Maintaining WiFi Connection in openSUSE 11.4

English Network/Internet
#1

I didn’t get any help with earlier posting but have continued trying to solve problem using all the advice and info here.

I have a dual boot laptop and when I boot to Windoze XP my wifi connection is now fine. However if I boot to openSUSE 11.4 the wifi connection made with Network Manager is deauthenticated a short time after completing the process and the handshake starts over.

I read that AppArmor can cause some problems with samba and as I have samba and nfs shares set up on the system I am wondering if AppArmor might have something to do with the deautentication. From the log messages they certainly suggests to me the issue may be associated with security.

Grateful if somebody could illuminate/advise.
Regards,
Budgie2

#2

So you could have more than one issue. Here is a message on fixing the Samba nmb problem.

Samba set up : nmb is not starting

Next, tell us more about your Wireless hardware. I have a bash script that might help flush out a wireless issue:

netinfo - Read Network & PC Information into a Local Text File

Thank You,

#3

I didn’t respond to your earlier thread, because I did not know what was the problem. And I still don’t know. But at least you can now see that people are looking at your posts and scratching their heads.

I am doubting that this is an AppArmor problem. I have AppArmor turned on, and am not experiencing the same problem.

Are you using knetworkmanager, or the plasmoid network manager, or the gnome applet (nm-applet, also used by XFCE and LXDE)?

I suggest that you temporarily turn off the WPA, and run an open network. This is just for testing. If you cannot even connect with an open network, then that says something about the problem.

On a couple of occasions, I have seen behavior that sounds a bit similar to what you are seeing. But when that happened, it also happened in Windows, and rebooting my WiFi router solved the problem.

#4

Hi,

I have the same problem - I have entered my wireless credentials and it my system continually re-prompts for my password. If I reboot and unplug my wired connection however, then my internet works fine for a few seconds (enabling me to browser sites and the like) but then immediately stops.

If someone can tell me what info to provide and how to get those details from my laptop then I will duly post it all below. I’m running Opensuse 11.4 with KDE.

#5

Hi and thanks for the suggested script. I have run it and will post but need reminder on how to find susepaste please.

#6

Hi and many thanks for the reply and assurance that my pleas are heard!
Since my first posting I have tried turning off AppArmor and this didn’t help so will forget that.
I am using plasmoid network manager at present.
I think I have several problems as wife’s XP laptop has shown similar symptoms. Rebooting the AP seems to help for a while. As far as I can tell the problems are with the networking and possibly with the security. I am not getting wan connection even when I can ping gateway and some of the logs are showing deauthentification immediately after connection process has been completed. I suspect rf interference although I have maximum channel separation between wifi devices. If this proves to be the cause of the instability then I need to harden my installation somehow.
I shall post the results from the shell script suggested above. I have another shell script "collectNWData.sh which gives additional data and shall post the results of that as well.
Meanwhile I shall remove all security and try that.
I was going to switch to 802.11a in 5Ghz band but wife’s laptop is only b/g. I shall try it with my laptop and see if situation improves.
Will report back. Probably using copper connection because it is a real pain trying to get this posted using wifi.
Thanks meanwhile.
Budgie2

#7

Hi all,

By a process of elimination, turning wifi devices off in turn I have found that my main problem was being caused by one wireless device which is configured as a Client Bridge. I assumed rf interference but using scanning software the channel separation was clearly OK and there were no odd blips which might have caused problem, Further testing using 5GHz as well as 2.4GHz connections demonstrated that the Client Bridge device was interfering with the network but NOT due to rf. There was clearly a network configuration issue.

Further research indicated that although the web based configuration pages for the Client Bridge had input menu for gateway IP, Primary and Seconary DNS addresses, the DNS should be not be set on that device. This is because they are dealt with at the subnet gateway device. Setting these to all zeros eliminated the main problem and laptops remained connected for several hours without a break after this change.

There have been a couple of disconnections since but I cannot pin these down to any particular cause. There is a good deal of discussion on several forums which feature the same disassociation/deauthentication messages I get from dmesg and /var/log/NetworkManager and some of these suggest a bug in NetworkManager. I would like to try to connect using ifup to see if the problem repeats. Will seek help if I cannot connect but meanwhile I think this thread should be marked SOLVED. Sorry I don’t know how to do this.

