failed to connect

[AS]

As far as I know, the more recent kernel 2.6.38.8-3 contains only some additional fix for ath5k driver, or at least that was what Texstar answered about the difference between the two kernels.

phantom16,
could it be possible for you to move (temporarily) very near the router ? Just to understand if the signal weakness/interferences is or not part of the issue.

[phantom16]

so i just sat outside the office door door for a good 10 minutes or so browsing youtube (semi-related side note:i am totally going to buy some gallium, it's a non toxic metal that melts at 30 degrees Celsius, so it melts in your hands! awesome! lol), the connection only crashed once in that time, and i had 95% signal strength, but it still did crash once...
i dont know what to make of that? fluke? the problem? would be annoying if it was because i am no more than 3 meters away from the router and cant get much closer... sometimes i seem to stay connected for a few minutes, and sometimes it's all of 6 seconds, and sometimes to get a connection again is the same story :/

[AS]

so i just sat outside the office door door for a good 10 minutes or so browsing youtube (semi-related side note:i am totally going to buy some gallium, it's a non toxic metal that melts at 30 degrees Celsius, so it melts in your hands! awesome! lol), the connection only crashed once in that time, and i had 95% signal strength, but it still did crash once...
i dont know what to make of that? fluke? the problem? would be annoying if it was because i am no more than 3 meters away from the router and cant get much closer... sometimes i seem to stay connected for a few minutes, and sometimes it's all of 6 seconds, and sometimes to get a connection again is the same story :/

That's a first point, either signal weakness or interferences (because of other routers on the same channel) are going to deteriorate your wireless experience.

May be the same router is used from many computers ? Some routers are limited and can have difficult to manage many simultaneous connections ... I'm only speculating ... try at different hours ...

Also, try a different orientation, if it is a notebook, try to rotate 90 degrees ...

[muungwana]

so i just sat outside the office door door for a good 10 minutes or so browsing youtube[]

So the connection holds longer when closer to the access point. Thats progress 

The problem is primarily a signal strength then. The router is probably not strong enough and it goes out of range or simply drops off( reason number 3 ) and then there is the problem of failed reconnects( reason 7 and 15 ). Wireless interfaces disconnects and reconnects all the time. You are noticing the problem because it fails to reconnect.

As AS has said, more recent kernels have updated version of the driver you are using and hence try installing a newer one. Synaptic usually continues from where it left off the connection goes dead while still downloading.

[phantom16]

*sigh* haha, i dont know what the problem is...
i updated everything in synaptic last night, and i went back upstairs and sat right outside the office door again. i cant even see any networks other than the one im trying to connect to, but it still just keep hopping in and out, it wont even stay online at all close to like it did last night :/
and i am currently the only one in the house, noone else has moved in yet, but within the week i guess another 5 or so people will be moving in. im led to beleive my connection staying up longer than usual last night was just chance, because like i said, sometimes my connection stays up for only a few seconds, other times it last quite a few minutes...


i dont know if it helps or not, but i ran iwlist scanning again now that im right next to it:

lo        Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0      Interface doesn't support scanning.

wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 84:A8:E4:D4:A7:F4
                    Channel:6
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                    Quality=70/70  Signal level=-40 dBm  
                    Encryption key:on
                    ESSID:"Villa Gr�nspecht"
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Bit Rates:6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=0000016342c89bd0
                    Extra: Last beacon: 678ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: 001056696C6C61204772FC6E737065636874
                    IE: Unknown: 010882848B962430486C
                    IE: Unknown: 030106
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0100
                    IE: Unknown: 2F0100
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (2) : CCMP TKIP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: Unknown: 32040C121860
                    IE: Unknown: 2D1AFC181BFFFF000001000000000000000000000000000000000000
                    IE: Unknown: 3D1606001500000000000000000000000000000000000000
                    IE: Unknown: 4A0E14000A002C01C800140005001900
                    IE: Unknown: 7F0101
                    IE: Unknown: DD7B0050F204104A00011010440001021041000100103B00010310470010F56FC656077BB9359D4880E34A656E051021000842726F6164636F6D1023000842726F6164636F6D1024000631323334353610420004313233341054000800060050F20400011011000A42726F6164636F6D4150100800020084103C000103
                    IE: Unknown: DD090010180201F0050000
                    IE: WPA Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (2) : CCMP TKIP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: Unknown: DD180050F2020101800003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00

