NetworkManager sees wireless AP, randomly refuses to connect - (Orinoco PCMCIA) CentOS 6.2

[PantherBlitz]

I installed CentOS 6.2 on my Thinkpad A22m which uses an Orinoco Silver PCMCIA wireless adapter that has been flashed with the Alchemy PDA utility to enable WPA encryption.

An issue that I am having trouble resolving is that the Network Manager sometimes connects normally to my wifi network, but sometimes it does not. I followed the NetworkManager setup instructions from the CentOS Wiki, [url=http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Laptops/NetworkManager]here[/url] . At first I thought that running on battery may have triggered it, but the issue crops up both on battery or when on AC equally.

I have no problems using the wired eth0 interface, and NetworkManager is able to auto sense when it is plugged in and connect.

I have noticed that Network Manager always reports under both wired and wireless that "Last Used" is "never" as seen in the attached screenshot:

[img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/60591788/Screenshot-Network%20Connections.png[/img]

When I click on the Network Manager panel icon in Gnome, it always shows the available wireless network. If I delete the saved connection information and try to connect, it prompts me for the WPA passphrase but still will not connect.

Here is my basedata file from getinfo.sh. Hopefully there is something in there that sheds light on this:

Information for general problems.
[code]
== BEGIN uname -rmi ==
2.6.32-220.17.1.el6.i686 i686 i386
== END uname -rmi ==

== BEGIN rpm -qa \*-release\* ==
centos-release-6-2.el6.centos.7.i686
adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch
rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el6.rf.i686
== END rpm -qa \*-release\* ==

== BEGIN cat /etc/redhat-release ==
CentOS release 6.2 (Final)
== END cat /etc/redhat-release ==

== BEGIN getenforce ==
Permissive
== END getenforce ==

== BEGIN free -m ==
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 499 364 134 0 29 198
-/+ buffers/cache: 136 362
Swap: 2047 0 2047
== END free -m ==

== BEGIN rpm -qa yum\* rpm-\* python | sort ==
python-2.6.6-29.el6.i686
rpm-libs-4.8.0-19.el6_2.1.i686
rpm-python-4.8.0-19.el6_2.1.i686
yum-3.2.29-22.el6.centos.2.noarch
yum-metadata-parser-1.1.2-16.el6.i686
yum-plugin-fastestmirror-1.1.30-10.el6.noarch
yum-plugin-security-1.1.30-10.el6.noarch
yum-utils-1.1.30-10.el6.noarch
== END rpm -qa yum\* rpm-\* python | sort ==

== BEGIN ls /etc/yum.repos.d ==
adobe-linux-i386.repo
CentOS-Base.repo
CentOS-Debuginfo.repo
CentOS-Media.repo
mirrors-rpmforge
mirrors-rpmforge-extras
mirrors-rpmforge-testing
rpmforge.repo
== END ls /etc/yum.repos.d ==

== BEGIN cat /etc/yum.conf ==
[main]
cachedir=/var/cache/yum/$basearch/$releasever
keepcache=0
debuglevel=2
logfile=/var/log/yum.log
exactarch=1
obsoletes=1
gpgcheck=1
plugins=1
installonly_limit=5
bugtracker_url=http://bugs.centos.org/set_project.php?project_id=16&ref=http://bugs.centos.org/bug_report_page.php?category=yum
distroverpkg=centos-release

# This is the default, if you make this bigger yum won't see if the metadata
# is newer on the remote and so you'll "gain" the bandwidth of not having to
# download the new metadata and "pay" for it by yum not having correct
# information.
# It is esp. important, to have correct metadata, for distributions like
# Fedora which don't keep old packages around. If you don't like this checking
# interupting your command line usage, it's much better to have something
# manually check the metadata once an hour (yum-updatesd will do this).
# metadata_expire=90m

# PUT YOUR REPOS HERE OR IN separate files named file.repo
# in /etc/yum.repos.d
== END cat /etc/yum.conf ==

== BEGIN yum repolist all ==
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, refresh-packagekit, security
Determining fastest mirrors
Could not retrieve mirrorlist http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=6&arch=i386&repo=os error was
14: PYCURL ERROR 6 - "Couldn't resolve host 'mirrorlist.centos.org'"
repo id repo name status
adobe-linux-i386 Adobe Systems Incorporated enabled: 0
base CentOS-6 - Base enabled: 0
c6-media CentOS-6 - Media disabled
centosplus CentOS-6 - Plus disabled
contrib CentOS-6 - Contrib disabled
debug CentOS-6 - Debuginfo disabled
extras CentOS-6 - Extras enabled: 0
rpmforge RHEL 6 - RPMforge.net - dag enabled: 0
rpmforge-extras RHEL 6 - RPMforge.net - extras disabled
rpmforge-testing RHEL 6 - RPMforge.net - testing disabled
updates CentOS-6 - Updates enabled: 0
repolist: 0
== END yum repolist all ==