I shall start a new thread when I have done further work but at least now I can post this using wifi without problems.
Thanks for the replies and diagnostic pointers.
Budgie2

#8

Thanks for the update.

#9

Hi again,
Posted my last info too soon it seems. Symptoms still present with disassociation and deauthentication still taking place at regular intervals.

BTW what are the numbers that start each line in the dmesg output?

Further testing has shown that problem continues even when wifi is set up using ifup and I cannot detect any difference whether I use ifup or NetworkManager.

I turned off access control and encryption to create an open connection and this appeared to resulted in a reduced frequency of deassociation but I have not been able to measure this. Also the problem seems worse after some time has elapsed and every time I change the AP setup the rebooting makes things better temporarily which may be masking the issues.

In order to eliminate a possible hardware issue in the AP such as overheating I swapped APs for an identical brand new model but this didn’t help.

A message on wifes XP laptop log, which also exhibits the same symptoms, referred to a failure of a dynamic dns query but I do not have dynamic dns anywhere that I know of.

So I think now is the time to start posting some outputs from various log files if there is somebody who has time to look at them and suggest which I should post first. Once more how do I get to susepaste?

Regards,
Budgie2

#10

On 06/26/2011 07:06 PM, Budgie2 wrote:

The numbers in the dmesg output are the time in seconds since the system was booted.

Google’s first entry for a seach on “susepaste” is http://susepaste.org/!

As both Linux and Windows exhibit the same loss of connection, your AP looks to
be guilty. As replacing it did not change the symptoms, it may have a firmware
problem. Some vendors have a difficult time getting their code right.

Posting the portion of the dmesg output that shows the reason for disconnects
should be helpful. That should be short enough to post inline.

#11

Hi and thanks for the susepaste link. I was looking on the forum header!!! Elapsed time in seconds since booting makes sense but also tells me the association cycling is at times taking place every seven seconds.

Here is a typical extract from one deauthentication to the next.

 1632.572937] wlan0: deauthenticated from 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 (Reason: 2)
 1632.573724] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
 1632.585001] cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:
 1632.585010]     (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
 1632.585021]     (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
 1632.585031]     (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
 1632.585041]     (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
 1632.585051]     (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
 1632.585061]     (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
 1636.158311] wlan0: authenticate with 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 (try 1)
 1636.164118] wlan0: authenticated
 1636.164313] wlan0: associate with 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 (try 1)
 1636.173434] wlan0: RX ReassocResp from 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 (capab=0x411 status=0 aid=1)
 1636.173444] wlan0: associated
 1636.175299] cfg80211: Calling CRDA for country: DE
 1636.189542] cfg80211: Regulatory domain changed to country: DE
 1636.189552]     (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
 1636.189562]     (2400000 KHz - 2483500 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm)
 1636.189571]     (5150000 KHz - 5350000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm)
 1636.189580]     (5470000 KHz - 5725000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2698 mBm)
 1639.215560] wlan0: deauthenticated from 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 (Reason: 2)

I am still testing options. The connection is now with ifup and with fixed IP but symptoms continue.
I shall change my country setting to Germany just in case the country code is cause but I think not, as problem persists even with country (on AP setting) set to none.

Also strange, if I change wifi link to 802.11a (5GHz) the problem still continues but if I turn off another AP (on a different sub-net,) which is only capable of 802.11 b/g, the symptom ceases. At least I think so. Trouble is after rebooting APs problem is less and takes a while to build up so I shall have to repeat this test.

