Networkmanager - might connect a bit faster


Until now I've been using MiniMenu, but if I try to activate wifi under this simplified interface, then launch PNDManager for example, it generally doesn't work (because the connection takes too much time to initialize, and it seems that when PNDManager is launched without an active connection, it can't synchronize later even when  the connection is finally active).

Right now, when I want to check the repo, I then have to launch XFCE, activate Wifi, wait for network manager to connect, then launch PNDManager. That would be nice if I could do all that from MiniMenu instead. So I was very interested in this hack, because it could have enhanced the wifi connection speed under MiniMenu too (thank you very much Notaz!!)

First, I tested in XFCE, and indeed, the connection speed is much improved (around 10 seconds, and you're ready to go). I then tried to activate wifi in MiniMenu, to see if it had improved things, but when I wait for 15 seconds, then launch PNDManager, it seems it still doesn't work. I begin to suspect that the network manager has some issues if MiniMenu is running. Am I wrong?

Anyway, great job as always, Notaz!
 
It works MUCH better now. It connects much faster, and the connection seems faster too. I have the 1 gigacycle model.
 
Michoko said:
Until now I've been using MiniMenu, but if I try to activate wifi under this simplified interface, then launch PNDManager for example, it generally doesn't work (because the connection takes too much time to initialize, and it seems that when PNDManager is launched without an active connection, it can't synchronize later even when  the connection is finally active).


Right now, when I want to check the repo, I then have to launch XFCE, activate Wifi, wait for network manager to connect, then launch PNDManager. That would be nice if I could do all that from MiniMenu instead. So I was very interested in this hack, because it could have enhanced the wifi connection speed under MiniMenu too (thank you very much Notaz!!)


First, I tested in XFCE, and indeed, the connection speed is much improved (around 10 seconds, and you're ready to go). I then tried to activate wifi in MiniMenu, to see if it had improved things, but when I wait for 15 seconds, then launch PNDManager, it seems it still doesn't work. I begin to suspect that the network manager has some issues if MiniMenu is running. Am I wrong?


Anyway, great job as always, Notaz!
Click to expand...
In my experience it works equally good from Minimenu (i.e. sometimes it takes longer in both environments). You can start _wb_'s excellent Sysinfo PND after starting WIFI to monitor the connection process (then after connection quit and start PNDManager). I can confirm that the current version of PNDManager seems incabable of recovering from a failed update due to missing network connectivity. Some previous versions of PNDManager were more robust.
 
Oh my god, this decreases my connection time from something like 30 seconds to 7!  Thank you!!!
 
I have found when using USB it usually decreases the time to connect, but occasionally it still takes a bit.  Big improvement, though.
 
Thanks a lot, notaz! I used to find the connection time a bit too long, but now it's working great!
 
FWIW, I updated a couple of days ago for other reasons, and have had an SSH connection open for the past few hours, and while that was open rsynced a few hundred megabytes of stuff.  It stayed open while I rsynced stuff over the course of about 30 minutes, but after that I've had a number of disconnects.  Though that may be the router playing up, as at one point it wouldn't accept my login credentials, so I had to power cycle it.  Mind you, I also had a disconnect in the middle of doing the original update, so it doesn't seem to be worse at least.  Both times I've connected, it took a fair while both before and after supplying my password (which it really ought to know), but that's no worse than normal too.
 
Okay, done a fair bit more testing.  It definitely connects faster now the first time - often in less than five seconds.

Only problem I've been having is that when it does fall off the network, it always presents me with the login dialog, asking for the password (though it's pre-filled in).  That's not too surprising as the same thing happens on my Debian netbook running networkmanager fairly often.  However, it usually does connect the second time when I okay the password, while the Pandora never manages to connect when this dialog pops up any more.  I need to turn wifi off and on again, which generally fixes it, though I have had two occasions where the wifi hardware has got its knickers in a twist and I've had to reboot - once where the light wouldn't even turn on, and once where it just failed to find any beacons.

Unfortunately I can't be sure this is down to the update as I've changed routers a couple of weeks ago, and I don't recall how successful it's been at reconnecting in the intervening week and a bit.  These days it always seems to drop off in the middle of posting a thread response, which is a little aggravating.  I have noticed my wifi strength does tend to drop from 75% to 50% when I hold the Pandora, covering the lower half of the antenna, so it's possible that's not helping.
 
Levi said:
I have had two occasions where the wifi hardware has got its knickers in a twist and I've had to reboot
Click to expand...
I have had this too.  For me it happened while I was downloading repo updates.  I don't recall how often, but I think it was 2 or 3 times.  I have had to restart wifi a few times also.  Not sure how many of each, but I can probably count them combined on one hand.  When I am doing browsing and other stuff I don't seem to have issues. I also didn't want to blame this update.  I almost never have issues with other devices on this network.  I never really had issues with Pandora USB wifi in the past, although I did have some random dropouts with internal wifi.

It still usually connects pretty quick.
 
Here's the last ten lines of my dmesg while it was looping around asking for my password:

[ 7868.660247] wlan0: associate with ..hidden.. (try 1)
[ 7868.855438] wlan0: associate with ..hidden.. %2
 
Heh, my wifi dropped half-way through making that post!

Curiously it only dropped then managed to reconnect immediately, so it clearly can reconnect sometimes, and it does it very quickly too.  Here's my last post again for reference:

Here's the last ten lines of my dmesg while it was looping around asking for my password:

[ 7868.660247] wlan0: associate with ..hidden.. (try 1)
[ 7868.855438] wlan0: associate with ..hidden.. (try 2)
[ 7869.050964] wlan0: associate with ..hidden.. (try 3)
[ 7869.246032] wlan0: association with ..hidden.. timed out
[ 7879.222869] wlan0: authenticate with ..hidden.. (try 1)
[ 7879.224914] wlan0: authenticated
[ 7879.269775] wlan0: associate with ..hidden.. (try 1)
[ 7879.464813] wlan0: associate with ..hidden.. (try 2)
[ 7879.660125] wlan0: associate with ..hidden.. (try 3)
[ 7879.855407] wlan0: association with ..hidden.. timed out

And here's the new bit from the reconnect:

[ 8331.183044] wlan0: associate with ..hidden.. (try 1)
[ 8331.378021] wlan0: associate with ..hidden.. (try 2)
[ 8331.574554] wlan0: associate with ..hidden.. (try 3)
[ 8331.768646] wlan0: association with ..hidden.. timed out
[ 8342.195343] wlan0: authenticate with ..hidden.. (try 1)
[ 8342.197418] wlan0: authenticated
[ 8342.242218] wlan0: associate with ..hidden.. (try 1)
[ 8342.437255] wlan0: associate with ..hidden.. (try 2)
[ 8342.448150] wlan0: RX AssocResp from ..hidden.. (capab=0x431 status=0 aid=1)
[ 8342.448181] wlan0: associated
 
 
Hmm, just had it drop out and ask me for the password.  Cancelled that, as I'm conditioned to expect that to fail, then thought I'd try reconnecting without switching wifi off and on, and surprisingly it did.  So my previous assertion that it fails to reconnect unless you turn it off and on was incorrect, thought it still seems that it's much more likely to connect from a fresh init.
 
I noticed the other day that transferring about 2.5 hours of podcasts took 6 minutes (via scp) if my Pandora is placed on the same table as my router.  That's from another machine also connected via wifi to the router.  That's about 125MB of data in 6 minutes, so an average speed of about 350kBps.  Normally, if I'm using my Pandora or just keeping it with me around the house it takes at least half an hour to transfer that normally, with frequent stalls.

Perhaps that's just an anomaly though.  I'll be trying it again next week to see if it's repeatable.
 
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