NetworkManager does not show available access points; wicd works -- Broadcom sta

[Anatol Pomozov]

Binary package hint: network-manager

I have a laptop “Lenovo IdealPad S12 (Intel)” Ubuntu 10.04 works perfectly fine on it. But 10.10 has some serious issues with wifi и ACPI, that is why I can’t use Mavrick.

I just installed Natty (beta2) on my laptop (/home has been left from my previous installation). It works better now - but I still see the issue with WiFi.

My wifi hardware is “Broadcom BCM4312”, driver - proprietary STA, latest version.

http://habreffect.ru/files/eb4/a6a5871d5/image1.png

If I manually reload wl.ko module (using rmmod & insmod) then iwlist scan gives me a list of available wifi access points: http://habreffect.ru/files/20f/1a1b7a1e8/image2.png

But Network-Manager does not show any access points. Here is more info about driver and Network-Manager:

http://habreffect.ru/files/cf8/e14854e78/image3.png
http://habreffect.ru/files/af4/4b2c2fc48/image4.png

Let me know if you need any additional information. I’ll be glad to provide it.

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

My guess is wpasupplicant doesn't see these networks either, probably because broadcom doesn't use nl80211. Could you try to configure wpasupplicant to run by itself and see if networks are seen in that case?

[Andre Grinchenko (andre-grinchenko)]

1. Manual setting as it is written here has helped. http://wiki.debian.org/WiFi/HowToUse#WPA-PSK_and_WPA2-PSK
2. Alternative network manager Wicd (wpa driver: wext) also works fine.

This means a problem in Network-Manager? Can configure it to "wext 'driver? How to do it?

[Anatol Pomozov (anatol)]

Hi, Mathieu.

Andrew Grinchenko is the one who has the problem on this Laptop with the Network Manager. I just helped him to file this bug. From what Andrew said (Wicd works fine) it looks like the problem with the Network Manager tool.

Is there any other information we can provide that can shed more light to the issue?

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Please attach the contents of /var/log/syslog after starting NetworkManager. This probably means you'll have to revert changes to files like wapsupplicant.conf that were done for manual connections to the wifi networks.

[Andre Grinchenko (andre-grinchenko)]

Maybe problem here:

Apr 27 21:47:09 bird NetworkManager[713]: <error> [1303930029.497289] [nm-device-wifi.c:3100] real_update_permanent_hw_address(): (eth1): unable to read permanent MAC address (error 0)
Apr 27 21:47:09 bird NetworkManager[713]: <info> (eth1): driver supports SSID scans (scan_capa 0x01).
Apr 27 21:47:09 bird NetworkManager[713]: <info> (eth1): new 802.11 WiFi device (driver: 'wl' ifindex: 3)
Apr 27 21:47:09 bird NetworkManager[713]: <info> (eth1): exported as /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/1
Apr 27 21:47:09 bird NetworkManager[713]: <info> (eth1): now managed
Apr 27 21:47:09 bird NetworkManager[713]: <info> (eth1): device state change: 1 -> 2 (reason 2)
Apr 27 21:47:09 bird NetworkManager[713]: <info> (eth1): bringing up device.
Apr 27 21:47:09 bird NetworkManager[713]: <info> (eth1): deactivating device (reason: 2).
Apr 27 21:47:09 bird NetworkManager[713]: <info> modem-manager is now available
Apr 27 21:47:09 bird NetworkManager[713]: <warn> bluez error getting default adapter: The name org.bluez was not provided by any .service files
Apr 27 21:47:09 bird NetworkManager[713]: <info> Trying to start the supplicant...
Apr 27 21:47:09 bird NetworkManager[713]: <info> (eth1): supplicant manager state: down -> idle
Apr 27 21:47:10 bird NetworkManager[713]: <warn> bluez error getting default adapter: No such adapter

[Andre Grinchenko (andre-grinchenko)]

In addition. Wicd work only afte reload wl.ko

[Jarl (jarl-dk)]

I also experience this problem. I just upgraded from 10.10 to 11.04 and everything worked like a charm in 10.10, but now I cannot see the AP I would like to connect to.

The interesting thing I experience is that I can actualy see one AP (my neighbours I guess), but I have three APs myself (two open, and one with password), and there are other neighbours as well having vissible APs, and I can't see all those.

My chipset is ISL3886, the driver used in 11.04 is p54pci.

Apparently I can see some APs, but not all.I wonder if it has anything to do with radio frequency regulatory that has been set to wrong country.

[Jarl (jarl-dk)]

More information:
In Network Manager (KDE) I can see one AP as described above, but when I do a `iwlist scan` it says "No scan results".

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Alberto Mardegan (mardy)]

Same problem here, in Oneiric. The weird thing is that it yesterday my laptop was working fine, and today it doesn't; I moved from Helsinki to Saint Petersburg (Russia), but the software configuration is unchanged.

When I boot natty from the same laptop, it works (I can see the list of available networks and connect to it).
The manual process described in comment #2 worked for me as well (after stopping network-manager).

[Thomas Hood (jdthood)]

@Anatol and others: Can you reproduce the problem in Ubuntu 12.04?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for network-manager (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[roadrash (roadrash)]

I am getting this problem in 12.10 and it annoying