Wireless Card Disconnects

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I have the Atheros AR9287 in my Vaio F series (VPC-F1190X). Every once in a 
while, it randomly disconnects from the network, then reconnects. This has 
happened on multiple routers. I use ath9k and wpa_supplicant. Does anyone 
else have this problem?

Original issue reported on code.google.com by Jason.Donenfeld on 29 May 2010 at 2:43

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I have the same Vaio F (VPC-F1190X), but I haven't encountered this problem a 
single 
time. How can I assist in resolving this, what info is required?

Original comment by shand...@gmail.com on 29 May 2010 at 11:48

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I have the same problem. The interesting thing is if you get the wifi up 
manually, by
typing:

sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid "..." key ...

it doeesn't associate on the first try, only by repeating the command. I've
experimented with different distros and it's the same result.

It's strange, because that's never happened to me on any other computer. 

Original comment by flupwat...@gmail.com on 31 May 2010 at 9:30

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@Flupwatson

Have you managed to collect any info on what could be causing the disconnect 
issue? 
Googling reveals perhaps something having to do with rfkill, but I dunno...

Original comment by Jason.Donenfeld on 31 May 2010 at 2:55

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This worked for me ...

The whole thread is good but check the last post by CG0191:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1475006&page=6

Original comment by wassons....@gmail.com on 28 Jun 2010 at 3:50

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The instructions in that thread worked for me as well, but with one change.  I 
have a number of packages that depend on openssl-dev.  The ssl-dev package 
relies on the specific version of libssl, so I had to download that package as 
well.

Original comment by britr...@gmail.com on 4 Jul 2010 at 7:44

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Hey, I may have a solution for you.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1544621

Which boils down to:
sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-wireless-XXXX-generic

Where XXXX is your Ubuntu build name (Lucid, for example, is mine)
sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-wireless-lucid-generic

This solved random disconnect issues for me on a number of routers, one being 
one of Apple's lovely Airports.

Original comment by earthme...@gmail.com on 6 Aug 2010 at 4:25

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Same problem here with Vaio VPCF111FX , already installed backports but issue 
has not been fixed .
Using Ubuntu 10.10 , kernel 2.6.35-22-generic-pee.

Original comment by haitham....@gmail.com on 3 Dec 2010 at 12:31

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I've managed to fix the problem , Downloaded Compat-wireless-2.6.36-4 , 
followed installation instructions and it's working fine now .

Original comment by haitham....@gmail.com on 7 Dec 2010 at 11:35

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@haitham.reda Could you give us a few more details?  Which instructions did you 
follow, and where did you download it?

Original comment by britr...@gmail.com on 7 Dec 2010 at 2:30

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@britrock , i'm running ubuntu 10.10 , kernel 2.6.36 on Vaio VPCF111FX.
I've downloaded compat-wireless-2.6.36-4 from linuxwireless.org , followed the 
README file for build & installation process , now it's working fine with me .
No more lot of "Wlan0 authentication" in dmesg , no more ping time >1000 ms.
I didn't read the full bug report yet , but installing the compat-wireless 
solved my problem ( even if temporarily ).

Original comment by haitham....@gmail.com on 11 Dec 2010 at 1:05

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@haitham.reda Thanks!  That page was very helpful.  I opted for installing it 
via apt, and am trying it now. (Basically following earthme's instructions, 
thanks!)

I'm still on 2.6.35 though.  I wonder if that is part of the issue.  How did 
you install 2.6.36?

Original comment by britr...@gmail.com on 11 Dec 2010 at 2:55

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Ok it is a little early to say if it is fixed or not, but after rebooting it 
connected VERY quickly, and my ping times are now < 60ms.  Before they where 
averaging closer to 300ms.

Original comment by britr...@gmail.com on 11 Dec 2010 at 3:01

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My wireless card is still disconnecting at random... 

Original comment by britr...@gmail.com on 12 Dec 2010 at 5:22

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what kind of router and wireless security settings do you have?

Original comment by earthme...@gmail.com on 12 Dec 2010 at 5:27

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@earthme An airport extreme.  It is an N network, with WPA2.

Installing compat-wireless has helped.  My speed is much much better now, and 
it connects much faster.  But, it still disconnects randomly.  It isn't 
frequent.  It has happened twice in the last 24 hours.

