[ltp] No WLAN connection on Thinkpad X40

[Maarten den Braber]

[ This message is also posted to madwifi-users@lists.sourceforge.net,
  but because it is also not working with ndiswrapper it could very well
  be IBM related ]

Hi,

Recently I have purchased a Thinkpad X40. Everything is working ok,
except my Atheros wireless network card. In Windows XP (which is still
installed as dual-boot) everything is working fine.

I am running 2.6.8.1 and have installed the madwifi drivers from CVS
(September 12, 2004) according to the [1]HOWTO on linux-wireless.org.
The drivers are working ok, and my accesspoint (Asus WL-500g) is found.
The problem is that I can't get a DHCPACK and configuring the network
manually (e.g. ifconfig ath0 192.168.8.3 up) does not work. So I can see
that the card is working, but can't get a connection.

The following is the output of 'iwconfig ath0' at one moment:

| vortex:/home/mdb# iwconfig ath0
| ath0      IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"TWISTER"  
|           Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412GHz  Access Point: 00:0E:A6:F0:4A:40   
|           Bit Rate:1Mb/s   Tx-Power:50 dBm   Sensitivity=0/3  
|           Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
|           Encryption key:2627-F685-97   Security mode:restricted
|           Power Management:off
|           Link Quality=31/94  Signal level=-64 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
|           Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
|           Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

But the next moment no AP can be found. This also happens when I'm
keeping my laptop next to the AP:

| vortex:/home/mdb# iwconfig ath0
| ath0      IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"TWISTER"  
|           Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.432GHz  Access Point: FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF   
|           Bit Rate:1Mb/s   Tx-Power:50 dBm   Sensitivity=0/3  
|           Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
|           Encryption key:2627-F685-97   Security mode:restricted
|           Power Management:off
|           Link Quality=28/94  Signal level=-67 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
|           Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
|           Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

Scanning for networks gives the following output at one moment:

| vortex:/home/mdb# iwlist ath0 scan
| ath0      Failed to read scan data : Resource temporarily unavailable

But the next moment it seems to work:

| vortex:/home/mdb# iwlist ath0 scan
| ath0      Scan completed :
|           Cell 01 - Address: 00:0E:A6:F0:4A:40
|                     ESSID:"TWISTER"
|                     Mode:Master
|                     Frequency:2.412GHz (Channel 1)
|                     Quality=32/94  Signal level=-63 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
|                     Encryption key:on
|                     Bit Rate:1Mb/s
|                     Bit Rate:2Mb/s
|                     Bit Rate:5Mb/s
|                     Bit Rate:6Mb/s
|                     Bit Rate:9Mb/s
|                     Bit Rate:11Mb/s
|                     Bit Rate:12Mb/s
|                     Bit Rate:18Mb/s
|                     Bit Rate:24Mb/s
|                     Bit Rate:36Mb/s
|                     Bit Rate:48Mb/s
|                     Bit Rate:54Mb/s
|                     Extra:bcn_int=100

Does anybody have any clue on where to search for a solution? I've
attached my dmesg output. I'm using Debian unstable with the following
settings in /etc/network/interfaces:

| iface ath0 inet dhcp
|   wireless_mode managed
|   wireless_enc on
|   wireless_key XXXX-XXXX-XX
|   wireless_essid TWISTER

Hopefully you can help me out!

Thanks in advance,
Maarten den Braber

P.S. I've also compiled and tried ndiswrapper with the Windows driver
and it shows the same erratic behaviour: AP is visible, but no
connection (sometimes AP is seen, other times not). I will try to test
it with another AP too.

[1]http://www.linux-wireless.org/Wireless/Install-HOWTO/Drivers/madwifi/madwifi-20040827-linux-2.6.8.1.Patch-Howto.txt
-- 
Als er niet is gelachen,
was het niet serieus genoeg