Wireless Network: Time to Smash Something :)

SabreWolfy · 2012-06-26 14:11:30

^ The metric I'm using is the (1 minute) load average shown by "w" or "top" -- they return the load average for the last 1 minute, 5 minutes and 15 minutes.

On a single core machine, a load average of 1.00 means that the CPU is running at 100%. It is processing all jobs it needs to and is constantly busy. A load average of > 1 would mean that there is a queue of jobs waiting -- there are more jobs than the CPU can process.

On a dual-core machine, a load average of 2.00 means that BOTH CPUs are running at 100%.

On the 2.6 kernel, my machine, when idling -- no browser open, just a terminal -- has a load average of around 0.10 or lower, which I think is good. On the 3.2 kernel, when idling it has a load average of between 0.5 and 1.0 -- meaning that the processor is doing SOMETHING constantly. xaos52 suggested that this is not a good enough criterion on which to select a kernel. I just didn't like the idea of a CPU running all the time doing something, even when I'm not even using the machine.

Right now I have a terminal, a spreadsheet and Emacs open, and I'm typing this in an otherwise-idle Iceweasel instance and the CPU load (1 minute, 5 minute and 15 minutes) is around 0.9 -- WHAT is the machine doing that requires almost constant 100% usage of one core? The spreadsheet is doing nothing, Emacs is doing nothing. I dunno. At least wireless is working smile

Last edited by SabreWolfy (2012-06-26 14:14:10)

pvsage · 2012-06-26 14:44:07

Ahhh...so 0.9 == 90%; I see. Frankly, I too would be concerned as well.

Refresh my memory: Do you have any proprietary GPU drivers? (Probably an issue for another thread though...)

SabreWolfy · 2012-06-26 15:30:53

Been doing other stuff away from the laptop for the last hour or so. Load averages are 0.97, 0.80 and 0.74. LibreOffice Calc open, Emacs, Terminator and Iceweasel. No downloads, no Flash, just GMail and a few static pages. Running "top" to show what's eating the CPU is not helpful for some reason -- there never appears to be anything out of the ordinary. Yet, for the last hour, one of the cores has been almost always busy. Doing what? Keeping the wireless connection going maybe? smile Not using any proprietary video drivers that I know of -- laptop with Intel GMA 950. CPU load average after an hour with 2.6 kernel would be 0.00.

SabreWolfy · 2012-06-26 15:33:58

Going away for another hour or so. I'm going to close Iceweasel to see if that makes a difference. I've previously blamed Iceweasel for high CPU load average, only to find that it wasn't Iceweasel. That was the 3.2 486 kernel; now I'm on the 3.2 686 kernel. I think when I come back in an hour, load average will still be ~1, even with Iceweasel closed.

xaos52 · 2012-06-26 16:14:03

@SabreWolfy:
You had me wrongfooted there. I thought your load was 0.5 to 1.0 percent. 50 to 100 percent is inacceptable of course.
You should be able to see the resource hog in 'htop'. If not, the load averages become questionnable.

Last edited by xaos52 (2012-06-26 16:14:37)

SabreWolfy · 2012-06-26 16:49:50

More than an hour later with Iceweasel closed, Emacs, Calc and Terminator open. Load averages were 0.25, 0.38 and 0.39. So almost 40% CPU usage on average for the last 15 minutes. Makes no sense to me.

SabreWolfy · 2012-06-26 16:51:45

xaos52 wrote:

@SabreWolfy:
You had me wrongfooted there. I thought your load was 0.5 to 1.0 percent. 50 to 100 percent is inacceptable of course.
You should be able to see the resource hog in 'htop'. If not, the load averages become questionnable.

Ok, so we're on the same page smile The strange thing is that w/top/htop don't show anything hogging the CPU. Iceweasel spikes up to 10% or 20% for a second. Sorting by CPU load, there are a few processes at 2% or 1% and that's it.

SabreWolfy · 2012-06-27 07:25:16

I think a re-install is necessary. Wireless (in 3.2 kernel) is not connecting to a different public hotspot. Even on the laptop at home, less than 2m from the router, with an open SSH session to a wired machine on the same LAN, there is sometimes a stutter / lag on my connection, which never used to happen. I'll have to be old-school with this laptop until I re-install -- wired Ethernet only tongue

SabreWolfy · 2012-07-09 16:02:58

Update
To return to the topic of this thread -- wireless connectivity smile . I haven't reinstalled. I removed older kernels and I'm now running 3.2.something 686 pae on the laptop.

WEP
Wireless connectivity on a residential router (location 1) with WEP is OK, but the connection drops every 30+ minutes. I get up, walk to the router and let it connect again, and then walk back to the desk elsewhere and it's OK for another 30+ minutes. The signal strength at the desk is about 2 or 3 of the 4 curved lines in nm-applet.

