General Info

Escalating bugs and issues to the upstream developers is important to improving the overall quality of wireless drivers. Before we get started we will review first a few general details about the life cycle of Ubuntu's kernel releases so you are more comfortable with how things get into Ubuntu and what you are using.

Debugging information to provide in your bug report

When providing information for a bug to be worked on by a developer, please mention the following information:

1. What is the full computer model number (ex. HP G32-301TX Notebook PC)?
2. If you update your BIOS to the newest version, does this change anything?
3. Regarding your wireless Access Point (AP):
   • 3a. What is the AP manufacturer, model, and firmware version?
     • 3i. If you update the AP to the latest firmware does it change anything?
     3b. What wireless connection type are you using (e.g. 802.11n, 802.11g, etc.)?
4. If you adjust any the following does it change anything:

   • 4a. WiFi type (ex. 802.11n to 802.11g only)
     4b. Encryption Type (ex. WEP, WPA2-PSK TKIP+AES)
     4c. MAC Filtering
     4d. QoS (Quality of Service)/WMM (Wi-Fi Multimedia)
     4e. Beacon Interval (usually default is 100, adjusting to 50 would be fine)
     4f. Router Internal Firewall
     4g. WiFi Channel (changing from default 11 to non-default that has no/least number of APs on it)

5. Does another wireless device tested with the AP have the same problem as the hardware you initially reported with?
6. What is the distance of the wireless device from AP?
7. What is the number and type of obstructions between your device and the AP?
   • 7a. If you bring the device close to the AP and eliminate obstructions, does this change anything?
8. Does the issue occur with different APs?

9. Is it a regression (e.g. did the problem happen in a prior Ubuntu release)? If so, what release specifically did it last work with? If you do not know, could you please test for this in the earliest release of Ubuntu that is supported as per Ubuntu Releases?

10. Could you please test upstream's compat-wireless backports via https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LinuxWireless#Compat-wireless_from_upstream? Please mention in your report the specific version you tested.

11. If the above backport did work, does this problem occur in the newest mainline kernel following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/MainlineBuilds? Please mention what specific version of the mainline kernel you tested with in your report.

12. If the mainline works, does either the development release or the Ubuntu provided stable compat-wireless backport work following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LinuxWireless#Compat-wireless_in_Ubuntu? Please mention in your report the specific version you tested.

13. Does ndiswrapper work following https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/Ndiswrapper? Please mention what specific version of ndiswrapper you tested with, and a link to the Windows driver you used in your report. If ndiswrapper does not work, you are welcome to file a new bug report by executing at a terminal:

    ubuntu-bug ndiswrapper-utils-1.9 

14. Only for Broadcom wireless chipsets, does the Broadcom STA driver work following https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx? Please mention what specific version of Broadcom STA you tested with in your report.

15. Only for Realtek wireless chipsets, does the upstream Realtek drivers downloaded from http://www.realtek.com.tw work? Please mention what specific version of the drivers you tested with in your report.

Ubuntu's kernels

During the Ubuntu development cycle, which happens every 6 months, the Ubuntu kernel will be picked from the latest stable kernel release available. At Ubuntu's Intrepid release cycle, for example, this was the 2.6.27 kernel, for Jaunty this was the 2.6.28 kernel, and for Karmic 2.6.31.

The Linux wireless guide on reporting bugs

Please be sure to read this guide in its entirety: http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Documentation/Reporting_bugs

The Ubuntu proposed repository

Keep in mind Ubuntu has a "proposed" repository which allows you to get newer stable kernels (if you are using 2.6.27.10 the proposed repository may have a 2.6.27.14 kernel). Instructions on enabling this repository may be found here. The kernels are propagated over time from the proposed repository to updates over a few weeks period of time after general testing and acceptance.

Ubuntu kernel release to stable kernel map

Unfortunately Ubuntu's kernels do not tell you what the extra version is (ex. for Intrepid the .10 in 2.6.27.10) and this is required to report bugs upstream. Because of this you can look at the Ubuntu kernel version --> detailed mainline kernel version map to find out what exact upstream mainline kernel your kernel is based on.

For example if you get:

cat /proc/version_signature
Ubuntu 2.6.27-10.20-generic

You can then look at the map as to what exactly this maps to. In this case this would map to the 2.6.27.7 kernel.

It should be noted that the /proc/version_signature is an Ubuntu specific feature to help you get the detailed kernel version.

Compat-wireless from Ubuntu repositories

The compat-wireless packages in Ubuntu are generated with select wireless commits from linus' stable tree. This provides one with the benefit of improved wireless functionality in a stable Ubuntu release, without adding any other, potentially unnecessary code. The following is a list of compat-wireless packages available from the Ubuntu repositories:

Quantal - https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-backports-modules-3.5.0

Precise - https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-backports-modules-3.0.0

Lucid - https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-backports-modules-2.6.32

Installing compat-wireless

For Precise, this may be done by executing the following at a terminal:

sudo apt-get -y install linux-backports-modules-cw-3.3-3.2.0.23-generic-pae

and then reboot.

You will probably get newer versions of this package if you enable the proposed repository as explained above.

While compat-wireless in Ubuntu is updated regularly, it may not be every day. If you want to ensure you are running the cutting edge, one would want to use compat-wireless from upstream.

Removing compat-wireless

Please keep in mind that linux-backports-modules install modules in /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/updates/ and upon removal the modules are not removed. So be sure to rm -rf that updates directory (and only the updates directory!).

Compat-wireless from upstream

Upstream packages a compat-wireless backport based on the linux-next tree. This may be found at https://backports.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Releases. The linux-next tree contains new features and fixes, and is a staging area for testing code that may be merged into linus' tree. Testing this gives developers vital information on what may fix your issue.