Wireless Issues, frequent disconnects and low performance

[nemesys]

Hello all:

I am having problems with the wireless on my new laptop with new Kubuntu install. During setup and in the Live USB, the wireless worked flawlessly.

Now, my connection is performing extremely poorly and slowly, and I am getting disconnects every 1-30 minutes or so. Half the time it asks me for the password again even though I have saved it and enabled the connection for all users. An error shows up half the time on disconnect: "Authorization supplicant timed out." When it disconnects I have to disable and reenable the wireless card using the airplane mode key in order for it to see my router's SSID again. Sometimes it connects instantly, other times it takes a few minutes. It does not matter if I am 6 feet away from my router. I am using an ethernet cable now but this is not an option for me most of the time.

I was wary to just go trying random fixes without knowing what I am actually doing. I am concerned with making any changes that will affect my security in any way as I noticed a common fix seemed to be to turn off hardware encryption.

Here are a few of my machine specs:

Kubuntu 13.10
KDELibs Version 4.11.5
QT Version 4.8.4
Kernel Version 3.11.0-18-generic
64-bit
Grep Version 0.97-29ubuntu66
Lenovo Ideapad S510p Touch <Linux Only>
Processor - 4x Intel Core i5=42000U CPU - 1.60GHz 32/64-bit
6 Gig Ram
Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
1TB HD ST1000LM024 HN-M Rev:2BA3


02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter [168c:0036] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:3026]
Kernel driver in use: ath9k
03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Qualcomm Atheros QCA8172 Fast Ethernet [1969:10a0] (rev 10)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:3807]
Kernel driver in use: alx

About me:
I am probably what I would call an advanced beginner, I have been using Linux off since 1998, constantly moving toward making it my sole OS. I am pretty technically oriented and have worked in various IT capacities over the years. That said, what I know about Linux fits on the head of a pin and I am very humble about that. I am happy to be on this forum, this is my first post, and I am grateful help. I hope that as I progress I can contribute more to the community effort.

Thank you,
nemesys

[nemesys]

other preformance issues

I also wanted to add that it seems like my overall performance in the KDE environment is pretty poor too. I have experienced a lot of processes hanging up, especially web browsers. I can't help but think this may be related to the wireless issue.

thanks!

-------------------------------------------

KDELibs Version 4.11.5
QT Version 4.8.4
Kernel Version 3.11.0-18-generic
64-bit
Grep Version 0.97-29ubuntu66
Lenovo Ideapad S510p Touch <Linux Only>
Processor - 4x Intel Core i5=42000U CPU - 1.60GHz 32/64-bit
6 Gig Ram
Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
1TB HD ST1000LM024 HN-M Rev:2BA3


02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter [168c:0036] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:3026]
Kernel driver in use: ath9k
03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Qualcomm Atheros QCA8172 Fast Ethernet [1969:10a0] (rev 10)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:3807]
Kernel driver in use: alx

[nemesys]

more info:

*-network
description: Wireless interface
product: QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter
vendor: Qualcomm Atheros
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
logical name: wlan0
version: 01
serial: 40:f0:2f:ca:53:f4
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath9k driverversion=3.11.0-18-generic firmware=N/A ip=192.168.1.23 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn
resources: irq:18 memory:e0500000-e057ffff memory:cff00000-cff0ffff
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: QCA8172 Fast Ethernet
vendor: Qualcomm Atheros
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
logical name: eth0
version: 10
serial: 3c:97:0e:e8:88:c8
size: 100Mbit/s
capacity: 100Mbit/s
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm pciexpress msi msix bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=alx duplex=full ip=192.168.1.11 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100Mbit/s
resources: irq:62 memory:e0400000-e043ffff ioport:3000(size=128)


I'm still waiting for a syslog when it disconnects.

[nemesys]

I'm not sure what do grab from the syslog and what to omit for privacy, any ideas? I'm getting desperate, wirless won't stay connected longer that 1 minute. I may need to try another distro if I can't get this going, which I would hate to do since KDE is my favorite.

