ipw2200 wireless GUI issue under 12.04

Can you give the output of:

sudo lshw -C network; lsb_release -a; uname -a; sudo rfkill list

Thanks

sudo lshw -C network:

  *-network:0
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: 82540EP Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Mobile)
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 1
       bus info: pci@0000:02:01.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 03
       serial: 00:11:25:16:23:05
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 66MHz
       capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e1000 driverversion=7.3.21-k8-NAPI firmware=N/A latency=64 link=no mingnt=255 multicast=yes port=twisted pair
       resources: irq:11 memory:c0220000-c023ffff memory:c0200000-c020ffff ioport:7000(size=64) memory:e8000000-e800ffff
  *-network:1
       description: Wireless interface
       product: PRO/Wireless 2915ABG [Calexico2] Network Connection
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:02:02.0
       logical name: eth1
       version: 05
       serial: 00:15:00:2c:a3:5d
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ipw2200 driverversion=1.2.2kmprq firmware=ABG:9.0.5.27 (Dec 12 2007) ip=192.168.0.103 latency=64 link=yes maxlatency=24 mingnt=3 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abg
       resources: irq:11 memory:c0214000-c0214fff

lsb_release -a:
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu precise (development branch)
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise

uname -a:
Linux Nova 3.2.0-17-generic #27-Ubuntu SMP Fri Feb 24 15:38:36 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

sudo rfkill list:
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no

I also found some lines in /var/log/syslog that may be related:
Mar 4 15:09:34 Nova NetworkManager[706]: <info> (eth1): using nl80211 for WiFi device control
Mar 4 15:09:35 Nova NetworkManager[706]: <info> (eth1): new 802.11 WiFi device (driver: 'ipw2200' ifindex: 4)
Mar 4 15:09:35 Nova NetworkManager[706]: <info> (eth1): exported as /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/1
Mar 4 15:09:35 Nova NetworkManager[706]: <info> Creating virtual devices
Mar 4 15:09:35 Nova NetworkManager[706]: SCPlugin-Ifupdown: devices added (path: /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1e.0/0000:02:02.0/net/eth1, iface: eth1)
Mar 4 15:09:35 Nova NetworkManager[706]: Ifupdown: get unmanaged devices count: 1
Mar 4 15:09:35 Nova wpa_supplicant[752]: nl80211: Driver does not support authentication/association or connect commands

Your wifi has an IP, can you ping 8.8.8.8?

You may want to install wicd as your wifi is being detected as eth1, network manager uses wlan0 as far as I know so may be seen as a wired connection. Wicd can be told what interface to use (as it is more flexible) and should work.

I can ping 8.8.8.8. In fact, I'm submitting this response via the computer in question. I seem to have no trouble configuring my wi-fi connection via the terminal, it's just the GUI part (which I guess is called NetworkManager) that isn't working properly. (And as you pointed out, this may be because my wifi card is showing up as eth1 instead of wlan0).

The reason I'm confused is because when I installed 11.04 on this machine, this issue didn't exist. I assume 11.04 used NetworkManager as well? So I'm curious about why on my 12.04 installation my wifi card shows up as eth1 and breaks NetworkManager. Maybe it's due to the way I installed the OS (mini .iso instead of the Live CD)? Or could it be a bug or a new behaviour introduced by something in 12.04?

I've got no problem installing Wicd and using that instead of NetworkManager - I'm just wondering if there's a bug in Ubuntu here that may affect more people when 12.04 launches.

(Oh, and thanks for your help so far!)

I suggest you report a bug. Does wicd help? What commands do you run to get the wifi configured?

I supposed wicd helps. I installed the wicd meta package via the Software Centre and rebooted. I was able to use wicd to scan for networks and connect to my LAN. I noticed in the preferences section that it had automatically detected eth1 as a wireless adapter and eth0 as a wired adapter (yay!).

However, installing the wicd meta package did not uninstall NetworkManager or turn off its widget, which was still running in the menu bar. I haven't figured out how to start up the wicd menu bar widget yet. It doesn't seem to run when the system boots, or when I run wicd-client.

Sorry if I was misleading before, but I haven't actually configured the connection via the terminal myself. I just assumed it was possible because the installer on the mini .iso was able to configure the connection during the install process.

I have some additional information that I forgot to mention earlier: When the machine is booting, it pauses for a little while showing the Ubuntu logo and says "Waiting for network configuration..." After 10 to 15 seconds, it says "Waiting up to 60 more seconds for network configuration..." before finally saying "Booting system without full network configuration"

I have no idea what it's doing there, other than delaying my boot up for a minute. Once I log in my connection works fine. (Other than the previously mentioned issue of the NetworkManager widget not working properly).

If it really is an issue with the wireless card being named eth1 then it's a serious regression from past behaviour. The wireless adapter in my laptop has been named eth1 since I first started using Ubuntu at 8.04 and it has never been a problem.

I tested a live USB and experienced the same problem that you described, all networks "greyed out".

Could report a bug. I've seen users have issues when their interface is named eth1. You could add a udev rule and change the interface name to wlan0, could help. I suggest you report a bug

I'd love to help out but I'm not sure that I should be the one reporting this bug since I have only tested 12.04 from a live USB. I did not get the "device not managed" by the way, and I also found out that I can connect if I choose to create a new connection and enter my details manually.

If I find the time I will insert my old HDD into the laptop and install.

I noticed that I can connect to unsecured networks - at least theoretically - since they were white in the list.

