destination host unreachable

technopenguin · n00b Joined: 05 Apr 2012 Posts: 12

[edit]: I am having errors like "destination host unreachable" and "no route to host" 99 percent of the time, if doing anything beyond pinging: wget, browsing with browser besides links or dillo, etc.. I wasn't right in saying that wpa_supplicant was the problem, this describes my problem better.

Hello, I am having issues with wpa_supplicant. I have wireless hardware that uses the brcmsmac driver with some firmware. The hardware is recognized and working, but wpa_supplicant works erratically. By this, I mean that, like the flip of a coin, it will or will not work. When it actually doesn't work, it will work for some time. Then I go to links and try to download a stage3, for example, and pings to google no longer work; they hang for a couple minutes, then output 'unknown host'. A ping to 127.0.0.1 always works. Here is information about my computer and my problem that I have gathered. If you know or see something that I haven't, please help!

khayyam · Veteran Joined: 07 Jun 2012 Posts: 1279

technopenguin ...

well, your "wpa_supplicant working" and "wpa_supplicant not working" are identical and so no real information about the problem can be gleened from them. In terms of your wpa_supplicant.conf of the three two are identical (and I'm not sure why your providing them) and similarly with ifconfig/ip output. So, you first need to provide good examples of the problem, and good information for us to work with.

Currently it could be any of the following: your AP is open, so who knows who is using it, higher bandwidth use will equal greater load for the AP, and so more potencial for disconnects. You have a high level of neighbour traffic slash channel/bandwith polution. Your Cisco-Linksys is crapping out (I've had one that died after less than a year). The broadcom card/driver is at fault ... etc, etc. With all of these as possiblities you need to isolate the problem further ... at least before deciding that wpa_supplicant is at issue.

best ... khay

technopenguin · n00b Joined: 05 Apr 2012 Posts: 12

It is as you said, there is very little difference between those files for the working wireless and non. One difference I noticed between this lack of internet functionality and normal lack of internet is this:
For normal lack, say an ipv4ll problem that I fixed, ping to 192.168.1.1 results in 'network unreachable' right away.
ping to google gets destination host unreachable right away.

For this problem, a ping to 192.168.1.1 has a long pause, then 'destination host unreachable' repeated line by line
ping to google gets a long pause, then the message 'destination host unreachable'.

The way I can recreate the error is this: I go to gentoo downloads, and go start downloading a stage3. As soon as the download stops, the average download rates instantly starts dropping, while the estimated download time instantly starts to increase eternally.

This problem doesn't start when I'm logged in. I can ping to google, even browse some internet pages, but if it's that 30 percent of the time, if I started a download, it would stop working, with the above ping errors. I'm going to try browsing for much longer without downloading, and see if I can get better hold on this behavior.

The access point is open, but due to the wireless range and the lack of proximity of neighbors, only the neighbors next door (who have their own, better wireless network) could possibly even see this ssid. I've had bad luck with the linksys routers, having to replace them every 3 years, but so far, all other wireless devices haven't had problems with this recently purchased router. I've used this same driver and firmware on another linux distro on this netbook, with network manager (so wpa_supplicant). I was downloading a lot of applications while using that distro, so that would also rule out the hardware.

I did some investigation when I encountered this error today. I did killall wpa_supplicant, which removed wpa_cli as well. Then I initiated wpa_supplicant on my own, with -dd option. This time, when I went to download the stage3, it worked. Then, I went ahead and started recompiling wpa_supplicant so that I could automatically log it with the -f option. This resulted in some downloading of its own. As I watched it work, I noticed that my internet connection went bad again. It seems that a sudden increase in download activity will stop the internet connection. When the internet connection dropped for the second time, no messages were displayed in wpa_supplicant's termianl. So I aborted wpa_supplicant's operation and restarted it, and the connection returned. This time, it did not continue to stay connected once I started the stage3 download. Then I tried again. It stopped at the stage3 download. Then I restarted again. Then it stopped at the same download. The internet connection is also finicky for simple browsing in uzbl. Dillo's ok, but a download only gets so far, like a file that gets to 71%. A simultaneous ping to google gets pings up to 55 seconds, but they never seemed like they were going to stop... no 'destination host unreachable'.

I'm sorry I didn't mention the evidence that led me to rule out everything but software. It makes more sense to include that, so you know where I'm coming from with this.
It makes sense that it is not necessarily wpa_supplicant at fault here. I do believe that there is something software related that is causing this, though.

I appreciate any insights anyone has to offer on this.

khayyam · Veteran Joined: 07 Jun 2012 Posts: 1279

technopenguin ...

I see ... well, that clarifys things somewhat. Taking another look over the above log somethings seem a little odd, like QOS and 'arp filtering', could you pastebin your .config?

Your linksys is it a 802.11n?

