[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Wireless interface stopped working in Etch



On Mon, Nov 13, 2006 at 11:21:34 +0000, Chris Lale wrote:
> Hello Florian. Here are the answers to your questions and suggestions. I 
> would be grateful for any other thoughts you might have.
> 
> Florian Kulzer wrote:
> >On Fri, Nov 10, 2006 at 20:46:11 +0000, Chris Lale wrote:
> >>[...]

[...]

> I have begun again with a new fresh install, so the wireless interface 
> has been autmatically named 'eth1'. I have not changed it to 'wlan0' 
> this time. The interface on the working system remains 'wlan0'.
> 
> dmesg reports this when the wireless pccard is ejected and reinserted 
> (identical on both systems):
> 
>    pccard: card ejected from slot 0
>    ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:02:00.0 disabled
>   
>    pccard: Cardbus card inserted into slot 0
>    PCI: Enabling device 0000:02:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)
>    ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:00.0[A] -> Link [LNKA] -. GSI 11 (level, 
> low) -> IRQ 11
>    rt2500 1.1.0 CVS 2005/07/10 http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com
>    PCI: Seting latency timer of device 0000:02:00.0 to 64
> 
> dmesg | egrep 'eth1|rt2500' gives this (identical on both systems):
> 
>    rt2500 1.1.0 CVS 2005/07/10 http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com
>    rt2500 1.1.0 CVS 2005/07/10 http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com
> 
> 
> >
> >Are you able to set ESSID and key with "iwconfig" directly? 
> Yes. iwconfig initially shows this (identical on both systems):
> 
>    RT2500 Wireless ESSID:""
>    [...]
>    Encryption key:off
>    Link Quality-0/100  Signal level=-120dBm   Noise level:-256 dBm
>    [...]
> 
> After 'iwconfig eth1 essid solarsystem', and 'iwconfig eth1 key 
> restricted 1234567890' iwconfig reports this (identical on both systems):
> 
>    RT2500 Wireless ESSID:"solarsystem"
>    [...]
>    Encryption key:1234-5678-90   Security mode:restricted
>    Link Quality-0/100  Signal level=-120dBm   Noise level:-256 dBm
>    [...]
> 
> So, it seems that the signal is not yet detected, and there is no link 
> yet. (Later, after bringing up the interface on the working system, the 
> signal level is reported as being around -77dBm.)
> >Does the
> >card associate with the access point? Can you detect the beacon of the
> >AP with "iwlist wlan0 scan"? Any error messages?
> 
> No, not at this point. 'iwlist eth1 scan' issued repeatedly on either 
> system always gives
> 
>    eth1        No scan results
> 
> If I bring up the interface on the working system with 'ifconfig wlan0 
> up, these appear in dmesg:
> 
>    spurious 8529A interrupt: IRQ15
>    (Link and Tx/Rx interface leds both light up)
>    wlan0: no IPv6 routers present
> 
> Issuing 'iwlist wlan0 scan' repeatedly gives a list of local APs, with 
> mine always in Cell 01 and showing the signal level and that there is a 
> link eg
> 
>    Quality:62/100  Signal level:-77dBm  Noise level:-195dBm
> 
> If I bring up the interface on the fresh install with 'ifconfig eth1 
> up', no leds light up and only this message appears in dmesg:
> 
>    spurious 8529A interrupt: IRQ15.
> 
> If I issue 'iwlist eth1 scan' at intervals of a second or more, I still get
> 
>    eth1        No scan results
> 
> However, if I do 'iwlist eth1 scan' twice in quick succession, I get a 
> list of various cells identifying neighbouring APs including my own 
> (solarsystem). 'iwconfig' still shows no link.
> 
> If I take down the interface on either system (eg with 'ifconfig eth1 
> down'), 'iwlist eth1 scan' or 'iwlist wlan0 scan' report the first few 
> cells (excluding my own) regardless of the interval between commands.
> 
> My /etc/network/interfaces file has this added to it (identical on both 
> systems apart from the interface name):
> 
>    iface eth1 inet static
>    address 192.168.1.5
>    netmask 255.255.255.0
>    gateway 192.168.1.1
>    wireless-essid solarsystem
>    wireless-key 1234567890
> 
> On the fresh install after 'ifup eth1', repeatedly issuing 'iwlist eth1 
> scan' sometimes reports 'No scan results',sometimes a number of cells 
> including my own, sometimes a number of cells excluding my own. 
> 'iwconfig' shows that there is still no link.
> 
> >
> >It could also be that you are missing some other modules, e.g. some
> >parts of the ieee80211 stack. 
> 
> No ieee80211 packages are installed on either system.

I meant the kernel modules for ieee80211.
 
> >You could try if the driver works with
> >WEP/WPA disabled at the AP. 
> Disabling WEP/WPA on the AP and setting encryption key off makes no 
> difference.
> 
> >Diff'ing the output of "lsmod" 
> 
> A diff of lsmod shows the modules in a different order on each system. I 
> ran sort on the result of each lsmod and looked at the result with comm. 
> The 1st column shows lines unique to the fresh install, the 2nd column 
> shows lines unique to the working install and the 3rd column shows lines 
> common to both:

[ snip - I really cannot read that table... ]

Try to compare this for the two cases:

lsmod | cut -d " " -f1 | sort
 
> Is there a way of finding out what causes a particular module to be loaded?
> >and the
> >kernel configuration for both cases might be helpful, too.
> 
> The kernel configuration files are identical according to both diff and 
> comm.

Is /etc/Wireless/RT2500STA/RT2500STA.dat the same for both installs?

Does "iwpriv" expose any private commands to turn the device on or off?

-- 
Regards,
          Florian



Reply to: