Re: Brcmsmac driver woes, possible regression?

From: Dan Williams <dcbw@redhat.com>
To: Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com>
Cc: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>,
	Arend van Spriel <arend@broadcom.com>,
	664767@bugs.debian.org, linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Brcmsmac driver woes, possible regression?
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:16:20 -0500	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <1363716980.2225.32.camel@dcbw.foobar.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20130319181135.GA7969@stt008.linux.site>

On Tue, 2013-03-19 at 19:11 +0100, Camaleón wrote:
> El 2013-03-19 a las 12:59 -0500, Dan Williams escribió:
> 
> > On Tue, 2013-03-19 at 18:30 +0100, Camaleón wrote:
> > > El 2013-03-19 a las 11:53 -0500, Dan Williams escribió:
> > > > 
> > > > Note that NM 0.9.8 won't ask for a password when just anything fails,
> > > > but will ask for a password if the 4-way handshake fails, because if
> > > > that fails, it's probably your password.  We're contemplating getting
> > > > rid of that too, and just notifying the user that their password may be
> > > > wrong and that they should go update it in the network configuration
> > > > panel so we don't interrupt.  But if you're 100% sure your PSK is
> > > > correct, then it is, most likely, a driver bug.
> > > 
> > > Password is correct. I have a second wireless card (external, using 
> > > rt2800usb driver) that connects without a glitch to the same AP.
> > > 
> > > Moreover, unless I type the right password, N-M dialog does not allow 
> > > me to click on the "Connect" button.
> > 
> > NM minimally verifies the PSK, which by 802.11 standards is between 8
> > and 63 ASCII characters inclusive.  So you should be able to type
> > anything you want within those constraints, but clearly only one is your
> > real PSK.
> 
> Oops! Okay, so what user inputs is not "bullet-proof".
> 
> Anyway, this does not seem to be a problem of bad password. I was 
> finally able to get connected to the AP as soon as I carry the nebook 
> and put it next to the AP which is the problem I've always have had 
> with this driver (brcmsmac).

Yeah, that's a symptom of bad power control or bad gain or who knows
what in the driver.  But also, make sure your antennas are connected
correctly :)

> As soon as I back to another room, N-M asks me again for the pass-key 
> and disconnects.

NM 0.9.8 shouldn't do that; I bet you're not even getting to the point
where the 4-way handshake and password verification are done.  NM 0.9.8
will retry a few times, notify you and fail, then wait a couple minutes
and try again.  It shouldn't ask for a password anymore in situations
like this.

Dan