Wireless dies?

[Jeremy_Ray]

This is on my desktop -

AMD 8-core FX-8120 3.1g 16M R

Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ R motherboard

16 gigs GSKILL F3-14900CL9D-8GBSR

Radeon HD6870

Internet is still up, and I can access it through the wireless router with my laptop.

In the Network managment settings dialogue, it shows the connection and says it's connected, when the connection has been broken. After disconnecting and reconnecting through Network Management, wireless works again.

The problem doesn't appear through regular internet surfing. It only appears when using Muon or Apt through the terminal.

[GreyGeek]

What's your wireless chip?

lspci | grep 802

and what is your driver?

lsmod | grep 802

[Jeremy_Ray]

lspci | grep 802

Is that the right syntax? It returns nothing at all. I get a new command prompt.

and what is your driver?

lsmod | grep 802

The results are -

mac80211 506816 3 rt2800lib,rt2x00usb,rt2x00lib
cfg80211 205544 2 rt2x00lib,mac80211

[GreyGeek]

You could use

lspci | grep Network

~$ modinfo rt2x00usbfilename: /lib/modules/3.2.0-23-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2x00usb.ko
license: GPL
description: rt2x00 usb library
version: 2.3.0
author: http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com
srcversion: A9B4713979C3716DFDBBDBC
depends: rt2x00lib,mac80211
intree: Y
vermagic: 3.2.0-23-generic SMP mod_unload modversions


~$ modinfo rt2x00lib
filename: /lib/modules/3.2.0-23-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2x00lib.ko
license: GPL
description: rt2x00 library
version: 2.3.0
author: http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com
srcversion: B3AB82C0C3D679C86EC4A17
depends: mac80211,cfg80211
intree: Y
vermagic: 3.2.0-23-generic SMP mod_unload modversions

Your wifi drivers have no user settable parameters (parm), so they either work or they don't. The auxiliary drivers (mac80211 and cfg80211) they call (which are called by all wifi drivers) have parms that can be set.

~$ modinfo -p mac80211
parm: ieee80211_default_rc_algoefault rate control algorithm for mac80211 to use (charp)
parm: max_nullfunc_tries:Maximum nullfunc tx tries before disconnecting (reason 4). (int)
parm: max_probe_tries:Maximum probe tries before disconnecting (reason 4). (int)
parm: probe_wait_ms:Maximum time(ms) to wait for probe response before disconnecting (reason 4). (int)


~$ modinfo -p cfg80211
parm: ieee80211_regdom:IEEE 802.11 regulatory domain code (charp)
parm: cfg80211_disable_40mhz_24ghzisable 40MHz support in the 2.4GHz band (bool)

The three most likely to help are max_nullfunc_tries, max_probe_tries and probe_wait_ms.

Set options for the mac80211 module in /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf:

[FONT=courier new]options mac80211  max_nullfunc_tries=60 max_probe_tries=60 probe_wait_ms=3600000[/FONT]

Having the wait at 3600000 milliseconds (one hour) may be overkill. Play around with the settings and see if that helps.

[Jeremy_Ray]

You could use

lspci | grep Network

Sadly that one doesn't give an output either.

[/B]Set options for the mac80211 module in /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf:

There's no modprobe.conf. The contents of modprobe.d are -

alsa-base.conf blacklist.conf blacklist-framebuffer.conf blacklist-oss.conf blacklist-watchdog.conf
blacklist-ath_pci.conf blacklist-firewire.conf blacklist-modem.conf blacklist-rare-network.conf dkms.conf

BTW I like your sig.

[Snowhog]

Sadly that one doesn't give an output either.

Has to. Are you typing the command correctly? The | isn't a lower case L, it's the pipe symbol. If you just copy and paste what GG showed into the console, you should get a result.

[Jeremy_Ray]

Has to. Are you typing the command correctly? The | isn't a lower case L, it's the pipe symbol. If you just copy and paste what GG showed into the console, you should get a result.

Nope, no result -

jeremy@jeremy-GA-990FXA-UD3:~$ lspci | grep Network
jeremy@jeremy-GA-990FXA-UD3:~$

I copied and pasted.

