ipw2200 fatal error and NM

[Bill Moss <bmoss clemson edu>]

Bug committed to ipw2200

IBM T42
Fedora Core 3, kernel-2.6.9-1.724

When I first began using ipw2200, I used the standard FC3 method for activating
the wireless interface at boot. I noticed that there was always a fatal error in
syslog but that the interface still worked. I looked at the FC3 script
ifup-wireless and noticed that the WEP KEY was set first and then the ESSID.
That script contains the following comment.

# ESSID need to be last : most device re-perform the scanning/discovery
# when this is set, and things like encryption keys are better be
# defined if we want to discover the right set of APs/nodes.

When I began experimenting with NetworkManager, I nulled out the standard FC3
interface configurations and turned off the network service. I wrote by own
script for bringing up the interfaces. Here is what I tried first to bring up the
wireless interface after boot

/sbin/iwconfig eth1 key xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
/sbin/iwconfig eth1 essid mosswap
/sbin/dhclient -1 -q  -lf /var/lib/dhcp/dhclient-eth1.leases -pf       
   /var/run/dhclient-eth1.pid eth1

The script configured the wireless interface eth1 OK but produced a fatal error
in syslog which apparently wasn't fatal.

I changed the script to

/sbin/iwconfig eth1 essid mosswap
/sbin/iwconfig eth1 key xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
/sbin/dhclient -1 -q  -lf /var/lib/dhcp/dhclient-eth1.leases -pf
   /var/run/dhclient-eth1.pid eth1

Using this script after a boot, does not produce a fatal error in syslog. 

I also have a section in the script for bringing the wireless interface down. I
first tried.

/sbin/iwconfig eth1 essid any
/sbin/iwconfig eth1 key off
/sbin/ifdown eth1

When the interface is reconfigured (essid, key, dhcp client), iwconfig shows a
proper configuration but the dhcp client fails. The card is either not
broadcasting or not receiving or both. If instead I use

/sbin/iwconfig eth1 key off
/sbin/iwconfig eth1 essid any
/sbin/ifdown eth1

I find that I can reactivate the interface without problem (essid, key, dhcp
client).

I hope these observations help pin down some of the fatal errors that many users are
reporting for ipw2200.

The fatal errors do affect the operation of NetworkManager. In the
function nm_device_set_wireless_config, I have changed the order of setting essid and key so that the essid is set first. This has made NetworkManager operation more stable.

End of Bug report

NM first tries to configure with Shared Key authentication. The ipw2200 produces a fatal error and this causes the configuration to fail. NM then tries to configure with Open System authentication and this works. My AP handles both types of authentication. ipw2200 does not produce a fatal error on the second configuration attempt and so it succeeds. Modifying the function nm_device_set_wireless_config as indicated above is a temporary fix while development of ipw2200 continues.

--
Bill Moss
Professor, Mathematical Sciences
Clemson University


--
Bill Moss
Professor, Mathematical Sciences
Clemson University