Wifi keeps dropping out and reconnecting

[Mike v]

I've installed MX-14 onto an Asus EEE netbook that has two other Linux distros installed, and one odd behavior that I can't seem to resolve is that the wifi keeps dropping and then immediately reconnecting, over and over again. This problem does not occur with either of the other two distros that I have installed on the netbook. Any ideas on what might be causing this or how to fix it?

[lucky9]

I recently had to change a setting in the configuration (setup) to get rid of similar behavior. I'll see if I can remember or refind what I did and post back. If I remember correctly it was one switch(....and wasn't obvious to me).

[Mike v]

Thanks for your response. That would be great if you can find what you did. I am not enough of a Linux expert to even know where to begin to look for a solution, other than googling the problem, which so far has not really turned anything up that matches what I am seeing.

[Jerry3904]

Can you please post the results of this command as regular user in a terminal:

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inxi -F

And then this one as root:

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iwconfig

[Mike v]

Thanks for taking a look at this. Okay, here's what I got back.

inxi -F:

System: Host: apt307 Kernel: 3.12-0.bpo.1-686-pae i686 (32 bit)
Desktop: Xfce 4.10.2 Distro: MX-14 Symbiosis 24 March 2014
Machine: System: ASUSTeK product: 1005HA v: x.x
Mobo: ASUSTeK model: 1005HA v: x.xx
Bios: American Megatrends v: 0402 date: 05/12/2009
CPU: Single core Intel Atom N270 (-HT-) cache: 512 KB
Clock Speeds: 1: 800 MHz 2: 1600 MHz
Graphics: Card: Intel Mobile 945GSE Express Integrated Graphics Controller
Display Server: X.Org 1.12.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
Resolution: 1024x600@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 945GME x86/MMX/SSE2
GLX Version: 1.4 Mesa 8.0.5
Audio: Card Intel NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller
driver: snd_hda_intel
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k3.12-0.bpo.1-686-pae
Network: Card-1: Atheros AR8132 Fast Ethernet driver: atl1c
IF: eth0 state: down mac: 00:26:18:2b:d6:f2
Card-2: Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express)
driver: ath9k
IF: wlan0 state: up mac: 00:25:d3:09:a6:8b
Drives: HDD Total Size: 160.0GB (3.5% used)
ID-1: /dev/sda model: Hitachi_HTS54321 size: 160.0GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 15G used: 2.9G (21%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda10
ID-2: /home size: 4.7G used: 44M (1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda11
ID-3: swap-1 size: 1.06GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 47.0C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 3957
Info: Processes: 135 Uptime: 3 min Memory: 178.8/999.9MB
Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.1.28

The iwconfig gave me different results depending on whether I ran it when the wifi dropped out or not. When the wifi is working, I get:

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:"Cindi"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 0C:F8:93:48:A7:50
Bit Rate=52 Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:on
Link Quality=49/70 Signal level=-61 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:7 Missed beacon:0

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

When it drops out and I run it, I get:

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=15 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:on

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

[Mike v]

Hmmm, I was curious about that power management setting that showed up in the output that I just posted, and then I did a little research and testing and saw that the wifi is only cutting out when the AC adapter is unplugged. I've been connected to the wifi with my netbook plugged in for the last couple of minutes as I type this and it is not cutting out. So does this seem like a power management setting issue? If so, then the next question is how to change the setting.

[Mike v]

Okay, I solved my problem. Thanks, Jerry, for the tip on iwconfig. That pointed me to the solution.

Issuing the command

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sudo iwconfig wlan0 power off

temporarily fixes the problem until I restart the netbook.

The permanent solution is to create a file /etc/pm/power.d/wireless with these lines:

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#!/bin/sh
/sbin/iwconfig wlan0 power off

I then make the file executable by doing

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sudo chmod +x /etc/pm/power.d/wireless

This causes the default power management setting to be overridden when the computer starts up. Based on some Ubuntu discussions I found on this issue, the default power management script, located in /usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d is overridden by creating this file.