Message-ID: <4E23F2E0.3050200@redhat.com> (sfid-20110718_104634_012179_76BC7572)
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2011 10:46:24 +0200
From: Stefan Assmann <sassmann@redhat.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: ali@internetdog.org
CC: Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@lwfinger.net>,
	wireless <linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: r8712u issue
References: <4E2051F3.20103@redhat.com> <4E205984.5040803@lwfinger.net> <4E23E56C.9000202@redhat.com> <20110718082709.GA8390@internetdog.org>
In-Reply-To: <20110718082709.GA8390@internetdog.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Sender: linux-wireless-owner@vger.kernel.org

On 18.07.2011 10:27, Ali Bahar wrote:
> Stefan,
> 
> I'd like to reproduce this problem. So I'd appreciate some specifics,
> as asked below.
> 
> 
> On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 09:49:00AM +0200, Stefan Assmann wrote:
>> On 15.07.2011 17:15, Larry Finger wrote:
>>> On 07/15/2011 09:42 AM, Stefan Assmann wrote:
> 
>>>> driver. The problem I'm currently facing is that the driver does not
>>>> recognize any network disconnects. So whenever the network goes down the
>>>> driver will still report it's connected and thus doesn't reconnect when
>>>> the network is up again.
> 
> 
>> The system is a headless debian squeeze with a self build vanilla 2.6.39
>> kernel. The network is handled by debian scripts I just added the following
>> to /etc/network/interfaces:
>> auto wlan0
>> iface wlan0 inet dhcp
>> wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
>>
>> No NM involved.
> 
> So wpa_supplicant is controlling (and presumably monitoring) the
> connection.
> How are you seeing that (to quote the above) "the network goes down"
> and that the driver reports that "it's connected"? 
> (Typically, I use only ifconfig and iwconfig, but those don't monitor
> the connection.)

OK, so I first recognized the problem when I rebooted my AP and the host
in question didn't get back online. Checking the host itself it seemed
that the network is doing fine, ifconfig showed the interface has an IP
but I couldn't ping any hosts. After an ifdown ; ifup cycle everything
was back to normal.
I pulled the power from the AP, waited a few minutes and checked back.
The ifconfig output still showed that the device had its IP.

>>> When this situation occurs, what is output to the dmesg log?
>>
>> Sorry, I don't have the output at hand but IIRC basically nothing special
>> occurred in dmesg. The interface even keeps it's IP although the wireless
>> was long gone.
> 
> So ifconfig shows the IP#. I'm assuming that it no longer shows a
> state of "UP".

I would assume so, but I'll have to reproduce to make sure.

> This'd seem an inane question, but I must ask: What exactly do you
> mean by the wireless being "gone"? Which GUI/utility/effect do you
> see? Is it a powered-down AP, roaming, iwconfig's output, or what?

I pulled the power from the AP. :)

>> Ccing Ali Bahar to this reply, since he has seen something similar.
> 
> To clarify: I just meant that I've seen quite a number of similar
> inconsistencies in my testing as well as in my analysis of the code.
> So, when I read your post, it came as no surprise to me. These'll get
> fixed ... uh, let's hope soon! ;-)

I see. :)

  Stefan