[SOLVED] Wifi connection problems with wicd, debian stretch

[roncrump]

Hi.

I have an old asus eeepc 901 that I am having wifi problems with.

I have recently upgraded to stretch (although I don't believe that has caused the problem, I'm trying to connect at work to a network I rarely use - I have had issues before but intermittently) and I am using wicd as my network manager.

It appears as if I connect, but then the connection drops out. Sometimes this is more-or-less immediate, sometimes I can be connected for a while (eg yesterday afternoon I connectd to one of the networks for two hours before it dropped).

/var/log/wicd/wicd.log contains, from my last attempt to connect onwards:

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2017/07/21 08:28:00 :: Connecting to wireless network hotspot-secure
2017/07/21 08:28:00 :: Putting interface down
2017/07/21 08:28:00 :: Releasing DHCP leases...
2017/07/21 08:28:01 :: Setting false IP...
2017/07/21 08:28:01 :: Stopping wpa_supplicant
2017/07/21 08:28:01 :: Flushing the routing table...
2017/07/21 08:28:01 :: Putting interface up...
2017/07/21 08:28:03 :: Attempting to authenticate...
2017/07/21 08:28:07 :: Running DHCP with NO hostname
2017/07/21 08:28:07 :: Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client 4.3.5
2017/07/21 08:28:07 :: Copyright 2004-2016 Internet Systems Consortium.
2017/07/21 08:28:07 :: All rights reserved.
2017/07/21 08:28:07 :: For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/
2017/07/21 08:28:07 ::
2017/07/21 08:28:07 :: Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:15:af:e6:ee:ea
2017/07/21 08:28:07 :: Sending on   LPF/wlan0/00:15:af:e6:ee:ea
2017/07/21 08:28:07 :: Sending on   Socket/fallback
2017/07/21 08:28:07 :: DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 6
2017/07/21 08:28:13 :: DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
2017/07/21 08:28:14 :: DHCPREQUEST of 172.31.218.189 on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
2017/07/21 08:28:14 :: DHCPOFFER of 172.31.218.189 from 192.168.10.1
2017/07/21 08:28:14 :: DHCPACK of 172.31.218.189 from 192.168.10.1
2017/07/21 08:28:14 :: bound to 172.31.218.189 -- renewal in 846 seconds.
2017/07/21 08:28:14 :: DHCP connection successful
2017/07/21 08:28:14 :: not verifying
2017/07/21 08:28:15 :: Connecting thread exiting.
2017/07/21 08:28:15 :: Sending connection attempt result success

So there is nothing following the apparent success of the connection attempt.

The output from

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dmesg

, limited to the time of the last connection attempt onwards, is:

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[ 4132.428813] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[ 4132.529072] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[ 4132.831679] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[ 4133.220597] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[ 4135.501695] wlan0: authenticate with 64:f6:9d:55:50:e2
[ 4135.524581] wlan0: send auth to 64:f6:9d:55:50:e2 (try 1/3)
[ 4135.526102] wlan0: authenticated
[ 4135.528740] wlan0: associate with 64:f6:9d:55:50:e2 (try 1/3)
[ 4135.532222] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 64:f6:9d:55:50:e2 (capab=0x431 status=0 aid=37)
[ 4135.532463] wlan0: associated
[ 4135.532496] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
[ 4135.593378] wlan0: Limiting TX power to 13 dBm as advertised by 64:f6:9d:55:50:e2
[ 4166.433944] wlan0: authenticate with 64:f6:9d:55:50:e2
[ 4166.456636] wlan0: send auth to 64:f6:9d:55:50:e2 (try 1/3)
[ 4166.468266] wlan0: authenticated
[ 4166.472432] wlan0: associate with 64:f6:9d:55:50:e2 (try 1/3)
[ 4166.483099] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 64:f6:9d:55:50:e2 (capab=0x431 status=0 aid=37)
[ 4166.483439] wlan0: associated
[ 4167.333563] wlan0: deauthenticating from 64:f6:9d:55:50:e2 by local choice (Reason: 3=DEAUTH_LEAVING)
[ 4167.447104] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[ 4167.763116] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready

After redirecting

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dmesg

to a file,

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grep -i 'rt2|80211|wireless|wifi|switch|network' dmesgouta

gives:

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[    0.000000] x86/fpu: Using 'eager' FPU context switches.
[    0.266193] clocksource: Switched to clocksource hpet
[    4.057304] input: Lid Switch as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0C0D:00/input/input4
[    4.057321] ACPI: Lid Switch [LID]
[    4.624203] Console: switching to colour dummy device 80x25
[    4.709337] rt2800pci 0000:01:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[    4.709652] ieee80211 phy0: rt2x00_set_rt: Info - RT chipset 2872, rev 0200 detected
[    4.730486] ieee80211 phy0: rt2x00_set_rf: Info - RF chipset 0003 detected
[    4.781706] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
[    5.550265] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 128x37
[    9.778710] eeepc_laptop: BIOS says wireless lan is unblocked, but the pci device is absent
[    9.778716] eeepc_laptop: skipped wireless hotplug as probably inappropriate for this model
[   10.137487] ieee80211 phy0: rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Loading firmware file 'rt2860.bin'
[   10.141736] rt2800pci 0000:01:00.0: firmware: direct-loading firmware rt2860.bin
[   10.141755] ieee80211 phy0: rt2x00lib_request_firmware: Info - Firmware detected - version: 0.34

Any suggestions? I'd like to stick with wicd if possible.

Any more information I can provide that would be useful?

Thanks.

[Hallvor]

I had a similar problem several years ago. It turned out to be a buggy wifi driver, and had nothing to do with wicd (as I first suspected).

[roncrump]

I may have solved this.

Following the guide here https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi/HowToUse#wicd, I reduced /etc/network/interfaces to:

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# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

I seem to have been continuously connected since. Although since I managed a two hour connection yesterday, I won't know for sure for a while whether this has fixed it or not. I'll come back either way later today.

I think I followed that guide initially, would the system upgrade have overwritten that file? I may have accepted the wrong option if presented with a choice.

[roncrump]

Still connected, I think that fixed it.