So I got as a present a Laptop, the giver was aware that I don´t use M$ anymore for some time now (about 5years) and she (my wife) did this as a surprise in the coming of our new baby girl (she took pity at my old Laptop - witch Toshiba should buy me up for historical purposes). This means she baught me a Linux running box (!!). But it also means that I did not choose the hardware, and have no heart to tell her it is CRAP!
It all started when I booted the thing and it started a Mandriva 2008.0 (2008? - you got to be kidding me) It took me about 10 minutes to download the latest Debian Testing no.1 CD and start what would be my first 64bit OS :)))
After installing the screen resolution sucked (800x600 in 16bit) this is when I started to look at the box with that "don´t you go naughty on me boy" look I learned from my mother ;-)
I quickly switched to xorg.conf edited some Modeline and was up and running a 1280x768 24bit X (about 2 hours work - I tried first to install my SiS driver from source, but it wouldn´t compile on Testing -- seems the missing file is Sid only)
Ok now I installed all my necessary packages and took out the net cable - I wanted to go upstairs and see my daughter, but was downloading a movie. Suddenly the wireless stops.
Tried to reconnect and it gave me a "wrong password" error in ' wicd '.
Weird, must be a coincidence and started checking my router ... everything fine there all other wireless gadgets running smoothly (including old dinosaur laptop - Debian Testing updated in a i386 kernel).
Then I discovered that wireless WAS working, but in a very peculiar way: when I am 2-3 meters form router it connects at normal speed and very easily, but farther form this distance it just doesn´t seem able to CONNECT, but it still correcly scans and finds the wireless networks. Sometimes I can "take the connection with me" upstairs, but it´s not reproductable enough to make it a pseudo-fix.
I thought it maybe the card, but then would it connect when I am standing besides the router? Thought it to be wpa-supplicant but the same holds true as with the card ... my guess it has something to do with POWER SAVING.
Here are some outputs
# uname -a
Linux casa 2.6.32-trunk-amd64 #1 SMP Sun Jan 10 22:40:40 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux
When it works:
# dmesg | grep -e rtl -e wlan -e DEV -eth --- (if you want I can post the hole thing ... just ask ... no point supressing MAC for local wireless)
[ 0.000000] AMD AuthenticAMD
[ 0.022299] using mwait in idle threads.
[ 0.022317] ... bit width: 40
[ 0.427181] Driver 'rtc_cmos' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
[ 0.429174] Write protecting the kernel read-only data: 4096k
[ 0.611824] thermal LNXTHERM:01: registered as thermal_zone0
[ 1.468372] ata1.00: 625142448 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32)
[ 2.336632] EXT4-fs (sda1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
[ 5.132551] (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
[ 5.153072] sis190 Gigabit Ethernet driver 1.3 loaded.
[ 5.767461] phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel'
[ 5.768058] phy0: hwaddr 00:25:d3:8d:c0:c9, RTL8187BvE V0 + rtl8225z2, rfkill mask 2
[ 5.789720] rtl8187: Customer ID is 0x00
[ 5.789768] Registered led device: rtl8187-phy0::tx
[ 5.789794] Registered led device: rtl8187-phy0::rx
[ 5.790585] rtl8187: wireless switch is on
[ 5.790627] usbcore: registered new interface driver rtl8187
[ 5.796669] 0000:00:04.0: SiS 191 PCI Gigabit Ethernet adapter at ffffc9000067c000 (IRQ: 19), 00:90:f5:7f:c5:fa
[ 5.796672] eth0: GMII mode.
[ 5.796677] eth0: Enabling Auto-negotiation.
[ 7.184634] EXT4-fs (sda4): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
[ 7.272950] EXT4-fs (sda3): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
[ 8.155997] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[ 18.176032] eth0: auto-negotiating...
[ 25.895222] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[ 28.200040] eth0: auto-negotiating...
[ 33.591014] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[ 33.753871] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[ 37.743070] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[ 42.301501] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:21:04:1a:21:f6 (try 1)
[ 42.500045] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:21:04:1a:21:f6 (try 2)
[ 42.503133] wlan0: direct probe responded
[ 42.503138] wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:21:04:1a:21:f6 (try 1)
[ 42.504765] wlan0: authenticated
[ 42.504796] wlan0: associate with AP 00:21:04:1a:21:f6 (try 1)
[ 42.704049] wlan0: associate with AP 00:21:04:1a:21:f6 (try 2)
[ 42.710391] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:21:04:1a:21:f6 (capab=0x431 status=0 aid=2)
[ 42.710397] wlan0: associated
[ 42.716805] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
[ 43.776030] eth0: auto-negotiating...
[ 53.132025] wlan0: no IPv6 routers present
[ 53.800034] eth0: auto-negotiating...
#iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"ascencao"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:21:04:1A:21:F6
Bit Rate=11 Mb/s Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=70/70 Signal level=-24 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
eth0 no wireless extensions.