Comment 5 for bug 289108

I have several walls between my wireless router and my desktop which has an RT61 wireless card in it. The antenna is on the floor and so the signal is pretty weak. The strength fluctuates dramatically depending on various factors (whether the door is open or closed, whether a cat is sitting in the window, the humidity, who knows what else). Anyway, often after the signal is dropped, NM asks again for the WPA key when it comes back up. If I cancel, and then select my AP from the NM applet, then it connects without asking.

Now, I'm not familiar enough with the authentication process to know if its legitimate that NM thinks the key is invalid. (E.g. is the router receiving a garbled key and responding that it is invalid? Or is NM just assuming that the authentication is failing because of an invalid key when in fact it is due to the signal being too weak).

In either case, in the key dialog, it would be nice to have some way of saying "just use the key you have stored". Or even better, "really, just keep trying with this key until the signal is strong enough to connect".

A relevant snippet from daemon.log of an attempted reconnect is:

(after a few messages from other daemons saying they can't resolve domain names since the connection has dropped)
Jan 24 13:29:52 weyl wpa_supplicant[1632]: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS
Jan 24 13:30:38 weyl NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 6 -> 9 (reason 7)
Jan 24 13:30:38 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) failed for access point (boru)
Jan 24 13:30:38 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Marking connection 'Auto boru' invalid.
Jan 24 13:30:38 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) failed.
Jan 24 13:30:38 weyl NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 9 -> 3 (reason 0)
Jan 24 13:30:38 weyl NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): deactivating device (reason: 0).
Jan 24 13:30:38 weyl wpa_supplicant[1632]: CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED - Disconnect event - remove keys

(a minute passed before I did an "iwlist scan" from a terminal to verify my AP was in the list, and then chose it from the applet)

Jan 24 13:31:21 weyl wpa_supplicant[1632]: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) starting connection 'Auto boru'
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 3 -> 4 (reason 0)
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled...
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started...
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) scheduled...
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) starting...
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 4 -> 5 (reason 0)
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0/wireless): access point 'Auto boru' has security, but secrets are required.
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 5 -> 6 (reason 0)
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled...
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started...
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 6 -> 4 (reason 0)
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) scheduled...
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) starting...
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 4 -> 5 (reason 0)
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0/wireless): connection 'Auto boru' has security, and secrets exist. No new secrets needed.
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Config: added 'ssid' value 'boru'
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Config: added 'scan_ssid' value '1'
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Config: added 'key_mgmt' value 'WPA-PSK'
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Config: added 'psk' value '<omitted>'
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: nm_setting_802_1x_get_pkcs11_engine_path: assertion `NM_IS_SETTING_802_1X (setting)' failed
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: nm_setting_802_1x_get_pkcs11_module_path: assertion `NM_IS_SETTING_802_1X (setting)' failed
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Config: set interface ap_scan to 1
Jan 24 13:31:28 weyl NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: disconnected -> scanning
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl wpa_supplicant[1632]: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl wpa_supplicant[1632]: Trying to associate with 00:16:b6:e4:89:d9 (SSID='boru' freq=2427 MHz)
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl wpa_supplicant[1632]: Association request to the driver failed
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: scanning -> associating
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl wpa_supplicant[1632]: Associated with 00:16:b6:e4:89:d9
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: associating -> associated
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: associated -> 4-way handshake
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl wpa_supplicant[1632]: WPA: Key negotiation completed with 00:16:b6:e4:89:d9 [PTK=CCMP GTK=CCMP]
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl wpa_supplicant[1632]: CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to 00:16:b6:e4:89:d9 completed (reauth) [id=1 id_str=]
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: 4-way handshake -> group handshake
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: group handshake -> completed
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0/wireless) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) successful. Connected to wireless network 'boru'.
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) scheduled.
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) started...
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 5 -> 7 (reason 0)
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 4 of 5 (IP4 Configure Get) scheduled...
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 4 of 5 (IP6 Configure Get) scheduled...
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) complete.
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 4 of 5 (IP4 Configure Get) started...
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 4 of 5 (IP4 Configure Get) complete.
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 4 of 5 (IP6 Configure Get) started...
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 5 of 5 (IP Configure Commit) scheduled...
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 4 of 5 (IP6 Configure Get) complete.
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 5 of 5 (IP Configure Commit) started...
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl avahi-daemon[1390]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface wlan0.IPv4 with address 192.168.2.1.
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl avahi-daemon[1390]: New relevant interface wlan0.IPv4 for mDNS.
Jan 24 13:31:30 weyl avahi-daemon[1390]: Registering new address record for 192.168.2.1 on wlan0.IPv4.
Jan 24 13:31:31 weyl NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 7 -> 8 (reason 0)
Jan 24 13:31:31 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Policy set 'Auto boru' (wlan0) as default for routing and DNS.
Jan 24 13:31:31 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) successful, device activated.
Jan 24 13:31:31 weyl NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 5 of 5 (IP Configure Commit) complete.
Jan 24 13:31:32 weyl ntpdate[5518]: adjust time server 91.189.94.4 offset -0.180857 sec
Jan 24 13:31:52 weyl wpa_supplicant[1632]: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS