Why would Ubuntu 10.04 LTS drop Wifi every few minutes?

Post #358,086 by Another Scott 5/26/12 7:02:23 PM Reply	Why would Ubuntu 10.04 LTS drop Wifi every few minutes? It works fine on this T41 under Win2k. Where would I look to diagnose this? Thanks. Cheers, Scott.
Post #358,089 by scoenye 5/26/12 9:28:15 PM Reply	iwevent & wpa_supplicant iwevent will list hardware sputterings and some network changes. wpa_supplicant has a debug mode that will show connection failures (assuming WPA is in user) Depending on how old that model is, it is possible the WiFi chipset is not properly supported by the Linux drivers in that Ubuntu release. There are three chips listed for the T41: Intel, Atheros and Cisco. The Intel drivers have been reliable for a long time, the Atheros drivers had some issues until ~2010. I've never dealt with the Cisco Aironet chipset. The drivers, open source or otherwise, need binary firmware blobs. Getting the right/latest version of those was tricky as well as sometimes you had to hack it out of the Windows drivers. There are some tools for that in the repositories, but more recent Debian distros now have the firmware in non-free and at least this problem has gone away. (The binary only firmware is a consequence of the FCC regs to avoid interference.)
Post #358,091 by Another Scott 5/26/12 9:42:26 PM Reply	Thanks very much. I'll check into those things. What's weird is that it always seemed reasonably fine with older Ubuntu versions. It sat for around a year, until a couple of weeks ago when I decided to start using it again (in hopes that it would be good enough for light web stuff while watching TV, etc.). I upgrades to the latest LTS version without much trouble, then started having these disconnection issues. Of course, it's not consistent. I've got an Atheros Communications Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01) according to the "System Testing" thingy. I suspect there are some motherboard issues with this particular one (USB ports are quite erratic, but everything else seems Ok), but it's been pretty reliable otherwise. Thanks for the pointers. I'll see if I can track it down without too much time investment.... Cheers, Scott.
Post #358,092 by scoenye 5/26/12 10:28:05 PM Reply	Consolidation The WiFi network stack went through at least one major rewrite that affected pretty much everything around that time. The older drivers were not compatible with the new stack and some chipsets ended up orphaned. The new style drivers to others were no were near maturity.
Post #358,093 by Another Scott 5/26/12 10:50:10 PM Reply	Ah, "progress". :-/ The same things are happening on the Win2k side. Firefox managed to upgrade itself, but the updated plugins like Flash won't install because Win2k's Kernel32.dll is too old. I've got a Fujitsu P7120D that's still a neat little laptop - that's my night-time reading PC. It's running Ubuntu 8.x LTS and is still running well. Trouble is, it has a 60 GB 1.8" hard drive that is nearly full and there are no replacements that I've been able to find. Oh well. I see that Lenovo has a refurbished i7 X220 with 8 GB, an IPS screen, and a SSD for around $1k. I've also looked around occasionally at the MacBook Airs but their limited RAM has always given me pause. Maybe Tim Cook will have something compelling to announce next month... Thanks again. Cheers, Scott.
Post #358,094 by static 5/26/12 11:25:37 PM Reply	Linux system programmers like doing that. :-( The X11 system had a few major upgrades in the last few years. Although a lot of it was driven by the likes of driver developers inside Intel (and generally needed to be done), they were still dropping features before they had replacements ready. I really liked how I could have :0.0 and :0.1 with the one dual-head card, but they did away with that trick. After I filed a bug, I actually got to complain to one of the programmers. His response boiled down to "we took that feature away because we've rebuilt the whole subsystem that could do it; you can do something similar in a future version." I said that wasn't acceptable and I wanted that feature back. He didn't respond. AFAIK, it still hasn't returned. I guess if I could be bothered, I could go see if the bug was still open... Wade. Just Add Story http://justaddstory.wordpress.com/