== BEGIN egrep 'include|exclude' /etc/yum.repos.d/*.repo ==
== END egrep 'include|exclude' /etc/yum.repos.d/*.repo ==

== BEGIN sed -n -e "/^\[/h; /priority *=/{ G; s/\n/ /; s/ity=/ity = /; p }" /etc/yum.repos.d/*.repo | sort -k3n ==
== END sed -n -e "/^\[/h; /priority *=/{ G; s/\n/ /; s/ity=/ity = /; p }" /etc/yum.repos.d/*.repo | sort -k3n ==

== BEGIN cat /etc/fstab ==

#
# /etc/fstab
# Created by anaconda on Fri May 18 17:19:34 2012
#
# Accessible filesystems, by reference, are maintained under '/dev/disk'
# See man pages fstab(5), findfs(8), mount(8) and/or blkid(8) for more info
#
UUID=d6b7f68b-8775-4f9e-8b21-162dcabb76cc / ext4 defaults 1 1
UUID=6b67b3a3-ae12-4917-9064-f3ea053a630b /boot ext2 defaults 1 2
UUID=41620ebc-de1b-48f4-ae33-ba0d823fef02 swap swap defaults 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
== END cat /etc/fstab ==

== BEGIN df -h ==
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3 24G 4.0G 19G 18% /
tmpfs 250M 112K 250M 1% /dev/shm
/dev/sda1 308M 43M 250M 15% /boot
/dev/sdb1 1.9G 7.6M 1.9G 1% /media/B215-A7E5
== END df -h ==

== BEGIN cat /proc/mdstat ==
Personalities :
unused devices: <none>
== END cat /proc/mdstat ==

== BEGIN rpm -qa kernel\* | sort ==
== END rpm -qa kernel\* | sort ==

== BEGIN lspci -nn ==
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge [8086:7190] (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge [8086:7191] (rev 03)
00:02.0 CardBus bridge [0607]: Texas Instruments PCI1450 [104c:ac1b] (rev 03)
00:02.1 CardBus bridge [0607]: Texas Instruments PCI1450 [104c:ac1b] (rev 03)
00:03.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation 82557/8/9/0/1 Ethernet Pro 100 [8086:1229] (rev 0c)
00:03.1 Serial controller [0700]: Agere Systems LT WinModem [11c1:045c] (rev 01)
00:05.0 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: Cirrus Logic CS 4614/22/24/30 [CrystalClear SoundFusion Audio Accelerator] [1013:6003] (rev 01)
00:07.0 Bridge [0680]: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA [8086:7110] (rev 02)
00:07.1 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE [8086:7111] (rev 01)
00:07.2 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB [8086:7112] (rev 01)
00:07.3 Bridge [0680]: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI [8086:7113] (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc Rage Mobility P/M AGP 2x [1002:4c4d] (rev 64)
== END lspci -nn ==

== BEGIN lsusb ==
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 058f:6387 Alcor Micro Corp. Transcend JetFlash Flash Drive
== END lsusb ==

== BEGIN rpm -qa kmod\* kmdl\* ==
== END rpm -qa kmod\* kmdl\* ==

== BEGIN ifconfig -a ==
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:03:47:8B:F0:6E
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:02:2D:3C:0A:5D
inet6 addr: fe80::202:2dff:fe3c:a5d/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:2719 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:64 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:291183 (284.3 KiB) TX bytes:16345 (15.9 KiB)
Interrupt:3 Base address:0x100

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:480 (480.0 b) TX bytes:480 (480.0 b)

== END ifconfig -a ==

== BEGIN brctl show ==
bridge name bridge id STP enabled interfaces
== END brctl show ==

== BEGIN route -n ==
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
== END route -n ==

