[solved] netctl (/usr/lib/network/network) fails at boot, sometimes

Question

Hi,
Since I reinstalled a new HD in my old laptop (8 years old) I have a problem with my netctl-profile: in about 1 in 4 boots the wireless does not connect. I appreciate it if someone could take a look at what happens, because I cannot seem to find the cause because the logs and errors do not give much information.
Some general info:
1) Wireless interface is wlan0; I turned off dynamic naming of systemd/udev. Network driver is RT2500pci.
2) I use an old kernel version, 3.3.8, because any newer version effectively hard blocks the radio signal without any possibility to change this (rfkill etc).
3) The power saving option of the network interface must be off. An udev rule does this effectively.
4) The ip link of the wireless interface must be off before netctl can start the network profile.
5) When the connection fails, I enter "ip link set wlan0 down" and then start the network profile by entering "netctl start Sorryvoordehobo". This *always* works.
The following logs and outputs perhaps give information about the issue. Particularly the last might be helpful, because it shows that some authentication indeed takes place, but there is no network.
netctl profile:
Description='Sorryvoordehobo'
Interface=wlan0
Connection=wireless
Security=wpa-configsection
IP=dhcp
TimeoutCarrier=60
TimeoutDHCP=90
WPAConfigSection=(
'ssid="sorry voor de hobo"'
'key_mgmt=WPA-PSK'
'proto=WPA'
'pairwise=CCMP'
'group=CCMP'
'psk=1234-etc'
ExecUpPost='/usr/bin/ntpd -q || true'
systemctl --failed:
UNIT LOAD ACTIVE SUB DESCRIPTION
[email protected] loaded failed failed Sorryvoordehobo
LOAD = Reflects whether the unit definition was properly loaded.
ACTIVE = The high-level unit activation state, i.e. generalization of SUB.
SUB = The low-level unit activation state, values depend on unit type.
1 loaded units listed. Pass --all to see loaded but inactive units, too.
To show all installed unit files use 'systemctl list-unit-files'.
systemctl status -l [email protected]:
[email protected] - Sorryvoordehobo
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/[email protected]; enabled)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2013-12-17 21:19:04 CET; 3min 26
s ago
Docs: man:netctl.profile(5)
Process: 176 ExecStart=/usr/lib/network/network start %I (code=exited, status=
1/FAILURE)
Main PID: 176 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
dmesg:
[ 2.879915] Adding 255996k swap on /dev/sda2. Priority:-1 extents:1 across:255996k SS
[ 3.001917] EXT4-fs (sda4): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: data=ordered
[ 3.037816] systemd-journald[90]: Received request to flush runtime journal from PID 1
[ 3.210237] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: cs: IO port probe 0x100-0x3af: excluding 0x170-0x177 0x1f0-0x1f7 0x290-0x297 0x370-0x377
[ 3.212449] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: cs: IO port probe 0x3e0-0x4ff: excluding 0x3e0-0x3e7 0x3f0-0x3f7 0x400-0x40f 0x4d0-0x4d7
[ 3.213304] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: cs: IO port probe 0x820-0x8ff: excluding 0x820-0x87f
[ 3.213995] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: cs: IO port probe 0xc00-0xcf7: clean.
[ 3.215231] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: cs: memory probe 0x0c0000-0x0fffff: excluding 0xc0000-0xc7fff 0xcc000-0xd3fff 0xe0000-0xfffff
[ 3.215280] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: cs: memory probe 0xa0000000-0xa0ffffff: clean.
[ 3.215324] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: cs: memory probe 0x60000000-0x60ffffff: clean.
[ 3.215367] pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: cs: IO port probe 0xa00-0xaff: clean.
[ 3.400147] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
[ 3.401565] Registered led device: rt2500pci-phy0::radio
[ 3.401645] Registered led device: rt2500pci-phy0::quality
[ 3.401959] snd_via82xx 0000:00:11.5: setting latency timer to 64
[ 3.586063] psmouse serio4: synaptics: Touchpad model: 1, fw: 5.1, id: 0x8f40
b1, caps: 0x80471b/0x0/0x0
[ 3.625577] input: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad as /devices/platform/i8042/seri
o4/input/input6
[ 9.541467] Installing knfsd (copyright (C) 1996 [email protected]).
[ 9.690039] NFSD: Using /var/lib/nfs/v4recovery as the NFSv4 state recovery d
irectory
[ 9.690680] NFSD: starting 90-second grace period
[ 10.513803] wlan0: authenticate with 00:1a:70:9e:3a:70 (try 1)
[ 10.515334] wlan0: authenticated
[ 10.527175] wlan0: associate with 00:1a:70:9e:3a:70 (try 1)
[ 10.529457] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:1a:70:9e:3a:70 (capab=0x411 status=0
aid=4)
[ 10.529464] wlan0: associated
[ 10.529472] wlan0: moving STA 00:1a:70:9e:3a:70 to state 1
[ 10.529476] wlan0: moving STA 00:1a:70:9e:3a:70 to state 2
[ 10.577870] Intel AES-NI instructions are not detected.
[ 11.367009] wlan0: moving STA 00:1a:70:9e:3a:70 to state 3
Any ideas as to what exactly fails here? Thanks!
Last edited by anadyr (2013-12-21 21:32:44)

Answer 1

I don't think there is anything wrong with the kernel. Note that with the previous HD everything started perfectly, with the same kernel version. The new HD is a lot faster as it is an SSD; maybe this has anything to do with the issue?
To continue: the connection always works when I manually enter "ip link set wlan0 down" and then start netctl. I figured that I should execute this command before netctl starts, but I cannot seem to get this to work. What I tried is to edit /etc/systemd/system/netctl.service, by entering this command with the options ExecStartPre and ExecStartPost (see the two commented lines):
[Unit]
Description=(Re)store the netctl profile state
Before=network.target
[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
#ExecStartPre=-/usr/bin/ip link set wlan0 down
ExecStart=-/usr/bin/netctl restore
#ExecStartPost=-/usr/bin/ip link set wlan0 down
ExecStop=/usr/bin/netctl store
KillMode=none
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Nevertheless, with either of these lines uncommented I get boots without the netctl-profile starting.
In the original post I did not give the output of ip link. So here it is:
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 16436 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT
group default
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DEFAULT group
default qlen 1000
link/ether 00:40:45:25:dc:4b brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP mode DORM
ANT group default qlen 1000
link/ether 00:13:d3:6c:f3:78 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
To conclude: authentication succeeds (see the output of dmesg), but I do not seem to get an IP-address (see above). But I have no idea why, and the error messages are not very clear.
I am still figuring out what happens here, but maybe somebody knows what goes wrong here? Thanks!