Fedora 20: dropping wifi

Wed Aug 12 15:27:15 UTC 2015

On Tue, 11 Aug 2015, jd1008 wrote:

>
>
> On 08/11/2015 04:24 AM, Henrik Frisk wrote:
>> Hi,
>> 
>> I've been having this problem for some time now, on and off. I loose WiFi 
>> and there are no available networks to connect to although I know there 
>> should be several and other devices are connected. The only remedy is a 
>> restart. Logout will not help. After restart I can access networks for a 
>> while after which it is dropped again.
>> 
>> My Network controller is Broadcom Corporation BCM4331 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 
>> 02)
>> 
>> Any suggestions?
>> 
>> Best,
>> /Henrik
>> 
> All I can suggest is that the firmware of that wifi has power saving
> function that turns it off after what it decides to be a period of 
> inactivity.
>
> Another thing to check is
>
> System -> Preferences -> Look and Feel -> Screen Saver
>
> From that gui, click on Power Management
> Be sure to check all 4 tabs of the Power Management Gui.
>
> R U running on battery most of the time?

I would like to echo the problem that Henrik is having.

The Wifi on my Dell Laptop (D630) has been dropping ever since I installed 
Fedora on it (initially F18; now F21). No matter which Fedora version, the 
Wifi connection eventually drops, can be restored a few times w/ 
systemctl restart NetworkManager

and then eventually drops.

I too would like to find a way of restoring and maintaining the Wifi 
connection w/o rebooting.

Once, I can't connect I pull out an ethernet cable and connect from the 
built-in LAN port to a switch. No problem. Ever.

The Wifi chipset is Broadcom; I generally run with the power suplly 
plugged in.

Viewing information via lspci -v, it returns:
0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN 
(rev 01)
 	Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-Card
 	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
 	Memory at f6cfc000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
 	Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
 	Capabilities: [58] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
 	Capabilities: [d0] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
 	Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
 	Capabilities: [13c] Virtual Channel
 	Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
 	Kernel modules: ssb

/var/log/messages has the following information:
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  (wlan0): supplicant 
interface state: authenticating -> disconnected
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <warn>  Activation 
(wlan0/wireless): association took too long, failing activation.
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  (wlan0): device 
state change: config -> failed (reason 'ssid-not-found') [50 120 53]
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <warn>  Activation (wlan0) 
failed for connection 'WiFi-Brama-Static'
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  (wlan0): device 
state change: failed -> disconnected (reason 'none') [120 30 0]
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  (wlan0): 
deactivating device (reason 'none') [0]
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  Auto-activating 
connection 'WiFi-Brama-Static'.
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  Activation (wlan0) 
starting connection 'WiFi-Brama-Static'
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  Activation (wlan0) 
Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled...
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  Activation (wlan0) 
Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started...
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  (wlan0): device 
state change: disconnected -> prepare (reason 'none') [30 40 0]
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  Activation (wlan0) 
Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) scheduled...
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  Activation (wlan0) 
Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  Activation (wlan0) 
Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) starting...
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  (wlan0): device 
state change: prepare -> config (reason 'none') [40 50 0]
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  Activation 
(wlan0/wireless): access point 'WiFi-Brama-Static' has security, but 
secrets are required.
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  (wlan0): device 
state change: config -> need-auth (reason 'none') [50 60 0]
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  Activation (wlan0) 
Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  Activation (wlan0) 
Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled...
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  Activation (wlan0) 
Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started...
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  (wlan0): device 
state change: need-auth -> prepare (reason 'none') [60 40 0]
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  Activation (wlan0) 
Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) scheduled...
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  Activation (wlan0) 
Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  Activation (wlan0) 
Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) starting...
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  (wlan0): device 
state change: prepare -> config (reason 'none') [40 50 0]
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  Activation 
(wlan0/wireless): connection 'WiFi-Brama-Static' has security, and secrets 
exist.  No new secrets needed.
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  Config: added 'ssid' 
value 'brama'
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  Config: added 
'scan_ssid' value '1'
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  Config: added 
'key_mgmt' value 'WPA-PSK'
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  Config: added 'psk' 
value '<omitted>'
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  Config: added 
'proto' value 'WPA RSN'
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  Activation (wlan0) 
Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury firewalld: 2015-08-12 10:57:58 ERROR: 
UNKNOWN_INTERFACE: 'wlan0' is not in any zone
Aug 12 10:57:58 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  Config: set 
interface ap_scan to 1
Aug 12 10:58:08 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  (wlan0): supplicant 
interface state: disconnected -> scanning
Aug 12 10:58:14 mercury kernel: [ 3836.865572] wlan0: authenticate with 
00:0f:b5:38:51:bc
Aug 12 10:58:14 mercury kernel: wlan0: authenticate with 00:0f:b5:38:51:bc
Aug 12 10:58:14 mercury kernel: [ 3836.876332] wlan0: direct probe to 
00:0f:b5:38:51:bc (try 1/3)
Aug 12 10:58:14 mercury kernel: wlan0: direct probe to 00:0f:b5:38:51:bc 
(try 1/3)
Aug 12 10:58:14 mercury NetworkManager[2934]: <info>  (wlan0): supplicant 
interface state: scanning -> authenticating
Aug 12 10:58:14 mercury kernel: [ 3837.077214] wlan0: direct probe to 
00:0f:b5:38:51:bc (try 2/3)
Aug 12 10:58:14 mercury kernel: wlan0: direct probe to 00:0f:b5:38:51:bc 
(try 2/3)
Aug 12 10:58:14 mercury kernel: [ 3837.278154] wlan0: direct probe to 
00:0f:b5:38:51:bc (try 3/3)
Aug 12 10:58:14 mercury kernel: wlan0: direct probe to 00:0f:b5:38:51:bc 
(try 3/3)
Aug 12 10:58:15 mercury kernel: [ 3837.479209] wlan0: authentication with 
00:0f:b5:38:51:bc timed out
Aug 12 10:58:15 mercury kernel: wlan0: authentication with 
00:0f:b5:38:51:bc timed out

Apologies for the verbosity; but it's in the interest of diagnosing the 
problem and finding a solution.

Much thanks,

Max Pyziur
pyz at brama.com