Flaky wireless with 12.2

English Network/Internet
1

Brand new installation (clean disk) of 12.2 on Dell Latitude D630; wireless connection works for a while, then nothing - DNS failures, timeouts, etc. Attempts to ping the AP give host unreachable. Then it starts working again. Lather, rinse, repeat. Same hardware works fine on 12.1.

Adapter:

gwb@gidney:~> lsusb | grep -i netw
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0b05:1786 ASUSTek Computer, Inc. USB-N10 802.11n Network Adapter [Realtek RTL8192SU]

During failure:

gwb@gidney:~> ping 192.168.1.1
PING 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
From 192.168.1.102 icmp_seq=1 Destination Host Unreachable
From 192.168.1.102 icmp_seq=2 Destination Host Unreachable
^C
--- 192.168.1.1 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 0 received, +2 errors, 100% packet loss, time 3000ms

From dmesg:

   24.708512] r8712u: CustomerID = 0x0010
   24.708516] r8712u: MAC Address from efuse = c8:60:00:5d:48:dc
   24.708518] r8712u: Loading firmware from "rtlwifi/rtl8712u.bin"
   24.708598] usbcore: registered new interface driver r8712u

Where do I look?

PS: Saw this once or twice on RC2, but today (on GM) it’s been up/down about 5 times.

2

On 09/05/2012 03:36 PM, GeoBaltz wrote:
>
> Brand new installation (clean disk) of 12.2 on Dell Latitude D630;
> wireless connection works for a while, then nothing - DNS failures,
> timeouts, etc. Attempts to ping the AP give host unreachable. Then it
> starts working again. Lather, rinse, repeat. Same hardware works fine
> on 12.1.
>
> Adapter:
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> gwb@gidney:~> lsusb | grep -i netw
> Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0b05:1786 ASUSTek Computer, Inc. USB-N10 802.11n Network Adapter [Realtek RTL8192SU]
>
> --------------------
>
>
> During failure:
> Code:
> --------------------
> gwb@gidney:~> ping 192.168.1.1
> PING 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
> From 192.168.1.102 icmp_seq=1 Destination Host Unreachable
> From 192.168.1.102 icmp_seq=2 Destination Host Unreachable
> ^C
> — 192.168.1.1 ping statistics —
> 4 packets transmitted, 0 received, +2 errors, 100% packet loss, time 3000ms
>
> --------------------
>
>
> From dmesg:
> Code:
> --------------------
> 24.708512] r8712u: CustomerID = 0x0010
> 24.708516] r8712u: MAC Address from efuse = c8:60:00:5d:48:dc
> 24.708518] r8712u: Loading firmware from “rtlwifi/rtl8712u.bin”
> 24.708598] usbcore: registered new interface driver r8712u
>
> --------------------
>
>
> Where do I look?
>
> PS: Saw this once or twice on RC2, but today (on GM) it’s been up/down
> about 5 times.

What kernel and desktop?

3

I highly recommended, if you have not already done so, read through the following two links.

http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/wireless/391535-my-wireless-doesnt-work-primer-what-i-should-do-next.html

http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/wireless/410319-getting-your-wireless-work.html

Thank You,

4

Clean(default) install of 12.2 so 3.4(.6?) and KDE 4.8.4.

5

Now that I’m back on the system in question, I found another tidbit:

gwb@gidney:~> dmesg | grep r8712
   27.496490] r8712u: module is from the staging directory, the quality is unknown, you have been warned.
   27.497058] r8712u: DriverVersion: v7_0.20100831
   27.497080] r8712u: register rtl8712_netdev_ops to netdev_ops
   27.497083] r8712u: USB_SPEED_HIGH with 4 endpoints
   27.497692] r8712u: Boot from EFUSE: Autoload OK
   28.105555] r8712u: CustomerID = 0x0010
   28.105558] r8712u: MAC Address from efuse = c8:60:00:5d:48:dc
   28.105560] r8712u: Loading firmware from "rtlwifi/rtl8712u.bin"
   28.105794] usbcore: registered new interface driver r8712u
   48.441569] r8712u: 1 RCR=0x153f00e
   48.442316] r8712u: 2 RCR=0x553f00e

Does that first line mean what I think it means? Do I have to find a newer driver for this adapter?