Also, I can't see a PHY for the BCM4313, only for the BCM54xx ... I'm not that familar with broadcom cards but the BCM4313 has its own PHY driver?

best ... khay

technopenguin · n00b Joined: 05 Apr 2012 Posts: 12

khayyam · Veteran Joined: 07 Jun 2012 Posts: 1279

technopenguin ...

Ignore the whole question of PHY ... it is indeed for the broadcom ethernet ... and I read the phy in the log as from the driver, not ieee80211.

technopenguin · n00b Joined: 05 Apr 2012 Posts: 12

Hmmm... the other distrobution worked just fine with the wireless connection, and I never had problems with too much data transfer on any system, wired or wireless, and not on that other distrobution. This makes me rule out the router.

khayyam · Veteran Joined: 07 Jun 2012 Posts: 1279

technopenguin · n00b Joined: 05 Apr 2012 Posts: 12

khayyam · Veteran Joined: 07 Jun 2012 Posts: 1279

technopenguin ...

well, the iwconfig didn't return what I was expecting. As for the 'Invalid misc' this denotes packet loss on the wireless (ie non TCP/IP) layer ... it can be expected as wireless signals (unlike ethernet) are radio and so prone to interference (turn on any radio reciever and you'll hear signal degredation). So, after some reading through various bug reports, etc, I'm more and more inclined to think your problem is with the brcmsmac driver. The Arch linux broadcom miscellaneous_user_notes seem to bare this out. It may be an idea to try the wl driver, if the problem persists then it at least rules out the driver, and other possible factors could be considered, but its looking more and more likely the driver is at issue.

best ... khay

technopenguin · n00b Joined: 05 Apr 2012 Posts: 12

So, I did the kernel configurations necessary to install the broadcom-sta (wl) driver. lsmod showed that the wl module was loaded. However, ifconfig -a didn't show a wlan0, and iwconfig didn't show wireless extensions. However, it does say that bcma-pci-bridge driver is in use, and wl module is in use. There's a supposed fix from
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=82613 where, by using mkinitcpio, a person on that page was able to fix the issue of wl not working. But this requires all sorts of config changes, including uninstalling 'module-init-tools-3.16-r1' and there are other sort of issues. Not sure whether to keep pursuing the wl driver.
Also I want to add how this computer's been using ipv6 tunneling, which surprised me and made me wonder about this problem. I had just learned about two ways to get ipv6: ask your ISP, or tunnel. I will attach my messages log - grepping for tunneling shows it.
http://pastebin.com/D9vuKWmb

khayyam · Veteran Joined: 07 Jun 2012 Posts: 1279

technopenguin · n00b Joined: 05 Apr 2012 Posts: 12

So I was originally just emerging the broadcom-sta driver, y'know, doing it through portage.. but went to the broadcom site after your suggestion to compile it. I downloaded and compiled kernel 3.3.8, and for building from the 'hybrid_wl' folder, I got two issues, that Wext is the only possible API for this kernel version, and that 'struct net_device' has no member named 'wireless_handlers'. Most of the hits on google are bug reports and issues with much older kernels., and the last release of this broadcom-sta was november '11. I already had to do one patch to get rid of a 'symvers' error, but this the major wireless_handlers one is still here (and kernel version issue).

technopenguin · n00b Joined: 05 Apr 2012 Posts: 12

So I was originally just emerging the broadcom-sta driver, y'know, doing it through portage.. but went to the broadcom site after your suggestion to compile it. I downloaded and compiled kernel 3.3.8, and for building from the 'hybrid_wl' folder, I got two issues, that Wext is the only possible API for this kernel version, and that 'struct net_device' has no member named 'wireless_handlers'. Most of the hits on google are bug reports and issues with much older kernels., and the last release of this broadcom-sta was november '11. Hm. Should I use an older kernel, such as 3.1 or earlier??. I already had to do one patch to get rid of a 'symvers' error, but this the major wireless_handlers one is still here (and kernel version issue).

khayyam · Veteran Joined: 07 Jun 2012 Posts: 1279

technopenguin ...

looking at the changelog, net-wireless/broadcom-sta-5.100.82.112-r2 has a patch to compile with linux-3.4. It's currently 'stable' (but requires licence changes and manual fetch), is this the version you previously emerged and had issues with? The ebuild suggests that CONFIG_SSB, CONFIG_B43, and MAC80211 should be =n and CFG80211 and LIB80211 should be =y or =m. Its targeting a 3.4 kernel, so you will need to update from 3.2. Perhaps one or other of these is the reason you had issues ...

Other than the above I'm not sure what to suggest ... if you update to say 3.4.5 you try the above, and if you have the same issue, you could unmerge broadcom-sta and try with the in kernel driver (as there may have been changes since 3.2.x).

best ... khay