I have been using different distributions of Linux for the past few months, I have tried:
Ubuntu 14.04
Linux Mint 16/17
OpenSuse 13.1/13.2
I have decided to stay with OpenSuse because I enjoyed my experience with OpenSuse 13.1 much. I did not have any issues with the distributions, no incompatibilities.
My laptop is Lenovo T410S, and there is one issue that I am yet to resolve, which exists in all the distributions I have mentioned above:
Wireless connection to my University Campus wireless system disconnects.
Once I have been disconnected, I cannot connect back to the network without rebooting the system.
Edit: There are times even when I reboot, the network refuses to let me re-connect. My IT help-desk have not been most helpful. Last semester, I was able to contact my Lab technician to allow me wired connection. I am no longer in a laboratory with wired internet connection.
The network is WPA2 Enterprise PEAP encrypted. I use my student account and password to connect to the network. I am clueless what to do other than reboot and hope for the best whenever I get disconnected.
I was wondering if there was a way to fix this issue
Thank you for your time
sjl@Schlampe:~> cat /var/log/messages
cat: /var/log/messages: No such file or directory
sjl@Schlampe:~> cat /var/log/NetworkManager
cat: /var/log/NetworkManager: No such file or directory
sjl@Schlampe:~> ls /var/log | grep message
sjl@Schlampe:~> ls /var/log | grep Manager
Are you using a special wireless client app? – ie Are you using something like a Cisco or Lucent (or whatever) app or are you configuring NM?
Are you being issued a client configuration file and/or certificate or are you simply entering username/password in which case your cert would probably be dynamically downloaded after username/password authentication?
Are you disconnecting immediately or after some time, and if after some time, is the length of time always the same?
You may also want to try running wireshark during one of your sessions (if nothing is found in your syslog) to see if you’re being forcibly disconnected or if perhaps you’re timing out from inactivity.
Hello,
I am using the default KDE Network Manager that comes with OpenSuse13.2 64bit KDE version.
I am only entering username/password using PEAP protection through it the network manager.
I think disconnection time is arbitrary, sometimes I am fine for hours, sometimes less than ten minutes. It gets very irritating when I am trying to send an e-mail or doing some research. Downloading/saving my my browser content became my second nature.
I’ve never learned how to use wireshark.
Miuku as for “journalctl -l”, it seems like there is a HUGE list of materials. I will run “journalctl -f” next time I am connected to campus wifi-system and upload the log when I get disconnected. I’m uncertain what I’m going to be looking for though.
Miuku as for “journalctl -l”, it seems like there is a HUGE list of materials. I will run “journalctl -f” next time I am connected to campus wifi-system and upload the log when I get disconnected. I’m uncertain what I’m going to be looking for though.
Thanks
-SJL
You could record the log with something like
journalctl -l|grep Network > nm.log
You’d obviously wait until a disconnect event was observed, then run the command,
I think disconnection time is arbitrary, sometimes I am fine for hours, sometimes less than ten minutes. It gets very irritating when I am trying to send an e-mail or doing some research. Downloading/saving my my browser content became my second nature.
This behaviour can be caused by some routers. I connect to a number of different AP’s (work, home, public, family etc), and one particular Vodafone unit at my parent’s place can knock me off randomly, even when IP traffic flowing. Thankfully, they’ve just changed providers and upgraded to new a new wireless router, so that annoyance has now gone.
I have logged my “Jan 05” showing the behaviour of my entire day on campus regarding Network Manager. To my understanding, there is a non-stop roaming.
It roams from Router to Router then ends up to (none) and cannot connect to anything until reboot.
Thank you, I briefly read the thread and unfortunately I am using a laptop in a campus wireless network. I will be moving constantly throughout the day. I don’t think it’ll be realistic for me to manually lock in to a location.
Well, if you need to connect at specific locations within the campus, maybe it would be practical to define connections to associate with specific AP’s (pertaining to those locations).
The real question and issue is whether you’re mobile <while> you’re connected, eg using your laptop constantly as you’re moving from kiosk to kiosk in a large auditorium.
If instead you sit down while you’re computing, then move to another location, then you can create multiple NM connections, each with a different BSSID for each stationary location you move to.
It seems as if when I am stationary, if there are many students surrounding me who are moving around, the disconnections are VERY frequent. I have had to reboot my laptop 5 times to be able to post in the past hour.
I have tried logging the journalctl -l from the time period from the past hour but it seems that the journal clock is either running at a different calender or there is no log containing the word “Network” from today. The latest log is from Jan 20th.
Another pattern that I’ve recently noticed is that the connection gets worst in my laboratory. I would like to learn how to “lock-in” to a specific router but again, I don’t have a specific location where I do most of my work.
Also, from previous suggestions, it sounds like if this is a roaming issue, it sounds like it’s a reported bug. Has there been a fix in the later kernels?
