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For the most part my Wireless network works perfectly fine. But about once a day, at random times I get disconnected and the key ring authentication for my wireless pops up. All of the correct information is entered in key ring but when I hit connect, it is unsuccessful at reconnecting to network and the authentication window pops up again. The network is in working order and this is the only computer effected. This is fixed by restarting my computer, but it is a production machine so having to stop what I'm working on and restart gets quite frustrating.

Here is the screen that pops up: Wireless Authentication

The wireless card is a D-link Xtreme N DWA-552

Here is the output of the log when the issue happens:

Dec  8 17:51:16 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state:  disconnected -> scanning

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 8 -> 3 (reason 11)

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> (wlan0): deactivating device (reason: 11).

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi avahi-daemon[954]: Withdrawing address record for 192.168.1.125 on wlan0.

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi avahi-daemon[954]: Leaving mDNS multicast group on interface wlan0.IPv4 with address 192.168.1.125.

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi avahi-daemon[954]: Interface wlan0.IPv4 no longer relevant for mDNS.

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> Activation (wlan0) starting connection 'Auto James'

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 3 -> 4 (reason 0)

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled...

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant connection state:  scanning -> disconnected

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started...

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) scheduled...

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 >(Device Configure) starting...

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 4 -> 5 (reason 0)
Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> Activation (wlan0/wireless): access point 'Auto James' has security, but secrets are required.

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 5 -> 6 (reason 0)

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled...

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started...

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 6 -> 4 (reason 0)
Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) scheduled...

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) starting...

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: 4 -> 5 (reason 0)

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> Activation (wlan0/wireless): connection 'Auto James' has security, and secrets exist.  No new secrets needed.

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> Config: added 'ssid' value 'James'

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> Config: added 'scan_ssid' value '1'

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> Config: added 'key_mgmt' value 'WPA-PSK'

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: <info> Config: added 'psk' value '<omitted>'

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: nm_setting_802_1x_get_pkcs11_engine_path: assertion `NM_IS_SETTING_802_1X (setting)' failed

Dec  8 17:51:31 Gandhi NetworkManager[951]: nm_setting_802_1x_get_pkcs11_module_path: assertion `NM_IS_SETTING_802_1X (setting)' failed

Here is the the output of lspci -nn, pertaining to my wireless adapter:

03:07.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5008 Wireless Network Adapter [168c:0023] (rev 01)

And here is the output of sudo lshw -class network:

*-network
   description: Wireless interface
   product: AR5008 Wireless Network Adapter
   vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
   physical id: 7
   bus info: pci@0000:03:07.0
   logical name: wlan0
   version: 01
   serial: 00:1e:58:3b:18:19
   width: 32 bits
   clock: 66MHz
   capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
   configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath9k driverversion=2.6.38-13-generic firmware=N/A ip=192.168.1.125 latency=168 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn
   resources: irq:21 memory:fdee0000-fdeeffff

rfkill list:

0: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

Please Help!

UPDATE: VLC seems to make this problem more frequent. It was occurring only once a day under normal conditions, but when I was running VLC yesterday it crashed several times in a much shorter period. Not sure if this is related, but it is pretty strange...

share|improve this question
I ran lshw -class network and posted the output, and also ran rfkill list to see if my wireless was hard or soft blocked. – jayeag00 Dec 14 '11 at 2:59
I'm having some issues with it as well. Do you experience audio issues when the wireless disconnects? – Jo-Erlend Schinstad Dec 15 '11 at 1:01
Nope, no audio issues – jayeag00 Dec 15 '11 at 4:08
@jayeag00 - from what I've read this is a bug in the Natty kernel. It should be fixed in the 2.6.39 kernel. Obviously, if you upgrade to 11.10 - then hopefully the 3.0 kernel there is retains the kernel fix. – fossfreedom♦ Dec 24 '11 at 14:41
@fossfreedom I have a problem with similar symptoms under both 11.04 and 11.10, but I can't be sure that it's the same underlying cause. One forum posting I read pointed the finger at network-manager, which (they claim) has some remaining problem now that the kernel driver's been fixed. – detly Jan 5 '12 at 6:50

1 Answer

up vote 1 down vote accepted
+50

I have this problem too, on my MacBook 2,1. There isn't much you can do about it, but you can reset the module and at least it'll work again.

sudo sh -c 'rmmod ath9k; restart network-manager; modprobe ath9k'
share|improve this answer
Awesome! This saves me from having to restart every time I encounter this problem. This is more of a temporary fix, so I will hold out for a little while longer and see if there are any fixes that are long term. – jayeag00 Dec 24 '11 at 14:14
Yeah, unfortunately, it's a bug in the driver, and I really don't feel like learning how to debug wireless drivers. – tumbleweed Dec 24 '11 at 14:19

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