Question on wpa_supplicant running on Android 4.4.2

[James Feeney]

On 11/15/2016 05:08 PM, Ben Greear wrote:
> First thing is that the tablet scans about every 10 seconds.
> 
> I guess this is because of how supplicant is configured:

I expect not.

I have a machine with:

02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188CE
802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter [10ec:8176] (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device [10ec:8181]
        Kernel driver in use: rtl8192ce

The current stock kernel driver module rtl8192ce is obsolete and broken.  But,
the module maintainer, Larry Finger, has a github repository with latest
development driver.  And still, *that* driver is not completely functional.
https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new

Using the "broken" stock driver, the wireless connection will cycle exactly
every 10 seconds, which I suspect has something to do with the group key being
declared invalid.  This seems to be the same problem that you are describing here.

However, if a) the development driver is used, and b) the "link power save" and
"FW control power save" are both disabled, then the driver works fine, and never
drops the connection.

And I have no idea how someone discovered that.  I just happen to track-down a
comment on the linuxmint forum about the issue, even though I wanted to blame
wpa_supplicant at first.

So, you may be seeing a driver bug, and nothing to do with hostapd or
wpa_supplicant - depending upon who gets the blame here.

If you happen to have Realtek hardware and are using one of the several Realtek
drivers, "rtl8xxxyy", then upgrade the driver and change the module options -
which may not be possible on your tablet, since it runs android.

Or, it might be the same mystery bug in some different driver...