Re: Problem connecting to wifi on libertas_cpio (sd8686)

[Christopher Williamson <home@chrisaw.com>]

Quick follow-up - I suspected the issue may be with wpa_supplicant
rather than udev / kernel config.

Since this does connect properly on open wireless networks the issue
is now only with WPA/WPA2.

It seems even the latest dev builds of Ubuntu are still stuck using
wpa_supplicant 2.4.x rather than hopping over to 2.5 which I believe
contains a fix needed for the libertas chipset to properly
authenticate with WPA/WPA2 networks.

I therefore decided to compile version 2.5 of wpa_supplicant myself
and install it on a Ubuntu 16.04.1 clean install - looks like that
actually fixed the problem.

So the end result is - the ubuntu 2.4 wpa_supplicant doesn’t work with
libertas+libertas_sdio but it *does* work properly with wpa_supplicant
2.5.

Christopher Williamson


On 23 July 2016 at 13:29:41, Christopher Williamson
(home@chrisaw.com(mailto:home@chrisaw.com)) wrote:

> Just to follow up on this - I performed a minimal ubuntu server install (16.04.1), commented out the crda udev rule (since that was setting the weird country: 98 issue) and tried again and it still didn’t work.
>
> I did confirm that the md5 sums for the firmware included with Arch is the exact same as the firmware included for Ubuntu 16.04.1 so there was no difference there.
>
> At this point I’m thinking it’s either:
>
> - Some Ubuntu-specific udev rule breaking things or:
> - A difference in the kernel config between Arch and Ubuntu
>
> I think I’m going to forfeit for now and switch over to Arch - spent several days on this already. If anyone has any other ideas on what could be causing this please do let me know and I’ll follow up if I experiment this with again.
>
> Christopher Williamson
>
>
>
>
> On 22 July 2016 at 22:47:15, Christopher Williamson (home@chrisaw.com(mailto:home@chrisaw.com)) wrote:
>
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > So I decided to have another fiddle with this and managed to get the WiFi working perfectly first time on an ArchLinux LiveCD so it looks like this issue is Ubuntu specific.
> >
> > I’m going to copy the firmware files and check if they’re responsible and work my way through the various differences but at least I know this device can work properly on the Linux 4.6.3 (which the livecd is based on.)
> >
> > I’ll follow up if and when I find out what the cause of the problem was.
> >
> > Christopher Williamson
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 22 July 2016 at 22:42:50, Christopher Williamson (home@chrisaw.com(mailto:home@chrisaw.com)) wrote:
> >
> > > Hi all,
> > >
> > > So I decided to have another fiddle with this and managed to get the WiFi working perfectly first time on an ArchLinux LiveCD so it looks like this issue is Ubuntu specific.
> > >
> > > I’m going to copy the firmware files and check if they’re responsible and work my way through the various differences but at least I know this device can work properly on the Linux 4.6.3 (which the livecd is based on.)
> > >
> > > I’ll follow up if and when I find out what the cause of the problem was.
> > > Christopher Williamson
> > > www.chrisaw.com(http://www.chrisaw.com)
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On 22 July 2016 at 18:17:20, Christopher Williamson (home@chrisaw.com(mailto:home@chrisaw.com)) wrote:
> > >
> > > > I haven’t managed to get connected to a WPA network either so it looks like open only at the moment but I fear that may just have been a fluke.
> > > >
> > > > A big problem I’m facing is that editing /etc/default/crda to REGDOMAIN=GB wasn’t enough to set the wifi regulation mode to GB and I have to set it manually. This sometimes works and sometimes reports the following:
> > > >
> > > > country 98: DFS-UNSET
> > > > (2402 - 2472 @ 40), (N/A, 20), (N/A)
> > > > (2457 - 2472 @ 15), (N/A, 20), (N/A), NO-IR
> > > > (5170 - 5250 @ 80), (N/A, 17), (N/A), NO-IR
> > > > (5250 - 5330 @ 80), (N/A, 20), (0 ms), DFS, NO-IR
> > > > (5490 - 5730 @ 160), (N/A, 20), (0 ms), DFS, NO-IR
> > > > (5735 - 5835 @ 80), (N/A, 20), (N/A), NO-IR
> > > > (57240 - 63720 @ 2160), (N/A, 0), (N/A)
> > > >
> > > > At best this is simply an annoyance but at worst I’m thinking this may be responsible for the issues I’m seeing.
> > > >
> > > > Is there anywhere else I can force this to be set to GB?
> > > >
> > > > Christopher Williamson
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On 22 July 2016 at 17:54:40, Christopher Williamson (home@chrisaw.com(mailto:home@chrisaw.com)) wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Disregard - I have actually managed to get this to connect to a open network!
> > > > >
> > > > > # iw reg set GB
> > > > > # iw reg get
> > > > > country GB: DFS-ETSI
> > > > > (2402 - 2482 @ 40), (N/A, 20), (N/A)
> > > > > (5170 - 5250 @ 80), (N/A, 20), (N/A)
> > > > > (5250 - 5330 @ 80), (N/A, 20), (0 ms), DFS
> > > > > (5490 - 5710 @ 160), (N/A, 27), (0 ms), DFS
> > > > > (57000 - 66000 @ 2160), (N/A, 40), (N/A)
> > > > > # iwconfig wlan0 essid "shaunthesheep-guest”
> > > > > # dhclient wlan0
> > > > >
> > > > > It’s good to have some progress - so it looks like the issue preventing the previous connection was the iw reg not being set properly (or possibly just wpa_supplicant borking the connection in some way. I stopped that this time around. I’ll try wpa1 now and report back.
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Christopher Williamson
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > On 22 July 2016 at 17:39:50, Christopher Williamson (home@chrisaw.com(mailto:home@chrisaw.com)) wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Ok so I created a guest wifi network without any encryption enabled at all and the client still refuses to connect.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Again, the connection is made perfectly using the USB dongle I have but not the built in libertas sd8686 chipset.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I do currently use pfSense as a firewall box behind my wireless router (acting as an AP) and can see that no DHCP request is making it to the pfSense box. I believe you are right in the point about the firmware being the problem here.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I should also confirm - the firmware in use is the latest from the linux-firmware Ubuntu 16.04 package. I did read around the net about being having various issues with various firmware sources and not others but despite trying firmware linked directly from Marvell I seem to always get one of two issues:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > 1.) I am unable to connect and keep getting asked for passphrases, or:
> > > > > > 2.) The system completely freezes up (with the v8 firmwares I tried)
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I’m not really sure what else to try at this point.
> > > > > > Christopher Williamson
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > On 22 July 2016 at 17:24:52, Christopher Williamson (home@chrisaw.com(mailto:home@chrisaw.com)) wrote:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Hi Dan,
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > I will check out the WPA2 vs WPA vs open wireless thing in a few mins.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > For now though - the iwlist scan results for both a USB device and the
> > > > > > > libertas device:
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > USB: http://termbin.com/hdwl
> > > > > > > Libertas: http://termbin.com/jxh7
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Will follow up shortly with WPA and Open network configs.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Christopher Williamson
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > On 22 July 2016 at 17:16:29, Dan Williams (dcbw@redhat.com(mailto:dcbw@redhat.com)) wrote:
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > Hi Dan,
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > I will check out the WPA2 vs WPA vs open wireless thing in a few mins.
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > For now though - the iwlist scan results for both a USB device and the
> > > > > > > > libertas device:
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > USB: http://termbin.com/hdwl
> > > > > > > > Libertas: http://termbin.com/jxh7
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > Will follow up shortly with WPA and Open network configs.
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > *Christopher Williamson*