Bug 135421

Summary: libertas wifi driver will not connect (sd8686)
Product: Drivers Reporter: chrisaw (home)
Component: network-wirelessAssignee: drivers_network-wireless (drivers_network-wireless)
Status: RESOLVED INVALID    
Severity: high CC: home
Priority: P1    
Hardware: i386   
OS: Linux   
Kernel Version: 4.4.0 Subsystem:
Regression: No Bisected commit-id:

Description chrisaw 2016-07-16 18:02:07 UTC
I recently purchased a Viliv N5 UMPC (very late to the party it seems!)

Anyway - I'm having an awful time trying to get the WiFi working on it. All of the information out there seems to be about 6yrs out of date (which considering the age of the device makes sense but I'd rather not run kernel 2.X builds in 2016!)

Strangely - the WiFi device does work out of the box with minimal fuss up to a point - it can detect nearby WiFi networks using NetworkManager (Using MATE + nm-applet) but when you try to connect to a network it sits and thinks about it for a while and then asks for the passphrase again despite the passphrase being correct.

# lshw:
  *-network:0
       description: Wireless interface
       physical id: 1
       logical name: wlan0
       serial: 00:02:78:69:49:94
       capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=libertas driverversion=COMM-USB8388-323.p0 firmware=9.70.20.p0 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11b

# lsmod |grep libertas
libertas_sdio          20480  0
libertas               73728  1 libertas_sdio
cfg80211              499712  1 libertas

# dmesg |grep libertas
[    9.298474] libertas_sdio: Libertas SDIO driver
[    9.298487] libertas_sdio: Copyright Pierre Ossman
[   10.721283] libertas_sdio mmc1:0001:1 (unnamed net_device) (uninitialized): 00:02:78:69:49:94, fw 9.70.20p0, cap 0x00000303
[   10.723618] libertas_sdio mmc1:0001:1 (unnamed net_device) (uninitialized): PREP_CMD: command 0x00a3 failed: 2
[   10.725170] libertas_sdio mmc1:0001:1 wlan0: Marvell WLAN 802.11 adapter

# service NetworkManager status
--- snip ---
Jul 16 18:19:38 nano NetworkManager[586]: <info>  [1468689578.6223] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: scanning -> associating
Jul 16 18:19:38 nano NetworkManager[586]: <info>  [1468689578.6253] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: associating -> disconnected
Jul 16 18:19:43 nano NetworkManager[586]: <warn>  [1468689583.5968] device (wlan0): Activation: (wifi) association took too long
Jul 16 18:19:43 nano NetworkManager[586]: <info>  [1468689583.5970] device (wlan0): state change: config -> need-auth (reason 'none') [50 60 0]
Jul 16 18:19:43 nano NetworkManager[586]: <warn>  [1468689583.6121] device (wlan0): Activation: (wifi) asking for new secrets
Jul 16 18:19:48 nano NetworkManager[586]: <info>  [1468689588.6275] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: disconnected -> inactive
Jul 16 18:20:08 nano NetworkManager[586]: <warn>  [1468689608.6615] device (wlan0): No agents were available for this request.
Jul 16 18:20:08 nano NetworkManager[586]: <info>  [1468689608.6617] device (wlan0): state change: need-auth -> failed (reason 'no-secrets') [60 120 7]
Jul 16 18:20:08 nano NetworkManager[586]: <warn>  [1468689608.6660] device (wlan0): Activation: failed for connection 'shaunthesheep'
Jul 16 18:20:08 nano NetworkManager[586]: <info>  [1468689608.6732] device (wlan0): state change: failed -> disconnected (reason 'none') [120 30 0]

I'm more than happy to experiment with this - it's a bit of a pet project but I really would like to get the embedded wifi on the device working since portability is ultimately the key purpose of the device.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide and if any further information is needed I'm more than happy to provide it.
Comment 1 chrisaw 2016-07-16 19:05:55 UTC
Logging on a connection attempt from NetworkManager - it looks like the network driver fails to associate properly with the network:

