[debian] Still wlan problems with 2.6.29 kernels

[Fox Mulder]

Hi,

since i upgraded from kernel 2.6.24 to 2.6.29 many things has gotten better.
But since than wlan isn't working anymore and i tried many different kernels.
I updated my kernel about every one or two weeks. I sometimes used precompiled
kernels and at the moment i use a quite new [1] andy-tracking from git and
compiled it myself with gta02_packaging_defconfig as template. I also update
debian on a regular basis. My wlan uses wpa2/wpa and it works without any
problems with a second windows client pc. It also worked very reliable with
the old 2.6.24 kernel series.

With the old kernels i started wlan by activating wlan per openmoko-panel-plugin
and than do "ifup eth0" on commandline. Than automatically wpasupplicant was
activated to do the wlan connection and after that the dhcp client fetches the
ip from my server.

With the 2.6.29 kernel series i tried the same approach. But now wpasupplicant
works only sometimes and the dhcp client nearly never gets an ip. I can see on
the status page of the wlan router that the wlan connection seems to be
established most of the time. But the dhcp request package never arrives at
the dhcp server (seen with wireshark). So it looks like the tcp/ip connection
over wlan doesn't work.

So my only possibility for the moment is to use usb as network connection which
works without any problems but is very inconvenient for me.

Today i did a bit more investigation and tried the steps by hand. Normally wlan
scanning worked and showed me the SSID of my wlan. But today it didn't work
at all [2] which could be related to the wlan tests i did earlier. After i tried
wpasupplicant it also only showed error messages [3] and seemed not to connect with
my wlan AP.
I know that in newer kernels the wlan module can be removed and so i tried this
[4] to get wlan working again for a second try.
After i inserted the wlan module the scanning was working [5]. Now i tried
wpasupplicant again to connect to ma wlan AP and this time it seemed to work [6].
Iwlist showed that i should be connected to ma AP [7]. I'm just wondering why it
showed a link quality of 192/94 but that's maybe only a bug. Now i could get an ip
with the dhcp client and i was quite happy that it worked for the first time
since months (i never tried to do it by hand before). But a few network tests
showed that wlan still wasn't working the way it should. No matter what type of
packet i tryed to transfer (ping, ssh, ftp) it had really great time delay. Some
packets arrive ~0.5s after i send it and some ~20s later. The mean value is about
5-10s delay that allpackets were delayed. Therefor the connection is unusable
but i don't know why these delays occur.

And now i don't know what to do anymore to get wlan working normal again because
i'm out of ideas. Interesting is that i never read any mails from other debian
users that they have these massive wlan problems. Or maybe they just don't use
wlan.

So i hope someone with more knowledge to the 2.6.29 wlan stack could give me some
hints what to do. At the moment the not working wlan is my main problem for using
my freerunner more often. :(

I'm grateful for every hint i could try.

Ciao,
     Rainer




[1]
last commit f16c3431a1a7510eb3504ec5d96677dd0fac4cd6

[2]
IjonTichy:~# iwlist eth0 scan
eth0      Interface doesn't support scanning.

[3]
IjonTichy:~# wpa_supplicant -D wext -i eth0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
ioctl[SIOCGIWRANGE]: Input/output error
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Operation not supported
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Operation not supported
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Operation not supported
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Operation not supported
ioctl[SIOCGIWSCAN]: Input/output error
ioctl[SIOCSIWSCAN]: Input/output error
Failed to initiate AP scan.
ioctl[SIOCGIWSCAN]: Input/output error
ioctl[SIOCSIWSCAN]: Input/output error
Failed to initiate AP scan.
ioctl[SIOCGIWSCAN]: Input/output error
...

[4]
IjonTichy:~# rmmod ar6000
IjonTichy:~# modprobe ar6000

[5]
IjonTichy:~# iwlist eth0 scan
eth0      Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:18:84:16:F2:85
                    ESSID:"Aktex"
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.452 GHz (Channel 9)
                    Quality=40/94  Signal level=-55 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    Extra:bcn_int=100
                    Extra:wpa_ie=dd1a0050f20101000050f20202000050f2040050f20201000050f202
                    Extra:rsn_ie=30180100000fac020200000fac04000fac020100000fac020000
                    Extra:ath_ie=dd0900037f01010020ff7f

[6]
IjonTichy:~# wpa_supplicant -D wext -i eth0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Operation not supported
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Operation not supported
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Operation not supported
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Operation not supported
CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS
Trying to associate with 00:18:84:16:f2:85 (SSID='Aktex' freq=2452 MHz)
Associated with 00:18:84:16:f2:85
WPA: Key negotiation completed with 00:18:84:16:f2:85 [PTK=CCMP GTK=TKIP]
CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to 00:18:84:16:f2:85 completed (auth) [id=0 id_str=]

[7]
IjonTichy:~# iwconfig eth0
eth0      AR6000 802.11g  ESSID:"Aktex"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.452 GHz  Access Point: 00:18:84:16:F2:85
          Bit Rate=18 Mb/s   Tx-Power=15 dBm   Sensitivity=0/3
          Retry:on
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:192/94  Signal level:-159 dBm  Noise level:-96 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0