Bug 151284 - madwifi-ng won't associate with certain networks
Summary: madwifi-ng won't associate with certain networks
Status: VERIFIED FIXED
: 154991 (view as bug list)
Alias: None
Product: SUSE Linux 10.1
Classification: openSUSE
Component: Network (show other bugs)
Version: Beta 4
Hardware: i686 SuSE Linux 10.1
: P5 - None : Normal (vote)
Target Milestone: Beta 7
Assignee: Joachim Gleissner
QA Contact: E-mail List
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2006-02-15 20:03 UTC by Robert Love
Modified: 2007-06-05 10:05 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Found By: Other
Services Priority:
Business Priority:
Blocker: ---
Marketing QA Status: ---
IT Deployment: ---


Attachments
NM and wpa_supplicant log (42.33 KB, text/plain)
2006-03-02 20:23 UTC, Robert Love
Details

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description Robert Love 2006-02-15 20:03:22 UTC
Recent madwifi drivers (definitely r1451, r1440) are having problems associating with certain wireless networks.  I am trying to narrow down exactly what "certain" means -- some networks associate fine, some do not.

This is not a NetworkManager problem.  I can reproduce it with the ifcfg scripts and even with iwconfig(8) directly.  Doing

    /usr/sbin/iwconfig ath0 essid Foo

for some networks results in the driver cycling through the various frequencies and never associating with a specific AP, even through the network is visible in a scan.

Conversely, with some other networks, it works fine.

I don't have hard evidence on what networks do not work.  Novell's onenet here in Boston no longer works.  Oddly, my test WPA networks work fine.

So far, all of the networks that do not work are 802.11b.  While all of the networks that do work are not 802.11b.  So that _might_ be it.

One of the non-functioning networks is unencrypted and broadcasting and 802.11b, so it is as simple as it gets.  It worked a few weeks ago fine.  Now the driver won't even find the AP.

I wish I could narrow down what networks work better, but this is as much as I can find.
Comment 1 Robert Love 2006-02-15 20:30:29 UTC
Even if I force the correct frequency with `iwconfig ath0 essid foo freq nnn`, the AP is never associated with.

It also writes "IEEE 802.11g" even though the AP is 802.11b.  Do not know if that is related.

Something in recent drivers just refuses to associate with recent AP's ...
Comment 2 Joachim Gleissner 2006-02-16 09:32:02 UTC
Setting the frequency is not possible in managed mode. Could you try whether the card associates when you force 802.11b mode (iwpriv ath0 mode 11b)?
Comment 3 Robert Love 2006-02-21 18:58:53 UTC
No, unfortunately it does not associate if I force 802.11b mode.
Comment 4 Robert Love 2006-02-28 20:51:18 UTC
r1453 seems to work a lot better.

Can we package that version?

Our whole office is wireless-less!
Comment 5 Robert Love 2006-03-02 20:09:32 UTC
Hrm, no, just packaged up r1457 and not seeing any improvement.
Comment 6 Robert Love 2006-03-02 20:23:06 UTC
Created attachment 71071 [details]
NM and wpa_supplicant log
Comment 7 Robert Love 2006-03-02 20:23:50 UTC
Attached above is the NM and wpa_supplicant log while trying and failing to connect to a normal, broadcast, unencrypted network.

Any ideas?
Comment 8 Robert Love 2006-03-02 20:42:50 UTC
Fails using the "wext" wpa_supplicant driver, too.

And of course iwconfig never associates (never even sees the AP).
Comment 9 Joachim Gleissner 2006-03-03 13:34:09 UTC
I had also no success associating to the 11b-only AP in my office. The driver keeps dropping the association response frames. I hacked it to accept them, although I don't fully understand the frame handling code. However, it fixes this problem for me. Could you test whether it does the same for you? If so, I'll contact the upstream maintainer, maybe he can convert my hack into a sane fix. ;) Package is at /work/built/mbuild/gaspode-jg-10.
Comment 10 JP Rosevear 2006-03-03 14:20:39 UTC
*** Bug 154991 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 11 Robert Love 2006-03-03 14:48:22 UTC
jg, Sie sind ein Hero!

It works.  Danke!

Can we please get this in autobuild as soon as possible?  
Comment 12 Joachim Gleissner 2006-03-03 15:17:25 UTC
Package submitted.
Comment 13 James Willcox 2006-03-03 21:35:36 UTC
This is working for me now as well
Comment 14 Robert Love 2006-03-06 15:33:31 UTC
Package in the next beta.  I'll close this.  Thanks, jg!
Comment 15 Jared Jensen 2006-03-06 15:57:12 UTC
What version should we look for?  I am hoping to get this off of hazard before we see beta7, is that a possibility?
Comment 16 Robert Love 2006-03-06 16:02:32 UTC
It is mentioned in the changelog.

1451_2.6.15_rc5_git2_2-5
Comment 17 Robert Love 2006-03-06 16:03:43 UTC
Err, 1451_2.6.15_rc5_git2_3-6
Comment 18 Joachim Gleissner 2006-03-09 21:28:51 UTC
I've just submitted a new package to stable (also available as mbuild gaspode-jg-13), which has a cleaner fix it. Could somebody double-check whether it fixes association for you as well?