i did notice that in the information for villa grunspecht it says "Mode:Master", and so i went into the network connections and clicked configure for that network and saw "mode" was set to "managed" so i changed that, but the setting doesnt seem to stay, i click the drop down, click master and then click "OK" in the bottom right, but then if i click configure again, it's set back to managed. i dont know if thats the potential problem? and if it is, how would i go about changing that? because going through the network center doesnt seem to keep the setting saved...

(im not trying to be ignorant or anything, but if it is as simple as the router connection then i dont know what to say, because i am only 5 feet away from it currently, and the only one using it in the house and it still drops the connection all the time. she said it was a brand new router, and the connection is smooth as silk in windows. it has to be the jankiest router ive ever used if thats the case...)

[AS]

i did notice that in the information for villa grunspecht it says "Mode:Master", and so i went into the network connections and clicked configure for that network and saw "mode" was set to "managed" so i changed that, but the setting doesnt seem to stay, i click the drop down, click master and then click "OK" in the bottom right, but then if i click configure again, it's set back to managed. i dont know if thats the potential problem? and if it is, how would i go about changing that? because going through the network center doesnt seem to keep the setting saved...

wifi networks can be of two type: managed or ad-hoc.
Ad-hoc connection are point to point connections between two devices (usually two computers), managed is the standard setup for wireless networks, one device is the master device a.k.a. "access point", the other are "slaves".
So, "managed" mode is the correct setup for your adapter, if you change it you will not be able to connect to your router.

You could try to buy a USB-WLAN adapter, "PCLinuxOS Certified" ... may be things could improve ... may be not ...  

[phantom16]

:-( we're running out of options here...
so im trying to set it up with the windows driver and see if that does anything, but having a couple problems. so i go in through the network center, and then i need to locate the file, but i cant navigate to it, if i put the folders anywhere, i cant go to sub folders, theres a few options like "documents", "desktop", "pictures" etc. on the left, but then i put the folder for the driver in there, but i cant navigate further, it just doesnt even show. maybe i have to just directly take the .inf or .dll file and put it directly where i can navigate? but the thing with that is i dont know what file to choose. i went to http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/drivers and there are 2 options for my computer, (i have an aspire 5750G) an atheros and a broadcom driver. i downloaded both, but within both of them there are a bunch of .dlls and .inf files. anyone have a pointer on to which specific one i need?

[AS]

:-( we're running out of options here...
so im trying to set it up with the windows driver and see if that does anything, but having a couple problems. so i go in through the network center, and then i need to locate the file, but i cant navigate to it, if i put the folders anywhere, i cant go to sub folders, theres a few options like "documents", "desktop", "pictures" etc. on the left, but then i put the folder for the driver in there, but i cant navigate further, it just doesnt even show. maybe i have to just directly take the .inf or .dll file and put it directly where i can navigate? but the thing with that is i dont know what file to choose. i went to http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/drivers and there are 2 options for my computer, (i have an aspire 5750G) an atheros and a broadcom driver. i downloaded both, but within both of them there are a bunch of .dlls and .inf files. anyone have a pointer on to which specific one i need?

Your WLAN adapter is a Atheros AR9287,

03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9287 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [168c:002e] (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Foxconn International, Inc. Device [105b:e034]
        Kernel driver in use: ath9k
        Kernel modules: ath9k

however I didn't see a driver available on the website, because it state that "only drivers not already available on Windows 7 are shown". The Atheros driver you see refer to Win7 64 bit, I'm not sure at all that this driver will work with ndiswrapper ...

There is still another alternative: download and build the latest ath9k from http://linuxwireless.org

http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Download?highlight=%28download%29#Where_to_download_bleeding_edge

Do you think you can try ?

