Ubuntu
wicd package

WiFi : wicd and network-manager unsteady

Asked by jcglt

Please refer to my former thread 132492 for the background.

I have experienced a serious unstability of my wifi connexion both under Ubuntu 09.10 Karmic and 10.04 Lulid Lynx.
I use a laptop with SIS chip with SIS190 driver (eth0) and Atheros AR5001 chip with ath5k driver (wlan0).
"Network-manager" alone was not working well : disconnecting after a few minutes, difficult to reconnect during the next minutes, then impossible to reconnect, I had eventually to reboot the computer.
I added "wifi radar" but got no improvement.
I then installed "wicd", uninstalled "network-manager" and "wifi radar" and got a serious improvement : the wireless connexion continued to disconnect every 2 to 3 minutes but reconnected allways automatically about 10 seconds later : a very boring situation but better than no connexion at all.
I studied all the forums and posts I could find with no result in the tests I tried.

Looking again to my /var/log/messages and /var/log/syslog I could see that the wireless disconnects every 2 to 3 minutes as if (I don't actually know how it does work) a test was automatically done by "wicd" every 10 seconds or maybe more and this test fails every 2 or 3 or more minutes for an unknown reason and the network closes with the following message
                           ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
then the following message arrives
                           ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
and it starts to reconnect and succeeds in this attempt.
"wicd" being in use I have just installed again "network-manager" (to have one working manager on the computer) then fully uninstalled "wicd" without activating "network-manager" and I have now a nice wireless connexion which has been steadily working during 45 minutes, I never saw that before.

Questions :
- What could I do to make my networks work without "network-manager" and "wicd" ?
- Is it possible to forbid to "wicd" this periodic test of a working network which puts it down ?
- Does it exist some console procedure (like for example "wicd-curses" or anything else like a registered script executed when I start the computer) to start the wireless network ?
- I suspect some kind of bug in "network-manager" and "wicd" as I have seen on this forum and other forums also that I am not alone with this very boring problem , which has been recurrent over former versions of Ubuntu. Can we hope to have this problem fixed some day ? I do not want to revert to Windows XP or even to Mandriva free Spring 2010, which both are working steadily on my computer and I would like to get on Ubuntu a WiFi connexion which is fully operative as soon as Ubuntu has been installed (as with Windows and Mandriva).

I can provide all informations felt necessary.

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Ubuntu wicd Edit question
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jcglt
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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

Possible:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1436256

Otherwise compile the driver (see the reply from flash):
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1505100

Revision history for this message
jcglt (jcjglt) said : 		#2

My wireless network seems to be working properly now, it has been working
without any deconnection during several hours and after been rebooted several
times. I cannot explain but only write what I have done.
While I was still connected by "wicd" I quickly installed the basic
"network-manager" from "System" "Administration" "Synaptic packets manager" and
by the same way uninstalled "wicd". I waited around one hour before
rebooting.The wireless network opened before by "wicd"
did not close anymore as "wicd" had totally been removed (configuration files
included) from the computer, my wireless connection was rock steady for the
first time.
I then rebooted to check the newly installed "network-manager". No joy, it did
not connect. I made a few "sudo stop network-manager" and "sudo start
network-manager" without seeing any network-applet in the tray.
I rebooted again and without any explanation the network-applet was in the tray,
it was trying to connect, it did it and has been since that time rock steady. I
did a few reboots yesterday and also this morning with the same nice result. Now
my /var/log/messages and /var/log/syslog show nothing wrong. Maybe this
"network-manager" is a new version as the applet in the tray is different (not the
same colour as before).
I then cleaned all these files which had been edited during my attempts to get
the thing working, like /etc/network/interfaces, which is now the very basic
"auto lo
iface lo inet loopback"
without anything else.
I also did not try to add any other program like "wifi radar" as I did before
and I won't try to use again "wicd" which may have been responsible for these
problems, I am not sure but I do not want to change again a system which is
currently working properly.