Why the wifi signal quality is not displayed in % ??

[jetboo]

Hi, i need to see the wifi signal quality in %
but

Code: Select all

cat /sys/class/net/eth1/wireless/link

returns me a value beetween 1to 5.

same for iwconfig eth1 :

eth1 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:"myessid" Nickname:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.417 GHz Access Point: 22:89:B4:27:68:2C
Bit Rate=54 Mb/s Tx-Power:24 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Managementmode:All packets received
Link Quality=5/5 Signal level=-34 dBm Noise level=-87 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:3 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:569 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

How can i get a more precise value in % ??
(plz dont tell me to multiply by 20 )

[gerdesj]

Well, I get these at the moment:

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#cat /sys/class/net/wlan0/wireless/link 
70

# iwconfig wlan0
wlan0     IEEE 802.11abgn  ESSID:"<my ssid"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: <my ap>   
          Bit Rate=1 Mb/s   Tx-Power=15 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=70/70  Signal level=-39 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

Now I'm not sure what that means either although I seem to have 1 Mb s-1, which is rubbish! Power management perhaps? Also I appear not to get a Noise level from iwconfig.

[jetboo]

thx for your answer, what hardware do you use ? i think it's driver related, i use a broadcom wifi device, with broadcom-sta driver.
I emailed broadcom, maybe i will get an answer...
Anyway you got a much better precision than me.

[gerdesj]

thx for your answer, what hardware do you use ? i think it's driver related, i use a broadcom wifi device, with broadcom-sta driver.
I emailed broadcom, maybe i will get an answer...
Anyway you got a much better precision than me.

Not sure if 70/70 means that there are 70 degrees of precision on my device! I doubt it very much.

I have an Intel WiFi Link 5100 (iwlagn).

Cheers
Jon

[jetboo]

here is the answer of broadcome support :

The brcm driver is not constructing that file, so it must be happening somewhere higher in the stack and you’ll have to consult

The appropriate Linux docs or source code.
Sounds like your hunch is correct and it likely indicates link strength using 5 ‘bars’.


Regards

Linux support

but i dont see what doc he is refering to ..

[Amity88]

hey jetboo,

I also have a broadcom wifi device. I have an output similar to gerdesj, I don't use broadcom-sta.