Bug 157246

Summary:	switching runlevels kills the wlan network card
Product:	[openSUSE] SUSE Linux 10.1	Reporter:	Frank-Michael Fischer <fmfischer>
Component:	Basesystem	Assignee:	Christian Zoz <zoz>
Status:	RESOLVED DUPLICATE	QA Contact:	E-mail List <qa-bugs>
Severity:	Normal
Priority:	P5 - None	CC:	suse-beta
Version:	Beta 6
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	i686
OS:	Other
Whiteboard:
Found By:	Beta-Customer	Services Priority:
Business Priority:		Blocker:	---
Marketing QA Status:	---	IT Deployment:	---
Bug Depends on:	158613
Bug Blocks:

Description Frank-Michael Fischer 2006-03-10 19:14:35 UTC

when in runlevel 3 (or 5) with a running network (wlan), "traditional" if-up setup, switching to runlevel 1 and back to 3 leaves the network dead. "dead" is the message coming from "rcnetwork status". Log tells me three times in a row: "request_firmware() failed for 'isl3890'" plus "islpci_reset: failure". Why would the runlevel switch from 1 to 3 even try reloading the firmware?

Workaround: Reboot and the firmware is loaded properly, the network card works.

Comment 1 Michael Gross 2006-03-13 12:27:57 UTC

Christian: Assign this back to us if this is nothing for you.

Comment 2 Christian Zoz 2006-03-13 20:34:55 UTC

On my machines i get no trouble when switching runlevels -> no common problem --> not major.

When switching runlevels (even to 1) there is nothing that deactivates devices (by unloading modules, unbindig devices or invalidating firware). At least i'm not aware of something like this.

So what kind of device is that what asks you for firmware after runlevel switch?

Comment 3 Frank-Michael Fischer 2006-03-13 22:32:22 UTC

It's a WLAN card based on prism54 chip. Works fine with ip-up setup otherwise. It's not supported through NetworkManager yet (bug 148210).

For testing I did install another (non-SUSE) linux (kernel 2.6.15) and did not have this problem.

If it's a normal or a major bug I don't really know. But if all firmware based network cards have got the same problem then it's a major bug, as most WLAN cards need firmware.

Comment 4 Stefan Scheler 2006-03-14 16:54:28 UTC

Switching to runlevel 1 kills all processes (also udev which is responsible for firmware loading). Switching back to runlevel 3 doesn't restart udev again which makes further firmware uploads impossible.

Christian, your ipw2200 still works after switching runlevels because it doesn't rerequest the firmware. So what do you suggest now upon my razor-sharp analysis of the problem? :)

Comment 5 Christian Zoz 2006-03-17 10:15:52 UTC

See bug 158613, the udev problem is fixed already.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 158613 ***