I'm using the madwifi-driver (ath0) and a Netgear PCMCIA card on two different systems, and upgrading both of them to baselayout-1.11.8 caused problems with their wireless internet connectivity. baselayout-1.11.0 or greater is required for this setup to work according to this: http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=122435 so I can't switch from ~x86. Downgrading to 1.11.7-r2 doesn't fix the problem. I'm also using a Netgear router. Reproducible: Sometimes Steps to Reproduce: 1. /etc/init.d/net.ath0 start 2. 3. Actual Results: The system will sometimes find the wireless access point and connect, and sometimes not. The system has to be shut down before it has a chance of connecting after one failed attempt. It would connect to the AP every time before upgrading to 1.11.8. Expected Results: internet connection I'm using hardened-dev-sources.
madwifi-driver supports wpa_supplicant which may be a better option for associating with AP's - although see bug #74637 If it connected before using baselayout-1.11.x, how were you configuring your wireless? Bug #77111 may also be of interest to you
baselayout-1.11.9 is now out - do you still have this problem?
I have just upgraded to the latest ~x86 baselayout and I still have this problem. Sometimes wireless will connect during boot up and sometimes it will not. Re-running '/etc/init.d/net.ath0 start' after it fails to connect on boot up has worked once, but has not worked at least 100 times. I am open to any suggestions.
I don't think that it's baselayout that's the problem as you stated that it *sometimes* connects. baselayout is static and either works or doesn't. wireless on the other hand can be very tempermental is usually caused by drivers, environment, etc. Things to try would be new versions of wireless-tools, a 2.6.11 kernel if you're running 2.6.9 or 2.6.10 and finally the madwifi-driver itself. I myself had big problems with the latest madwifi-driver and the 2.6.10 kernel (2.6.11 fixed that) Also, bug #82983 may be of interest to you.
I always thought it was baselayout because the trouble started when I emerged a new baselayout and ran etc-update. I've now upgraded to the latest ~x86 madwifi-driver, wireless-tools, and baselayout, along with 2.6.11-hardened-r1 with the same results. I do get this error when trying to run any /etc/init.d/net.* script: /lib/rcscripts/net.modules.d/essidnet: line 18: installed: command not found The bug you referenced seems different from my problem because he can run 'ifconfig ath0 up' before '/etc/init.d/net.ath0 start' to make it work. How can I use wpa_supplicant to make this work?
Sounds like you've been bitten by a portage bug on that "installed" error. See bug #74723 for the fix wpa_supplicant can do everything iwconfig can except for connect to an unencrypted access point (at this time). This is not the place to find out about wpa_supplicant though - try the forums
Now working via wpa_supplicant thanks to Roy Marples.