[nemesys]

Hello out there! Any opinions, should I try the nohwcrypt=1 fix going around?

[nemesys]

OK, well here is what tried. I created /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf containing the line "options ath9k nohwcrypt=1"

Didn't help so I uninstalled and reinstalled network-manager. Didn't help. Wireless continually disconnects 3 ft from the wireless router.

Well, I'm at my wits end but I also have to get up at 5am for work so I might just call it a day. Hopefully what I have put here gives any generous soul who wants to help something to work with.

Cheers!

[dequire]

Not 100% sure, but maybe trying the solution shown over on AskUbuntnu would be beneficial for you to at least try (hey it can't hurt!).

http://askubuntu.com/questions/33972...after-updating

[GreyGeek]

I had the exact same problem with Precise. After running smoothly for two years a kernel regression caused my AR9462 wireless chip to misbehave exactly like yours is doing. First, I used "modinfo ath9k" and played with all of the parms, and those of mac80211 and cfg80211. Nothing helped.

I kept upgrading to more recent kernel until the liquorice 3.9.x kernel, which worked great. The 3.11 kernel worked even better. I switched back to Kubuntu by installing the 14.04 Alpha because it has the 3.12 kernel, which worked fantastic, not only in terms of the wireless but also the intel video i915 driver. Currently Trusty Tare is at 3.13.0-16-generic #36-Ubuntu SMP.

[nemesys]

a little update. Since I accidentally killed the Windows 8.1 install on this machine and I thought I wanted to return it, I wiped Kubuntu, reinstalled 8.1, and then installed Ubuntu to give it a whirl. Once again, wireless worked flawlessly until the install was done. Then, it went back to the constant disconnect. I have a feeling this problem is going to follow me and force me to become much more proficient in Linux. I have been reading a tiny bit about these "backports" and I haven't spent enough time to understand anything yet. What I gather is that somehow it has something to do with installing a newer driver? I am starting to grasp after all these years that the Linux community, while helpful, really demands that a user be really willing to do a LOT of research and work themselves. You can't just expect someone to come along and give you the answer always. A lot like life itself. Any tips on next steps or areas of research are appreciated. Thanks to those who responded, I will have to spend some time doing research when I can squeeze out the time. I hope this thread stays open because if I can figure this out it can help anyone else who has my model of laptop and wants to run Linux.

[GreyGeek]

You can avoid "backports" by using Trusty Tahr. It just upgraded to the 3.13.0-17 kernel.

Here is information on "back porting" and "long term release" and "distribution" kernels: https://www.kernel.org/category/releases.html

Information about the latest STABLE release is on the front page of that web site: https://www.kernel.org/

mainline:	3.14-rc6	2014-03-10
stable:	3.13.6	2014-03-07
stable:	3.11.10 [EOL]	2013-11-29
longterm:	3.12.14	2014-03-10
longterm:	3.10.33	2014-03-07
longterm:	3.4.83	2014-03-11
longterm:	3.2.55	2014-02-15
longterm:	2.6.34.15 [EOL]	2014-02-10
longterm:	2.6.32.61	2013-06-10
linux-next:	next-20140311	2014-03-12

[nemesys]

Here's a big update - It seems my Zyxel Wireless router might be the problem. I have had connectivity at several public spots with various Ubuntu variants today. I am likely going to try to return this laptop or sell it, but before I do I wouldn't mind testing the wifi in a lot of public settings just to make sure it was really my router after all. This is such good news for me as with my last laptop I had constant problems with Linux and the Broadcom 4311 chipset. In the meantime, I installed Trusty Tahr and I actually am starting to like it, in spite of being a former Gnome hater. I really think in the end I am going to become a distro geek. I love all thee flavors so much. BUT, I must say KDE still comes out on top for me in terms of tweakability.