After about a day with the existing 802.11g link, I can still ping the AP therefore there is still a wifi connection but I cannot ping the gateway so I lose access to the wan.
I know my network infrastructure, which is very suboptimal (eg. no local DNS) is not robust but this problem is relatively recent and things were fine before.
Finally it might be the AP firmware and HP have asked me to report the problem but I cannot quite prove it is their device. A possible candidate for the disassociation/disauthentication might be badly configured lease timings withing the firmware and which are not user configurable but I am out of my depth here.
Any thoughts on what tests I should try next?
Thanks again,
Budgie2

#12

On 06/28/2011 06:36 PM, Budgie2 wrote:
>
> Hi and thanks for the susepaste link. I was looking on the forum
> header!!! Elapsed time in seconds since booting makes sense but also
> tells me the association cycling is at times taking place every seven
> seconds.
>
> Here is a typical extract from one deauthentication to the next.
>
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> 1632.572937] wlan0: deauthenticated from 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 (Reason: 2)
> 1632.573724] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
> 1632.585001] cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:
> 1632.585010] (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
> 1632.585021] (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
> 1632.585031] (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
> 1632.585041] (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
> 1632.585051] (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
> 1632.585061] (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
> 1636.158311] wlan0: authenticate with 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 (try 1)
> 1636.164118] wlan0: authenticated
> 1636.164313] wlan0: associate with 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 (try 1)
> 1636.173434] wlan0: RX ReassocResp from 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 (capab=0x411 status=0 aid=1)
> 1636.173444] wlan0: associated
> 1636.175299] cfg80211: Calling CRDA for country: DE
> 1636.189542] cfg80211: Regulatory domain changed to country: DE
> 1636.189552] (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
> 1636.189562] (2400000 KHz - 2483500 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm)
> 1636.189571] (5150000 KHz - 5350000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm)
> 1636.189580] (5470000 KHz - 5725000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2698 mBm)
> 1639.215560] wlan0: deauthenticated from 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 (Reason: 2)
>
> --------------------
>
>
> I am still testing options. The connection is now with ifup and with
> fixed IP but symptoms continue.
> I shall change my country setting to Germany just in case the country
> code is cause but I think not, as problem persists even with country (on
> AP setting) set to none.

That only sets the available channels and allowed power, at least in the 2.4 GHz
band.

> Also strange, if I change wifi link to 802.11a (5GHz) the problem still
> continues but if I turn off another AP (on a different sub-net,) which
> is only capable of 802.11 b/g, the symptom ceases. At least I think so.
> Trouble is after rebooting APs problem is less and takes a while to
> build up so I shall have to repeat this test.

That other AP is clearly messing up something.

> After about a day with the existing 802.11g link, I can still ping the
> AP therefore there is still a wifi connection but I cannot ping the
> gateway so I lose access to the wan.

Chect the routing tables with ‘/sbin/route -n’.

> I know my network infrastructure, which is very suboptimal (eg. no
> local DNS) is not robust but this problem is relatively recent and
> things were fine before.
> Finally it might be the AP firmware and HP have asked me to report the
> problem but I cannot quite prove it is their device. A possible
> candidate for the disassociation/disauthentication might be badly
> configured lease timings withing the firmware and which are not user
> configurable but I am out of my depth here.
> Any thoughts on what tests I should try next?

Your system deauthenticated with reason 2, which means “Previous authentications
no longer valid”. Usually TKIP changes in the authentication are set every 3600
seconds.

#13

Hi and thanks again. Been working out all day so only just returned. My access to wan had become so degraded I gave up and turned off what I believe to be the offending AP. I shall start looking at network configuration again now. Trouble is to turn off the suspect AP I have to go up a ladder and unplug the RJ45 plug as I cannot access the power injector at will. Will try again tonight if I can, else will try tomorrow.
I have Wireshark installed now on main machine connected by copper so I can start looking at network traffic in more detail. I shall post routes as soon as I have them both with and without suspect AP.
Regards,
Budgie2

#14

Hi lwfinger,
With the suspect AP off I had good access to wan and dmesg output didn’t change for a while. However after a couple of hours I came back to the machine and problem had reappeared. I had the same bash console open the whole time but get errors when I try to post the lot on susepaste so here is the Kernel IP routing table:-

Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
192.168.169.160 0.0.0.0         255.255.255.224 U     0      0        0 wlan0
169.254.0.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.0.0     U     0      0        0 wlan0
127.0.0.0       0.0.0.0         255.0.0.0       U     0      0        0 lo
0.0.0.0         192.168.169.161 0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 wlan0

