wicd daemon disconnects wireless very soon after connection is established

[Sakari Ailus]

wicd-daemon disconnects the wireless network very soon after a connection has been established. This does *not* happen if I use iwconfig to set the ESSID and run dhclient / dhcpcd manually.

It usually takes around half a minute to disconnect. Whether or not this is going to happen appears to depend on connection parameters. If the link quality is reported to be good by the driver, wicd-daemon will almost certainly disconnect Very Soon --- whether or not this is the actual cause is unknown to me, it could be another parameter that has an unfortunate value at the same time.

I'm using ath driver on QCA9565.

If iwconfig wlan0 shows me this all is well:

wlan0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:"kaalimaa"
          Mode:Managed Frequency:2.452 GHz Access Point: 00:1C:xx:xx:xx:xx
          Bit Rate=5.5 Mb/s Tx-Power=16 dBm
          Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=50/70 Signal level=-60 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:17 Missed beacon:0

But if it looks like this, there will be problems:

wlan0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:"kaalimaa"
          Mode:Managed Frequency:2.452 GHz Access Point: 00:1C:xx:xx:xx:xx
          Bit Rate=5.5 Mb/s Tx-Power=16 dBm
          Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=70/70 Signal level=-4 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:14 Missed beacon:0

Signal level fluctuates around zero, sometimes having small positive or negative values or zero. Below is a log with debugging enabled. At some point it appears that wicd no longer likes what it sees and decides to shut down the connection. I've tried debugging this with not much success so far. :-(

