Wifi and Bluetooth problem on new install

[wilo108]

Hi folks, I have an odd problem that I could use some help with.

I upgraded my LMDE installation to UP4, and things went reasonably well. Since I had recently bought a new HD (additional instead of replacement), I decided to do a new install on the new HD.

On my new install, however, I have problems with Wifi and Bluetooth. Bluetooth connects for about one to two seconds, and then drops (this is reproducible ad-nauseum). Wifi works (sort of), but never first (and rarely second or third) time. Generally, it will connect, but no traffic will be possible (pings don't work, etc.), and I have to disable and re-enable the hardware (software or hardware switch) at least once, generally two or three times. After that, the connection will be reasonably stable to an open (unsecured) AP. Connections to all the secured APs I have tried simply fail, reporting that authentication has failed (I haven't been able to test this exhaustively, though).

My first thought was that it sounds like a kernel and/or firmware issue, but I still have my old (upgraded) installation available, and none of these problems exist there, with the same kernel. I've also tried the latest Liquorix kernel (3.3.0-1), with the same results -- everything's fine on the upgraded installation, but the same problems exist on the new installation.

Can anyone offer me a suggestion or some advice for what to try next? It's most frustrating!

HW: Dell Precision m4600 laptop
Wireless: Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (iwlwifi)


Thanks for any help which can be offered!

wilo

[äxl]

open (unsecured) AP. Connections to all the secured APs I have tried simply fail, reporting that authentication has failed (I haven't been able to test this exhaustively, though).

Thanks for the tests. In some cases this helped (WEP). EDIT: I DISSUADE FROM USING wep LONGER. ONLY TEST IF THIS IS THE PROBLEM.

kernel and/or firmware issue

It could also be a module problem. But I would guess that you have already compared the outputs of lsmod on iwlwifi ...

everything's fine on the upgraded installation, but the same problems exist on the new installation.

There are several more places you could compare, like installed packages, output of dmesg ...
Here someone else has also a problem using the same module: viewtopic.php?f=198&t=99488

[wilo108]

Hi äxl,

Thanks for your help. I've been too busy with other things to spend enough time looking at this until recently. I think (tentatively, still!) that I've got it sorted.

For the bluetooth, I removed the MATE-related bluetooth packages, and that seems to have solved my problem (it had previously been reporting "Unable to select SEP" in `/var/log/syslog`). The Cinnamon bluetooth applet is no use, sadly (the state of the on/off switch there bears no relation to the actually connection state of my device -- the sound applet, generally pretty disappointing, also fails to register the new sound device when it's connected), and for some reason `padevchooser` is not available in the repos, which means I either have all my sound out of the bluetooth speaker set, or none, which is less that ideal (I like my music or radio through the speaker set, and the regular OS sounds, such as skype or my IM, to come through the laptop speakers). However, these are comparatively minor issues.

[edit: just done some more research and discovered that the functionality I miss from `padevchooser` is now available in `pavucontrol`, thankfully ]

The wifi issue seems to be more-or-less solved, too. I'm not entirely sure what's solved it (may need to go back and do some more testing), but could it possibly be related to the MATE bluetooth packages too (I think my bluetooth and wireless are provided by the same chipset)? I've also disabled samba (and thereby netbios), which may have something to do with it. [edit: haven't had chance to check on a secured network, yet, though)

Anyway, thanks again for your help. I had done a diff of the output from `dpkg --get-selections` before posting initially, but I'd been looking for packages that were missing from my new installation, when I should have been looking for extra packages.

Cheers!