Curing WLAN dropouts in Ubuntu
Short story
$ sudo apt-get install wicd # replace NetworkManager
$ sudo wicd-ncurses # configure connection
Long story
Since I was supposed to work tonight, I had to do something else. I decided to fix that stupid WLAN dropouts that I’ve suffered from ever since I installed Ubuntu on this IBM T60.
The machine is equipped with the Atheros AR5212 chipset and I’m using the ath5k driver with it. I noticed by watching output from watch --interval=1 iwconfig wlan0 that contact with the AP was lost every now and then, where now and then was twice a minute and sometimes more often than that.
/var/log/daemon.log showed signs of wpa_supplicant and NetworkManager being upset at about the same time as contact with AP was lost. The NetworkManager said things like
periodic_update(): Roamed from BSSID 00:21:29:EB:A3:30 (<my SSID>) to (none) ((none))
which led me to the thread network-manager roams to (none) ((none)) - background scanning where some people suggested that they were happy after throwing out the NetworkManager replacing it with wicd. So:
$ sudo apt-get install wicd # replace NetworkManager
$ sudo wicd-ncurses # configure connection
Did this hours ago now, and I’m still happy.
