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WiFi drivers - ipw2200 - Intel - Connected but not working

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dklais
Posts: 10
Joined: 2017-08-16 21:30

WiFi drivers - ipw2200 - Intel - Connected but not working

#1 Post by dklais »

Hello. I've spent quite a lot of time reading and searching about this topic. I have an IBM (Lenovo) Thinkpad. I used to run Ubuntu on it, until it started doing this strange thing: it's connected to the wireless network, but I can't browse the Internet or load any pages. Even stranger: sometimes I can load a page, but then after a minute it stops loading.

I decided to go for a stable option; Debian 9 seemed to be the way to go for me, after reading a bit about several projects and distributions. As I expected, during the installation I was prompted about the need for the driver. I solved the issue thanks to the information on https://wiki.debian.org/ipw2200 but now I continue to have the very same problem I used to have on Ubuntu. I can detect wireless networks, connect to mine, still it will very soon stop loading pages every time. Should I try something like https://www.linux.com/learn/how-configu ... ux-desktop , as suggested on Debian website?

I've been using Linux and nothing else for average-user purposes since 2013, but I'm no expert. Also, English is not my mother tongue, so I might not express myself very well sometimes.

Thank you in advance.

shep
Posts: 423
Joined: 2011-03-15 15:22

Re: WiFi drivers - ipw2200 - Intel - Connected but not worki

#2 Post by shep »

This can be complicated to sort out. I had issues with a DSL connection behaving exactly as you describe over wired ethernet. It eventually proved to be the RJ-11 jack on a Cisco 678 DSL modem making an intermittent connection. I have also had browsing issues with DSL resolution.

Some tools that may help are the ping and traceroute commands. Run from a terminal, they interrogate your connection and tell you where the hang up is. You can read the man page for each and find examples of use with a web search.

dklais
Posts: 10
Joined: 2017-08-16 21:30

Re: WiFi drivers - ipw2200 - Intel - Connected but not worki

#3 Post by dklais »

Thank you for your fast reply. I will try that.

dklais
Posts: 10
Joined: 2017-08-16 21:30

Re: WiFi drivers - ipw2200 - Intel - Connected but not worki

#4 Post by dklais »

Hello again. I've read the man pages for both ping and traceroute, but I'm afraid I haven't been able to use them properly. Anyway, I'm posting this reply using my wireless connection right now. I've been connected for almost 10 minutes, so I'm crossing my fingers hoping that it will magically stop disconnecting.

I was also wondering if the type of encryption for the network (WPA2, WEP... ) could have anything to do.

dklais
Posts: 10
Joined: 2017-08-16 21:30

Re: WiFi drivers - ipw2200 - Intel - Connected but not worki

#5 Post by dklais »

No luck. After a while, it sopped working and now I can't use my wireless network on this computer. I tried disconnecting and connecting again, deleting the network and adding it again, etc. It is connected, but doesn't work.

shep
Posts: 423
Joined: 2011-03-15 15:22

Re: WiFi drivers - ipw2200 - Intel - Connected but not worki

#6 Post by shep »

To time a round trip for data packets at a DNS resolved address

Code: Select all

ping www.google.com
To time a round trip for data packets without DNS resolution
ping 8.8.8.8
To see the current status of your wireless connection (need root privileges)

Code: Select all

iwconfig
If this is posted we can tell you how to ping your router and modem

If dns resolution is failing you can manually renew a dhcp IP address. There are different dhcp clients, the default seems to be dhclient(8).

dklais
Posts: 10
Joined: 2017-08-16 21:30

Re: WiFi drivers - ipw2200 - Intel - Connected but not worki

#7 Post by dklais »

This is the output of iwconfig while connected to the wireless network:

Code: Select all

root@mb-debian:/home/mb-debian# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

enp2s0    no wireless extensions.

irda0     no wireless extensions.

wlp20s2   IEEE 802.11  ESSID:"Cw83539"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: ********************
          Bit Rate:54 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   Sensitivity=8/0  
          Retry limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:*************************  Security mode:open
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=90/100  Signal level=-32 dBm  Noise level=-87 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:15
Last edited by dklais on 2017-08-17 17:02, edited 1 time in total.

