Bug 596368 – net-wireless/wpa_supplicant-2.6 breaks NetworkManager WiFi

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED CANTFIX

[Description Kobboi 2016-10-06 20:50:57 UTC]

For some reason, nm-applet cannot scan for wireless networks with this version of wpa_supplicant. Scanning does work when using iwlist. Stepping back to 2.5-r2 fixes the issue. 

Not sure what I can add as logs. When using 2.6, with the problem, my journal reads:

...
Oct 06 22:43:35 tanagra wpa_supplicant[1272]: wlp0s29f7u4: Failed to assign random MAC address for a scan
Oct 06 22:43:35 tanagra wpa_supplicant[1272]: wlp0s29f7u4: Failed to set random MAC address
Oct 06 22:43:32 tanagra kernel: IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp0s29f7u4: link is not ready
Oct 06 22:43:32 tanagra wpa_supplicant[1272]: wlp0s29f7u4: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-FAILED ret=-1
Oct 06 22:43:32 tanagra wpa_supplicant[1272]: wlp0s29f7u4: Failed to assign random MAC address for a scan
Oct 06 22:43:32 tanagra wpa_supplicant[1272]: wlp0s29f7u4: Failed to set random MAC address
...

When using older versions: no problem and no such log messages.

[Comment 1 Bjarke Istrup Pedersen (RETIRED) 2016-10-09 09:11:18 UTC]

Are you using LibreSSL or OpenSSL?

[Comment 2 Kobboi 2016-10-09 10:40:24 UTC]

openssl-1.0.2j

[Comment 3 looonger 2016-10-09 21:23:23 UTC]

Doesn't this issue concern external drivers? NetworkManager WiFi has stopped working for me with external 8192cu driver but works well with rtl8xxxu driver which is in the kernel tree.

[Comment 4 Maciej Mrozowski 2016-10-12 19:24:39 UTC]

Also breaks it for me:

paź 12 20:41:10 liwardyna kernel: cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:
paź 12 20:41:10 liwardyna kernel: cfg80211:  DFS Master region: unset
paź 12 20:41:10 liwardyna kernel: cfg80211:   (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp), (dfs_cac_time)
paź 12 20:41:10 liwardyna kernel: cfg80211:   (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
paź 12 20:41:10 liwardyna kernel: cfg80211:   (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 20000 KHz, 92000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
paź 12 20:41:10 liwardyna kernel: cfg80211:   (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
paź 12 20:41:10 liwardyna kernel: cfg80211:   (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
paź 12 20:41:10 liwardyna kernel: cfg80211:   (5250000 KHz - 5330000 KHz @ 80000 KHz, 160000 KHz AUTO), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (0 s)
paź 12 20:41:10 liwardyna kernel: cfg80211:   (5490000 KHz - 5730000 KHz @ 160000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (0 s)
paź 12 20:41:10 liwardyna kernel: cfg80211:   (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 80000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm), (N/A)
paź 12 20:41:10 liwardyna kernel: cfg80211:   (57240000 KHz - 63720000 KHz @ 2160000 KHz), (N/A, 0 mBm), (N/A)
paź 12 20:41:10 liwardyna NetworkManager[11689]: <warn>  [1476297670.8260] device (wlan0): set-hw-addr: new MAC address BE:2A:DE:50:FB:D1 not successfully set (scanning)
paź 12 20:41:10 liwardyna NetworkManager[11689]: <info>  [1476297670.8263] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: inactive -> disabled
paź 12 20:41:10 liwardyna NetworkManager[11689]: <info>  [1476297670.8403] device (wlan0): supplicant interface state: disabled -> inactive
paź 12 20:41:10 liwardyna wpa_supplicant[11703]: nl80211: Failed to open /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/wlan0/drop_unicast_in_l2_multicast: No such file or directory
paź 12 20:41:10 liwardyna wpa_supplicant[11703]: nl80211: Failed to set IPv4 unicast in multicast filter

(similar when running outside of NetworkManager as well)
With either openssl or gnutls.
Using external rtl8812au driver.

[Comment 5 Kobboi 2016-10-13 20:51:54 UTC]

Looks like I'm using a kernel staging driver:

/lib/modules/4.8.0-gentoo/kernel/drivers/staging/rtl8712/r8712u.ko

[Comment 6 laurantino 2017-02-03 21:22:02 UTC]

I experienced the same with the same kernel module (r8712u) until today. As wpa_supplicant-2.5 was removed from the tree, I decided to do some search to have it working with wpa_supplicant 2.6 and found two lines that did the trick.

Just put the following in /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf (which didn't exist on my system) :

[device]
wifi.scan-rand-mac-address=no

Restart NetworkManager or your computer and it should start working again (with wpa_supplicant 2.6).

[Comment 7 Rick Farina (Zero_Chaos) 2018-04-16 20:08:45 UTC]

network manager scans with random mac addresses by default for privacy.  please report broken drivers to upstream.

feel free to use the workaround in comment 6 which appears valid