== BEGIN sysctl -a | grep .rp_filter ==
error: permission denied on key 'kernel.cad_pid'
error: permission denied on key 'kernel.usermodehelper.bset'
error: permission denied on key 'kernel.usermodehelper.inheritable'
net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter = 0
net.ipv4.conf.all.arp_filter = 0
net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter = 1
net.ipv4.conf.default.arp_filter = 0
net.ipv4.conf.lo.rp_filter = 1
net.ipv4.conf.lo.arp_filter = 0
net.ipv4.conf.eth0.rp_filter = 1
net.ipv4.conf.eth0.arp_filter = 0
net.ipv4.conf.eth1.rp_filter = 1
net.ipv4.conf.eth1.arp_filter = 0
== END sysctl -a | grep .rp_filter ==

== BEGIN ip rule show ==
0: from all lookup local
32766: from all lookup main
32767: from all lookup default
== END ip rule show ==

== BEGIN ip route show ==
== END ip route show ==

== BEGIN cat /etc/resolv.conf ==
# Generated by NetworkManager
nameserver 208.67.220.220
nameserver 208.67.222.222
nameserver 8.8.8.8
== END cat /etc/resolv.conf ==

== BEGIN egrep 'net|hosts' /etc/nsswitch.conf ==
#hosts: db files nisplus nis dns
hosts: files dns
#networks: nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files
#netmasks: nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files
netmasks: files
networks: files
netgroup: nisplus
== END egrep 'net|hosts' /etc/nsswitch.conf ==

== BEGIN chkconfig --list | grep -Ei 'network|wpa' ==
NetworkManager 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
network 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off
wpa_supplicant 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off
== END chkconfig --list | grep -Ei 'network|wpa' ==

[/code]

[pschaff]

Welcome to the CentOS fora, and congratulations on being one of the select few to do the recommended reading [i]before[/i] posting.

Was the wireless hardware present when you ran [b]getinfo.sh[/b]? I see no sign of it. We need to see the [url=http://elrepo.org/tiki/DeviceIDs]Vendor:DeviceID[/url] information.

[PantherBlitz]

Thanks for the quick reply, and for the welcome to the fora.

I see what you mean; the card not showing on lspci. The card was in when I ran getinfo. I just shut it down and ran it again and it still does not show.

If I pop the card out Network Manager stops seeing the available wireless network, and when I pop it back in it sees the network again but is not connecting, and it does not show in the getinfo output.

[PantherBlitz]

Update: If I run pccardctl info it reports a MANFID for the card in the second slot (the 1st slot is empty)

[code]
[root@localhost lib]# pccardctl info
PRODID_1=""
PRODID_2=""
PRODID_3=""
PRODID_4=""
MANFID=0000,0000
FUNCID=255
PRODID_1="Lucent Technologies"
PRODID_2="WaveLAN/IEEE"
PRODID_3="Version 01.01"
PRODID_4=""
MANFID=0156,0002
FUNCID=6
[/code]

[pschaff]

