Reporting bugs

Contents

Reporting bugs
Relevant software
Knowing what wireless driver you use
Kernel panics/hangs
Other issues
Distribution specific notes
Identifying the bug
iw event log
increase debugging in the kernel log
Where to report bugs
1. NetworkManager bugs
2. wpa_supplicant bugs

Relevant software

Wireless drivers are just one component of the software stack necessary for wireless devices to function. There are also userspace components, namely NetworkManager, wpa_supplicant, Dbus, wireless-tools, wireless-regdb, CRDA, iw and possibly many more (as always, there are lots of options to choose from).

It is best if you to try to determine where the issue is before reporting it since you can then report it to the right place. If unsure you can check out user support IRC channel and ask there.

Knowing what wireless driver you use

If you are unsure of which wireless card you have or which driver you are using, run the lspci -k command in a terminal (note that the -k option for lspci is available in version 3.0.0 or later). Some example output follows:

$ lspci -k | grep -A3 "Network controller"
0c:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)
        Kernel driver in use: iwl3945
        Kernel modules: iwl3945

Kernel panics/hangs

Kernel panics are kernel bugs, and should be reported immediately. Kernel hangs are usually kernel bugs as well and should be reported too. If you can, you should try to determine whether the bug persists in the latest stable linux release.

Other issues

Please also report other issues, for example when things are not working correctly. In this case, you are encouraged to try out the latest wireless-testing git tree or the latest compat-wireless snapshot.

If you are not sure if your issues is driver or userspace specific consider asking on our user support IRC channel for help.

Distribution specific notes

Some distributions have additional, specific information. Check there first:

Identifying the bug

You can save us and yourself a lot of time by trying a few things before reporting a bug.

If you are unsure about where the bug lies you can start by turning off NetworkManager (if you're using it) and its attached wpa_supplicant and then try running wpa_supplicant yourself with your own configuration file. To reproduce a configuration file similar to the one NetworkManager uses you can check the log (/var/log/messages in most some systems) for the settings it used. To stop NetworkManager use:

# Red Hat based systems
sudo /sbin/service NetworkMananger stop

# Debian based systems (Ubuntu as well)
sudo /etc/init.d/NetworkManager stop
sudo killall -TERM wpa_supplicant

If you can still reproduce the issue you should report it, and include the wpa_supplicant configuration file with your report. If this works fine, please report it to the NetworkManager maintainers.

If you're not using NetworkManager you can still try to reproduce the issue with just wpa_supplicant.

iw event log

Please install iw and provide the output of the iw event -t in your bug report. The -t is to add timing information.

increase debugging in the kernel log

We recommended these to be enabled:

CONFIG_MAC80211_HT_DEBUG=y
CONFIG_MAC80211_VERBOSE_PS_DEBUG=y
CONFIG_MAC80211_VERBOSE_DEBUG=y

If using compat-wireless you can edit config.mk and enable them there. Note that each driver may also have their own respective debug parameters so this could also help but usually it is best to first just use the iw event log and the kernel log to report an issue.