[phantom16]

haha, so im trying, but im in over my head i think XD
so at the part where it says you need to have a local git repository; that link just seems to be for like the same file i already have that you had me download..? i did go into synaptic package manager and install the "git" and "git-devel" packages, is that right?

and when i put in "./scripts/driver-select", terminal says "-bash: ./scripts/driver-select: No such file or directory" not sure what im doing there

i have never done anything like this before :/ any problems ive ever had had been solved with a few setting changes or just using the package manager, so please forgive my noobiness here :-(

is there a specific folder i should have this in? because i just downloaded it and extracted the folder to my desktop.

i dont quite get this part of the readme:

Build: compile the latest linux wireless subsystem

   make

Install:

We use the updates/ directory so your distribution's drivers are left intact.

   sudo make install

Uninstall:

This nukes our changes to updates/ so you can go back to using your
distribution's supported drivers.

   sudo make uninstall

Load:

Reboot unless you know what you are doing.
(Usually modprobe 'driver-name' is the way to go)


Bluetooth modules can be separately compiled and installed using below commands
Bluetooth drivers are also available via ./scripts/driver-select
 

is that all just an explanation of what you are doing in each step, or there actual directions in there i'm missing?
and as far as i could tell, the "sudo" command has never worked with this distro, ive just always done "su", same thing right?

but then i tried running "make bt" but got back "make: *** No rule to make target `bt'.  Stop."

i think i am doing this all terribly wrong haha
im so sorry for bothering you all so much, you guys all know so much more about this than i ever will, and i truly do appreciate your help :-)

[AS]

follow me 

open a terminal, at prompt type su and when requested enter the root password, then:

Code: [Select]

mkdir  /tmp/driver
chmod 777 /tmp/driver

download the tarball from here:
http://www.orbit-lab.org/kernel/compat-wireless-3-stable/v3.3/compat-wireless-3.3-rc1-2.tar.bz2
save the file in /tmp/driver

back to the already opened terminal (if you open a new terminal remember to type su again)

Code: [Select]

cd /tmp/driver
tar xvf compat-wireless-3.3-rc1-2.tar.bz2
cd compat-wireless-3.3-rc1-2
./scripts/driver-select  ath9k
make
make install
make wlunload
modprobe ath9k
If any of the above steps should return an error, stop and post back!

test ...  test ... test ... 

If something go wrong (inability to connect internet), you should be able to boot the previous kernel which will retain the old driver 

Good Luck! 

[phantom16]

dang... haha
so i did it, and everything seemed to be ...ok
(while i was installing it this came up, dont know if the "FATAL" parts are normal or not, but other than that everything went smoothly)

[root@localhost compat-wireless-3.3-rc1-2]# make wlunload
Unloading ath9k...
Unloading mac80211...
FATAL: Module mac80211 is in use.
Unloading cfg80211...
FATAL: Module cfg80211 is in use.

but so my connection wasnt dropping for an hour or so (although it does seem to just get extremely slow, and sometimes not load website at about the same haphazard frequency as before) but the connection wasnt actually dropping it seemed. i left for classes then, and when i got back the connection was down again :/
and like i said it gets really slow now, i can barely even stream a youtube video. it seems even after more using it, that it just seems to be getting worse, it barely loads webpages even when it says i'm connected, and it's not just the internet, because i can't even go to 192.168.2.1, which is my gateway or whatever, the address i type in to go to the router, when its going through these non loading periods. i left for school and came back again, and the connection was down again, and i have to modprob -r ath9k sooo many times before it might get a connection. and then it ususally gets slow or altogether stops loading pages shortly after. i also cant ping any website when this is going down. and it still works just fine in windows :/

this is just being extremely difficult haha, i dont know what to do next...i dont want to buy another wifi adapter, when ive got one that works fine with windows, but i dont want to have to only use windows for the next year and a half, so im hoping theres something, but i just done get why it's doing this. could it really just be a channel issue that only seems to affect linux? or...? because othwise that might just be what i have to do :-(
i also know its not just firefox either, because theres a radio station that i stream sometimes through vlc, and that wont work either.

and just a side question, are those instructions the general course one should follow for installing a program manually in linux with pclos? because almost all direction i find are to be slightly different, but ill take note if thats the formula i should use in the future