[GreyGeek]

Well, then, dump the entire output of

lspci

and

lsusb

and post them here.

[Jeremy_Ray]

lspci -

00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (external gfx0 port B) (rev 02)
00:02.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (PCI express gpp port B)
00:09.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (PCI express gpp port H)
00:0a.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (external gfx1 port A)
00:11.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 40)
00:12.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:12.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
00:13.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:13.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
00:14.0 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 42)
00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 LPC host controller (rev 40)
00:14.4 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge (rev 40)
00:14.5 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI2 Controller
00:15.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB700/SB800/SB900 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 0)
00:15.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB700/SB800/SB900 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 1)
00:15.2 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB900 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 2)
00:15.3 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB900 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 3)
00:16.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:16.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 0
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 1
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 2
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 3
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 4
00:18.5 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 5
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Barts XT [ATI Radeon HD 6800 Series]
01:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Barts HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6800 Series]
02:00.0 USB controller: Etron Technology, Inc. EJ168 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 01)
03:00.0 SATA controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88SE9172 SATA 6Gb/s Controller (rev 11)
04:0e.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6306/7/8 [Fire II(M)] IEEE 1394 OHCI Controller (rev c0)
05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 06)
06:00.0 USB controller: Etron Technology, Inc. EJ168 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 01)

lsusb -

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 009 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 010 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

I was wrong earlier when I said the problem only showed up when using apt or Muon. It's showing up constantly in regular internet surfing now. I've got to disconnect and reconnect every few minutes.

[SecretCode]

Well, that's odd. You don't seem to have a wireless adapter on either PCI or USB.

Maybe the adapter "disappears" after a while? Try

lspci | grep Network

at different times, perhaps.


Post the output of

sudo lshw -short

and

sudo lshw -class network

[Jeremy_Ray]

There's a Belkin antenna plugged into a USB port.

Post the output of

sudo lshw -short

O.K.

H/W path Device Class Description
================================================== ==
system GA-990FXA-UD3 ()
/0 bus GA-990FXA-UD3
/0/0 memory 128KiB BIOS
/0/4 processor AMD FX(tm)-8120 Eight-Core Processor
/0/4/a memory 128KiB L1 cache
/0/4/c memory 2MiB L3 cache
/0/b memory 128KiB L1 cache
/0/29 memory 16GiB System Memory
/0/29/0 memory 4GiB DIMM 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
/0/29/1 memory 4GiB DIMM 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
/0/29/2 memory 4GiB DIMM 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
/0/29/3 memory 4GiB DIMM 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
/0/100 bridge RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (external gfx0 port B)
/0/100/2 bridge RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (PCI express gpp port B)
/0/100/2/0 display Barts XT [ATI Radeon HD 6800 Series]
/0/100/2/0.1 multimedia Barts HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6800 Series]
/0/100/9 bridge RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (PCI express gpp port H)
/0/100/9/0 bus EJ168 USB 3.0 Host Controller
/0/100/a bridge RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (external gfx1 port A)
/0/100/a/0 storage 88SE9172 SATA 6Gb/s Controller
/0/100/11 scsi0 storage SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 SATA Controller [AHCI mode]
/0/100/11/0 /dev/sda disk 60GB Corsair Force 3
/0/100/11/0/1 /dev/sda1 volume 2860MiB EXT4 volume
/0/100/11/0/2 /dev/sda2 volume 53GiB Extended partition
/0/100/11/0/2/5 /dev/sda5 volume 2860MiB Linux filesystem partition
/0/100/11/0/2/6 /dev/sda6 volume 4767MiB Linux filesystem partition
/0/100/11/0/2/7 /dev/sda7 volume 9536MiB Linux filesystem partition
/0/100/11/0/2/8 /dev/sda8 volume 36GiB Linux filesystem partition
/0/100/11/1 /dev/sdb disk 1TB ST31000524AS
/0/100/11/1/1 /dev/sdb1 volume 931GiB EXT4 volume
/0/100/11/0.0.0 /dev/cdrom disk iHAS124 B
/0/100/12 bus SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
/0/100/12.2 bus SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
/0/100/13 bus SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
/0/100/13.2 bus SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
/0/100/14 bus SBx00 SMBus Controller
/0/100/14.2 multimedia SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
/0/100/14.3 bridge SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 LPC host controller
/0/100/14.4 bridge SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge
/0/100/14.4/e bus VT6306/7/8 [Fire II(M)] IEEE 1394 OHCI Controller
/0/100/14.5 bus SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI2 Controller
/0/100/15 bridge SB700/SB800/SB900 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 0)
/0/100/15/0 eth0 network RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller
/0/100/15.1 bridge SB700/SB800/SB900 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 1)
/0/100/15.1/0 bus EJ168 USB 3.0 Host Controller
/0/100/15.2 bridge SB900 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 2)
/0/100/15.3 bridge SB900 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 3)
/0/100/16 bus SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
/0/100/16.2 bus SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
/0/101 bridge Family 15h Processor Function 0
/0/102 bridge Family 15h Processor Function 1
/0/103 bridge Family 15h Processor Function 2
/0/104 bridge Family 15h Processor Function 3
/0/105 bridge Family 15h Processor Function 4
/0/106 bridge Family 15h Processor Function 5
/0/1 scsi8 storage
/0/1/0.0.0 /dev/sdc disk 7803MB SCSI Disk
/0/1/0.0.0/1 /dev/sdc1 volume 7437MiB Windows FAT volume
/0/2 scsi11 storage
/0/2/0.0.0 /dev/sdd disk 122GB SCSI Disk
/0/2/0.0.0/1 /dev/sdd1 volume 111GiB Windows FAT volume
/0/3 scsi10 storage
/0/3/0.0.0 /dev/sde disk 250GB SCSI Disk
/0/3/0.0.0/1 /dev/sde1 volume 232GiB Windows FAT volume
/1 wlan0 network Wireless interface