WPA2
Wireless connectivity on a residential router (location 2) with WPA2 is OK if I am in the same room as the router. If I am next door (also 2 or 3 bars; wicd reports 74% strength) I am not able to connect. I am prompted by nm-applet for the password repeatedly. If I walk to the router, it connects. As I walk away to the other room, the signal drops off. I've tried different channels on the router and the router Tx strength is 255 of 255. In frustration, I removed nm and install wicd. It reports 74% signal strength but will also not connect. It reports a bad password. This is not the case (if I walk to the router it connects with the same password), so it must be related to not being able to verify the password.

Kernel
I am using -- I think -- whatever b43 driver comes with that kernel (?). The last time I tried to install other drives from earlier posts in this thread, something broke and I had to modprode -a b43 every time I rebooted. I'm using the r20111125 release (32-bit) with a backported 686 pae kernel; I've removed the 486 kernel which came with that release.

Why?
So it looks like authentication is taking too long -- with nm and wicd -- such that the connection cannot be established. An established connection drops too. I am working around 8 meters away from the router, almost in a direct line of sight, with one wall in between. A Samsung Galaxy Ace connects to the routers at both locations without any problems, and remains connected at both desks, etc.

mad

Last edited by SabreWolfy (2012-07-09 16:12:20)

dkeg · 2012-07-09 16:25:25

to revisit your cpu load....I had an interesting bout with my cpu load. I have 4 cores and it would go 100% in one, then go back down to semi-normal state, then 100% in the next core, and so on. Before that I was a like 0 - 1%.

The culprit ... it turned out it was a theme I recently switched to. Odd. But that was the only thing I changed. I reverted to a different theme and wuala, fixed.

Just thought I'd throw it out there.

SabreWolfy · 2012-07-09 16:29:25

^ Interesting.. OB theme? I've been testing a few live distros, and the 3.2 kernel seems to be idling much lower than when last I tested. I've switched to using it on my laptop and it seems OK.

Having said that, I'm on freshish Wheezy netinstall with XFCE now (3.2.0-2-686-pae) with nothing open except this browser thing called "Web" and a terminal and the load averages are 0.88, 0.88 and 0.69 hmm

Last edited by SabreWolfy (2012-07-09 16:36:06)

SabreWolfy · 2012-07-09 16:32:11

Update
I am typing this on a netbook connected to the WPA2 router at location 2, in the room next door to the router. I am running Debian Wheezy. nm-applet kept prompting for the password as on the Statler laptop. I killed nm/NM and switched to wicd, which connected fine. Reports between 62% and 74% signal strength.

I am literally sitting typing this at the same desk next door to the WPA2 router where the Statler box absolutely *refuses* to connect from.

Seriously, WTF? yikes

dkeg · 2012-07-09 16:45:11

SabreWolfy wrote:

^ Interesting.. OB theme? I've been testing a few live distros, and the 3.2 kernel seems to be idling much lower than when last I tested. I've switched to using it on my laptop and it seems OK.
Having said that, I'm on freshish Wheezy netinstall with XFCE now (3.2.0-2-686-pae) with nothing open except this browser thing called "Web" and a terminal and the load averages are 0.88, 0.88 and 0.69

Yes, an OB theme, but one I downloaded. Yeah, that is really high. The only time my CPU spikes or runs high, is when Dropbox first starts and syncs, then its fine. And also when using google hangout. Man, when that thing is going, whew, computer gets hot....

How's cpu when just like uzbl or wm3 is running? I use epiphany-browser sometimes. I think it runs great. I'm on stable so my version is old and doesn't work well with some sites, but resource wise, low. Since you;re on wheezy, you prob wouldn't have that problem .

xaos52 · 2012-07-09 16:53:34

You should collect more information on what is happening, by running wpa_supplicant in debug mode:

This is how I run it:

(1) Disable network-manager, nm-applet, wicd
sudo update-rc.d network-manager disable
idem for wicd
pkill nm-applet

(2) edit /etc/network/interfaces:

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# Wireless AP
# auto wlan0
# mapping wlan0
#     script /sbin/ifscheme-mapping 

hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
        wpa-debug-level 3
        wpa-ssid xxxxxxxxxxx
        wpa-psk yyyyyyyyyy

(3) put this in /etc/rc.local

#!/bin/sh -e
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at startup (rcS scripts) with argument "start".
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
# value on error.
#
# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
# bits.
#
# By default this script does nothing.