Any issues in Precise should be reported. The OS should fall into "it just works" which is what Ubuntu aims for

Yes I agree it should be reported, but I won't have the possibility to do any testing myself nor supply any additional details until I have it installed to my HDD. I did try to change the name from eth1 to wlan0 by editing /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules but it didn't work, there was probably some service that had to be restarted for the changes to be applied (tried restarting udev, networking, network-manager and lightdm).

Looks like the wlan0/eth1 issue was a red herring. I reinstalled the old hard drive and found that the 11.04 install is using eth1 for the wireless card. I should have checked that out earlier... The output from lshw -C network and rfkill list are identical on the old install:

$ sudo lshw -C network
  *-network:0
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: 82540EP Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Mobile)
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 1
       bus info: pci@0000:02:01.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 03
       serial: 00:11:25:16:23:05
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 66MHz
       capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e1000 driverversion=7.3.21-k8-NAPI firmware=N/A latency=64 link=no mingnt=255 multicast=yes port=twisted pair
       resources: irq:11 memory:c0220000-c023ffff memory:c0200000-c020ffff ioport:7000(size=64) memory:c0240000-c024ffff
  *-network:1
       description: Wireless interface
       product: PRO/Wireless 2915ABG [Calexico2] Network Connection
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:02:02.0
       logical name: eth1
       version: 05
       serial: 00:15:00:2c:a3:5d
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ipw2200 driverversion=1.2.2kmprq firmware=ABG:9.0.5.27 (Dec 12 2007) ip=192.168.0.104 latency=64 link=yes maxlatency=24 mingnt=3 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abg
       resources: irq:11 memory:c0214000-c0214fff

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 11.04
Release: 11.04
Codename: natty

$ uname -a
Linux Nova 2.6.38-13-generic #56-Ubuntu SMP Tue Feb 14 12:40:40 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

$ sudo rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no

I also checked the syslog and found a number of differences. Here is the 11.04 machine:
$ cat /var/log/syslog | grep NetworkManager
Mar 7 14:42:30 Nova NetworkManager[524]: <info> (eth1): supplicant connection state: completed -> disconnected
Mar 7 14:42:31 Nova NetworkManager[524]: <info> (eth1): supplicant connection state: disconnected -> scanning
Mar 7 14:42:31 Nova NetworkManager[524]: <info> (eth1): supplicant connection state: scanning -> associating
Mar 7 14:42:31 Nova NetworkManager[524]: <info> (eth1): supplicant connection state: associating -> associated
Mar 7 14:42:32 Nova NetworkManager[524]: <info> (eth1): supplicant connection state: associated -> 4-way handshake
Mar 7 14:42:33 Nova NetworkManager[524]: <info> (eth1): supplicant connection state: 4-way handshake -> group handshake
Mar 7 14:42:33 Nova NetworkManager[524]: <info> (eth1): supplicant connection state: group handshake -> completed

My next thought was to check and see what version of NetworkManager each install is running, but I'm not sure how to do that.

I'm going to go ahead and create a bug report, as per your recommendation.

These commands will tell you the version installed on your system:
apt-cache policy network-manager
apt-cache policy network-manager-gnome

I confirm I have this problem. I have a Dell inspiron 630m with the intel 2200BG wireless controller. Running the kubuntu 12.04 beta.

There is a big problem with network-manager as all WPA/WPA2 wireless routers are recognised as WEP (the yellow shield). Upon selecting the connections the only configuration options offered are for WEP or LEAP.

To attempt to rule out any k-related problems I have tried a live 12.04 Ubuntu USB. The connections are visible in the drop-down menu but are greyed out and cannot be selected.

Wicd works but I need to use a VPN from time to time.

If you need any output posting, let me know please.

Hey Ian, there may be some additional information about your issue in bug #908380. I believe the current theory about ipw2200 devices being unable to connect to WPA networks is that the device's capabilities are being incorrectly reported by the driver.

Thanks Alex, I am inclined to agree with that analysis.

Do you know whether it's a kernel bug affecting all distros or is it just ubuntu and derivatives?

Also does anyone know whether the driver has been fixed yet?

Many thanks

No problem Ian! Let me summarize and clarify for anyone else finding their way here. It appears that there were at least 3 bugs related to this question:

The first is that the device was not even visible in the network manager applet (nm-applet). My understanding is that there was a bug that was causing this driver to be added to the list of unmanaged devices. For a little more info, see this NetworkManager FAQ: http://live.gnome.org/DarrenAlbers/NetworkManagerFAQ#My_Card_is_not_recognized_by_NetworkManager_and_I_am_running_Debian_or_Ubuntu: I've been told that this bug has been fixed.

The second issue is that nm-applet appears to be getting incorrect information from the ipw2200 kernel driver about the device's capabilities. Specifically, devices that support WPA (and/or WPA2?) are being reported as not supporting it, and nm-applet won't let you connect to them. I haven't confirmed that this is a driver issue, myself. Unfortunately I have no idea if it's been fixed, or if it affects any other distros running a 3.2.x kernel. Interestingly, nm-connection-editor can be used to manually create a working connection to a WPA network even though nm-applet can't.

The third issue is that the invalid data that nm-applet was getting from the kernel was leading to numerous issues and crashes with the applet. #908380 talks about this in more detail. A fix for these issues has been released.

It looks like https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/973241 is tracking the second issue Alex mentions.

Just to say that for me the problem is now fixed due to this ppa

https://launchpad.net/~jools/+archive/ipw2200