[12.2 KDE, AR9285] Extremely Unstable Connection - already tried nm-applet & nohwcrypt

English Network/Internet
#1

Hello,

Thank you in advance, because the post will be pretty long, I think xD

I have returned to OpenSUSE after a hiatus! Unfortunately, I am already running into a significant problem with wireless connection. Details:

OS
OpenSUSE 12.2 - clean install, entire HD

Desktop
KDE

Updated?
No

Software Added after OS Installation
None

Symptoms
Wireless connection extremely unstable.
Of the three connection points that should be available (one of which is an open guest access point), one is consistently absent, with the other two consistently at <50% signal strength. Once connected, the quality of the connection fluctuates wildly, dropping and coming back at random, but short intervals. Occasionally, the connection fails altogether, and the access point disappears from Network Manager, not appearing again for an indeterminable period of time (usually after several restarts).
The unprotected guest access point seems to be the most stable.

Comparison

  • Another laptop in the same location, running Windows XP, can utilize all three access points without trouble.
  • Cellphones in the same location can utilize all three access points mostly without trouble (depending on the cellphone).
  • This laptop could utilize all three access points without trouble when running Windows 7 (which is no longer installed), though the one consistently absent in OpenSUSE did appear to have a significantly weaker signal.
  • OpenSUSE 12.2 Gnome seems to offer slight improvement, but it may have been luck, as the random drops and disappearances still occurred, albeit at a lower frequency.
  • Mageia 2 KDE fails to even get past network configuration during install.
  • Linux Mint 14, both Cinnamon and KDE, seems to offer great connectivity. There had been no drops, only occasional, but acceptable slow-downs.

Remedies Already Attempted

  • Created /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf, with line “options ath9k nowcrypt=1”; no observable effects, though the complete failure and disappearance of access points has not yet happened after this had been done
  • replaced the KDE Network Manager with the Gnome one. No improvement whatsoever. Currently switched back to KDE.

Additional Information
/usr/bin/lsusb

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 1058:1042 Western Digital Technologies, Inc.
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0402:7675 ALi Corp.
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 062a:0000 Creative Labs Optical mouse
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:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

/sbin/lspci

-snip-
06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR8152 v2.0 Fast Ethernet (rev c1)
07:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)

/sinb/lspci -n

06:00.0 0200: 1969:2062 (rev c1)
07:00.0 0280: 168c:002b (rev 01)

dmesg

( 13.701308) ieee80211 phy0: Atheros AR9285 Rev:2 mem=0xffffc900050c0000, irq=19

/usr/sbin/iwconfig

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:“ShinyWillow”
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: BC:14:01:24:9A:38
Bit Rate=52 Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=40/70 Signal level=-70 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:164 Invalid misc:12 Missed beacon:0

#2

On 03/03/2013 06:46 PM, cometbah wrote:

The standard advice when someone has wifi connection problems is to use the
latest version of the drivers. To do that, install the version of
compat-wireless for your kernel.

#3

Thank you very much for the reply!

I have installed compat-wireless 3.7.

Things seem to have been going smoothly! The weaker access point is still not detectable, and there are occasional spikes of speed reduction, but the connection has not dropped completely for the past 3 hours.

More updates to come tomorrow.

#4

On 03/04/2013 01:46 AM, cometbah wrote:
> Updated?
> No

open and run YaST Online Update (YOU)…

ignore apper/packagekit…or just use it to tell you that you have
updates waiting…THEN run YOU.

–
dd
http://tinyurl.com/DD-Caveat

#5

Update:

The connection last night had been stable enough for me to have updated the system (almost 200 individual updates!)

However, the random connection failures are back for tonight…

I have yet to see a complete failure and disappearance of the access point, but the connection has reset itself (and immediately reconnected) at least 10 times in the past 2 hours or so. When there *is *connection, the stability and speed are both abysmal.

#6

On 03/04/2013 07:36 PM, cometbah wrote:
>
> Update:
>
> The connection last night had been stable enough for me to have updated
> the system (almost 200 individual updates!)
>
> However, the random connection failures are back for tonight…
>
> I have yet to see a complete failure and disappearance of the access
> point, but the connection has reset itself (and immediately reconnected)
> at least 10 times in the past 2 hours or so. When there -is -connection,
> the stability and speed are both abysmal.

