wpa_supplicant DEFAULT_BSS_MAX_COUNT is too low for populated areas

[Mitchell Augustin]

SRU Justification:

[ Impact ]

In densely-populated areas with more than 200 Wi-Fi APs, wpa_supplicant's default BSS_MAX_COUNT of 200 causes some nearby wi-fi APs to only appear inconsistently.

In areas with more APs, setting a higher bss_max_count of 500 via wpa_cli was sufficient to resolve this issue. Since such dense areas are now common, it may be appropriate to raise the default to 500 or 1000.

[ Test Plan ]

Run an nmcli scan in an area with 500+ APs, with and without the described wpa_supplicant change. Confirm that the change results in all expected APs being present.

[ Fix ]

Bump the DEFAULT_BSS_MAX_COUNT to 1000

[ Where problems could occur ]

It's conceivable that there could be differences in time required to scan / enumerate more APs

[Shobek Attupurath (shobekattupurath)]

Observed this issue with a Realtek WiFi 6E chipset too.

- Shobek

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package wpa - 2:2.11-0ubuntu2

---------------
wpa (2:2.11-0ubuntu2) questing; urgency=medium

  * Bump DEFAULT_BSS_MAX_COUNT to 1000 (LP: #2117180)

 -- Mitchell Augustin <email address hidden> Mon, 21 Jul 2025 18:13:31 -0500

[Nick Rosbrook (enr0n)]

Hello Mitchell, or anyone else affected,

Accepted wpa into plucky-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/wpa/2:2.10-24ubuntu0.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-plucky to verification-done-plucky. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-plucky. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

[Nick Rosbrook (enr0n)]

Hello Mitchell, or anyone else affected,

Accepted wpa into noble-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/wpa/2:2.10-21ubuntu0.3 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-noble to verification-done-noble. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-noble. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

[Nick Rosbrook (enr0n)]

Hello Mitchell, or anyone else affected,

Accepted wpa into jammy-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/wpa/2:2.10-6ubuntu2.3 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-jammy to verification-done-jammy. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-jammy. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

[Ubuntu SRU Bot (ubuntu-sru-bot)]

All autopkgtests for the newly accepted wpa (2:2.10-24ubuntu0.1) for plucky have finished running.
The following regressions have been reported in tests triggered by the package:

netplan.io/1.1.2-2ubuntu1.1 (ppc64el)

Please visit the excuses page listed below and investigate the failures, proceeding afterwards as per the StableReleaseUpdates policy regarding autopkgtest regressions [1].

https://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/proposed-migration/plucky/update_excuses.html#wpa

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Autopkgtest_Regressions

Thank you!

[Ubuntu SRU Bot (ubuntu-sru-bot)]

All autopkgtests for the newly accepted wpa (2:2.10-21ubuntu0.3) for noble have finished running.
The following regressions have been reported in tests triggered by the package:

netplan.io/1.1.2-2~ubuntu24.04.2 (amd64, ppc64el)

Please visit the excuses page listed below and investigate the failures, proceeding afterwards as per the StableReleaseUpdates policy regarding autopkgtest regressions [1].

https://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/proposed-migration/noble/update_excuses.html#wpa

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Autopkgtest_Regressions

Thank you!

[Mitchell Augustin (mitchellaugustin)]

Verified on Plucky:

❯ apt-cache policy wpasupplicant
wpasupplicant:
  Installed: 2:2.10-24ubuntu0.1
  Candidate: 2:2.10-24ubuntu0.1
  Version table:
 *** 2:2.10-24ubuntu0.1 100
        100 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu plucky-proposed/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2:2.10-24 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu plucky/main amd64 Packages ❯ sudo wpa_cli
wpa_cli v2.10
Copyright (c) 2004-2022, Jouni Malinen <email address hidden> and contributors

This software may be distributed under the terms of the BSD license.
See README for more details.

Selected interface 'wlp4s0'

Interactive mode

<3>CTRL-EVENT-SIGNAL-CHANGE above=1 signal=-56 noise=9999 txrate=156000
> get bss_max_count
1000

and on Noble:
$ sudo wpa_cli
wpa_cli v2.10
Copyright (c) 2004-2022, Jouni Malinen <email address hidden> and contributors

This software may be distributed under the terms of the BSD license.
See README for more details.

Selected interface 'wlP9s9'

Interactive mode

> get bss_max_count
1000
mitchell@device:~$ apt-cache policy wpasupplicant
wpasupplicant:
  Installed: 2:2.10-21ubuntu0.3
  Candidate: 2:2.11-0ubuntu4~24.04.1
  Version table:
 *** 2:2.10-21ubuntu0.3 100
        100 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports noble-proposed/main arm64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2:2.10-21ubuntu0.2 500
        500 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports noble-updates/main arm64 Packages
        500 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports noble-security/main arm64 Packages
     2:2.10-21build4 500
        500 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports noble/main arm64 Packages

and on Jammy:
maugustinpersonal@Computito:~$ apt-cache policy wpasupplicant
wpasupplicant:
  Installed: 2:2.10-6ubuntu2.3
  Candidate: 2:2.10-6ubuntu2.3
  Version table:
 *** 2:2.10-6ubuntu2.3 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-proposed/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2:2.10-6ubuntu2.2 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security/main amd64 Packages
     2:2.10-6 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
maugustinpersonal@Computito:~$ sudo wpa_cli
wpa_cli v2.10
Copyright (c) 2004-2022, Jouni Malinen <email address hidden> and contributors

This software may be distributed under the terms of the BSD license.
See README for more details.

Selected interface 'wlp2s0'

Interactive mode

> get bss_max_count
1000

The desired functional impact was also confirmed (all APs in range appeared in the congested area), and we have not observed any unexpected functional issues since deploying this change in QA so far.

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

jammy/armhf was FTBFS without logs. I retried it just now.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package wpa - 2:2.10-24ubuntu0.1

---------------
wpa (2:2.10-24ubuntu0.1) plucky; urgency=medium

  * Bump DEFAULT_BSS_MAX_COUNT to 1000 (LP: #2117180)

 -- Mitchell Augustin <email address hidden> Mon, 21 Jul 2025 18:13:31 -0500

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

The verification of the Stable Release Update for wpa has completed successfully and the package is now being released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package wpa - 2:2.10-21ubuntu0.3

---------------
wpa (2:2.10-21ubuntu0.3) noble; urgency=medium

  * Bump DEFAULT_BSS_MAX_COUNT to 1000 (LP: #2117180)

 -- Mitchell Augustin <email address hidden> Mon, 21 Jul 2025 18:13:31 -0500

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package wpa - 2:2.10-6ubuntu2.3

---------------
wpa (2:2.10-6ubuntu2.3) jammy; urgency=medium

  * Bump DEFAULT_BSS_MAX_COUNT to 1000 (LP: #2117180)

 -- Mitchell Augustin <email address hidden> Mon, 21 Jul 2025 18:13:31 -0500