6

Please post your ‘ifconfig’ output, iwconfig wlan0 and the resolv.conf & network/interfaces (under /etc) and lets see if anything there tells us something. By the way, you did not say if your read through those two links. Please confirm that you have done so.

If we don’t find anything here, it could be worthwhile to try a newer kernel. Kernel 3.4 is up to 3.4.10, 3.5 is up to 3.5.3 and either might be worthwhile to try:

S.A.K.C. - SUSE Automated Kernel Compiler - Version 2.76 - Blogs - openSUSE Forums

Make sure read through the whole blog before you go any further with a newer kernel.

Thank You,

7

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I’m going to join in here as a person needing help; perhaps my issue is
the same but if not I’ll start a new thread.

First, this is a new laptop with the following as seen from /sbin/lspci:

Code:

04:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188CE
802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter (rev 01)

The following is my wireless setup at home:

Code:

ab@ablaptop0:~/Desktop> ip addr
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 16436 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
2: eth0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast
state DOWN qlen 1000
link/ether 00:90:f5:d3:b1:43 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP
qlen 1000
link/ether 94:db:c9:50:6b:fb brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 192.168.1.2/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global wlan0
16: virbr0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue
state DOWN
link/ether 52:54:00:5f:b8:0d brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 192.168.200.1/24 brd 192.168.200.255 scope global virbr0
17: virbr0-nic: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop master virbr0
state DOWN qlen 500
link/ether 52:54:00:5f:b8:0d brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Code:

ab@ablaptop0:~/Desktop> ip route
default via 192.168.1.1 dev wlan0 proto static
192.168.1.0/24 dev wlan0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.2
192.168.200.0/24 dev virbr0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.200.1

My /etc/resolv.conf has one uncommented line:

nameserver 192.168.1.1

This, as you can see, is also my gateway, and it’s a little NetGear
router/switch/WAP that I’ve had forever. In my home I also have two
other laptops, both on OpenSUSE 12.1 with various types of NICs, the
same routes and resolv.conf files, but (of course) different IPs. Both
have been running for the better part of this calendar year without
related issues.

After installing 12.2 RC2 on my new box last week, and then using the
update channels early last week to get to whatever was current in them,
I started to notice odd things at home. I have only been able to narrow
down this ‘flakiness’ to my home connection when I am upstairs doing a
lot of something over wireless. My favorite way to cause myself
problems is to fire up Pidgin and login to a network. If I do so from
the downstairs next to the access point, no problems. If I used wired,
no problems. If I use my older laptop anywhere at all, no problems. If
I use the other laptop in the house from anywhere, no problems. It is
only this laptop (which happens to be the only one on 12.2 right now)
when doing things that seem to cause a load from a decent distance that
otherwise works for every other box. When the problem manifests itself
I lose the ability to get responses (per a LAN trace) from the
router/WAP box; ICMP echo requests show up in my laptops LAN trace, but
they never get any responses. ARP requests (which eventually get sent
out) go unanswered. ‘ping’ shows a lot of ‘destination host
unreachable’; of course pings to the outside world also fail when done
by IP address.

This box has all current patches and as such is on the
3.4.6-2.10-desktop kernel.

This really seems like an inability of the new system to handle some
dropped packets or something; I haven’t been able to get a LAN trace
from the router (no idea if it can even do that) and haven’t tried from
another system (not sure if they can be that promiscuous) but I am
assuming my packets are making it out of my box to the router. I have a
wired server I’ll see if I can use for verification of that assumption
the next time I cause the problem. Unfortunately for testing I am not
willing to revert installations to 12.1 on this box, I do not have time
to push the 12.1 box up to 12.2 (going away tomorrow), and the other
12.1 box probably won’t be upgraded for a bit, but who knows if it will
even duplicate due to different NICs and drivers. I would also really
prefer to try a custom compiled kernel since this box is used almost
every single day for work and if I somehow lost access to it it would be
very painful to recover (full disk encryption makes me a little more
careful than I would be otherwise because recovering takes a little more
work).

So there you go; any ideas for troubleshooting?

Good luck.
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8

I’d love to, but now I can’t keep a connection alive from that system long enough to do so. Posting this from my wired 11.4 system. I don’t think there anything unusual there, though.

