cannot see Linksys AP on channel 9

[gildea]

I'm running build 656. In the neighborhood view, I can't see my router, a Linksys WRT54G v2.2 running firmware v4.21.1 (and configured for WPA-PSK).

[cscott]

I suspect this is related to the wireless firmware, rather than network manager (but I could be wrong). The wireless firmware hasn't changed much between 656 and update.1, but I'd guess the first step would be to try to reproduce this with an update.1 candidate and/or the latest joyride.

Stephen, 'olpc-update joyride-1617' will give the latest joyride, which has wireless firmware 5.110.22.p1. At the moment, the update.1 candidate has a slightly older firmware: 'olpc-update update.1-690' will give you 5.110.20.p49. The latest stable build 656 has firmware 2:5.110.20.p47. You can check your wireless firmware version with 'rpm -qa | fgrep libertas'.

My suspicion is that none of these will actually solve your problem, but I'd like to be pleasantly surprised. We're trying to figure out if 5.110.22.p1 is enough of an improvement over 5.110.20.p49 to merit its inclusion in update.1 (even though we're in code freeze); clearly a report that one worked for you but not the other could inform that choice.

If you find that none of these work, I'll expect we'll want logs against the latest firmware (the version in joyride). dcbw and/or carrano can give you instructions there; I'm not sure exactly what logs will be useful. If you can manually configure the network ('/etc/init.d/NetworkManager stop' and then 'iwconfig eth0 essid ....' and 'dhclient eth0') that would tend to implicate NetworkManager; if not even manual configuration will work, it would implicate the firmware and/or the kernel driver.

(Actually, since your problem is that it doesn't show up in the network view, the output of 'iwlist eth0 scan' would be useful as well -- does it show up there, by any chance?)

[carrano]

gildea: Would you please confirm that:

- The Access Point is not cloaked (i.e. was not configured not to announce its ssid)

- If you have ever saw this AP in the mesh view in the past (older builds)

- If the AP is displayed when you do a wireless scanning (to achieve this type "iwlist eth0 scan" on a terminal window)

[gildea]

My AP is not cloaked; it does broadcast its SSID.

I did not see the AP in the mesh view from my old build 650, either. (In fact, I upgraded to 656 to try to fix this very problem.)

'iwlist eth0 scan' does not list my AP, even scanning several times. But then, switching back to my mesh view, my AP showed up! Typing my WPA password fails silently; I don't get the password-prompt window popping back up. Scanning again still does not show it.

I will try the suggested upgrades and let you know what I see.

[cscott]

Michail posted the following on devel@:

what channel is your AP on? if it is not on 1,6 or 11 can you put it on one of them and report?

[gildea]

what channel is your AP on?

Channel 9.

if it is not on 1,6 or 11 can you put it on one of them and report?

Moved to Channel 1. My AP is now visible, and when I type the WPA password, I am connected. Yay! This is still with build 656.

[gildea]

I upgraded to update.1-690, moved my AP back to channel 9, and rebooted the XO. The XO found my AP and connected automatically.

[mbletsas]

You already had the AP's essid configured in Network Manager and that's why it connected immediately.

M.

[cscott]

If you move ~olpc/.sugar/default/nm/networks.cfg away, does your AP show up in the mesh view / can you connect to it that way?

[gildea]

Moving nm/networks.cfg gives the expected result: the AP still shows up in the neighborhood view, but now I have to select it and type my WPA password again to connect.

As a further exploration, I alt-booted back to build 656. AP absent. Rebooting again into build 690, the AP re-appears, and I can connect to it. So it appears to me that it really is the 690 driver/firmware.

[mikus]

My G1G1 also does not connect to an AP on channel 9.

Using latest firmware (5.110.22.p1-1) and recent Joyride (1825). My XO connects fine to an AP using channel 1.

[This is not my establishment. The AP did show up on the Neighborhood screen - but after I clicked on it, its icon never stopped blinking. Noticed that there was no eth0 interface as yet defined. Did not get a chance to try manual configuration. Will try to get more status whenever I again visit that place.]

[mikus]

telepathy-salut.log -- shows nothing much

[mikus]

On XO with firmware 5.110.22.p6; running a Joyride manually updated to build 2056 level. Clicked in Neighborhood view on circle for AP. While the XO was trying to connect (in the past, it had never succeeded with that specific AP), went to Terminal, and as root entered 'iwconfig eth0 channel 9'. Then the XO successfully connected to the AP.