Bug 277431 (mac80211_link_status) - iwl3945 always reports link
Summary: iwl3945 always reports link
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED INSUFFICIENT_DATA
Alias: mac80211_link_status
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: kernel
Version: 9
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
high
high
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: John W. Linville
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks: F8Target
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2007-09-04 21:03 UTC by Warren Togami
Modified: 2008-08-02 23:40 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2008-06-08 03:33:41 UTC
Type: ---
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)
check_ip_link.patch (632 bytes, patch)
2007-11-09 22:24 UTC, John W. Linville
no flags Details | Diff
network-functions.patch (877 bytes, patch)
2008-02-13 20:35 UTC, John W. Linville
no flags Details | Diff

Description Warren Togami 2007-09-04 21:03:26 UTC
iwl3945 always reports there is a link, even if it isn't associated with an AP.

Impact
======
By default /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0 contains:
# Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection
DEVICE=wlan0
ONBOOT=yes
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
HWADDR=00:19:d2:9f:8a:e3

During system startup, if the device reports a link, then dhclient attempts to
obtain an address on that interface.  As a result, iwl3945's erroneous reporting
of a link causes the system startup to sit for a long time until the DHCP client
timeout.

Comment 1 Jeremy Katz 2007-10-23 21:54:28 UTC
Are you still seeing this Warren?  I didn't reproduce in a quick check with a
laptop here.

Comment 2 Warren Togami 2007-10-31 15:26:49 UTC
Yes, this still stalls boot while it times out DHCP.  It turns out that Jeremy
hasn't been seeing it because he turned off service network.


Comment 3 John W. Linville 2007-11-09 22:20:56 UTC
I think this is caused by mac80211 drivers not supporting ethtool.  This 
initscripts don't like this...well, they like it just fine -- it just doesn't 
produce the desired results.

In this case, check_ethtool will return 2 (same as if ethtool was not 
installed).  In turn, this causes check_link_down to return 1, the same as if 
either mii-tool or ethtool had said the link is up.  So, ifup proceeds to call 
dhclient.

I'm sure Bill will tell me that mac80211 needs to support ethtool -- worth 
contemplating, but not a slam dunk w/ the wireless developers.  Another option 
might be to add support to check_link_down for using "ip link show".  I'll 
attach an (untested) patch showing the basic idea while attempting to follow 
the existing network-functions style.

Comment 4 John W. Linville 2007-11-09 22:24:01 UTC
Created attachment 253681 [details]
check_ip_link.patch

Patch against /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/network-functions...

Actually, I'm not sure why 'ip link show' isn't the gold standard for this
check.	The only reason I could think of would be if setting carrier state was
not totally trusted either now or in the past.	So, I coded the patch presuming
that 'ip link show' would be a last resort, and would only matter if it
actually showed "NO-CARRIER".

Anyway, does this speed-up the boot process for you?

Comment 5 Bill Nottingham 2007-11-10 04:41:44 UTC
Having a third option is just silly - if we're going down that route, I might as
well ditch them all and write something custom that just sits there chatting
over netlink.

Does checking for carrier work on all devices?

Comment 6 John W. Linville 2008-02-13 20:35:06 UTC
Created attachment 294833 [details]
network-functions.patch

Updated version of same idea -- this one seems to work better...

Comment 7 Bill Nottingham 2008-02-13 21:03:56 UTC
Note that wireless configs are not written with ONBOOT=yes for a while now. So,
this probably isn't a severe issue any more.

Comment 8 John W. Linville 2008-02-14 16:36:03 UTC
The topic came-up as part of this thread:

   https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2008-February/msg00938.html

The OP never replied, so I don't know if it worked for him.  As for me, I 
could not get "ifup wlan0" to work on ipw4965 w/o the patch from comment 6.  
With the patch, no problem...YMMV.

Comment 9 Bug Zapper 2008-05-14 03:11:17 UTC
Changing version to '9' as part of upcoming Fedora 9 GA.
More information and reason for this action is here:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/HouseKeeping

Comment 10 Brennan Ashton 2008-06-08 03:33:41 UTC
Since there are insufficient details provided in this report for us to
investigate the issue further, and we have not received feedback to the
information we have requested above, we will assume the problem was not
reproducible, or has been fixed in one of the updates we have released for the
reporter's distribution.

Users who have experienced this problem are encouraged to upgrade to the latest
update of their distribution, and if this issue turns out to still be
reproducible in the latest update, please reopen this bug with additional
information.

Closing as INSUFFICIENT_DATA.


Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.