By the way, you did not say if your read through those two links. Please confirm that you have done so.

BTDTGtTS

If we don’t find anything here, it could be worthwhile to try a newer kernel. Kernel 3.4 is up to 3.4.10, 3.5 is up to 3.5.3 and either might be worthwhile to try:

S.A.K.C. - SUSE Automated Kernel Compiler - Version 2.76 - Blogs - openSUSE Forums

Make sure read through the whole blog before you go any further with a newer kernel.

Thank You,

Wait a minute. I have a serious regression in a one day old release, and you’re telling me to throw random kernels at the problem? Puhleeze.
Let’s see if there is a simpler and more targeted solution. If I need a newer kernel, then so be it; but it’s going to be a lot simpler for future sufferers of this problem if we know exactly what is needed to fix it, and a lot easier to get a fix pushed through the normal update channel.

It does look like ab and I have the same problem. One of the reasons I have disabled the internal wifi and am using this USB dongle is the internal one had some speed problems; maybe the signal strength where I usually work is marginal. But again, this setup works perfectly on 12.1. In the morning I’ll drag the laptop closer to the router and try it.

9

Two more pieces of information: I move the laptop to about 3m from the router - same problem. Then I went back to the original location and booted a 12.2beta2 KDE Live system(kernel 3.4.2 and I believe different firmware) from a USB stick - surfed for about 30 min(including posting this) with no problem.

10

On 09/07/2012 06:16 PM, GeoBaltz wrote:
>
> Two more pieces of information: I move the laptop to about 3m from the
> router - same problem. Then I went back to the original location and
> booted a 12.2beta2 KDE Live system(kernel 3.4.2) from a USB stick -
> surfed for about 30 min(including posting this) with no problem.

What happens if you add the wireless repo and add the compat-wireless package
for your kernel?

11

I can try that in the morning. But what I came up with (in my Nyquil-induced stupor - fighting a brand new cold) was to punt on the firmware.

Replaced /lib/firmware/rtlwifi/r8712u.bin with the same file from 12.1, and so far so good - 20 min with no hiccups.

12

On 09/08/2012 02:16 AM, GeoBaltz wrote:
>
> lwfinger;2484755 Wrote:
>> On 09/07/2012 06:16 PM, GeoBaltz wrote:
>>
>> What happens if you add the wireless repo and add the compat-wireless
>> package
>> for your kernel?
>
> I can try that in the morning. But what I came up with (in my
> Nyquil-induced stupor - fighting a brand new cold) was to punt on the
> firmware.
>
> Replaced /lib/firmware/rtlwifi/r8712u.bin with the same file from 12.1,
> and so far so good - 20 min with no hiccups.

What is the md5sum for the firmware that works, and the one that does not (if
you saved it)? The “official” copy has the following hash:

c6f3b7b880aefb7b3f249428d659bdbb /lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8712u.bin

As long as it is working, you do not need to try compat-wireless.

13 
gwb@gidney:~> cd /lib/firmware/rtlwifi
gwb@gidney:/lib/firmware/rtlwifi> md5sum rtl8712u*
8e6396b5844a3e279ae8679555dec3f0  rtl8712u.bin
c6f3b7b880aefb7b3f249428d659bdbb  rtl8712u.bin.12.2

Looks like the 12.2 version is intact (but borken). All I will do now is keep on using this laptop and see if it hangs again.

14

Hello, I know this thread may be a bit stale, but I’d like to chime in anyway as I’ve been experienceing exactly the same wireless dropping out symptoms since I performed a clean install of opensuse 12.2 last week (Nov. 14).

The problem I’m experienceing occurs with both an ASUS b/g/n USB device and the realtek device built into my ASUS PW5-DH mainboard. The system has the software from the NOSS CD installed, has been patched with all updates (though the process was rather long as I have to disable and re-enable wireless every 5 to 10 minutes then re-authorize with KWallet) and aside from that only has Wine, VLC and nVidia drivers (304) installed.

No problems occur under Windows 7 and wireless was rock stable under opensuse 11.4 (the release I was using until this november).

Has there been any progress with this issue?

Thanks!

Gilbert