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Thread: Intermittent Airport.

  1. #11
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    Re: Intermittent Airport.

    Ok, I decided to power down last night and see how it was this morning, it won't connect at all so far and it has been running for about an hour and a half.

    I haven't connected my Belkin dongle yet, sometimes when I'm on line with the Belkin, the Airport decides it wants to play too. Of course, yesterday it connected all by itself. My usual routine when trying to connect is to authenticate and let it run its course trying to make the connection. But when it doesn't connect I leave it offline, that is when it usually connects on its own, not so far today, though???

    When I had the Ubuntu 12.10 install running, I tried all the workarounds and still didn't get a connection, except when I went back to the initial set up and then it was intermittent like it is now in L' without the workarounds. It makes me wonder what the problem could actually be???? Unfortunately, I am not a programmer or debugging guru so I wouldn't have a clue where to start or what to look for!#!#!# So, are the workarounds even worth the effort? They didn't work for me in U' 12.10 and I probably won't bother with them in L' 12.04?!?!?!?!

    As to my swap size, the install set it at 841Mb, I don't remember setting anything so the system would have set it at that size. I have 640 Mb RAM, is that enough swap? I still have plenty of HD space to increase if necessary.

    Thanks for your interest and help, 2blue.

  2. #12
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    Re: Intermittent Airport.

    Your swap is probably fine. There is swapfaq page where it suggests ways to increase swap and even dedicate it to dormant use. There seem to be no strict guide for size of swap, but 512MB seems to be on the small side, and 2GB on the large side, both acceptable. I don`t really understand how it works, not sure if it will improve hibernation either. However, it seems this old thing might benefit from more RAM after all; regarding speed at least.

    I don`t know why ẁe ended up with different swap size, since we both followed the regular install guide. I have to look into this, I have no idea really.

    It`s really weird with your wireless, mine connects right away from dormant mode and from restart. We should have the same wireless card?
    I now my father had major troube with wireless on an iMac he bought autumn 2011. For some reason it kept disconnecting when all other computers in the house had no problem. It truned out there was some kind of interference, and a guy from the Apple store came, installed a new router (the apple one being much better of course) and I think he aslo configurated some kind of setting for the Mac to be first priority connecting. I thought it was bit weird, but it worked, and for a while it was my mothers laptop that had issues with connecting.

    I live in an old house, and I have a desk in a spot where there is some kind of interference with wireless signals. I`m not quite sure what it is (maybe the cast iron beams in the ceiling) but when I connect to a USB wireless adaptor I have with antenna it connects fine. At night it can work fine with out the extra USB antenna improved thing, in daytime not a chance. Wireless is odd sometimes.
    Last edited by 2blue; August 8th, 2012 at 07:16 AM.

  3. #13
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    Re: Intermittent Airport.

    Wifi certainly is finicky, my Airport has not connected all day but just sitting here reading your post, 2blue, and I've realised that it is actually connected. I've just disconnected the Belkin and all is fine. But of course, will it connect tomorrow again??? Who knows??

    I have a mid 2011 iMac and my wife has a Macbook (2009 I think) and we have the occasional issue with our wifi which is an Apple Airport Express, it sometimes just doesn't connect, usually coming out of sleep, but its not too much of a problem, just sometimes inconvenient.

    Anyway, thanks for the info about the swap size too, I think I'll leave mine as it is at the moment. If I work out that I need to change it later, I'll look into it then.

    But back to the wifi, I guess someone will come up with a real fix sometime?!?!?!? In the meantime, I'll keep going with it the way it is. Thanks again for your help and interest, 2blue.

  4. #14
    rsavage is offline Iced Almond Soy Ubuntu, No Foam
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    Re: Intermittent Airport.

