Bug#606762: linux-2.6: intermittent wifi dropouts with iwlagn driver
Package: linux-2.6
Version: 2.6.32-5-amd64
Severity: normal
Hi all,
My laptop is an Asus UL30A. It has an Intel Wireless-N 1000 BGN chip for wifi.
The PCI ID is 8086:0083. I use the iwlagn driver along with the
'firmware-iwlwifi' package (non-free, sadly) in order to connect. My wifi
network is Wireless-N and I do not use encryption.
I intermittently experience network dropouts. This happens once every few days,
with no obvious pattern. The network drops and all connections, local and WAN,
give errors. Either the driver itself or NetworkManager will try to reconnect
after around five minutes. I will then get a connection for a few minutes max
before it drops again. This cycle goes on for a seemingly random amount of
time. Sometimes it spontaneously fixes itself after half an hour. Sometimes I
will have to reboot to fix it. It will generally work after a reboot, but not
always! There seems to be no pattern to how long it lasts or what fixes it.
I have noticed that I can nearly always trigger it by using something that
generates a large amount of connections, for instance if I download a popular
file through bittorrent without limiting the bandwidth use it will nearly always
cause a dropout, which will then go through the disconnect/reconnect cycle
described earlier for, again, a seemingly random amount of time.
Error message in /var/log/messages:
Dec 11 14:18:13 glimworm kernel: [10489.200053] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: iwl_tx_agg_start on ra = 1c:af:f7:99:72:0e tid = 0
Dec 11 14:19:32 glimworm kernel: [10567.517719] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: iwl_tx_agg_start on ra = 1c:af:f7:99:72:0e tid = 0
Dec 11 14:25:01 glimworm kernel: [10896.870454] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: iwl_tx_agg_start on ra = 1c:af:f7:99:72:0e tid = 0
Dec 11 14:27:23 glimworm kernel: [11038.818791] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: iwl_tx_agg_start on ra = 1c:af:f7:99:72:0e tid = 0
It seems that every time the network drops, one of these messages is logged to
/var/log/messages. Meanwhile dmesg is cycling these messages:
[11038.818791] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: iwl_tx_agg_start on ra = 1c:af:f7:99:72:0e tid = 0
[11132.333337] wlan0: deauthenticated from 1c:af:f7:99:72:0e (Reason: 3)
[11132.942116] wlan0: direct probe to AP 1c:af:f7:99:72:0e (try 1)
[11132.945610] wlan0: direct probe responded
[11132.945620] wlan0: authenticate with AP 1c:af:f7:99:72:0e (try 1)
[11132.955145] wlan0: authenticated
[11132.955187] wlan0: associate with AP 1c:af:f7:99:72:0e (try 1)
[11132.961970] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 1c:af:f7:99:72:0e (capab=0x421 status=0 aid=1)
[11132.961978] wlan0: associated
[11137.929127] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: iwl_tx_agg_start on ra = 1c:af:f7:99:72:0e tid = 0
Anyone have any ideas?
Cheers,
David
-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
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