Bugzilla – Bug 3185
Automatic "handshaking" fails for SB3 in wireless ad-hoc LAN
Last modified: 2008-12-18 11:38:49 UTC
Initial request for help was posted in general discussion forum: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22180 Dean (Slim Devices CTO) suggested filing a bug (?) report. Setup description ----------------- Wireless ad-hoc LAN between SB3 and Linux laptop. SB3 firmware version : 28 SlimServer version : 6.2.1 Linux laptop OS : Fedora Core 4 (2.6.12) Linux laptop wireless card: Intel Corp PRO/Wireless 2915ABG MiniPCI Adapter Linux wireless card driver: IPW2200 Linux ifcfg-wlan0 : DEVICE=wlan0 ONBOOT=no BOOTPROTO=none IPADDR=192.168.0.1 NETMASK=255.255.255.0 MODE=Ad-Hoc CHANNEL=10 ESSID=Gazelle What happens ------------ 1) Power on/bootup laptop 2) Use remote to power on SB3 3) "Waking Up Slimserver ..." 4) "Connecting to Slimserver ..." 5) "Problem: Can't connect to Slimserver Press LEFT to go back, RIGHT to try again." 6) Press right to try again still doesn't work, so press left to enter SB network setup and cycle through all parameters submitted originally: Squeezebox Setup: (1 of 4) Set up networking --> Network connection: (1 of 2) Connect to a wireless network --> Choose the local region or country: (1 of 8) United States and Mexico --> Choose your wireless network (SSID): (1 of 2) Gazelle --> Choose your wireless encryption: (1 of 5) No password/no encryption --> Connecting to wireless network Gazelle Connected to wireless network Gazelle Set up networking: (2 of 2) Specify a static IP address --> Enter the IP address for this player: 192.168.000.002 --> Enter the subnet mask for this network: 255.255.255.000 --> Enter the default gateway address: 192.168.000.001 --> Enter the address of your DNS server: ###.###.###.### Looking for Slimservers ... Select a music source: (1 of 3) 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) --> Setup is complete! Press right to use your Squeezebox 7) Everything works beautifully! What I would like to happen --------------------------- It would be preferable to have automatic "handshaking" after steps 1 and 2. As it stands, I have to cycle through network setup everytime after steps 1 and 2. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks for your attention.
Chris: can you reproduce?
(In reply to comment #1) > Chris: can you reproduce? > Hi Chris: Any suggestions?
So in trying to reproduce a bug, I never have exactly the same gear and setup as a customer, so the key is figuring out what the important bits are so that I can get as close as possible in the right areas. Your setup is behaving (at least initially) like it can't "see" the slimserver, and assuming it's powered down, tries to wake it up. Eventually it gives up. (although when you give it a specific IP address, all is happy again). Could you give me some more information about your network setup? Are the Squeezebox and slimserver connected to the same switch or wireless router, or are there other devices in between them? Is the router configured to pass all packets to local addresses, or does it filter some out? Is the slimserver machine set up sanely, with a machine name and domain name (even if it's not registered with any upstream DNS)? Are you using DHCP to give addresses to your local machines? Does it work correctly if you try giving them static IP addresses? Thanks for the additional info!
Chris, I appreciate your difficulty, but at the moment can't think of what else to add. My setup is really simple, perhaps the simplest possible. There's just a wireless ad-hoc connection between my linux laptop (running the slimserver) and the SB3, with static addresses. There's no other hardware, no dhcp. The firewall running on my laptop is not relevent because I turned it off and still had to go through the same steps. So after powering on my laptop, then the SB, it's as if the SB doesn't know about any of the parameters programmed into it. But when I subsequently cycle through the network setup, those parameters are all there as defaults. Just accepting them is enough to get things going. It's quite perplexing. Of course I'd rather not jump through all those hoops. I really hope you can point me in some possible directions. When the SB tries to do the "handshaking" automatically, what exactly is it doing and how is that different compared to the manual network setup sequence? Thanks. Ted
(In reply to comment #3) > So in trying to reproduce a bug, I never have exactly the same gear and setup > as a customer, so the key is figuring out what the important bits are so that I > can get as close as possible in the right areas. > > Your setup is behaving (at least initially) like it can't "see" the slimserver, > and assuming it's powered down, tries to wake it up. Eventually it gives up. > (although when you give it a specific IP address, all is happy again). > > Could you give me some more information about your network setup? Are the > Squeezebox and slimserver connected to the same switch or wireless router, or > are there other devices in between them? Is the router configured to pass all > packets to local addresses, or does it filter some out? Is the slimserver > machine set up sanely, with a machine name and domain name (even if it's not > registered with any upstream DNS)? Are you using DHCP to give addresses to > your local machines? Does it work correctly if you try giving them static IP > addresses? > > Thanks for the additional info! > Hi Chris, Any further thoughts after my last post on 3/22? Ted
Apologies Ted, I don't have any Intel Centrino laptops here, which I suspect is the reason I can't repro your problem. I have a couple laptops with PCMCIA wireless cards that seem to work okay in an ad-hoc world. I'm trying to locate one to see if that is in fact the reason I can't repro your problem. Have you tried updating to FW37? It's changes are focused on improving connection problems with wireless routers, but it seems possible that your ad-hoc network might benefit from its more robust wireless tweaking too.
Yeah, and this problem has even gotten worse, not better, with the newer firmware. I'm working on it.
(In reply to comment #7) > Yeah, and this problem has even gotten worse, not better, with the newer > firmware. > > I'm working on it. > Hi Chris, I decided to stay with slimserver/firmware versions 6.2.1/28. Does this mean that you were able to reproduce my problem? Thanks. Ted
Ad-hoc networking was thoroughly reworked from FW45 to FW48. I still don't have a centrino laptop to test with, but I can't repro this problem currently on my laptop with pcmcia. Please give it a try when you have a chance (the 6.2.2 final candidate came out last night and is available at http://www.slimdevices.com/dev_nightly.html)
Hi Ted, Are you still having this problem? I am not able to reproduce it with firmware 48. Please visit the bug at https://bugs-archive.lyrion.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3185 and put any new information there, rather than replying to the notification email.
(In reply to comment #10) > Hi Ted, > > Are you still having this problem? I am not able to reproduce it with firmware > 48. > > Please visit the bug at https://bugs-archive.lyrion.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3185 and > put any new information there, rather than replying to the notification email. > Hi Chris, I upgraded from 6.2.1 (firmware 28) to 6.2.2 (firmware 48) a few days ago, and am delighted to report that my problem has been resolved. So after I turn on my laptop's wireless card and then bring up the wireless network, a data stream between my laptop and the squeezebox begins almost immediately, and the squeezebox shows a running clock. It's automagical! Thanks to all who contributed the fix. Ted
Fixed in FW48