# wpa_supplicant - connection loss every 15 minutes

## hiroki

Hi,

I'm experiencing a really annoying problem with wpa_supplicant. It happens no matter whether encryption (WPA, WPA2 or WEP) is used or not. When I'm using WPA I have no other choice than using wpa_supplicant, but when the network uses WEP or no encryption at all, then I usually prefer not using wpa_supplicant. Instead I use iwconfig directly.

My problem is that when I use wpa_supplicant to configure my wireless networks (all use DHCP, I have networks using WPA, WPA2, WEP and no encryption), everytime wpa_supplicant builds a connection to a wireless network, the connection will be lost after a few minutes. I'd say it takes between 10 and 30 minutes. Then I need to restart my wireless network (/etc/init.d/net.eth1 restart).

As this problem is really annoying, and I couldn't find any information about it here, I am really tired of this issue, I'd like to solve it. I'd just like to have wpa_supplicant manage all my wireless networks. That's it.

Here's my /var/log/everything/current (means: /var/log/messages).

Here's my /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

```
io ~ # emerge wpa_supplicant -pv

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating dependencies... done!

[ebuild   R   ] net-wireless/wpa_supplicant-0.5.4  USE="dbus qt3* qt4* readline ssl -gsm -madwifi" 0 kB

Total size of downloads: 0 kB
```

```
io ~ # emerge ieee80211 ipw2100 -pv

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating dependencies... done!

[ebuild   R   ] net-wireless/ieee80211-1.1.13-r1  USE="-debug" 0 kB

[ebuild   R   ] net-wireless/ipw2100-1.2.1-r1  USE="-debug" 0 kB

Total size of downloads: 0 kB
```

```
io ~ # emerge --info

Portage 2.1.1_pre2-r6 (default-linux/x86/2006.0, gcc-4.1.1/vanilla, glibc-2.4-r2, 2.6.16-gentoo-r9 i686)

=================================================================

System uname: 2.6.16-gentoo-r9 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1500MHz

Gentoo Base System version 1.12.1

ccache version 2.4 [enabled]

app-admin/eselect-compiler: 2.0.0_rc2-r1

dev-lang/python:     2.4.3-r1

dev-python/pycrypto: 2.0.1-r5

dev-util/ccache:     2.4-r1

dev-util/confcache:  [Not Present]

sys-apps/sandbox:    1.2.18.1

sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.60

sys-devel/automake:  1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r2

sys-devel/binutils:  2.17

sys-devel/gcc-config: 2.0.0_rc1

sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.22

virtual/os-headers:  2.6.11-r5

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86 ~x86"

AUTOCLEAN="yes"

CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

CFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium-m -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer -mfpmath=sse"

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/X11/xkb"

CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/env.d /etc/eselect/compiler /etc/gconf /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/terminfo /etc/texmf/web2c"

CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium-m -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer -mfpmath=sse"

DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"

FEATURES="autoconfig ccache distlocks metadata-transfer sandbox sfperms strict"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://ftp.tu-clausthal.de/pub/linux/gentoo/ http://pandemonium.tiscali.de/pub/gentoo/"

LANG="de_DE.utf8"

LC_ALL="de_DE.utf8"

LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--sort-common -Wl,--as-needed"

LINGUAS="de ja zh_CN zh_TW"

MAKEOPTS="-j2"

PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"

PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --delete-after --stats --timeout=180 --exclude='/distfiles' --exclude='/local' --exclude='/packages'"

PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"

PORTDIR="/usr/portage"

PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage /usr/local/initng-portage /usr/local/xgl-coffee"

SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"

USE="x86 X acl alsa apache2 apm avi beagle berkdb bitmap-fonts bzip2 cairo cddb cdr cjk cli crypt cups dbus dlloader dri dvd dvdr eds emboss encode esd exo flac foomaticdb gdbm gif glitz gnome gpm gstreamer gtk gtk2 hal imap imlib immqt-bc ipv6 isdnlog jpeg jpeg2k libg++ libwww mad mikmod mmx motif mp3 mp4 mpeg ncurses nls nptl nptlonly ogg opengl oss panel-plugin pcre pdflib perl png pppd python qt3 qt4 quicktime readline reflection sdl session speex spell spl sse sse2 ssl startup-notification svg tcpd tetex theora threads thumbnail thunar-vfs tiff truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts ucs2 udev unicode utf8 v4l v4l2 vorbis win32codecs x264 xcomposite xine xml xml2 xorg xprint xslt xv xvid zlib elibc_glibc initng_plugins_also initng_plugins_bash_launcher initng_plugins_chdir initng_plugins_chroot initng_plugins_conflict initng_plugins_cpout initng_plugins_critical initng_plugins_cron initng_plugins_daemon initng_plugins_dev initng_plugins_dllaunch initng_plugins_envparser initng_plugins_find initng_plugins_fstat initng_plugins_history initng_plugins_idleprobe initng_plugins_initctl initng_plugins_interactive initng_plugins_iparser initng_plugins_last initng_plugins_limit initng_plugins_logfile initng_plugins_netprobe initng_plugins_ngc4 initng_plugins_pause initng_plugins_pidfile initng_plugins_reload initng_plugins_renice initng_plugins_rlparser initng_plugins_simple_launcher initng_plugins_stcmd initng_plugins_stdout initng_plugins_suid initng_plugins_syncron initng_plugins_syslog initng_plugins_unneeded initng_plugins_ctrlaltdel input_devices_evdev input_devices_keyboard input_devices_mouse input_devices_synaptics kernel_linux linguas_de linguas_ja linguas_zh_CN linguas_zh_TW userland_GNU video_cards_ati video_cards_fbdev video_cards_v4l video_cards_vesa video_cards_vga video_cards_radeon"

Unset:  CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS
```

