I use a wireless connection to access the Internet, and lately (since upgrading to ubuntu 9.10 karmic koala) it has started to be a pain in the ***. Every once in a while (loosing count at the end of the day) the connection will simply drop and the network manager no longer detects ANY nearby wireless network (usually, I detect something like 6 different networks). Actually, sometimes it will see the networks, but it will be impossible to reconnect anyhow. Rebooting the system solves the problem... Wired connection never fails. Even when my wireless connection fails, I can still get a working wired connection.
Do any of you have an idea as to what could be causing the problem? Or what I can do to solve it?
updates:
I had a look in various log files to see if anything strikes me, but of course I don't understand most of what's happening in there... (sorry, this section is rather long)
Here's what I noticed:
in /var/log/syslog: The log file is full of occurences of these lines (where only the time and date changes). The times indicated seem to concur with difficulty in loading a webpage (it takes a lot of time, temporary loss of connection).
Dec 13 14:37:44 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: completed -> disconnected
Dec 13 14:37:44 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: disconnected -> scanning
Dec 13 14:37:45 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: scanning -> associating
Dec 13 14:37:45 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: associating -> associated
Dec 13 14:37:45 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: associated -> completed
At other places in the log file, I see the following, which concurs with my observing choppy mouse movement and the NetworkManager icon changing to "searching".
Dec 13 14:46:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 8 -> 3 (reason 11)
Dec 13 14:46:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): deactivating device (reason: 11).
Dec 13 14:46:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): canceled DHCP transaction, dhcp client pid 2196
Dec 13 14:46:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <WARN> check_one_route(): (wlan0) error -34 returned from rtnl_route_del(): Sucess#012
Dec 13 14:46:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) starting connection 'Auto dlink'
Dec 13 14:46:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 3 -> 4 (reason 0)
Dec 13 14:46:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled...
Dec 13 14:46:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started...
Dec 13 14:46:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) scheduled...
Dec 13 14:46:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.
Dec 13 14:46:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) starting...
Dec 13 14:46:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 4 -> 5 (reason 0)
Dec 13 14:46:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0/wireless): connection 'Auto dlink' requires no security. No secrets needed.
Dec 13 14:46:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> Config: added 'ssid' value 'dlink'
Dec 13 14:46:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> Config: added 'scan_ssid' value '1'
Dec 13 14:46:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> Config: added 'key_mgmt' value 'NONE'
Dec 13 14:46:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.
Dec 13 14:46:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: scanning -> disconnected
Dec 13 14:46:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> Config: set interface ap_scan to 1
Dec 13 14:46:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state: disconnected -> scanning
Dec 13 14:47:05 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> wlan0: link timed out.
Dec 13 14:47:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0/wireless): association took too long, failing activation.
Dec 13 14:47:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 5 -> 9 (reason 11)
Dec 13 14:47:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) failed for access point (dlink)
Dec 13 14:47:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> Marking connection 'Auto dlink' invalid.
Dec 13 14:47:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> Activation (wlan0) failed.
Dec 13 14:47:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 9 -> 3 (reason 0)
Dec 13 14:47:50 shawn-laptop NetworkManager: <info> (wlan0): deactivating device (reason: 0).
The other thing in there that seemed related is a whole lot (really, a lot) of lines concerning ath9k
...
Dec 16 18:30:35 shawn-laptop kernel: [ 925.430675] ath9k: Failed to wakeup in 10000us
Dec 16 18:30:35 shawn-laptop kernel: [ 925.430680] ath9k: Unable to reset channel (2437 Mhz) reset status -5
Dec 16 18:30:35 shawn-laptop kernel: [ 925.430690] ath9k: Unable to set channel
Dec 16 18:30:40 shawn-laptop kernel: [ 930.262355] ath9k: Failed to wakeup in 10000us
...
stuff like that
In another log file: /var/log/messages I can see these lines, the times of which concur with audio and mouse lag and network failure.
Dec 14 19:36:24 shawn-laptop kernel: [18022.982270] ACPI Exception: AE_TIME, Returned by Handler for [EmbeddedControl] 20090521 evregion-424
Dec 14 19:36:24 shawn-laptop kernel: [18022.982271] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.AMW0.WMCA] (Node ffff880133e26720), AE_TIME
Dec 14 19:36:26 shawn-laptop kernel: [18025.120059] ACPI Exception: AE_TIME, Returned by Handler for [EmbeddedControl] 20090521 evregion-424
Dec 14 19:36:26 shawn-laptop kernel: [18025.120085] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.LPC0.EC0_.GBST] (Node ffff880133e327e0), AE_TIME
Dec 14 19:36:26 shawn-laptop kernel: [18025.120139] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.LPC0.EC0_.BAT0._BST] (Node ffff880133e32920), AE_TIME
Dec 14 19:36:26 shawn-laptop kernel: [18025.120261] ACPI Exception: AE_TIME, Evaluating _BST 20090521 battery-385
Dec 14 19:36:28 shawn-laptop pulseaudio[1737]: ratelimit.c: 10 events suppressed
Other symptoms which seem to be related
When I loose wireless connection, the whole system seems to slow down: Music starts to skip, mouse movement starts to be choppy. This state of slowness seems to persist until I reboot. It is particularily bad while the network manager is trying to reconnect (it always fails, but it still tries once in a while.. valiant at heart)
The signal strength for my network seems to vary a lot sometimes.
I recently installed lm-sensor and sersors-applet to monitor CPU temperatures and the such, in an attempt to see it there was a correlation between high temperature and connection failure. This allowed me to have four new icons displaying temperatures up there next to the battery and NetworkManager icons. Here are the names of each icon: temp1, temp2, CPU, CPU. And their average temperature (as far as I can tell): 60 C, 55 C, 55 C, 60 C, resp. I have no clue what temp1 and temp2 are. Anyways, I have been getting the following message regularily: An error occurred while trying to update the value of the sensor CPU located at /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/TZSO/temperature. Sometimes it says sensor CPU, sometimes it says sensor temp1...
My system:
Acer aspire 5536-5519,
AMD Athlon 64 X 2 processor QL 64 (2.1 GHz),
ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics Up to 1919 MB HyperMemory,
15.6" HD LED LCD,
4 GB Memory,
320 GB HDD,
DVD Super Multi DL drive,
Ubuntu 9.10 karmic koala 64 bit version
--is there anything more you need to know?--
Thanks very much in advance.