Jul 16 19:43:06 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694586.6648] sup-iface[0xa35a680,wlan0]: config: set interface ap_scan to 1
Jul 16 19:43:06 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694586.7511] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: inactive -> scanning
Jul 16 19:43:08 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694588.3776] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: scanning -> associating
Jul 16 19:43:08 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694588.3850] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: associating -> disconnected
Jul 16 19:43:18 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694598.3874] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: disconnected -> scanning
Jul 16 19:43:20 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694600.0070] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: scanning -> associating
Jul 16 19:43:20 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694600.0239] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: associating -> disconnected
Jul 16 19:43:30 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694610.0256] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: disconnected -> scanning
Jul 16 19:43:32 nano NetworkManager[628]: <warn>  [1468694612.1810] device (wlan0): Activation: (wifi) association took too long
Jul 16 19:43:32 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694612.1812] device (wlan0): state change: config -> need-auth (reason 'none') [50 60 0]
Jul 16 19:43:32 nano NetworkManager[628]: <warn>  [1468694612.1964] device (wlan0): Activation: (wifi) asking for new secrets
Jul 16 19:43:36 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694616.0896] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: scanning -> inactive
Jul 16 19:43:36 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694616.6160] keyfile: update /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/shaunthesheep (e71616cf-372d-4be3-8c7e-9fc2a9559162,"shaunthesheep")
Jul 16 19:43:36 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694616.6199] device (wlan0): state change: need-auth -> prepare (reason 'none') [60 40 0]
Jul 16 19:43:36 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694616.6229] device (wlan0): state change: prepare -> config (reason 'none') [40 50 0]
Jul 16 19:43:36 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694616.6249] device (wlan0): Activation: (wifi) connection 'shaunthesheep' has security, and secrets exist.  No new secrets needed.
Jul 16 19:43:36 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694616.6251] Config: added 'ssid' value 'shaunthesheep'
Jul 16 19:43:36 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694616.6252] Config: added 'scan_ssid' value '1'
Jul 16 19:43:36 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694616.6253] Config: added 'key_mgmt' value 'WPA-PSK'
Jul 16 19:43:36 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694616.6255] Config: added 'auth_alg' value 'OPEN'
Jul 16 19:43:36 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694616.6256] Config: added 'psk' value '<omitted>'
Jul 16 19:43:36 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694616.6419] sup-iface[0xa35a680,wlan0]: config: set interface ap_scan to 1
Jul 16 19:43:36 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694616.7188] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: inactive -> scanning
Jul 16 19:43:38 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694618.3535] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: scanning -> associating
Jul 16 19:43:38 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694618.3591] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: associating -> disconnected
Jul 16 19:43:48 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694628.3572] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: disconnected -> scanning
Jul 16 19:43:49 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694629.9883] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: scanning -> associating
Jul 16 19:43:49 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694629.9900] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: associating -> disconnected
Jul 16 19:43:59 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694639.9970] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: disconnected -> scanning
Jul 16 19:44:02 nano NetworkManager[628]: <warn>  [1468694642.1772] device (wlan0): Activation: (wifi) association took too long
Jul 16 19:44:02 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694642.1801] device (wlan0): state change: config -> need-auth (reason 'none') [50 60 0]
Jul 16 19:44:02 nano NetworkManager[628]: <warn>  [1468694642.1956] device (wlan0): Activation: (wifi) asking for new secrets
Jul 16 19:44:06 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694646.0628] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: scanning -> inactive
Jul 16 19:44:27 nano NetworkManager[628]: <warn>  [1468694667.2160] device (wlan0): No agents were available for this request.
Jul 16 19:44:27 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694667.2162] device (wlan0): state change: need-auth -> failed (reason 'no-secrets') [60 120 7]
Jul 16 19:44:27 nano NetworkManager[628]: <warn>  [1468694667.2224] device (wlan0): Activation: failed for connection 'shaunthesheep'
Jul 16 19:44:27 nano NetworkManager[628]: <info>  [1468694667.2311] device (wlan0): state change: failed -> disconnected (reason 'none') [120 30 0]
Comment 2 chrisaw 2016-07-24 19:07:48 UTC
It looks like this issue was caused by wpasupplicant on Ubuntu.

It looks like something in the config ubuntu uses for wpa_supplicant break the ability for libertas chipsets (specifically the sd8686) to connect to WPA/WPA2 wifi networks.