Re: NM fails to find access points

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Sat, 2008-03-22 at 21:58 +0100, René Rask wrote:
> Hi list
> 
> NetworkManager-0.7.0-0.9.1.svn3476.fc9.i386 fails to find access points 
> after restarting the NM daemon.
> It used to find about 18 APs, but after the last update it only finds 
> about 5 and after restarting NM it very slowly finds some. And not the 
> one I want to use although it is in the same room.
> Something has gone wrong with scanning in the last few weeks.

Scanning depends on wpa_supplicant behavior as well; we'd need to figure
out what results are coming out of the supplicant.  The next time you
get in this situation, can you run:

sudo dbus-send --system --dest=fi.epitest.hostap.WPASupplicant --print-reply /fi/epitest/hostap/WPASupplicant/Interfaces/1 fi.epitest.hostap.WPASupplicant.Interface.scanResults

and report what it says?  Is the BSSID of your AP in that list?

If it is, and you get a lot of APs returned from that command, then the
problem likely lies in NetworkManager.

> I tried "Create a new wireless network" which seems to want to connect 
> to an existing network and not create a new one?. Anyway, when it failed 
> to connect it found my AP again and connected to that. Great, but weird. 
> Seems, like a part of NM needs a good kick to get it moving.

It might have caused the driver to probe-scan your SSID, which causes
the card/driver to find it, which might not happen every time on a
broadcast scan.  Is your AP hidden?

> Well. Since that works somewhat randomly, I have another problem. My usb 
> modem works (after guessing that using gconf-editor to insert a pin key 
> in the right place would allow it to connect), but most of the time I 
> have to connect, disconnect and connect again to make it work. The first 
> time it connects it passes the pin and initializes the modem correctly, 
> but it gets a garbage ip and dns config. It seems NM is a bit too fast 
> or pppd is too fast. It needs to wait a second or to before starting the 
> connection routine. (well, I think that is what is needed, but I can't 
> be certain)

Interesting; what model of modem is this?  There are some issues with
serial speed, but they shouldn't affect pppd or the IP and DNS.  That
seems more like a pppd issue.  There's a patch to pppd that's required
in some circumstances to work around ISPs returning bogus DNS servers
when the client doesn't request some other attribute (WINS perhaps?).
That might have something to do with it, but seems unlikely.  Could you
get some logs (from /var/log/messages) of the connection attempts with
the modem so we can diagnose further?

Dan

> While I have been writing this, my AP still hasn't been found and if it 
> is found, I won't be able to send this email since it needs to go 
> through the usb-modem and not the AP. So luckily the bug allows me to 
> use my usb-modem ;)
> 
> Let me know if I can help debug some of this or you need more information.
> 
> Cheers and thanks for all the great work on NM
> Rene
> 
> 
> some info:
> Fedora rawhide with all updates:
> Linux rr-laptop 2.6.25-0.136.rc6.git5.fc9 #1 SMP Thu Mar 20 18:45:28 EDT 
> 2008 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
> - Device: wlan0
>    Type:              802.11 Wireless
>    Driver:            iwl4965
>    Active:            no
> 
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