I've got an Asus EEE 1000HE, and it's worked fine for a long time with the EEEBUNTU distro (a distro based on Jaunty (i think) with a custom kernel). Unfortunately, Eeebuntu is no longer maintained, so I recently did a clean install of Ubuntu 10.04.2. I am now unable to get my wifi to work reliably.

The wifi tries to connect for a while, then pops up the "Wireless Network Authentication Required" window. If I hit "connect" it will try again for a while, then pop up the window. Etc. Note I know that my connection information is OK. I haven't mistyped the password (see below). Also note that the wifi antenna is turned on. For example, iwlist scan is able to find my network.

There is a weird twist though: The netbook is always able to connect through an ethernet cable on eth0 just fine. If I boot the netbook with the ethernet cable plugged in, the wifi instantly connects as well! I can then unplug the ethernet cable (eth0 goes away), but I am still able to use the wifi connection for about 5 minutes before it disconnects, and goes back to trying and failing to connect.

This behavior is 100% replicable--the wifi always works fine (for about 5 minutes) if it boots with the ethernet cable plugged in. Very rarely, the wifi will also connect on boot without the ethernet cable, but that is not replicable.

Other EEE netbooks seem to have issues with multiple wireless drivers, like in this thread. Perhaps something similar is happening here? My card seems to be using rt2860sta as a driver. I tried blacklisting it, to see if another driver was trying to load instead, but that just negated my wifi altogether. (It's unblacklisted again)

My router is a very reliable Linksys WRT54GL with factory firmware which has never been flaky.

I posted another thread about this in the absolute beginners forum here, but I was advised to repost in this forum.

I'm at my wit's end. This netbook will be useless without wifi. Any suggestions?

Below is the suggested information for a first post:

Here's lspci (note there is nothing listed as "Wireless Brand" to grep out):
Code:
lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 4 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2860
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Atheros AR8121/AR8113/AR8114 PCI-E Ethernet Controller (rev b0)
Here's lsusb:

Code:
lsusb
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 05dc:0330 Lexar Media, Inc. JumpDrive Expression
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 04f2:b071 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd 2.0M UVC Webcam / CNF7129
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Here's ifconfig:

Code:
ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 90:e6:ba:80:a1:db  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:1
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
          Interrupt:28 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:12 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:12 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:720 (720.0 B)  TX bytes:720 (720.0 B)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:25:d3:13:e2:a3  
          inet6 addr: fe80::225:d3ff:fe13:e2a3/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:20912 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2414 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:2585854 (2.5 MB)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
          Interrupt:19
Here's iwconfig:

Code:
iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     RT2860 Wireless  ESSID:""  Nickname:"RT2860STA"
          Mode:Auto  Frequency=2.437 GHz  Access Point: 98:FC:11:44:B1:8D   
          Bit Rate=1 Mb/s   
          RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Link Quality=10/100  Signal level:-36 dBm  Noise level:-97 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0
Here's lsmod (note there's no "wlan_module_name" to grep out):

Code:
lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
nls_iso8859_1           3249  1 
nls_cp437               4919  1 
vfat                    8933  1 
fat                    47767  1 vfat
usb_storage            39841  1 
aes_i586                7268  142 
aes_generic            26863  1 aes_i586
binfmt_misc             6587  1 
dm_crypt               11331  0 
ppdev                   5259  0 
joydev                  8740  0 
snd_hda_codec_realtek   203376  1 
snd_hda_intel          22069  2 
snd_hda_codec          74201  2 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep               5412  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm_oss            35308  0 
snd_mixer_oss          13746  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                70694  3 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_dummy           1338  0 
snd_seq_oss            26722  0 
snd_seq_midi            4557  0 
snd_rawmidi            19056  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event      6003  2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                47263  6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer              19098  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device          5700  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
snd                    54244  16 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
uvcvideo               57374  0 
psmouse                63245  0 
videodev               34361  1 uvcvideo
v4l1_compat            13251  2 uvcvideo,videodev
soundcore               6620  1 snd
serio_raw               3978  0 
rt2860sta             481561  1 
eeepc_laptop           14331  0 
snd_page_alloc          7076  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
lp                      7028  0 
parport                32635  2 ppdev,lp
fbcon                  35102  71 
tileblit                1999  1 fbcon
font                    7557  1 fbcon
bitblit                 4707  1 fbcon
softcursor              1189  1 bitblit
vga16fb                11385  0 
vgastate                8961  1 vga16fb
i915                  287810  3 
drm_kms_helper         29329  1 i915
drm                   162377  4 i915,drm_kms_helper
i2c_algo_bit            5028  1 i915
intel_agp              24375  2 i915
video                  17375  1 i915
output                  1871  1 video
ahci                   32360  2 
agpgart                31724  2 drm,intel_agp
atl1e                  28018  0
Here's dmesg | grep "wlan" (I'll be happy to post other kernel messages if it will help):

Code:
dmesg | grep "wlan"
[   24.200059] wlan0: no IPv6 routers present
Here's sudo lshw -C network:

Code:
 *-network               
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: Atheros AR8121/AR8113/AR8114 PCI-E Ethernet Controller
       vendor: Atheros Communications
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: b0
       serial: 90:e6:ba:80:a1:db
       capacity: 100MB/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=ATL1E driverversion=1.0.0.7-NAPI firmware=L1e latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair
       resources: irq:28 memory:fbfc0000-fbffffff ioport:ec00(size=128)
  *-network
       description: Wireless interface
       product: RT2860
       vendor: RaLink
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       logical name: wlan0
       version: 00
       serial: 00:25:d3:13:e2:a3
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rt2860 latency=0 multicast=yes wireless=RT2860 Wireless
       resources: irq:19 memory:fbef0000-fbefffff
Here's iwlist scan (it's working properly, and finds my wifi network and my neighbor's):

Code:
iwlist scan
lo        Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0      Interface doesn't support scanning.

wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: <snip>
                    Protocol:802.11b/g
                    ESSID:"nosehatnet"
                    Mode:Managed
                    Channel:6
                    Quality:100/100  Signal level:-37 dBm  Noise level:-97 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:54 Mb/s
                    IE: WPA Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (2) : CCMP TKIP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (2) : CCMP TKIP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
          Cell 02 - Address: <snip>
                    Protocol:802.11b/g
                    ESSID:"linksys"
                    Mode:Managed
                    Channel:6
                    Quality:15/100  Signal level:-84 dBm  Noise level:-97 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:54 Mb/s
Here's the ubuntu version:

Code:
lsb_release -d
Description:    Ubuntu 10.04.2 LTS
Here's the kernel/architecture:

Code:
uname -mr
2.6.32-32-generic i686
Restarting the network:

Code:
sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart
 * Reconfiguring network interfaces...                                   [ OK ]