I have not used a PCcard for years but I presume the MANFID is the same and the Vendor:DeviceID returned by lspci and lsusb, and it shows that the card should be supported by kernel drivers:
[code]$ grep -i 0156 /lib/modules/*/modules.alias | grep -i 0002
/lib/modules/2.6.32-220.13.1.el6.i686/modules.alias:alias pcmcia:m0156c0002f*fn*pfn*pa4B801A17pb*pc*pd* hostap_cs
/lib/modules/2.6.32-220.13.1.el6.i686/modules.alias:alias pcmcia:m0156c0002f*fn*pfn*pa74C5E40Dpb*pc*pd* hostap_cs
/lib/modules/2.6.32-220.13.1.el6.i686/modules.alias:alias pcmcia:m0156c0002f*fn*pfn*pa*pb*pcD27DEB1Apd* orinoco_cs
/lib/modules/2.6.32-220.17.1.el6.i686/modules.alias:alias pcmcia:m0156c0002f*fn*pfn*pa4B801A17pb*pc*pd* hostap_cs
/lib/modules/2.6.32-220.17.1.el6.i686/modules.alias:alias pcmcia:m0156c0002f*fn*pfn*pa74C5E40Dpb*pc*pd* hostap_cs
/lib/modules/2.6.32-220.17.1.el6.i686/modules.alias:alias pcmcia:m0156c0002f*fn*pfn*pa*pb*pcD27DEB1Apd* orinoco_cs
/lib/modules/2.6.32-220.4.1.el6.i686/modules.alias:alias pcmcia:m0156c0002f*fn*pfn*pa4B801A17pb*pc*pd* hostap_cs
/lib/modules/2.6.32-220.4.1.el6.i686/modules.alias:alias pcmcia:m0156c0002f*fn*pfn*pa74C5E40Dpb*pc*pd* hostap_cs
/lib/modules/2.6.32-220.4.1.el6.i686/modules.alias:alias pcmcia:m0156c0002f*fn*pfn*pa*pb*pcD27DEB1Apd* orinoco_cs
/lib/modules/2.6.32-220.4.2.el6.i686/modules.alias:alias pcmcia:m0156c0002f*fn*pfn*pa4B801A17pb*pc*pd* hostap_cs
/lib/modules/2.6.32-220.4.2.el6.i686/modules.alias:alias pcmcia:m0156c0002f*fn*pfn*pa74C5E40Dpb*pc*pd* hostap_cs
/lib/modules/2.6.32-220.4.2.el6.i686/modules.alias:alias pcmcia:m0156c0002f*fn*pfn*pa*pb*pcD27DEB1Apd* orinoco_cs
/lib/modules/2.6.32-220.7.1.el6.i686/modules.alias:alias pcmcia:m0156c0002f*fn*pfn*pa4B801A17pb*pc*pd* hostap_cs
/lib/modules/2.6.32-220.7.1.el6.i686/modules.alias:alias pcmcia:m0156c0002f*fn*pfn*pa74C5E40Dpb*pc*pd* hostap_cs
/lib/modules/2.6.32-220.7.1.el6.i686/modules.alias:alias pcmcia:m0156c0002f*fn*pfn*pa*pb*pcD27DEB1Apd* orinoco_cs
/lib/modules/2.6.32-71.18.1.el6.i686/modules.alias:alias pcmcia:m0156c0002f*fn*pfn*pa4B801A17pb*pc*pd* hostap_cs
/lib/modules/2.6.32-71.18.1.el6.i686/modules.alias:alias pcmcia:m0156c0002f*fn*pfn*pa74C5E40Dpb*pc*pd* hostap_cs
/lib/modules/2.6.32-71.18.1.el6.i686/modules.alias:alias pcmcia:m0156c0002f*fn*pfn*pa*pb*pc*pd* orinoco_cs
[/code]
What does lsmod show for those?

[PantherBlitz]

The orinoco_cs driver is present in my lsmod output, but I don't see hostap_cs.

[code]
[cmorris@localhost ~]$ lsmod
Module Size Used by
fuse 56800 0
bridge 64716 0
stp 1589 1 bridge
llc 4354 2 bridge,stp
ipv6 264641 22
ext2 58554 1
uinput 6244 0
ppdev 7361 0
thinkpad_acpi 57227 0
parport_pc 19342 0
parport 30853 2 ppdev,parport_pc
michael_mic 1666 4
orinoco_cs 8586 1
orinoco 68416 1 orinoco_cs
cfg80211 117703 1 orinoco
rfkill 15242 2 thinkpad_acpi,cfg80211
microcode 12152 0
sg 24612 0
i2c_piix4 11156 0
i2c_core 25825 1 i2c_piix4
snd_cs46xx 74382 2
snd_rawmidi 18283 1 snd_cs46xx
snd_ac97_codec 95768 1 snd_cs46xx
ac97_bus 968 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_seq 45509 0
snd_seq_device 5220 2 snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
snd_pcm 66451 2 snd_cs46xx,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer 17758 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd 51724 11 snd_cs46xx,snd_rawmidi,snd_ac97_codec,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 6486 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 7042 2 snd_cs46xx,snd_pcm
e100 28864 0
mii 4315 1 e100
ext4 331581 1
mbcache 5976 2 ext2,ext4
jbd2 73682 1 ext4
video 16720 0
output 1805 1 video
sd_mod 35435 4
crc_t10dif 1217 1 sd_mod
sr_mod 14245 0
cdrom 34094 1 sr_mod
pata_acpi 2513 0
ata_generic 2805 0
ata_piix 19202 3
yenta_socket 35047 4
rsrc_nonstatic 9945 1 yenta_socket
dm_mirror 11678 0
dm_region_hash 9737 1 dm_mirror
dm_log 8546 2 dm_mirror,dm_region_hash
dm_mod 67821 2 dm_mirror,dm_log
[/code]

[pschaff]

I'm not sure about the difference but a google on [url=https://www.google.com/search?q=orinoco_cs+hostap_cs&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:unofficial&client=firefox-a]orinoco_cs hostap_cs[/url] turns up [url=http://www.aircrack-ng.org/doku.php?id=hostap]this[/url] as the first hit, which indicates that hostap_cs is the one to use.