And here is the part of the dmesg output where things went wrong again:-

   40.026616] bootsplash: status on console 0 changed to on
   42.658688] start_kdeinit (2643): /proc/2643/oom_adj is deprecated, please use /proc/2643/oom_score_adj instead.
   49.985968] EXT4-fs (sda6): re-mounted. Opts: acl,user_xattr,commit=0
 6793.590682] SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC=00:05:4e:4f:3c:7a:00:50:ba:a9:39:dd:08:00 SRC=192.168.169.170 DST=192.168.169.172 LEN=239 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=34387 PROTO=UDP SPT=138 DPT=138 LEN=219 
 6853.338422] SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC=00:05:4e:4f:3c:7a:00:50:ba:a9:39:dd:08:00 SRC=192.168.169.170 DST=192.168.169.172 LEN=239 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=34395 PROTO=UDP SPT=138 DPT=138 LEN=219 
 6912.525806] SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC=00:05:4e:4f:3c:7a:00:50:ba:a9:39:dd:08:00 SRC=192.168.169.170 DST=192.168.169.172 LEN=239 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=34403 PROTO=UDP SPT=138 DPT=138 LEN=219 
 6974.804774] SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC=00:05:4e:4f:3c:7a:00:50:ba:a9:39:dd:08:00 SRC=192.168.169.170 DST=192.168.169.172 LEN=239 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=34411 PROTO=UDP SPT=138 DPT=138 LEN=219 
 7032.960478] SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC=00:05:4e:4f:3c:7a:00:50:ba:a9:39:dd:08:00 SRC=192.168.169.170 DST=192.168.169.172 LEN=239 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=34419 PROTO=UDP SPT=138 DPT=138 LEN=219 
 7094.492245] SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC=00:05:4e:4f:3c:7a:00:50:ba:a9:39:dd:08:00 SRC=192.168.169.170 DST=192.168.169.172 LEN=239 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=34427 PROTO=UDP SPT=138 DPT=138 LEN=219 
 7152.653318] SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC=00:05:4e:4f:3c:7a:00:50:ba:a9:39:dd:08:00 SRC=192.168.169.170 DST=192.168.169.172 LEN=239 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=34435 PROTO=UDP SPT=138 DPT=138 LEN=219 
 7214.491507] SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC=00:05:4e:4f:3c:7a:00:50:ba:a9:39:dd:08:00 SRC=192.168.169.170 DST=192.168.169.172 LEN=239 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=34443 PROTO=UDP SPT=138 DPT=138 LEN=219 
 7272.090239] SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC=00:05:4e:4f:3c:7a:00:50:ba:a9:39:dd:08:00 SRC=192.168.169.170 DST=192.168.169.172 LEN=239 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=34451 PROTO=UDP SPT=138 DPT=138 LEN=219 
 7333.242335] SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC=00:05:4e:4f:3c:7a:00:50:ba:a9:39:dd:08:00 SRC=192.168.169.170 DST=192.168.169.172 LEN=239 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=34459 PROTO=UDP SPT=138 DPT=138 LEN=219

