[Solved]Wireless works sometimes with networkmanager

Question

I have posted about a similar problem before (http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=49124) and people suggested I unhide the wireless network and use a different program.  I have done that however it fixed little.  I have a broadcom card, and I use the ndiswrapper (which is working well).  I'm trying to connect to a wpa network.
Networkmanager:
This is the only way I can get on the internet (so far).  This works about 1/2 the time.  When I have to establish or reestablish a connection it doesn't always work.  When it doesn't work the last line of my daemon log gets stuck on
<info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.
Then I get these lines
<info> Supplicant state changed: 0
<info> Activation (wlan0/wireless): association took too long (>20s), failing activation.
<info> Activation (wlan0) failed for access point (mswebsys)
In the task bar, when it doesn't work, I see two gray circles (like its trying to connect).  When it works, the bottom circle becomes green, then the top circle becomes green.
Wicd
When I try connecting, I get stuck on obtaining ip address and the log reads:
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
then it times out
Netcfg
Using this method nothing in ifconfig nor in iwconfig changes.  After about a minute (presumably after a time out) I get an output of association failed.
My profile
CONNECTION="wireless"
INTERFACE=wlan0
SCAN="yes"
SECURITY="wpa"
ESSID="name"
KEY="secret"
IP="dhcp"
TIMEOUT=20
I'm not sure what to do from here, but I think the problems these 3 programs have are linked.  I think the problem lies with dhcp or/and the wpa supplication because all 3 programs time-out around there.  I switch networks often, so I would prefer not to manually setup wpa_supplication config or spend a lot of time on the command line.  Any help would be appreciated.
It's a driver problem, if ndiswrapper isn't working, try the b43 driver.  I have been using the b43 driver for the last couple days, and I can easily connect and I stay connected.
Last edited by sam (2008-08-03 23:54:31)

Answer 1

Thanks for the tip, I'm trying to use the b43 driver and so far it seems to work better, but I'll have to test it for a few days to be sure.  Wicd and netcfg still hang on the same spots, but networkmanager works.
I've also noticed that my access point appears stronger in the drop down menu in networkmanager; however, my neighbors access point is significantly stronger than it used to be (my access point is now only slightly stronger than my neighbor's who live much farther away).  I'm not sure if the proximity of signal strength will cause problems in the future.
For those with similar problems, I'm using the broadcom card below (from lspci).
Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI (rev 01)