connection drops with kernel 3.17

[D33pTh0ught]

I am using 3.17.2-1-ARCH with Antergos on my Lenovo 13 and experience connection drops with some wifi networks (wifi symbol says I am still connected).
Should i try to use the driver provided here or is this the same driver used in the kernel I am allready using?

I tested the connection with 2 wireless networks.
Network A seems to work fine. The speed is not as good as with windows but its stable.
However with Network B the connection drops every few minutes and only works again after turning the wifi off and on. I had the same issue with Ubuntu Gnome 13.10 (windows or other wireless modules have no issue with the network).
Using wicd instead of the networkmanager didn't solve the issue.
Any idea what else I could try?

[lwfinger]

The driver in the kernel has been updated beyond the one in this repo, which was provided when there was no driver in the kernel. It is possible that there is a kernel regression, and that the driver here might work better. That could be useful information.

You should post any problems with the kernel version in a place that the kernel maintainer will see it.

The main thing you need to describe is the difference between your networks A and B. Differences in the router make and model, and the operating conditions may be important.

Note that I do not possess any hardware of this type, and I could not possibly debug anything.

[D33pTh0ught]

Thanks for the quick reply.
Do you know where such a place would be?
I will post more info if i find out noteworthy differences between the two networks.

[lwfinger]

The standard mailing lists are linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org, and netdev@vger.kernel.org.

The driver maintainer is Jes Sorensen Jes.Sorensen@redhat.com.

One thing I forgot earlier is to ask if anything is logged when the problem happens.

[D33pTh0ught]

where would i need to look for said logs?

[lwfinger]

You should look at the output of dmesg. As that dumps it in mass, you will probably want to see it with 'dmesg | less'. If you do not know about less, use 'man less' to see how to use it.

[D33pTh0ught]

I couldn't find any unusual logs with dmesg and powersaving or ipv6 where not the problem either.
However by using the driver provided here the problem seems to be resolved.
So there might be some kernel regression with this driver.

[laptander]

I have the same problem. With some Wi-Fi routers it works fine and with some it disconnects near every minute but is displaying, that I am still connected. I need to reconnect every minute, so it is impossible to work normal.
I am running ArchLinux 3.17.6-1 on Lenovo Yoga 13.
I have noticed, that sometimes (for example after 10 minutes) it reconnects again... And then disconnects again.
@D33pTh0ught Did you installed driver directly from here or from https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/dkms-8723au-git/
@lwfinger I wish I can help to solve this issue in stock kernel. If you can say me what should I grep from dmesg output?
When I reconnect, I see something like this in dmesg:
[...] RTL8723AU: set ssid [MySsid] fw_state = 0x00000008
[...] RTL8723AU: start auth
[...] RTL8723AU: auth success, start assoc
[...] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlp0s26u1u4i2: link becomes ready
[...] RTL8723AU: send eapol packet
[...] RTL8723AU: send eaol packet
[...] RTL8723AU: set pairwise key to hw: alg:4(WEP-40-1 WEP104-5 TKIP-2 AES-4) camid:4

[D33pTh0ught]

@laptander I installed the drivers via the aur package but I think this should make no difference(it uses the source provided here on github)
offtopic: since you seem to have the exact same setup as me, does your fan also spin all the time?

[laptander]

@D33pTh0ught I have installed from AUR too, but it did not rmmod r8723au. So I manually removed r8723au and then modprobe 8723au.
offtopic: Yes, I can hear fan noise, but I do not feel any discomfort with it. Maybe you should enable DPTF in UEFI menu? But I am feeling discomfort with strange noise, that is like ultra sound. It sounds like morse. It is coming from left part of keyboard. I do not know what to do with it. And I even do not know it is SSD noise or Wi-Fi card noise?

[D33pTh0ught]

@laptander I just blacklisted the original driver.
offtopic: okay I just wanted to know if this is normal for the device. If you're interested in only letting the fan spin when its needed: https://github.com/blan4/lenovo-yoga-fan-control
What is DPTF?
I never noticed the sound you described before but I can hear it when I put my ear against the keyboard. However this doesn't bother me since it isn't noticeable for me otherwise. The yoga 2 from my girlfriend seems to have the same behaviour but without the high frequency noise. I don't think the noise is coming from the SSD or the WIFI card.

Please keep me up to date if you find an alternative solution for the WIFI problem.

[laptander]

Do you have bluetooth working?
lwfinger said me to use rtl8723au_bt repo and use "new" branch. But I
cannot make it. Can you help?
It seems, that we have the same configuration. Maybe you can make it
without errors?
See lwfinger/rtl8723au_bt#18 for details.

On 17.12.2014 17:23, D33pTh0ught wrote:

@laptander https://github.com/laptander I just blacklisted the
original driver.
offtopic: okay I just wanted to know if this is normal for the device.
If you're interested in only letting the fan spin when its needed:
https://github.com/blan4/lenovo-yoga-fan-control
What is DPTF?
I never noticed the sound you described before but I can hear it when
I put my ear against the keyboard. However this doesn't bother me
since it isn't noticeable for me otherwise. The yoga 2 from my
girlfriend seems to have the same behaviour but without the high
frequency noise. I don't think the noise is coming from the SSD or the
WIFI card.

Please keep me up to date if you find an alternative solution for the
WIFI problem.

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[D33pTh0ught]

I have not tried installing the bluetooth drivers since I don't need them.