This went on for a while and then the deauthentication business started:-

9.170 DST=192.168.169.172 LEN=239 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=34873 PROTO=UDP SPT=138 DPT=138 LEN=219 
[10332.242474] SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC=00:05:4e:4f:3c:7a:00:50:ba:a9:39:dd:08:00 SRC=192.168.169.170 DST=192.168.169.172 LEN=239 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=34881 PROTO=UDP SPT=138 DPT=138 LEN=219 
[10385.533360] wlan0: disassociated from 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 (Reason: 8)
[10385.534243] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
[10385.534397] wlan0: deauthenticating from 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 by local choice (reason=3)
[10385.547264] cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:
[10385.547274]     (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
[10385.547285]     (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[10385.547295]     (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[10385.547305]     (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[10385.547314]     (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[10385.547324]     (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[10389.114388] wlan0: authenticate with 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 (try 1)
[10389.120198] wlan0: authenticated
[10389.120393] wlan0: associate with 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 (try 1)
[10389.131236] wlan0: RX ReassocResp from 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 (capab=0x411 status=0 aid=1)
[10389.131247] wlan0: associated
[10389.133142] cfg80211: Calling CRDA for country: DE
[10389.148480] cfg80211: Regulatory domain changed to country: DE
[10389.148490]     (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
[10389.148500]     (2400000 KHz - 2483500 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm)
[10389.148509]     (5150000 KHz - 5350000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm)
[10389.148518]     (5470000 KHz - 5725000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2698 mBm)
[10392.170721] wlan0: deauthenticated from 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 (Reason: 2)
[10392.171487] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
[10392.182621] cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:
[10392.182631]     (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
[10392.182642]     (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[10392.182652]     (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[10392.182662]     (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[10392.182672]     (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[10392.182681]     (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[10395.754360] wlan0: authenticate with 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 (try 1)
[10395.760152] wlan0: authenticated
[10395.760349] wlan0: associate with 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 (try 1)
[10395.769468] wlan0: RX ReassocResp from 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 (capab=0x411 status=0 aid=1)
[10395.769478] wlan0: associated
[10395.771273] cfg80211: Calling CRDA for country: DE
[10395.785482] cfg80211: Regulatory domain changed to country: DE
[10395.785492]     (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
[10395.785502]     (2400000 KHz - 2483500 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm)
[10395.785511]     (5150000 KHz - 5350000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm)
[10395.785520]     (5470000 KHz - 5725000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2698 mBm)
[10398.811580] wlan0: deauthenticated from 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 (Reason: 2)
[10398.812392] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
[10398.823501] cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:
[10398.823510]     (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
[10398.823521]     (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[10398.823531]     (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[10398.823541]     (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[10398.823551]     (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[10398.823560]     (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[10402.402300] wlan0: authenticate with 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 (try 1)
[10402.408150] wlan0: authenticated
[10402.408345] wlan0: associate with 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 (try 1)
[10402.417542] wlan0: RX ReassocResp from 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 (capab=0x411 status=0 aid=1)
[10402.417553] wlan0: associated
[10402.419352] cfg80211: Calling CRDA for country: DE
[10402.435875] cfg80211: Regulatory domain changed to country: DE
[10402.435885]     (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
[10402.435895]     (2400000 KHz - 2483500 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm)
[10402.435904]     (5150000 KHz - 5350000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm)
[10402.435913]     (5470000 KHz - 5725000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2698 mBm)
[10452.022968] SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC=00:05:4e:4f:3c:7a:00:50:ba:a9:39:dd:08:00 SRC=192.168.169.170 DST=192.168.169.172 LEN=239 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=34897 PROTO=UDP SPT=138 DPT=138 LEN=219 
[10513.694751] SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC=00:05:4e:4f:3c:7a:00:50:ba:a9:39:dd:08:00 SRC=192.168.169.170 DST=192.168.169.172 LEN=239 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=34905 PROTO=UDP SPT=138 DPT=138 LEN=219 
[10573.569967] SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC=00:05:4e:4f:3c:7a:00:50:ba:a9:39:dd:08:00 SRC=192.168.169.170 DST=192.168.169.17

Hope this gets through as connection increasingly flakey.
Budgie2

#15

On 06/29/2011 06:06 PM, Budgie2 wrote:
>
> Hi lwfinger,
> With the suspect AP off I had good access to wan and dmesg output
> didn’t change for a while. However after a couple of hours I came back
> to the machine and problem had reappeared. I had the same bash console
> open the whole time but get errors when I try to post the lot on
> susepaste so here is the Kernel IP routing table:-
>
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
> 192.168.169.160 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.224 U 0 0 0 wlan0
> 169.254.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 wlan0
> 127.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
> 0.0.0.0 192.168.169.161 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 wlan0

Routing looks OK.

