens because NetworkManager or something else (wpasupplicant) tries to update it's list of available networks. Seems like this just takes a little to much time and the AccessPoint, kernel or the application looses the connection.

This needs to be investigated, since it renders the WLAN connection useless for VoIP and normal large file downloads.

System Information:
[4294702.281000] ieee80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'NULL'
[4294702.282000] ieee80211: 802.11 data/management/control stack, git-1.1.7
[4294702.282000] ieee80211: Copyright (C) 2004-2005 Intel Corporation <email address hidden>
[4294702.313000] ipw2200: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver, 1.1.1
[4294702.313000] ipw2200: Copyright(c) 2003-2006 Intel Corporation

Ubuntu Dapper flight 6 + some updates (19th may 2006)

I also thought, maybe powersave or laptop mode have something to do with it.

[Paul Brannan (curlypaul924)]

This happens to me from time to time. Typically it occurs when network manager is unable to get an ip address from the dhcp server; the next attempt to connect results in knetworkmanager asking for the key again.