Post #358,367 by Another Scott 6/2/12 1:10:00 PM Reply	I think I'm going to punt soon. Others have had issues with 10.04LTS on T41 and similar ThinkPads. Going back to 9.04 isn't a long-term option due to lack of updates. Win2k is too old and putting XP back on this isn't appealing (having to spend hours doing updates and reconfiguring...). I think I'm going to punt and get one of these ($700) to replace it - Toshiba R835-P88: http://www.bhphotovi...3_3_Notebook.html Processor 2.5GHz Intel Core i5-2450M Cache L3: 3MB Memory Type: 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM Installed: 6GB Capacity: 8GB Graphics Card Type: Integrated Installed: Intel Graphics System Mobile HD with up to 1696MB Shared Display Type Widescreen Size 13.3" Backlight LED Aspect Ratio 16:9 Finish Not Specified By Manufacturer Native Resolution 1366 x 768 Storage Hard Drive Installed: 640GB 5400rpm Type: SATA Optical Drive SuperMulti DVD Burner Input/Output Connectors Ports 1x USB 3.0 (A) 1x USB 2.0 (A) 1x eSATA /USB 2.0 combo with USB Sleep and Charge Display 1x HDMI 1x VGA Audio Integrated Stereo Speakers Integrated Microphone 1x 1/8" (3.5mm) Headphone Output 1x 1/8" (3.5mm) Microphone Input Flash Media Slot 1x SD 1x SDHC 1x MiniSD 1 Communications Network 10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45) Modem None Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n Bluetooth None Mobile Broadband None GPS None Webcam Yes General Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) Security Kensington Lock Slot Keyboard Type: Standard Notebook Keyboard Pointing Device TouchPad with Multi-Touch Control Battery 6-Cell Lithium-Ion Providing up to 9 Hours per Charge (66Wh) Power Requirements AC: 100-240 V AC, 50-60Hz Consumption: 65W Dimensions (WxHxD) 12.44 x 1.05 x 8.94" / 31.60 x 2.67 x 22.71 cm Weight 3.2 lb / 1.45 kg There's also an R835-P89 that came out a month later. It seems identical (I can't see any difference in the specs), but might have less bloatware installed. The P89 is more for some reason. I'm almost tempted to get 2, but I'm not that desperate (nor that flush with cash ;-). It seems to be better made than a similar Lenovo Z380 that is $100 less on Lenovo.com Just about all of these things have the same crappy 1366x768 TN screens, but that's life. (This T41 has a 1400x1050 screen. Progress... :-/ ). A USB light will cover the lack of keyboard light. For a while I was thinking that I wanted an i7 processor, but it's not worth the extra money at the moment. A Lenovo X220 is available with an IPS screen, but for much more money. Maybe the X230 will be compelling (out soon) - but there's no way it'll be $700. If I pull the trigger, I'll report back after I've used it for a while. I'd probably update it to 8 GB quickly (< $50), then replace the hard drive with a SSD in the not too distant future. I'll probably hang on to the T41 - it might be useful for data logging or something down the road. Cheers, Scott.
Post #358,370 by scoenye 6/2/12 2:16:48 PM Reply	P88 and P89 are both 850 @ Toshiba The specs are identical (http://laptops.techc...-Portege-R835-P88). Retail price differences may be due to discounts to get the P88s out the door. The i5 is definitely the best value out of that series. Unless you really need the bit of extra oomph the i7 provides, the cost doesn't scale well.
Post #358,819 by Another Scott 6/11/12 9:20:24 PM Reply	It's a neat little box. It took a few days for B&H to ship it, but I did get it for $700. I then had to pick it up at UPS today (they had to have a signature). I'm still configuring it, but so far I'm very impressed. It's very light weight and doesn't burn up my lap. I can hear the fan, but it's not loud or annoying - it's a whisper. It came with Chrome pre-installed as one of the browser choices (IE is the other, of course). It has some sort of trial-ware Norton Internet Security. Adobe Reader X. And some Toshiba utilities. But very little shovelware. Office is described in a flyer, but I'm not tempted. ;-) It's much faster than my 2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo work laptop. The keyboard is a "chicklet" design. It's quiet and doesn't quite have the feel that my Thinkpads do, but it's pretty nice. I haven't been making errors the way I was with our MacMini keyboard when I started using that. It'll take a little while to get used to the layout, but it's not bad. The display is bright and clear, but one has to set the screen angle just right - typical of TN screens... The first bootup was pretty quick - it found our wireless network easily and all I had to do was enter the WEP key. (Yeah, I know I shouldn't still be using WEP. I'll change it one of these days...) The longest part of the initial bootup was waiting for Winders to finalize everything. This thing is going to fly with a SSD... :-) So far, so good. Recommended - especially for $700. Cheers, Scott.
Post #358,869 by scoenye 6/12/12 9:38:34 PM Reply	Have fun It does sound like a nice toy. We have a HP Pavilion space heater. Nice in the winter time, but now that summer is approaching, 4-10 minutes at a time is about all one can take ;-)

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