Wireless issues with Centrino Wireless-N 2230 on Ubuntu 14.04

14.04 networking drivers intel-wireless

5,148

The advice from @chili555 to disable n11 was the right idea, but I had to disable it fully, that is, with

11n_disable=1

The different values are documented in

$ modinfo iwlwifi

parm: 11n_disable:disable 11n functionality, bitmap: 1: full, 2: disable agg TX, 4: disable agg RX, 8 enable agg TX (uint)

Source: What is "options iwlwifi 11n_disable=1" in WiFi setting?

5,148

Harald Nordgren

Coding since 2004. Master thesis on video compression. I work at Betalo handling credit card payment by writing API:s in Golang.

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Harald Nordgren over 1 year

I am having problems with my wireless adapter on Ubuntu 14.04. Sometimes when I boot the computer it is able to establish a connection, maybe one fifth of the time, but mostly it is just trying to connect forever:

 % nmcli nm
RUNNING         STATE           WIFI-HARDWARE   WIFI       WWAN-HARDWARE   WWAN      
running         connecting      enabled         enabled    enabled         disabled

Even when it is able to establish a connection there are problems. After a long uptime the connection seems to get congested and is often dropped. The same thing happens if I try to stream video or download large files.

My current hardware setup is somewhat peculiar. I spilled soda all over my other laptop, ruining the motherboard, so I decided to put this hard drive into my old one (the one I am currently on) in order to keep all my files and settings. Everything worked right away except for the wifi.

On that old machine I had noticed problems with the wireless connection under low signal strength. I solved that problem by downgrading and putting the bcmwl-kernel-source on hold using apt-mark. But that option doesn't seem to exist for my current drivers. I have since purged the obsolete drivers to make sure there is no conflict, but that had no effect on the problem.

Other threads prompted my to try the following, but to no avail:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall linux-firmware
sudo modprobe -r iwlwifi
sudo modprobe iwlwifi

System info:

 % sudo lshw -C network
  *-network
       description: Wireless interface
       product: Centrino Wireless-N 2230
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: wlan0
       version: c4
       serial: 60:6c:66:32:96:f5
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=4.2.0-35-generic firmware=18.168.6.1 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn
       resources: irq:33 memory:f7d00000-f7d01fff

 % rfkill list                                                                                 
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no
2: asus-wlan: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no
3: asus-bluetooth: Bluetooth
    Soft blocked: yes
    Hard blocked: no

 % dmesg | grep iwl                                                                                       
[    9.487676] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: can't disable ASPM; OS doesn't have ASPM control
[    9.514737] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: loaded firmware version 18.168.6.1 op_mode iwldvm
[    9.566860] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: CONFIG_IWLWIFI_DEBUG disabled
[    9.566863] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: CONFIG_IWLWIFI_DEBUGFS enabled
[    9.566865] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: CONFIG_IWLWIFI_DEVICE_TRACING enabled
[    9.566868] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Detected Intel(R) Centrino(R) Wireless-N 2230 BGN, REV=0xC8
[    9.566968] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: L1 Enabled - LTR Disabled
[    9.630114] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'iwl-agn-rs'
[   10.361252] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: L1 Enabled - LTR Disabled
[   10.368831] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Radio type=0x2-0x0-0x0
[   10.613667] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: L1 Enabled - LTR Disabled
[   10.621565] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Radio type=0x2-0x0-0x0

 % sudo iwlist wlan0 scan                                                                                                    
wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: A0:21:B7:AC:C1:3C
                    Channel:11
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
                    Quality=39/70  Signal level=-71 dBm  
                    Encryption key:on
                    ESSID:"JsNet"
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
                              9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                    Bit Rates:24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=000000001928e67b
                    Extra: Last beacon: 32ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: 00054A734E6574
                    IE: Unknown: 010882848B960C121824
                    IE: Unknown: 03010B
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : CCMP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0100
                    IE: Unknown: 32043048606C
                    IE: Unknown: DD180050F2020101830003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00
                    IE: Unknown: DD1E00904C33CC111BFFFF000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
                    IE: Unknown: 2D1ACC111BFFFF000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
                    IE: Unknown: DD1A00904C340B001B00000000000000000000000000000000000000
                    IE: Unknown: 3D160B001B00000000000000000000000000000000000000
                    IE: Unknown: DD0900037F01010000FF7F
                    IE: Unknown: DD0A00037F04010002004000
                    IE: Unknown: DD860050F204104A0001101044000102103B0001031047001000000000000010000000A021B7ACC13C1021000D4E6574676561722C20496E632E10230008574E4452333730301024000456314831104200046E6F6E651054000800060050F204000110110017574E445233373030763228576972656C65737320415029100800020086103C000103

