Hello!
I have an older Toshiba A210 laptop with Realtek 8187b wireless:
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bda:8197 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8187B Wireless Adapter
This chip is supported by the Linux kernel 2.6.27 and if the installer doesn’t install some firmware by itself it doesn’t require it. It works OOTB after installation, I didn’t have to install anything.
The problem is this:
It occasionally disconnects and cannot connect again. It doesn’t even scan for networks, either in the NetworkManager and iwlist wlan0 scan.
I run openSuse 11.4 with KDE 4.6, but this issue was present in openSuse 11.3 with either KDE 4.4 and 4.5.
There are two ways to reproduce it (I know about):
- Open anything that’s related to webcam (open Kopete settings, start Cheese):
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 04f2:b008 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd USB 2.0 Camera
- Plug in a MP3 player via USB (it behaves like a standard USB stick) and start Amarok. Amarok segfaults and wifi breaks. Running Audacious and playing music from the MP3 player is fine.
Reproducible: always
Here’s what I’ve been able to find out about it:
NetworkManager log (/var/log/NetworkManager)
Apr 8 15:30:48 Laptop NetworkManager[1273]: <info> WiFi now disabled by radio killswitch
Apr 8 15:30:48 Laptop NetworkManager[1273]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 8 -> 2 (reason 0)
Apr 8 15:30:48 Laptop NetworkManager[1273]: <info> (wlan0): deactivating device (reason: 0).
Apr 8 15:30:48 Laptop NetworkManager[1273]: <info> (wlan0): canceled DHCP transaction, DHCP client pid 2085
Apr 8 15:30:48 Laptop nm-dispatcher.action: Script '/etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/autofs' exited with error status 1.
dmesg:
153.712036] rtl8187: wireless radio switch turned off
153.712144] wlan0: deauthenticating from d8:5d:4c:d8:b3:4c by local choice (reason=3)
153.750112] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
153.757134] cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:
153.757140] cfg80211: (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
153.757143] cfg80211: (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
153.757147] cfg80211: (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
153.757150] cfg80211: (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
153.757153] cfg80211: (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
153.757156] cfg80211: (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
155.706071] uvcvideo: Failed to set UVC commit control : -108 (exp. 26).
155.706078] uvcvideo 1-8:1.1: resume error -5
ifconfig (note that wlan0 is missing):
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWadr 00:A0:D1:96:85:76
AKTIVOVÁNO VŠESMĚROVÉ_VYSÍLÁNÍ MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metrika:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 délka odchozí fronty:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Přerušení:43 Vstupně/Výstupní port:0x6000
lo Link encap:Místní smyčka
inet adr:127.0.0.1 Maska:255.0.0.0
AKTIVOVÁNO SMYČKA BĚŽÍ MTU:16436 Metrika:1
RX packets:106 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:106 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 délka odchozí fronty:0
RX bytes:9224 (9.0 Kb) TX bytes:9224 (9.0 Kb)
ifconfig wlan0 up:
Laptop:/home/tadeas # ifconfig wlan0 up
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Neznámá chyba 132
(i.e. Unknown error 132, sorry for the Czech)
After I try ifconfig wlan0 up (or ifup wlan0), nothing new appears in either NM log, dmesg or /var/log/messages.
You might note that the logs say “WiFi now disabled by radio killswitch”. But it has not, I haven’t touched the switch and the light on it is still on. Manually disabling it and re-enabling it doesn’t help.
Restarting the NM doesn’t help. I’ve tried to remove and again modprobe the rtl8187 kernel module, but it doesn’t help.
I can provide any additional informations given that the issue is reproducible.
Any ideas about what’s wrong and how to fix it?
Thanks in advance!