    Quote Originally Posted by killabuntu View Post
    When I had the Ubuntu 12.10 install running, I tried all the workarounds and still didn't get a connection, except when I went back to the initial set up and then it was intermittent like it is now in L' without the workarounds. It makes me wonder what the problem could actually be???? Unfortunately, I am not a programmer or debugging guru so I wouldn't have a clue where to start or what to look for!#!#!# So, are the workarounds even worth the effort? They didn't work for me in U' 12.10 and I probably won't bother with them in L' 12.04?!?!?!?!
    I would urge you to look again at the PowerPC documentation and the links it provides. The information will be there for you to solve your problem. If all else fails then you can use wpa_supplicant directly as they do in crux http://cruxppc.org/Airport (ask on the network forum about this). It very much depends how you want to connect (WEP/WPA) and what firmware you have flashed on the card. When you've figured it out (I mean when you've rigorously tested the workarounds....no bodges please) then you can edit the PowerPC documentation to improve the experience for others.

  5. #15
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    Re: Intermittent Airport.

    I don`t know if it helps at all, but my wireless shows as "Broadcom BCM4318 (AirForce One 54g) 802.11g", and my router is set to WPA2. Everything is autodetected.

  6. #16
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    Re: Intermittent Airport.

    Quote Originally Posted by rsavage View Post
    I would urge you to look again at the PowerPC documentation and the links it provides. The information will be there for you to solve your problem. If all else fails then you can use wpa_supplicant directly as they do in crux http://cruxppc.org/Airport (ask on the network forum about this). It very much depends how you want to connect (WEP/WPA) and what firmware you have flashed on the card. When you've figured it out (I mean when you've rigorously tested the workarounds....no bodges please) then you can edit the PowerPC documentation to improve the experience for others.
    Thanks, rsavage, but can I ask- what documentation are you referring to specifically? I haven't read any other than the FAQs and forum posts really. Is there a help file that comes with the install? Or is there a link/s you could share? Thanks.

    I did have a look at the Crux info but some of it doesn't mean a thing to me, I can't even get past point 2 on that page.

    Regarding my comment about the workarounds not being worth the effort, I still stand by that to the extent that, if the Airport card connects by itself without the fixes, even though it doesn't work first up necessarily, why bother? It certainly is frustrating while it is doing this, though.

    My question is- why is it that something 'comes right' after a while and why try to 'fix' it? I've just had another thought, I purchased a refurbished Airport card, could it just be that it needs to warm up a bit to connect?? I wonder??? If that is the case, then maybe I should pull it out and reinsert it, maybe that would seat it better?? I might give that a go at some point. Maybe, it is working properly but is purely a hardware issue??? Who knows?

    On the wpa_supplicant option, I saw on the Software Centre an app for wpa manipulation, it was called Wpa_gui, I think. Does anyone know anything about it?

    2blue, my Airport card (original/classic) is listed as AppleKeyLargo something.

    Thanks to all of you, for your patient responses. I find that having come to this later in life (I'm over 50 ), it takes a long time to make some of the connections needed to understand the workings of systems like Linux. And coming from a Mac background where it is 99% gui and 'just works', it is a steep learning curve for me.

    Thanks again, cheers.

  7. #17
    rsavage is offline Iced Almond Soy Ubuntu, No Foam
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    Re: Intermittent Airport.

    The relevant bit of the CRUX instructions start at 7.2. I knew they would seem complicated which is why I suggested you seek help on the network forum. I'm not passing the buck by suggesting you go on there, just you'll get more expert help and probably quicker responses.

    The PowerPC FAQ is the PowerPC documentation I was referring to. The linked bug shows a problem with the Airport card. You need to have ap_scan=2. Hopefully the network forum people will be able to give you a debug command to see what ap_scan you are using (and confirm this is your problem).

    Wicd was supposedly a workaround that worked in 10.04. The source of this is probably dubious at best, but I think I can see how to make it actually work (I currently have 10.04 installed) by modifying a misc.py file. It would be interesting if the Network forum people come up with the same (12.04 may have changed so I'm not going to waste your time with my suggestions at the moment).

    Btw, what version of flashed firmware do you have? Are you using wep or wpa?

    I'm afraid you have been let down by the people before you with an Airport Classic card. I don't have one of these. If I did I would of thoroughly tested it and made sure a solution was in place on the PowerPC FAQ. Btw, the FAQ has all useful information from the Apple forum in it (certainly from the past year and a half since I've been using linux) so there is really is no need to search the Apple forum.