[AS]

dang... haha
so i did it, and everything seemed to be ...ok
(while i was installing it this came up, dont know if the "FATAL" parts are normal or not, but other than that everything went smoothly)

[root@localhost compat-wireless-3.3-rc1-2]# make wlunload
Unloading ath9k...
Unloading mac80211...
FATAL: Module mac80211 is in use.
Unloading cfg80211...
FATAL: Module cfg80211 is in use.

but so my connection wasnt dropping for an hour or so (although it does seem to just get extremely slow, and sometimes not load website at about the same haphazard frequency as before) but the connection wasnt actually dropping it seemed. i left for classes then, and when i got back the connection was down again :/
and like i said it gets really slow now, i can barely even stream a youtube video. it seems even after more using it, that it just seems to be getting worse, it barely loads webpages even when it says i'm connected, and it's not just the internet, because i can't even go to 192.168.2.1, which is my gateway or whatever, the address i type in to go to the router, when its going through these non loading periods. i left for school and came back again, and the connection was down again, and i have to modprob -r ath9k sooo many times before it might get a connection. and then it ususally gets slow or altogether stops loading pages shortly after. i also cant ping any website when this is going down. and it still works just fine in windows :/

this is just being extremely difficult haha, i dont know what to do next...i dont want to buy another wifi adapter, when ive got one that works fine with windows, but i dont want to have to only use windows for the next year and a half, so im hoping theres something, but i just done get why it's doing this. could it really just be a channel issue that only seems to affect linux? or...? because othwise that might just be what i have to do :-(
i also know its not just firefox either, because theres a radio station that i stream sometimes through vlc, and that wont work either.

What do you think is the meaning of the phrase I've written in red color ? No it wasn't to decorate the post. 
Doesn't matter anymore, but ... did you rebooted your system ?

and just a side question, are those instructions the general course one should follow for installing a program manually in linux with pclos? because almost all direction i find are to be slightly different, but ill take note if thats the formula i should use in the future

No, those instruction were specific for updating the wifi driver/module, and were also specific to your adapter-family (ath9k),
that driver was already included, you were using it previously, this one is an updated version, a tentative to improve your wifi experience.

AS

[phantom16]

What do you think is the meaning of the phrase I've written in red color ? No it wasn't to decorate the post. 
Doesn't matter anymore, but ... did you rebooted your system ?

ok :-( i kind of guessed it was typical or something, it didnt really jump out to me as a big error warning, sorry. and yes, my system has rebooted once since then

No, those instruction were specific for updating the wifi driver/module, and were also specific to your adapter-family (ath9k),
that driver was already included, you were using it previously, this one is an updated version, a tentative to improve your wifi experience.

right i get that, but like i meant generally, like do i make a folder, change the directory to that, and put the .tar.bz2 there and run the script the program requires...etc? because like i said, most instructions ive ever found im pretty sure i recall them being a little different, like even the ones in the download had me doing unnecessary things i think

[AS]

What do you think is the meaning of the phrase I've written in red color ? No it wasn't to decorate the post. 
Doesn't matter anymore, but ... did you rebooted your system ?

ok :-( i kind of guessed it was typical or something, it didnt really jump out to me as a big error warning, sorry. and yes, my system has rebooted once since then

No, those instruction were specific for updating the wifi driver/module, and were also specific to your adapter-family (ath9k),
that driver was already included, you were using it previously, this one is an updated version, a tentative to improve your wifi experience.

right i get that, but like i meant generally, like do i make a folder, change the directory to that, and put the .tar.bz2 there and run the script the program requires...etc? because like i said, most instructions ive ever found im pretty sure i recall them being a little different, like even the ones in the download had me doing unnecessary things i think

the standard way to build a generic package is:  unpack the tarball-file, read the docs contained inside, most packages build by simply running a few commands:

./configure
make
make install

Please note that installation of "foreigner packages" (outside from official repos and mirrors) is unsupported here ... 

AS

[phantom16]

so, short of completely reinstalling pclos, are we out of ideas?
again, not trying to be rude, you guys all know way more about this than i do, but all knowledge is exhaustible, so if we have tried everything, and this refuses to work, then so be it lol