Keep in mind that you installed the 3.7 version of compat-drivers. The current
version has the material in 3.9 - 3.10.

#7

hmm… where would one find the most up to date version? ^^u

The most up-to-date version, according to software.opensuse.org and a wiki, seems to be 3.7…

I am very much a beginner, and may have had trouble looking in the right places.

Update of status:
The connection has been severely unstable (unusable, actually) for a few hours, with mostly non-existent connection, and random spikes of full speed once every few minutes (?).
From approximately half an hour ago, however, things seem to have been going perfectly… I do not understand why, as I have done nothing but listen to some music ._. (the power of art!)

#8

On 03/04/2013 10:26 PM, cometbah wrote:
> hmm… where would one find the most up to date version? ^^u
>
> The most up-to-date version, according to software.opensuse.org and a
> wiki, seems to be 3.7…
>
> I am very much a beginner, and may have had trouble looking in the
> right places.
>
> Update of status:
> The connection has been severely unstable (unusable, actually) for a
> few hours, with mostly non-existent connection, and random spikes of
> full speed once every few minutes (?).
> From approximately half an hour ago, however, things seem to have been
> going perfectly… I do not understand why, as I have done nothing but
> listen to some music ._. (the power of art!)

Obviously, it was not the music. Have you done a survey of your site with
iwlist? How much interference is there? Have you tried a different channel? Do
you know how to pick the proper channel for your device?

If you truly want the latest version of the driver for your device, you will
need to build it from source.

#9

I don’t know how to pick channels on OpenSUSE (or anything else for that matter ^^u), but I am not sure whether it is the wireless network itself that is the problem…

This same computer, when running Windows 7, encounters no problems. Another computer (also Windows) operating at the same location and using the same network encounters no problem. Cellphones (Symbian? and Android) operating at the same location using the same network encounter no problems.

Unless I am not receiving on the proper channel on OpenSUSE, whereas the other OS’s auto-find the proper channel? (does it even work that way…? haha…)

Symptom update:

Wireless was unusable last night, but perfectly smooth tonight (at least during the 20 minutes I have been using it)

#10

On 03/06/2013 08:26 PM, cometbah wrote:
>
> I don’t know how to pick channels on OpenSUSE (or anything else for that
> matter ^^u), but I am not sure whether it is the wireless network itself
> that is the problem…

The first step would have been to run the scan the way I asked you to do.

> This same computer, when running Windows 7, encounters no problems.
> Another computer (also Windows) operating at the same location and using
> the same network encounters no problem. Cellphones (Symbian? and
> Android) operating at the same location using the same network encounter
> no problems.

Differnet driver - all bets are off.

> Unless I am not receiving on the proper channel on OpenSUSE, whereas
> the other OS’s auto-find the proper channel? (does it even work that
> way…? haha…)

No.

> Symptom update:
>
> Wireless was unusable last night, but perfectly smooth tonight (at
> least during the 20 minutes I have been using it)

You probably have some source of interference that is intermittent.

#11

On 03/07/2013 03:26 AM, cometbah wrote:
> Wireless was unusable last night, but perfectly smooth tonight (at
> least during the 20 minutes I have been using it)

that would tend to indicate that your machine hardware and its
software and set up is ok…but something else is not, like:

something is wrong with the access point [AP] (whatever it is that
your machine is connecting with, through the air)… is that AP owned
by you, paid for by you and sitting in the same room as you [the
wi-fi radio waves do NOT go though walls so well]

so, is the AP nearby and reliable?

or is it in (say) in a neighbor’s house/appartment…or in a
McDonalds or in anyway a ‘public’ access gateway [like a college dorm
or library]…if so, you can expect the service provided to vary from
day to day and minute to minute as more people join or leave the same
(limited bandwidth) AP…

or, as trucks/trains/whatever move between you and the AP…

–
dd
openSUSE®, the “German Engineered Automobile” of operating systems!