My previous laptop was a macbook pro, and I never had a random disconnect with 
that machine.  I also have a number of other machines that do not disconnect.  
So I am relatively sure that the router is behaving itself.

So, either there is something wrong with this driver, or this driver or chip 
some how does not like the airport.

Original comment by britr...@gmail.com on 12 Dec 2010 at 7:38

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It just disconnected again while I was writing that post... This is very 
annoying.

Original comment by britr...@gmail.com on 12 Dec 2010 at 7:39

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@britrock  Sorry for late reply , i'm not getting notifications on comments !.
As for kernel upgrade , i've downloaded packages manually from Ubuntu server 
and installed them :
 wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v2.6.36-maverick/linux-headers-2.6.36-020636-generic_2.6.36-020636.201010210905_i386.deb
wget 
http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v2.6.36-maverick/linux-image-2.6.3
6-020636-generic_2.6.36-020636.201010210905_i386.deb
wget 
http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v2.6.36-maverick/linux-headers-2.6
.36-020636_2.6.36-020636.201010210905_all.deb

Back to the wireless issue , i guess a quick fix is to switch your Airport 
Extreme to WEP instead of WPA2 , i have a router @ office with WEP and it works 
like a charm .

Original comment by haitham....@gmail.com on 21 Dec 2010 at 11:52

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@haitham Thanks for the reply.  I'm a bit nervous about the idea of using the 
mainline kernel with ubuntu.  I tried it a few months ago on this machine, and 
had weird stuff happening.  I'm not sure what the cause of that was though.

As for WEP vs WPA2... I think I'd rather put up with the disconnects than 
switch to WEP.  I don't trust my neighbors.

Original comment by britr...@gmail.com on 21 Dec 2010 at 3:59

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@britrock  , i understand the neighbors thing :) .
Regarding the kernel , i can't tell much because i'm originally openSUSE fan , 
i started using Ubuntu only Few month ago when i found that openSUSE 11.2 is a 
disaster  , so you know better .
As i remember kernel 2.6.34 was working perfect with WPA , never had a problem 
with wireless . On the other hand 2.6.36 has many things working out of the box 
on my VPCF111FX , like internal Mic, LineIn, Speakers ...etc which are Nice to 
have .

Good Luck !.

Original comment by haitham....@gmail.com on 21 Dec 2010 at 4:11

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@haitham I'll probably try the kernel tonight after work.

I've been an ubuntu fan for a long time.  I had been a debian fan before that 
(I still really like debian, but I also like having new software).  I have used 
various versions of suse a lot (for work, not by choice), but never been a big 
fan.

Original comment by britr...@gmail.com on 21 Dec 2010 at 4:16

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I just updated the kernel, and so far everything appears to be working 
(everything that was at least).

Original comment by britr...@gmail.com on 21 Dec 2010 at 5:12

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and another disconnect....

boo

Original comment by britr...@gmail.com on 21 Dec 2010 at 5:33

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I've noticed something interesting about the disconnects.  It seems to happen 
more (much more) when I am using more bandwidth.  This morning I started 
downloading a torrent (of a vmware image, big and lots of seeders) and my 
connection has died 3 times since.  I throttled my download speed and it hasn't 
disconnected....

Original comment by britr...@gmail.com on 21 Dec 2010 at 6:39

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Hmmm strange  , didn't happen to me on 2.6.36.
Maybe you're correct , because i use 1 MBps ADSL and mainly for browsing/mail 
...etc . 

Original comment by haitham....@gmail.com on 21 Dec 2010 at 6:48

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Have got VPCF13S1R.
Same for me with ath9k - but on 2.6.38 

Ping on 2.6.37.6 is stable: 1-2 msec
On 2.6.38 - can be such as 30000 msec or above!

Original comment by e.lams...@gmail.com on 8 Apr 2011 at 10:22

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Original comment by Jason.Donenfeld on 27 Sep 2012 at 7:10

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Anybody tried recent kernels? 
I installed archlinux 3.5.5 stock kernel and no changes - still high ping times.

Original comment by e.lams...@gmail.com on 8 Oct 2012 at 9:46