----------

## hiroki

 :Embarassed: 

----------

## RayDude

 *hiroki wrote:*   

> 

 

Just so you know, I'm having the same problem. It usually comes back but its far less stable than a year ago...

Raydude

----------

## pholthau

the same problem here (maybe). if you try wpa_cli after the connection loss,

and say "status", there is an endless auth - disconnect - reauth cycle.  :Sad: 

----------

## hiroki

 *pholthau wrote:*   

> the same problem here (maybe). if you try wpa_cli after the connection loss,
> 
> and say "status", there is an endless auth - disconnect - reauth cycle. 

 

that's what I noticed, too

```
io ~ # grep -i wpa /var/log/everything/log-2006-07-16-24\:32\:38
```

 gives

```
Jul 16 19:29:36 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:29:42 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:29:43 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:29:49 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:29:50 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:29:55 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:29:56 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:30:02 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:30:03 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:30:08 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:30:09 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:30:15 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:30:16 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:30:21 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:30:22 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:30:27 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:30:28 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:30:34 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:30:35 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:30:41 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:30:42 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:30:47 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:30:49 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:30:54 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:30:55 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:31:01 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:31:02 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:31:07 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:31:08 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:31:13 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:31:15 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:31:20 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:31:21 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:31:26 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:31:27 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:31:33 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:31:34 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:31:39 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:31:41 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:31:46 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:31:47 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:31:52 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:31:53 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:31:59 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:32:00 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:32:06 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:32:07 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:32:12 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:32:13 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:32:19 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:32:20 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:32:25 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:32:26 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED

Jul 16 19:32:32 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 DISCONNECTED

Jul 16 19:32:33 [wpa_cli] interface eth1 CONNECTED
```

repeated endlessly.....

----------

## RayDude

 *hiroki wrote:*   

>  *pholthau wrote:*   the same problem here (maybe). if you try wpa_cli after the connection loss,
> 
> and say "status", there is an endless auth - disconnect - reauth cycle.  
> 
> that's what I noticed, too
> ...

 

Yep. For me too.

This is a dumb question, but I haven't updated my conf.d/net file to use the newest syntax. Do you think that makes any difference?

Raydude

----------

## hiroki

I don't know anything of an "new /etc/conf.d/net configuration file syntax", but my /etc/conf.d/net looks like this:

```
modules=( "wpa_supplicant" )

wpa_supplicant_eth1="-Dwext"

wpa_timeout_eth1=30
```

----------

## pholthau

same config here...

----------

## Sachankara

Sounds like your access points renews the passwords every 15th minute and your wlan drivers are unable to switch to the new ones as requested by the access point. All I can suggest is that you try to find some newer drivers for your cards and hope they'll handle the password changes correctly.

----------

## hiroki

 *Sachankara wrote:*   

> Sounds like your access points renews the passwords every 15th minute and your wlan drivers are unable to switch to the new ones as requested by the access point. All I can suggest is that you try to find some newer drivers for your cards and hope they'll handle the password changes correctly.

 

why would the access point change the "password" even if there is no encryption (no WEP, no WPA)??

I am experiencing the same issue without encryption.

----------

## Admire

I'm also having the same problem but on every 5 minutes. Have anyone found a solution?

----------

## v912485

Same here

----------

## janskey

hi..

you can try this one..this is what i did..

[this just work with my laptop,D520. this will not guarante 100% to work with others. if it works with you,nice!]

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-489311-highlight-.html

----------

## Devport

There is another thread about this : https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-3576276.html#3576276

Has anybody here the same problem - but is not using dhcpcd ?

However I would appreciate it if anybody with this problem could add some infos to the other thread.

@janskey: Your topic seems to be unrelated.

----------

## Devport

In my case it was ndiswrapper - tried the zd1211rw ( kernel 2.6.18-rc7 ) driver for my card and have no connection drops anymore ( at least since 7 hours ). Try native / other drivers if there some for your card.

----------

## Aszrael

same here...

it's more a hiccup, because it reconnects imediately

more info:

```

03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02)

net-wireless/ieee80211-1.2.15  

net-wireless/ipw3945-1.1.0-r1  

net-wireless/ipw3945-ucode-1.13  

net-wireless/ipw3945d-1.7.22-r3  

net-wireless/wpa_supplicant-0.5.4  

net-wireless/wireless-tools-28
```

I have no problems with my Atheros-Card using madwifi - so it's propably a ipw3945 issue

Aszrael

----------

## EvilGenius

Anyone found a solution? All above didn't work. Have the same problem ("hickup" every 3-10 minutes) with my ipw2200... really annoying!

----------