# echo "message from rc.local.startup" > "/var/log/system.startup.$(date +"%F %H:%m:%d")"
# echo "$(date --iso-8601): $(cat /proc/uptime)" >> /var/log/boottime

( WPACONF="/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa.conf"; 
wpa_passphrase xxxxxxxxxx yyyyyyyyyyy >$WPACONF &&  \
chmod 0700 $WPACONF && \
wpa_supplicant -B -Dwext -iwlan0 -c $WPACONF -ddd &&            \
sleep 1 &&                                                      \
dhclient -v -pf /var/run/dhclient.wlan0.pid -lf /var/lib/dhcp/dhclient.wlan0.leases wlan0 ) &

exit 0

replace xxxxxxxxx by your essid and yyyyyyyyy by your wpa-psk

You will find detailed debug info in /var/log/syslog

Post it so others can review as well.

SabreWolfy · 2012-07-09 17:03:52

^ Thanks. I'll report back here when I've gathered everything.

SabreWolfy · 2012-07-09 19:24:26

I'm going to try it now ...

Last edited by SabreWolfy (2012-07-09 19:44:54)

SabreWolfy · 2012-07-09 19:25:41

Back on wired briefly.

$ sudo update-rc.d network-manager disable
update-rc.d: using dependency based boot sequencing
update-rc.d: error: cannot find a LSB script for network-manager

$ sudo update-rc.d wicd disable
update-rc.d: using dependency based boot sequencing
insserv: warning: current start runlevel(s) (empty) of script `wicd' overwrites defaults (2 3 4 5).
insserv: warning: current stop runlevel(s) (0 1 2 3 4 5 6) of script `wicd' overwrites defaults (0 1 6).

Figured it out. Did that (above), edited the files and then ran /etc/rc.local as root. That text for rc.local must all be on one line I presume? I removed the "\" characters. I tested from right next to the router and rc.local output this to terminal:

...
Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:1f:3a:20:80:dd
Sending on   LPF/wlan0/00:1f:3a:20:80:dd
Sending on   Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 10
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.

Which is strange because it should pick up the router -- it's 1 meter away.

I'm not sure that I killed all wicd processes ... I'll try again now ...

Last edited by SabreWolfy (2012-07-09 19:40:37)

SabreWolfy · 2012-07-09 19:43:55

Back on wired again. Killed all wicd processes and tried again. Got different interval values, but it did the same as before. Is this process supposed to connect if I am in the room with the router? I wanted to test here first before trying from the room where the connection is not working ...

gurtid · 2012-07-09 20:10:50

wot is model of router? . . . try a fixed ip on pc perhaps.

SabreWolfy · 2012-07-10 08:21:47

Commented out the lines in those files I edited and shutdown yesterday. Restarted fresh today at public hotspot. wicd wanted a password and then threw errors. Got wicd started and connected to hotspot. Would not obtain IP address though. Eventually determined that I needed to set wicd to use dhclient instead of it's automatic setting. It connected briefly and then died. Restarted laptop and tried again. Eventually online now.

@xaos52: Thanks for your help. Until I can connect to my router at home in the same room (using your debugging setup above) I'm not going to test in the "problem" area. I've spent almost an hour getting wireless up and running at this hotspot.

[I am *very* close to just installing Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on this machine though -- I have a *massive* amount of work to do in the next 6 to 12 months, and I can't afford to spend hours and hours tinkering under the hood, as much fun as it is. I need something that works right now and tomorrow and in a month's time. Having said that, wireless *is* working now and wicd is pretty cool smile And it's really only the wireless that's frustrating me smile ]

Last edited by SabreWolfy (2012-07-10 08:22:49)

SabreWolfy · 2012-07-10 10:39:28

Spent the last two hours at the public hotspot. The company reports that it is working fine, but the last two hours have been a painful experience. The connection was slow and laggy and would crawl to a halt every few minutes. I needed to reload most pages at least once. wicd never reported once that the connection *dropped* though. The performance seemed to be DNS related, so maybe nothing to do with wicd/Debian.

SabreWolfy · 2012-07-10 12:30:38

Update: A while later I moved to another hotspot (same company) a short distance away and tried to connect again. Now wicd would not connect using either the automatic setting or the dhclient client setting. (It did connect a few times, but the connection dropped a minute later.) The signal strength was >70%. Clearly something is fracked. In the past I have connected to these hotspots first time and remained connected for ages. Ever since I started fiddling with kernels and drivers, something has gotten messed up.

SabreWolfy · 2012-07-10 12:33:05

Update: I am now back at location 2, on the residential router with WPA2. I'm in the room next door to the router -- the place where this box under Statler refuses to even connect (it keeps asking for the password; if I walk 1 few meters into the room with the router, it then connects), despite 70+% signal strength.

I dual-booted here into Windows XP and ... it connected and remained connected. I am typing this post from within Windows XP.