dklais
Posts: 10
Joined: 2017-08-16 21:30

Re: WiFi drivers - ipw2200 - Intel - Connected but not worki

#8 Post by dklais »

And this is what I get doing ping while connected to the wireless network:

Code: Select all

mb-debian@mb-debian:~$ ping www.google.com
ping: www.google.com: Fallo temporal en la resolución del nombre
mb-debian@mb-debian:~$ ping 8.8.8.8
connect: La red es inaccesible
It's in Spanish: Temporary failiure in name resolution (I think) and The network is inaccessible...

shep
Posts: 423
Joined: 2011-03-15 15:22

Re: WiFi drivers - ipw2200 - Intel - Connected but not worki

#9 Post by shep »

You may want to edit the output of iwconfig in your last post as it lists your encryption key and ssid.

DNS resolution has been ruled out.

The wireless device is wlp20s2 which suggests that there may be 2 wireless devices. You can search a dmesg with

Code: Select all

dmesg | grep wlp
Also, your posted iwconfig is somewhat unusual, it normally explicitly gives the HWaddr (MAC) and the ipv4/ipv6 addresses.

I would be suspicious that your problem is with configuration of your connection. Did you use NetworkManager, Wicd or manually configure your connection. If you use NetworkManager, what info do you get when the connection is down and you click on the icon? Network manager should also allow you to bring the connection down and back up.

Another approach to the problem would be to web search "Debian + wifi + model of thinkpad" that you have.

dklais
Posts: 10
Joined: 2017-08-16 21:30

Re: WiFi drivers - ipw2200 - Intel - Connected but not worki

#10 Post by dklais »

Here's the output of dmesg | grep wlp:

Code: Select all

root@mb-debian:/home/mb-debian#     dmesg | grep wlp
[   15.779444] ipw2200 0000:14:02.0 wlp20s2: renamed from eth0
[   29.917196] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp20s2: link is not ready
[   29.917752] wlp20s2: Setting MAC to da:bb:87:d8:72:4d
[   30.050272] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp20s2: link is not ready
[   31.130395] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp20s2: link is not ready
[  176.725243] wlp20s2: Setting MAC to 00:16:6f:0c:43:30
[  176.848638] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp20s2: link is not ready
[  176.851773] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp20s2: link is not ready
[  177.057692] wlp20s2: Setting MAC to 5e:e0:d3:e3:05:b0
[  177.160157] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp20s2: link is not ready
[  177.252196] wlp20s2: Setting MAC to 5e:e0:d3:e3:05:b0
[  177.252769] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp20s2: link is not ready
[  177.923261] wlp20s2: Setting MAC to 00:16:6f:0c:43:30
[  178.048626] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp20s2: link is not ready
[  178.066231] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp20s2: link is not ready
[  178.067459] wlp20s2: Setting MAC to 0a:3e:22:51:73:62
[  178.202524] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp20s2: link is not ready
[  271.188771] wlp20s2: Setting MAC to 00:16:6f:0c:43:30
[  271.316424] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp20s2: link is not ready
[  271.318698] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp20s2: link is not ready
[  271.512529] wlp20s2: Setting MAC to 1e:f4:7f:47:b5:1e
[  271.612942] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp20s2: link is not ready
[  271.756172] wlp20s2: Setting MAC to 1e:f4:7f:47:b5:1e
[  271.756629] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp20s2: link is not ready
[  272.911509] wlp20s2: Setting MAC to 00:16:6f:0c:43:30
[  273.036559] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp20s2: link is not ready
[  273.038751] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp20s2: link is not ready
[  273.345043] wlp20s2: Setting MAC to 06:5c:de:84:74:de
[  273.462516] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp20s2: link is not ready
[  273.653336] wlp20s2: Setting MAC to 06:5c:de:84:74:de
[  273.653795] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp20s2: link is not ready
[  274.807001] wlp20s2: Setting MAC to 00:16:6f:0c:43:30
[  274.992275] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp20s2: link is not ready
[  275.806320] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlp20s2: link becomes ready
[13585.307092] wlp20s2: Setting MAC to be:7a:c0:ec:c2:02
[13585.407390] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp20s2: link is not ready                 
[13585.588772] wlp20s2: Setting MAC to be:7a:c0:ec:c2:02                             
[13585.589206] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp20s2: link is not ready                 
[13588.779516] wlp20s2: Setting MAC to 00:16:6f:0c:43:30                             
[13588.911276] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp20s2: link is not ready                 
[13589.581547] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlp20s2: link becomes ready  
As for your question, I just installed Debian from a netinst image, selecting KDE, so I just use the indicator included in the DE. In other distros, I used wicd or network-manager, but I don't really know what I'm using right now.

