wpa_supplicant: stuck in DISCONNECTED after a single timeout/rejection

[Jacob Grigg]

Hello,
I have discovered an issue with wpa_supplicant 2.12 where is becomes
stuck in a DISCONNECTED state after a single timeout or rejection.

I believe this issue was introduced by commit bbcc1adbc0de "Try the
next AP from scan results if connection attempt fails" and that
wpa_supplicant 2.11 is not affected.

My environment is Buildroot 2026.05.3, kernel 7.0.14, QCA988X with
ath10k, using the nl80211 driver. I have attached a sanitised copy of
the configuration.

The following must occur for the issue to manifest:
 - standalone wpa_supplicant. No Networkmanager, etc
 - Two or more networks configured
 - scan_res_valid_for_connect >0
 - wpa_supplicant attempts to connect a network and fails due to MAC
address blocking or weak signal

I replicated this in our office by setting up two SSIDs. One with a
higher priority and MAC address blocking. The second network had no
filtering and a lower priority.
After attempting to connect to the first network, wpa_supplicant 2.12
sits in a DISCONNECTED state until manual intervention.
wpa_supplicant 2.11 attempts to connect to the first network, fails,
then connects to the second network and continues to scan as required.
I believe the expected behaviour is that wpa_supplicant should
continue SCANNING when necessary, attempt a connection to other BSSIDs
of the first network, then attempt a connection to the second network.

Attached is the redacted debug log of 2.12 getting stuck, followed by
the commands manually run to recover:
wpa_cli -i wlan-production set scan_res_valid_for_connect 0
wpa_cli -i wlan-production scan
wpa_cli -i wlan-production status

Someone else has reported the same issue here:
https://github.com/DevomB/KryptikOS/pull/398

Please let me know if you would like any more info.
Thanks and regards,
Jacob Grigg
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ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
bgscan="simple:30:-70:300"
freq_list=

network={
ssid="<SSID_1>"
psk=<PSK_1>
id_str="<SSID_1>"
priority=4
}
network={
ssid="<SSID_2>"
psk=<PSK_1>
id_str="<SSID_2>"
priority=3
}
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