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Post subject: Wireless connecton loss with madwifi driver
 Posted: Nov 03, 2007 - 01:36 AM
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Joined: Aug 21, 2007
Posts: 59
Status: Offline
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I'm using sidux 2007-3 (2.6.22.3-rc1-slh-smp-2) on a new MacBook (also have it on my Dell Desktop). The MacBook wireless card has an Atheros chipset and I'm using a madwifi driver (madwifi-source_0.9.3.2-1_all.deb).
The wireless feature has worked perfectly up to today. However, as I've been using sidux for about 14 hours straight today, I have noticed for the first time that the wireless connection tends to get lost quite frequently. Over the course of the day, I have lost the connection five times.
When this happens, the nm-applet still looks as if there is a connection and Connection Information gives all of the connection addresses.
However, my browser stops moving to links and when I try to ping from the terminal, I get a "destination unreachable" message.
Further, I cannot reconnect by messing around in the nm-applet. The only way I have found to get the connection back is to reboot.
I have seen in Ubuntu Gutsy that the madwifi driver (or one of them) has a bug that leads to connection loss which can only be regained by rebooting. However, I personally have never experienced the frequency of wireless loss in Ubuntu that I have seen today in sidux.
Is this something I can improve by using a different madwifi driver? |
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Post subject:
Posted: Nov 04, 2007 - 06:36 PM
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Joined: Apr 07, 2007
Posts: 382
Location: Italia
Status: Offline
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Hi,
I sometimes got the same problem, but I think it's due to some ba$tard who's broadcasting with enormous power on 2,4GHz here around.... check please f you got TV/radio studios around or military/police/other broadcasting station too in your neighborhood: if one broadcasts strongly on 2,3 or on 2,5GHz you could be f***** up!
Anyway, I got 2 suggestions for you:
1. have a scan with airodump-ng (you find it in the aircrack-ng suite) to see who else is using wireless around you and on which channel: then modify the broadcast channel in your router choosing one which your neighbours don't use; this should improve your network reliability;
2. for a quick refresh of your connection (helps without rebooting) try my "wifirestart" script:
Code:
# WIFI deactivation
ifconfig ath0 down
ifconfig wifi0 down
rmmod wlan_scan_sta ath_pci ath_rate_sample ath_rate_onoe ath_rate_amrr ath_hal wlan wlan_wep wlan_tkip wlan_scan_ap
rmmod wlan_scan_sta ath_pci ath_rate_sample ath_rate_onoe ath_rate_amrr ath_hal wlan wlan_wep wlan_tkip wlan_scan_ap
# WIFI reactivation
modprobe ath_pci
iwconfig ath0 essid "PUTYOURESSIDHERE"
#iwconfig key s:YOURWEPKEYHERE # just if you use WEP
wpa_supplicant -Bw -Dwext -iath0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf # if you use WPA1/2 PSK
iwconfig ath0
dhclient ath0
ifconfig ath0
3. .....now I'm asking.... anybody knows where to find reliable 2,4GHz antenna amplifiers for my router??? |
_________________
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SI VIS PACEM, PARA BELLVM
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AC MILAN CaMpIoNe d'EuRoPa 2oo7!!!!
AC MILAN WoRLd ChAmPiOn 2oo7!!!!
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Post subject:
Posted: Nov 04, 2007 - 07:44 PM
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Joined: Aug 21, 2007
Posts: 59
Status: Offline
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Thanks for your reply.
Lots of good information in there that will certainly be useful in the future.
However, I don't believe my problem was caused by "some ba$tard who's broadcasting with enormous power on 2,4GHz here around" as the difficulty ONLY manifested itself in sidux while at the same time I had perfect wireless connections in Ubuntu, openSUSE and OS X on this machine.
I'm more inclined to go along with this comment in the Debian Macbook wiki in reference to the madwifi driver I had used the last time:
Quote:
The 0.9.30.13 version seems buggy on macbook core 2 duo 2 Ghz (the driver stops working after a while). Unfortunately, even the subversion version is buggy (as of 12/08/2007)
In any event, I did actually manage to get the wireless connection back by the following:
1) Use svn to download the latest driver
Code:
svn checkout http://svn.madwifi.org/madwifi/trunk madwifi
2) compile and install as usual
3) Re-install NetworkManager-Gnome
4) make sure that /etc/network/interfaces contains NOTHING more than:
Code:
auto lo eth0 ath0
iface lo inet loopback
5) Reboot
...and my wireless connection was back.
Edit: I forgot to mention at the start of this post, that a few hours after I posted the OP, wireless dissappeared TOTALLY from sidux and no way could I get it back. For this reason, my fix is more involved. |
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