Edgy: Multiple issues with ZyDAS, zd1211rw, Network Manager

[Jonathan Hudson]

Apologies for a non-attributed and wide ranging bug report. I have a 3COM 3CRUSB10075 USB 54g wifi card. This uses the ZyDas 1211 chipset. I have multiple issues with it on i386 and PPC (major).

* On i386, it connects using WPA with network manager. It is listed by NM as having being "Unknown USB Vendor Specific Interface";
* On i386, it comes up as a 11Mb/s device. It can be changed to 54M using iwconfg and then gives 54M like performance (2.3 MB/s transfers).
* dmesg reports ?errors?:
 zd1211rw 4-3:1.0: firmware version 4725
 [17733109.772000] zd1211rw 4-3:1.0: zd1211b chip 0ace:1215 v4810 high
 00-16-e0 AL2230_RF pa0 ---
 [17733109.772000] zd1211rw 4-3:1.0: eth2
 [17733109.932000] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth2: link is not ready
 [17733130.876000] SoftMAC: Open Authentication completed with
 00:14:7c:ad:a8:54
 [17733130.892000] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth2: link becomes ready
 [17733131.092000] TKIP: replay detected: STA=00:14:7c:ad:a8:54 previous TSC
 000000000001 received TSC 000000000001
 [17733145.276000] eth2: no IPv6 routers present
 [17734399.204000] TKIP: replay detected: STA=00:14:7c:ad:a8:54 previous TSC
 000000000166 received TSC 000000000166
 [17734399.740000] TKIP: replay detected: STA=00:14:7c:ad:a8:54 previous TSC
 000000000470 received TSC 000000000470

I do not get these replay reports with either a RT2500 or Intel 2200BG.

* On PPC (Powerbook G4 via PCMCIA USB2 card or direct USB 1.1 ports), then the device will never connect to the AP using network manager, however the kernel is seeing the AP.
Nov 21 15:06:12 localhost kernel: [ 754.895674] SoftMAC: Open Authentication completed with 00:14:xx:xx:xx:xx

* Occassionally the device may be brought to live on PPC by removing NM and configuring manually:

ifconfig eth2 up
iwconfig essid FOO-WIFI eth2
iwlist scan eth2
wpa_supplicant -Dwext -i eth2 -c .......
dhclient2 eth2

After this, most times it only works one way (I can ssh off the box but not on); very rarely it works both ways and even more rarely, at 54M speeds (after manual rate setting).

[Javier Jardón (jjardon)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug.
Feisty have new driver, still have problems?

[Jonathan Hudson (jh+lpd)]

Hi,

On PPC with Network Manager, it still never connects to a WPA AP; however connects fine on ix86 with NM.

If I use Wicd instead of NM, it connects just fine (all platforms).

So I think the kernel driver is fine, it's just NM that sucks on PPC for WPA.

[Javier Jardón (jjardon)]

OK, please include the information requested from https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingHardwareDetection as separate attachments.

[Jonathan Hudson (jh+lpd)]

uname -a

[Jonathan Hudson (jh+lpd)]

Log files provided.

Please also note a bcm43xx: 4306 behaves in exactly the same way:

* NM is fine on ia-32 (WPA)

* Card never connects (WPA) with NM on PPC

* Card connects fine (WPA) with Wicd on PPC

Further, note that for the ZyDAS device, upstream 2.6.21-rc7 says :
Apr 21 15:52:27 localhost kernel: zd1211rw 2-1:1.0: AL2230S devices are not yet supported by this driver.

-jh

[Javier Jardón (jjardon)]

OK, I can confirm the bug now. Thank you for you bug report.

[Henrik Nilsen Omma (henrik)]

Hi, could someone with this hardware please test in Gutsy (perhaps with a Live CD)? We'll only be able to address most network-manager bugs in the latest release. Thanks.

[Jonathan Hudson (jh+lpd)]

Neither this device (nor my bcm43xx: 4306) work on current Gutsy/PPC with Network Manager and WPA (and hidden ESSID?).

Both devices work just fine with wicd or manual configuration.

-jh

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

we have fixed an endianess bug in network-manager ... please test with 0.6.5-0ubuntu14.

Thanks,
 - Alexander

[Jonathan Hudson (jh+lpd)]

Alexander,

Sorry for the delay, I've been abroad on business. The results are the latest version0.6.5-0ubuntu14) are:

* ZyDas: Works fine. Finds the hidden essid and connects using WPA;

* bcm43xx: Does not find the access point (previously it did). If I force the AP (iwconfig eth1 essid XXXX), then it finds it, but never connects.

NM/ppc summary: A welcomeimprovement in usability, but not quite up to i386 standard yet.

-jh

[Jonathan Hudson (jh+lpd)]

Some more data points:

* The bcm43xx PCMCIA card works just fine on IA32.

* If I run iwconfig eth1 essid XXXX ; wpa_supplicant -d wext -i eth1 -c ... ; dhclient eth1 then that works on PPC (I get an IP from DHCP)

* If I them terminate the above, I see the ESSID in the nm-applet, but it never gets an address (the rotating blue dots never go green).

- jh

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Now that the final version of Gutsy Gibbon is available we were wondering if this issue still exists. Thanks in advance.

[Jonathan Hudson (jh+lpd)]

Hi,

All the problems are resolved in Gutsy final; it works really well on both ppc and ia32.

-jh

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

This bug report is being closed due to your last comment regarding this being fixed with an update. For future reference you can manage the status of your own bugs by clicking on the current status in the yellow line and then choosing a new status in the drop down box. You can learn more about bug statuses at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Status . Thank you again for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Feel free to submit any future bugs you may find.