Question on wpa_supplicant running on Android 4.4.2

[Ben Greear]

On 11/20/2016 05:49 PM, James Feeney wrote:
>
> 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 The current stock kernel driver module rtl8192ce is obsolete and broken.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...

Thanks for the suggestion.

In my case, it was because the wifi config window was open on the
Android tablet, and that causes it to scan every 10 seconds.

Just closing that window resolved the issues.  That doesn't fix whatever
underlying bug exists on the system, but I have no realistic way to
fix the Android tablet's software anyway, so good enough for me.

Thanks,
Ben

-- 
Ben Greear <greearb at candelatech.com>
Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com