shep
Posts: 423
Joined: 2011-03-15 15:22

Re: WiFi drivers - ipw2200 - Intel - Connected but not worki

#11 Post by shep »

My understanding is that the MAC is hard coded into the wireless chip but it can also be reassigned. Reassigning the MAC is not routine so I am surprised by the multiple different MAC entries in the dmesg.

I don't use KDE/NetworkManager but the wiki says that Network Manger is the default.

I would try to delete the present connection and follow the above link to reconfigure your connection
Last edited by shep on 2017-08-18 00:03, edited 1 time in total.

shep
Posts: 423
Joined: 2011-03-15 15:22

Re: WiFi drivers - ipw2200 - Intel - Connected but not worki

#12 Post by shep »

I had to kill some time and did some more searching on Network Manager Multiple MAC drops and found this thread
Hello,

On 2016 m. rugsėjo 1 d., ketvirtadienis 03:05:15 EEST you wrote:

> I managed to get 1.4.0 work reliably for me (both Ethernet with DHCP at work
> and Wifi at home) by adding the following configuration:
>
> [device]
> wifi.scan-rand-mac-address=no
>
>
> I added it first to /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf, but later moved
> it into a new file /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/20-mac-address.conf

Yes, I know. But still users need to do this manually. And the info may be
hard to find if you have no Internet.
I would try the above setting. If it doesn't work, it would be easy to revert.

dklais
Posts: 10
Joined: 2017-08-16 21:30

Re: WiFi drivers - ipw2200 - Intel - Connected but not worki

#13 Post by dklais »

I have to admit I'm impressed with your kindness. Thank you very much. I have tried that setting. I didn't know whether to try the first option or the second, so I went for both (editing NetworkManager.conf and creating a new configuration file in /conf.d). If you think one of them is more recommendable, please let me know.

Let's see how it goes. I've been connected to my wireless network for 5 minutes now; let's see if we solved the issue. I'll let you know.

Again, thank you so much.

dklais
Posts: 10
Joined: 2017-08-16 21:30

Re: WiFi drivers - ipw2200 - Intel - Connected but not worki

#14 Post by dklais »

I continue to have the same problem. It stopped working, so I tried restarting NetworkManager after undoing the changes in NetworkManager.conf and leaving only the new file in /conf.d, as the quotation said. The same problem persists.

Should I try to replace plasma-nm with wicd or connman?

Should I change my router configuration to WEP? I know it's less secure, but... I don't know.

shep
Posts: 423
Joined: 2011-03-15 15:22

Re: WiFi drivers - ipw2200 - Intel - Connected but not worki

#15 Post by shep »

It is hard to give specific suggestions. My own inclination is to use the lightest utilities that meet my needs. My backup desktop, that stays in one place, uses a manual connection while my Openbox laptop uses wicd.

To troubleshoot, you could remove the configuration with plasma-nm and manually configure. It is not that hard - I just copy/paste the example in the above wiki. If your connection still drops, it suggests your issue is specific to the ipw2200 chip rather than Network manager. Also, the bug report I linked suggests that you can look at the syslog to get more information. My laptop (atheros wireless) that uses wicd does not attempt to randomize MAC address and I do not have issues with drops in Debian 9.1.

dklais
Posts: 10
Joined: 2017-08-16 21:30

Re: WiFi drivers - ipw2200 - Intel - Connected but not worki

#16 Post by dklais »

Good news. I accessed my router's configuration, changed the password and SSID and, magically, I've been connected for hours now. I have no idea what it could have to do with the problem. I post the reply in case it could be useful for other users.

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