and

sudo lshw -class network

and-

*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller
vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:05:00.0
logical name: eth0
version: 06
serial: 50:e5:49:c4:61:a0
size: 10Mbit/s
capacity: 1Gbit/s
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=half firmware=rtl8168e-3_0.0.4 03/27/12 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=MII speed=10Mbit/s
resources: irq:44 ioport:ae00(size=256) memory:fd8ff000-fd8fffff memory:fd8f8000-fd8fbfff
*-network
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 1
bus info: usb@2:4
logical name: wlan0
serial: 00:1c:df:31:9b:b0
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rt2800usb driverversion=3.2.0-24-generic firmware=0.29 ip=192.168.2.4 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn

[SecretCode]

OK, so it looks like a USB wireless card. That explains why it doesn't show up on lspci! But your lsusb listing also didn't show it, if I read correctly. That's odd.

Maybe it's disconnecting or something.

What is the output of

ifconfig wlan0

[Jeremy_Ray]

What is the output of

ifconfig wlan0

It's not a card per se but an antenna a couple inches long, like a Bluetooth antenna. 11.10 handled it automagically.

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1c:df:31:9b:b0
inet addr:192.168.2.4 Bcast:192.168.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::21c:dfff:fe31:9bb0/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:118035 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:75244 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:120323999 (120.3 MB) TX bytes:11657059 (11.6 MB)

[SecretCode]

Yes, I was using "card" rather loosely ... internally it must be wired into the USB system not PCI. And it ought to show up in lsusb.

Anyway, since it works some of the time this may be academic.

But one possibility occurs to me: since you found it originally only happening with Muon/apt, it could be related to large frames getting fragmented and the driver getting confused. Your MTU is 1500 (the default for Ethernet) but on some wireless networks I think it needs to be lower. If you know the IP address of your local gateway / router try this:

ping ip.address -c 1 -M do -s 1472

(1472 corresponds to a 1500 byte packet size, including 28 bytes of header)
If this gives an error (like "Frag needed and DF set") then your MTU needs to be set lower.

This is just a thought though.

[GreyGeek]

In addition to what SecretCode asked, what does

sudo ifconfig

and

sudo iwlist scanning

and

sudo iwconfig

show?