# WLAN not coming up on boot; manual start works

## thorbenk

Hello,

I've got a weird problem:

When booting /etc/init.d/net.eth1 (=WLAN) fails to make the connection, but there are no error messages. I see Xorg come up, then net.eth1 is starting in the background and then gentoo switches back to the text console TTY1. 

Now the weird thing is a quick manual "/etc/init.d/net.eth1 restart" solves everything, connecting to the internet is no problem at all... But why doesn't it work the first time ob booting up?

Here are my relevant packages:

- net-wireless/wpa_supplicant-0.5.5

- Kernel 2.6.18-gentoo-r1, built in ieee80211 stack and ipw2200 driver

- net-wireless/ipw2200-firmware-3.0

- sys-apps/baselayout-1.12.5-r2

Thanks for any help  :Smile: 

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## AdmiralNemo

Try the sleep_scan setting in /etc/conf.d/wireless

See /etc/conf.d/wireless.example for more information.

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## thorbenk

I'm using wpa_supplicant...

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## AdmiralNemo

What version of baselayout are you using.  I believe older versions didn't wait for wpa_supplicant to come up before moving on.  That may be your problem.

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## thorbenk

I'm running ~x86, so my baselayout ist sys-apps/baselayout-1.12.5-r2

I did look at the wpa_supplicant.conf man page but found no option related to "sleep"

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## Naib

I had a similar problem with my WIFI (using a Ralink card+driver). It turned out that the reason it wouldn't work on boot was it took time for the kernel module to get inserted (and go live??) to letting the net.ra0 start try to do it always failed, yet after everything started a manual start would work

I ended up adding rt2500 to the modules autoload file (which happens early in the init process) thus by the time network gets configured the card is live

I don't know what module you use but find out and add it the file

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## thorbenk

Yes, I've the wlan kernel driver (ipw2200 for me) loaded using /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 and the rest of the required subsystems (ieee80211 for instance) is compiled directly into the kernel. That shouldn't be a problem, right?

I'm still puzzled... Any other ideas?

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## AdmiralNemo

What error does the init script throw when it fails to come up at boot?  Try adding "nox" to your kernel command line parameters to make it easier to watch.

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## SkyeAdun

I had a similar problem.

After a madwifi and wpa_supplicant update, my network did not start at boot, and wrote an error message like "address already in use". Sometimes I just made a net.ath0 start or restart, sometimes I needed to kill wpa_supplicant and then did a net.ath0 start.

I didn't figure out what happened, since for a different purpose I updated gcc to 4.1.1 and re-emerge system (took me 5 hours). After doing it, I never encounter the problem again.

It may sound like a clue for someone. I never changed any network config file during these operations.

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