2016/10/16 01:16:26 :: ifconfig wlan0 up
2016/10/16 01:16:27 :: iwlist wlan0 rate
2016/10/16 01:16:27 :: iwlist wlan0 rate
2016/10/16 01:16:27 :: iwlist wlan0 rate
2016/10/16 01:16:27 :: iwlist wlan0 rate
2016/10/16 01:16:27 :: iwlist wlan0 rate
2016/10/16 01:16:27 :: iwlist wlan0 rate
2016/10/16 01:16:27 :: iwlist wlan0 rate
2016/10/16 01:16:28 :: iwlist wlan0 rate
2016/10/16 01:16:28 :: iwlist wlan0 rate
2016/10/16 01:16:28 :: enctype is None
2016/10/16 01:16:28 :: ['iwconfig', 'wlan0', 'essid', '--', 'kaalimaa']
2016/10/16 01:16:28 :: iwlist wlan0 rate
2016/10/16 01:16:28 :: iwconfig wlan0 channel 9
2016/10/16 01:16:28 :: iwconfig wlan0 ap 00:1C:xx:xx:xx:xx
2016/10/16 01:16:28 :: Running DHCP with NO hostname
2016/10/16 01:16:28 :: /sbin/dhcpcd --noipv4ll wlan0
2016/10/16 01:16:28 :: iwlist wlan0 rate
2016/10/16 01:16:28 :: iwconfig wlan0
2016/10/16 01:16:30 :: found backend in configuration external
2016/10/16 01:16:33 :: wlan0: waiting for carrier
2016/10/16 01:16:33 ::
2016/10/16 01:16:33 :: wlan0: carrier acquired
2016/10/16 01:16:33 ::
2016/10/16 01:16:33 :: wlan0: adding address fe80::48ce:7c05:1f2c:9e0c
2016/10/16 01:16:33 ::
2016/10/16 01:16:33 :: DUID 00:01:00:01:1e:13:46:03:40:b8:9a:b7:45:a9
2016/10/16 01:16:33 ::
2016/10/16 01:16:33 :: wlan0: IAID 9a:b7:45:a9
2016/10/16 01:16:33 ::
2016/10/16 01:16:33 :: wlan0: soliciting a DHCP lease
2016/10/16 01:16:33 ::
2016/10/16 01:16:33 :: wlan0: offered 192.168.5.77 from 192.168.5.254
2016/10/16 01:16:33 ::
2016/10/16 01:16:33 :: wlan0: soliciting an IPv6 router
2016/10/16 01:16:33 ::
2016/10/16 01:16:33 :: wlan0: probing address 192.168.5.77/24
2016/10/16 01:16:33 ::
2016/10/16 01:16:33 :: wlan0: leased 192.168.5.77 for 600 seconds
2016/10/16 01:16:33 ::
2016/10/16 01:16:33 :: wlan0: adding route to 192.168.5.0/24
2016/10/16 01:16:33 ::
2016/10/16 01:16:33 :: wlan0: adding default route via 192.168.5.254
2016/10/16 01:16:33 ::
2016/10/16 01:16:33 :: forked to background, child pid 27995
2016/10/16 01:16:33 ::
2016/10/16 01:16:33 ::
2016/10/16 01:16:33 :: DHCP connection successful
2016/10/16 01:16:33 :: not verifying
2016/10/16 01:16:33 :: Executing /etc/network/if-up.d/000resolvconf with params
2016/10/16 01:16:33 :: /etc/network/if-up.d/000resolvconf returned 0
2016/10/16 01:16:33 :: Executing /etc/network/if-up.d/ethtool with params
2016/10/16 01:16:33 :: /etc/network/if-up.d/ethtool returned 0
2016/10/16 01:16:33 :: Executing /etc/network/if-up.d/mountnfs with params
2016/10/16 01:16:33 :: /etc/network/if-up.d/mountnfs returned 0
2016/10/16 01:16:33 :: Executing /etc/network/if-up.d/openssh-server with params
2016/10/16 01:16:34 :: /etc/network/if-up.d/openssh-server returned 0
2016/10/16 01:16:34 :: Executing /etc/network/if-up.d/openvpn with params
2016/10/16 01:16:34 :: /etc/network/if-up.d/openvpn returned 0
2016/10/16 01:16:34 :: Executing /etc/network/if-up.d/upstart with params
2016/10/16 01:16:34 :: /etc/network/if-up.d/upstart returned 0
2016/10/16 01:16:34 :: Executing /etc/network/if-up.d/wpasupplicant with params
2016/10/16 01:16:34 :: /etc/network/if-up.d/wpasupplicant returned 0
2016/10/16 01:16:34 :: Executing /etc/wicd/scripts/postconnect/wlan with params
2016/10/16 01:16:34 :: /etc/wicd/scripts/postconnect/wlan returned 0
2016/10/16 01:16:34 :: Connecting thread exiting.
2016/10/16 01:16:34 :: ifconfig wlan0
2016/10/16 01:16:34 :: IP Address is: 192.168.5.77
2016/10/16 01:16:34 :: Sending connection attempt result success
2016/10/16 01:16:34 :: ifconfig eth0
2016/10/16 01:16:34 :: iwconfig wlan0
2016/10/16 01:16:36 :: ifconfig eth0
2016/10/16 01:16:36 :: ifconfig wlan0
2016/10/16 01:16:36 :: iwconfig wlan0
2016/10/16 01:16:38 :: ifconfig eth0
2016/10/16 01:16:38 :: ifconfig wlan0
2016/10/16 01:16:38 :: iwconfig wlan0
2016/10/16 01:16:40 :: setting use global dns to 0
2016/10/16 01:16:40 :: setting global dns
2016/10/16 01:16:40 :: global dns servers are
2016/10/16 01:16:40 :: domain is
2016/10/16 01:16:40 :: search domain is
2016/10/16 01:16:40 :: setting wireless interface wlan0
2016/10/16 01:16:40 :: setting wired interface eth0
2016/10/16 01:16:40 :: setting wpa driver wext
2016/10/16 01:16:40 :: setting automatically reconnect when connection drops 1
2016/10/16 01:16:40 :: setting backend to external
2016/10/16 01:16:40 :: Setting dhcp client to 1
2016/10/16 01:16:42 :: ifconfig eth0
2016/10/16 01:16:42 :: ifconfig wlan0
2016/10/16 01:16:42 :: iwconfig wlan0
2016/10/16 01:16:44 :: ifconfig eth0
2016/10/16 01:16:44 :: ifconfig wlan0
2016/10/16 01:16:44 :: iwconfig wlan0
2016/10/16 01:16:48 :: ifconfig eth0
2016/10/16 01:16:48 :: ifconfig wlan0
2016/10/16 01:16:48 :: iwconfig wlan0
2016/10/16 01:16:50 :: ifconfig eth0
2016/10/16 01:16:50 :: ifconfig wlan0
2016/10/16 01:16:50 :: iwconfig wlan0
2016/10/16 01:16:54 :: ifconfig eth0
2016/10/16 01:16:54 :: ifconfig wlan0
2016/10/16 01:16:54 :: iwconfig wlan0
2016/10/16 01:16:56 :: ifconfig eth0
2016/10/16 01:16:56 :: ifconfig wlan0
2016/10/16 01:16:56 :: iwconfig wlan0
2016/10/16 01:17:00 :: ifconfig eth0
2016/10/16 01:17:00 :: ifconfig wlan0
2016/10/16 01:17:00 :: iwconfig wlan0
2016/10/16 01:17:02 :: ifconfig eth0
2016/10/16 01:17:02 :: ifconfig wlan0
2016/10/16 01:17:02 :: iwconfig wlan0
2016/10/16 01:17:02 :: Forced disconnect on
2016/10/16 01:17:02 :: Executing /etc/network/if-down.d/openvpn with params
2016/10/16 01:17:03 :: /etc/network/if-down.d/openvpn returned 0
2016/10/16 01:17:03 :: Executing /etc/network/if-down.d/resolvconf with params
2016/10/16 01:17:03 :: /etc/network/if-down.d/resolvconf returned 0
2016/10/16 01:17:03 :: Executing /etc/network/if-down.d/upstart with params
2016/10/16 01:17:03 :: /etc/network/if-down.d/upstart returned 0
2016/10/16 01:17:03 :: Executing /etc/network/if-down.d/wpasupplicant with param
2016/10/16 01:17:03 :: /etc/network/if-down.d/wpasupplicant returned 0
2016/10/16 01:17:03 :: /sbin/dhclient -v -r wlan0
2016/10/16 01:17:04 :: ifconfig wlan0 0.0.0.0
2016/10/16 01:17:04 :: /sbin/ip route flush dev wlan0
2016/10/16 01:17:04 :: ['/sbin/resolvconf', '-d', 'wlan0.wicd']
2016/10/16 01:17:04 :: ifconfig wlan0 down
2016/10/16 01:17:04 :: ifconfig wlan0 up

wicd-daemon version is wicd-1.7.4+tb2 (Debian) but I've seen this behaviour since around 1.7.2; I haven't tried older versions. I also went through the Debian patches, there's nothing that I believe could be related to this.