#12

Thank you for all the replies =D

It is two floors down… which, admittedly, is not the best location, and does not provide the best signal strengths, but had generally been usable with other devices/systems.

I will try using the computer close to the signal for a few days and report back on what happens =)

>
> I don’t know how to pick channels on OpenSUSE (or anything else for that
> matter ^^u), but I am not sure whether it is the wireless network itself
> that is the problem…

The first step would have been to run the scan the way I asked you to do.

Typing ‘iwlist wlan0 channel’ returns the following (after a bit of self-learning, I think this was what you wanted ^^u):

wlan0 11 channels in total; available frequencies :
Channel 01 : 2.412 GHz
Channel 02 : 2.417 GHz
Channel 03 : 2.422 GHz
Channel 04 : 2.427 GHz
Channel 05 : 2.432 GHz
Channel 06 : 2.437 GHz
Channel 07 : 2.442 GHz
Channel 08 : 2.447 GHz
Channel 09 : 2.452 GHz
Channel 10 : 2.457 GHz
Channel 11 : 2.462 GHz
Current Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)

How would I determine whether there is interference…?

From what I understand, Channel 1 and 11 are (statistically) the best channels to be on, because there is a relatively low number of channels overlapping with them…?

#13

On 03/07/2013 08:46 PM, cometbah wrote:
>
> Thank you for all the replies =D
>
> dd;2532725 Wrote:
>> On 03/07/2013 03:26 AM, cometbah wrote:
>>> Wireless was unusable last night, but perfectly smooth tonight (at
>>> least during the 20 minutes I have been using it)
>>
>> that would tend to indicate that your machine hardware and its
>> software and set up is ok…but something else is not, like:
>>
>> something is wrong with the access point [AP] (whatever it is that
>> your machine is connecting with, through the air)… is that AP owned
>> by you, paid for by you and sitting in the same room as you [the
>> wi-fi radio waves do NOT go though walls so well]
>>
>> so, is the AP nearby and reliable?
>>
>> or is it in (say) in a neighbor’s house/appartment…or in a
>> McDonalds or in anyway a ‘public’ access gateway [like a college dorm
>> or library]…if so, you can expect the service provided to vary from
>> day to day and minute to minute as more people join or leave the same
>> (limited bandwidth) AP…
>>
>> or, as trucks/trains/whatever move between you and the AP…
>>
>> –
>> dd
>> openSUSE®, the “German Engineered Automobile” of operating systems!
>
> It is two floors down… which, admittedly, is not the best location,
> and does not provide the best signal strengths, but had generally been
> usable with other devices/systems.
>
> I will try using the computer close to the signal for a few days and
> report back on what happens =)
>
>>>
>>> I don’t know how to pick channels on OpenSUSE (or anything else for
>> that
>>> matter ^^u), but I am not sure whether it is the wireless network
>> itself
>>> that is the problem…
>>
>> The first step would have been to run the scan the way I asked you to
>> do.
>
> Typing ‘iwlist wlan0 channel’ returns the following (after a bit of
> self-learning, I think this was what you wanted ^^u):
>
> wlan0 11 channels in total; available frequencies :
> Channel 01 : 2.412 GHz
> Channel 02 : 2.417 GHz
>
> Channel 03 : 2.422 GHz
>
> Channel 04 : 2.427 GHz
>
> Channel 05 : 2.432 GHz
>
> Channel 06 : 2.437 GHz
>
> Channel 07 : 2.442 GHz
> Channel 08 : 2.447 GHz
> Channel 09 : 2.452 GHz
> Channel 10 : 2.457 GHz
> Channel 11 : 2.462 GHz
> Current Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
>
> How would I determine whether there is interference…?
>
> From what I understand, Channel 1 and 11 are (statistically) the best
> channels to be on, because there is a relatively low number of channels
> overlapping with them…?

The use of ‘man iwlist’ would have told you quickly that you needed to run ‘sudo
iwlist wlan0 scan’ to find all the APs in your neighborhood, and list their
strengths.

Channels 1, 6, and 11 are the clear channels - most routers that are just
plugged in without configuration tend to be on 6, thus 1 and 11 are probably
better choices, but that depends on your neighborhood.