Clearly, something is fracked.

xaos52 · 2012-07-10 13:52:43

(1)

update-rc.d: using dependency based boot sequencing
update-rc.d: error: cannot find a LSB script for network-manager

Indicates that there is a problem with the script headers for network-manager.
Perhaps something got changed inadvertently.
Script is at /etc/init.d/network-manager.
Though the headers are commented (start with #) they are used to determine the order in which services have to be started at boot.
Here is mine, though I dont use network-manager:

#! /bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          network-manager
# Required-Start:    $remote_fs dbus udev
# Required-Stop:     $remote_fs dbus udev
# Should-Start:         $syslog
# Should-Stop:       $syslog
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: network connection manager
# Description:       Daemon for automatically switching network 
#             connections to the best available connection.
### END INIT INFO

Are you sure network-manager was stopped?
Verify with

ps aux|grep network

I presume either network-manager or wicd was still running and controlling the wireless interface.

(2) When you switch to wicd, make sure network-manager is not running and nm-applet is killed.
network-manager and wicd should never run concurrently, because they step on each others foot.
To make sure one and/or the other is running:

ps aux | grep -Ei 'network|wicd'

Last edited by xaos52 (2012-07-10 13:53:55)

SabreWolfy · 2012-09-11 09:13:32

@xoas52: Bumping my own thread. I tried your suggestions above ages ago without success. Here's where I am now:

Whatever drivers are being used (I'm on #! Wheezy from February 2012 I think; not the latest) are a disaster with wireless. I've determined that the poor performance is not isolated to the public hotpots. Unless I am on top of the router, the connection will be unreliable or unusable. Even when on top of the router, it will sometimes disconnect.

Aside: Some serious awesomeness! big_smile Thanks to a great recent HPR episode, I've discovered USB tethering. I used my Android phone as a wireless hotspot before, but that requires using the 3G connection as the upstream link and the wireless as the local hotspot link. I just tried the USB tethering now at a public hotspot. Plugged in the Android and activated USB tethering and #! network-manager showed a wired connection big_smile Awesome! Activated wireless on the phone and it connected to the hotspot. Browsed to a site and I got the landing page for the hotspot and logged in. Using it now. So my PHONE can reliably connect to this hotspot -- a small Android phone running on battery power -- but my full-size laptop on power cannot connect to the same hotspot! sad

Anyway, I tried these instructions which I think were mentioned previously -- installing the Debian wl drivers. I followed the instructions for wheezy. At step 4 I loaded the wl module. At step 5, iwconfig returned lo and eth0. Nothing about wireless. Network manager showed no wireless connections. Effectively, all the steps had just disabled wireless. I restarted the laptop, but iwconfig still showed lo and eth0. I'm now online via the "wired" USB tethered Android phone, which is connected by wireless.

I tried out a few live distros recently. CentOS 6 and Fedora 17 (I think) both worked reliably with this wireless card from the live CD. It must be possible to solve this.

Any suggestions please ... ? hmm

Last edited by SabreWolfy (2012-09-11 09:22:57)

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#26 2012-06-26 14:11:30

Re: Wireless Network: Time to Smash Something :)

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Re: Wireless Network: Time to Smash Something :)

#28 2012-06-26 15:30:53

Re: Wireless Network: Time to Smash Something :)

#29 2012-06-26 15:33:58

Re: Wireless Network: Time to Smash Something :)

#30 2012-06-26 16:14:03

Re: Wireless Network: Time to Smash Something :)

#31 2012-06-26 16:49:50

Re: Wireless Network: Time to Smash Something :)

#32 2012-06-26 16:51:45

Re: Wireless Network: Time to Smash Something :)

#33 2012-06-27 07:25:16

Re: Wireless Network: Time to Smash Something :)

#34 2012-07-09 16:02:58

Re: Wireless Network: Time to Smash Something :)

#35 2012-07-09 16:25:25

Re: Wireless Network: Time to Smash Something :)

#36 2012-07-09 16:29:25

Re: Wireless Network: Time to Smash Something :)

#37 2012-07-09 16:32:11

Re: Wireless Network: Time to Smash Something :)

#38 2012-07-09 16:45:11

Re: Wireless Network: Time to Smash Something :)

#39 2012-07-09 16:53:34

Re: Wireless Network: Time to Smash Something :)

#40 2012-07-09 17:03:52

Re: Wireless Network: Time to Smash Something :)

#41 2012-07-09 19:24:26

Re: Wireless Network: Time to Smash Something :)

#42 2012-07-09 19:25:41

Re: Wireless Network: Time to Smash Something :)

#43 2012-07-09 19:43:55

Re: Wireless Network: Time to Smash Something :)

#44 2012-07-09 20:10:50

Re: Wireless Network: Time to Smash Something :)

#45 2012-07-10 08:21:47

Re: Wireless Network: Time to Smash Something :)

#46 2012-07-10 10:39:28

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#47 2012-07-10 12:30:38

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#48 2012-07-10 12:33:05

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#49 2012-07-10 13:52:43

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#50 2012-09-11 09:13:32

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