 % sudo iw wlan0 scan                                                                                                        
BSS a0:21:b7:ac:c1:3c (on wlan0)
    TSF: 742840547 usec (0d, 00:12:22)
    freq: 2462
    beacon interval: 100
    capability: ESS Privacy ShortPreamble ShortSlotTime (0x0431)
    signal: -71.00 dBm
    last seen: 0 ms ago
    SSID: JsNet
    Supported rates: 1.0* 2.0* 5.5* 11.0* 6.0 9.0 12.0 18.0 
    DS Parameter set: channel 11
    RSN: * Version: 1
         * Group cipher: CCMP
         * Pairwise ciphers: CCMP
         * Authentication suites: PSK
         * Capabilities: (0x0000)
    ERP: <no flags>
    Extended supported rates: 24.0 36.0 48.0 54.0 
    WMM: * Parameter version 1
         * u-APSD
         * BE: CW 15-1023, AIFSN 3
         * BK: CW 15-1023, AIFSN 7
         * VI: CW 7-15, AIFSN 2, TXOP 3008 usec
         * VO: CW 3-7, AIFSN 2, TXOP 1504 usec
    HT capabilities:
        Capabilities: 0x11cc
            HT20
            SM Power Save disabled
            RX HT40 SGI
            TX STBC
            RX STBC 1-stream
            Max AMSDU length: 3839 bytes
            DSSS/CCK HT40
        Maximum RX AMPDU length 65535 bytes (exponent: 0x003)
        Minimum RX AMPDU time spacing: 8 usec (0x06)
        HT RX MCS rate indexes supported: 0-15
        HT TX MCS rate indexes are undefined
    HT operation:
         * primary channel: 11
         * secondary channel offset: no secondary
         * STA channel width: 20 MHz
         * RIFS: 0
         * HT protection: non-HT mixed
         * non-GF present: 0
         * OBSS non-GF present: 1
         * dual beacon: 0
         * dual CTS protection: 0
         * STBC beacon: 0
         * L-SIG TXOP Prot: 0
         * PCO active: 0
         * PCO phase: 0
    WPS: * Version: 1.0
         * Wi-Fi Protected Setup State: 2 (Configured)
         * Response Type: 3 (AP)
         * UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-0000-a021b7acc13c
         * Manufacturer: Netgear, Inc.
         * Model: WNDR3700
         * Model Number: V1H1
         * Serial Number: none
         * Primary Device Type: 6-0050f204-1
         * Device name: WNDR3700v2(Wireless AP)
         * Config methods: Ethernet, Label, PBC
         * RF Bands: 0x3

chili555 about 8 years

Please edit your question to add the result of: dmesg | grep iwl.
Harald Nordgren about 8 years

Done, I added dmesg!

Harald Nordgren about 8 years

Thanks for taking the time! I set the regulatory domain, ignored IPv6 and tried 11n_disable=8. None of it made any difference unfortunately. I don't have direct access to the router as it belongs to my landlord, but I will try to talk to him about it. For those times that I am able to connect to the network, is there any way for me to check the WPA mode and channel width as a non-admin?
chili555 about 8 years

You can find out about it with: sudo iwlist scan Post your landlord's router only, not all the others in the neighborhood, and we'll help you decipher it.
Harald Nordgren about 8 years

Okay, I added iwlist and iw scans now.
dmatej about 3 years

Well, this finally worked. Just for complete info, my laptop is Lenovo Y510P, yesterday i unstalled new router TpLink Archer AX50. Laptop was able to connect if I removed authentication on the router, but not with it. All other devices worked well, also laptop was able to connect to hotspot wifi on mobile phone. 11n_disable=8 did not help, but 1 works :-)