> --------------------
> 40.026616] bootsplash: status on console 0 changed to on
> 42.658688] start_kdeinit (2643): /proc/2643/oom_adj is deprecated, please use /proc/2643/oom_score_adj instead.
> 49.985968] EXT4-fs (sda6): re-mounted. Opts: acl,user_xattr,commit=0
> 6793.590682] SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC=00:05:4e:4f:3c:7a:00:50:ba:a9:39:dd:08:00 SRC=192.168.169.170 DST=192.168.169.172 LEN=239 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=34387 PROTO=UDP SPT=138 DPT=138 LEN=219

Your firewall is dropping Windows netbios datagram packets. Unless you want to
use Samba to talk to Windows machines, that shoud be OK.

> This went on for a while and then the deauthentication business
> started:-
>
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> 9.170 DST=192.168.169.172 LEN=239 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=34873 PROTO=UDP SPT=138 DPT=138 LEN=219
> [10332.242474] SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC=00:05:4e:4f:3c:7a:00:50:ba:a9:39:dd:08:00 SRC=192.168.169.170 DST=192.168.169.172 LEN=239 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=34881 PROTO=UDP SPT=138 DPT=138 LEN=219
> [10385.533360] wlan0: disassociated from 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 (Reason: 8)

> [10385.534243] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
> [10385.534397] wlan0: deauthenticating from 00:1d:b3:4b:8e:e8 by local choice (reason=3)

Deauthentication for reason 3 is “Deauthenticated because sending station is
leaving (or has left) IBSS or ESS.”

I still think this is an AP problem, but you might want to try with a USB
dongle. They are available at reasonable price.

#16

Hi lwfinger,
Been working on this and looking at a few more logs having switched back to using NetworkManager.
My belief that the Client Bridge was cause was not confirmed by more rigorous testing over longer period.
Looking at the logs there were some hints that there might be a dns problem and also a security problem with the TKIP changes.
Checked all TCP/IP configurations on all machines and found old and incorrect hosts list on one machine. Also found that there was an incorrect domain suffix on another machine which was my wan domain name not lan “domain”. I think this caused a loop error over time. Switched off all security and tried again and there were no deauthentications in a couple of hours.
Put back security in stages. Setting WPA-PSK(TKIP) on AP seems to be more stable but WPA-PSK(TKIP)/WPA2-PSK(AES) is
not. I have therefore set the security as WPA-PSK(TKIP) which will be secure enough I think with all access controls enabled.
I think I shall leave it at that for now and call for help again if situation deteriorates once more.
Many thanks again for your help.
Budgie2

#17

On 06/30/2011 06:36 PM, Budgie2 wrote:

Glad you got it. It sounds as if you had some bit rot in your network. I thought
I had it bad enough when I have to put up with two Windows 7 systems here. I
cannot get my wife away from Redmond’s latest and greatest ;).

#18

Hi lwfinger,
Once again I posted too soon. This morning problem was back as bad as ever. Had to revert to open system for a while but what joy, a parcel was delivered containing new EnGenius AP. I shall see how I get on with that and report back.
Regards,
Budgie2

#19

Installed the EnGenius EAP 3660 in place of HP ProCurve 10ag using exactly the same IP, gateway etc. Set encryption at WPA2-AES and then logged on to laptop. It has been a rock solid connection for 3 hours so I guess that gives me my solution.

Just a couple of post script notes.

In the setting up options the EnGenius device allows you to select Group Key Update Interval and also the Timeouts for Group and Pairwise Key Updates. I could not find out how to do this on HP device and I am sure therein lies my problem, based on symptoms I experienced. This is my 5th EnGenius device and I can certainly commend them to anybody wanting good quality components.

The EnGenius device comes with instructions for flashing dd-wrt which is a bonus I didn’t expect.

Thanks again,
Budgie2

#20

Hi lwfinger,
Any chance I could pick up this thread where I left off please? I have had to relocate EnGenius device so HP Procurve is what sits between me and the openSUSE forum. I have changed to 5GHz so there is only one client device on this frequency and I am still getting the repeated deauthentication (reason 2) every few seconds.
I have read a score or so threads with similar symptoms but almost none had solutions or explanations. What I do not understand is what action is taking place which provokes the deauthentication.
What should I monitor to find out what provokes this problem?
Regards,
Budgie2