    EDIT: reminder to myself (please ignore the following for now):
    /usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/wicd/misc.py symlinked to /usr/share/pyshared/wicd/misc.py

    relevant bit:
    Code:
    def ParseEncryption(network):
        """ Parse through an encryption template file
    
        Parses an encryption template, reading in a network's info
        and creating a config file for it
    
        """
        enctemplate = open(wpath.encryption + network["enctype"])
        template = enctemplate.readlines()
        config_file = "ap_scan=1\n"
    http://wicd.sourceforge.net/punbb/viewtopic.php?id=700

    Useful files here:
    /var/lib/wicd/configurations (the configuration files of the setup networks)
    /etc/wicd/encryption/templates (note, if you create your own template then add it to the active file)

    EDIT2: In 12.04 the file is /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/wicd symlinked again to /usr/share/pyshared/wicd/misc.py

    The code has changed a bit:

    Code:
    def ParseEncryption(network):
        """ Parse through an encryption template file
    
        Parses an encryption template, reading in a network's info
        and creating a config file for it
    
        """
        enctemplate = open(wpath.encryption + network["enctype"])
        template = enctemplate.readlines()
        if network.get('essid'):
            config_file = "ap_scan=1\n"
        else:
            config_file = "ap_scan=0\n"
    Last edited by rsavage; August 11th, 2012 at 11:54 AM.

  8. #18
    rsavage is offline Iced Almond Soy Ubuntu, No Foam
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    Re: Intermittent Airport.

    I'm pretty sure I can get wicd working for you now if you want to try.

  9. #19
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    Re: Intermittent Airport.

    Thanks, rsavage, for that follow up info, I will get onto the network forum in the next day or so.

    But to answer your questions, here are entries from today's syslog:

    Aug 11 13:48:05 rays-laptop kernel: [ 28.326603] airport 0.00030000:radio: Hardware identity 0005:0001:0001:0002
    Aug 11 13:48:05 rays-laptop kernel: [ 28.326740] airport 0.00030000:radio: Station identity 001f:0001:0008:0046
    Aug 11 13:48:05 rays-laptop kernel: [ 28.326755] airport 0.00030000:radio: Firmware determined as Lucent/Agere 8.70

    Aug 11 18:34:39 rays-laptop kernel: [ 34.260501] airport 0.00030000:radio: Firmware determined as Lucent/Agere 9.48

    And I am logging into the network under wpa/wpa2 (personal).

    I've just now seen your newest post re: wicd and will follow up with you in the next little while, thanks heaps for your interest in my situation. It gives us beginners some hope, thanks again. See you soon on the forum.

  10. #20
    rsavage is offline Iced Almond Soy Ubuntu, No Foam
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    Re: Intermittent Airport.

    Install wicd:

    sudo apt-get install wicd

    Say yes to install the extra packages. It'll ask if you want to join the netdev group. Press spacebar to put a star by your name and then press enter/return.

    Remove network-manager

    sudo apt-get remove network-manager

    Say yes to remove the two packages.

    Now we need to edit a file:

    gksudo leafpad /usr/share/pyshared/wicd/misc.py

    Use the find facility and look for "ap_scan".

    Change this bit of code:

    Code:
        if network.get('essid'):
            config_file = "ap_scan=1\n"
        else:
            config_file = "ap_scan=0\n"
    to

    Code:
        #if network.get('essid'):
        #   config_file = "ap_scan=1\n"
        #else:
        #    config_file = "ap_scan=0\n"
        config_file = "ap_scan=2\n"
    As you can see I've commented out (the #s) the bit of code that sets ap_scan and added an extra line that sets it to 2.

    Reboot the machine.

    Setup your connection. Hopefully it will connect.

    This setup will probably only work with your Airport card wifi from now on (so you'll have to undo the changes to use a USB dongle). It probably is possible to do something more flexible with template files though.

    If you are not happy and want to return everything back to how it was:

    sudo apt-get install network-manager
    sudo apt-get purge python-wicd wicd wicd-daemon wicd-gtk

    Reboot.
    Last edited by rsavage; August 11th, 2012 at 10:50 PM. Reason: spelling

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