Pandora Seemingly Not Resuming Or Renewing Dhcp Leases


Prometheus

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I've run into a tiny bit of an issue with the WiFi over the last day or two - I'm almost certain it's software-related.

What happens is that when the WiFi connection is dropped, as we know happens sometimes, I cannot get it to reconnect to the internet again without rebooting my router (it will connect to the router just fine, but it won't pick up a DHCP lease when it does so). Disconnecting and reconnecting via the WiFi icon on the panel doesn't do anything for the problem, toggling the WiFi on and off doesn't work, the commands "sudo ifconfig usb0 down", "sudo ifconfig wlan0 down" and "sudo ifconfig wlan0 up" all do nothing to help, restarting the Pandora alone doesn't help either, and choosing to disconnect and reconnect to the internet via my router's firmware also does nothing. Rebooting the router and then the Pandora, in that order, is the only thing that seems to fix it.

I noticed yesterday, and was able to reproduce it again today, that my Pandora isn't resuming its existing DHCP lease, and, if the existing one has expired, it isn't renewing it or picking up a new one either.

Does anyone know of a workaround for this? Should I report it on the bug-tracker?

Thanks for any help anyone can offer. :)
 
I think I have this same problem. If I disconnect from a network I'm unable to reconnect. unless I reboot my pandora (I don't need to restart the router) I'm unable to connect to my macbook at all though.
 
HackModford said:
I think I have this same problem. If I disconnect from a network I'm unable to reconnect. unless I reboot my pandora (I don't need to restart the router) I'm unable to connect to my macbook at all though.

i dont think you need to always do a full reboot, try disabling the wifi from the system menu and then restart it. If ive lost connection that usually beings it back.
 
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Prometheus said:
I've run into a tiny bit of an issue with the WiFi over the last day or two - I'm almost certain it's software-related.

What happens is that when the WiFi connection is dropped, as we know happens sometimes, I cannot get it to reconnect to the internet again without rebooting my router (it will connect to the router just fine, but it won't pick up a DHCP lease when it does so). Disconnecting and reconnecting via the WiFi icon on the panel doesn't do anything for the problem, toggling the WiFi on and off doesn't work, the commands "sudo ifconfig usb0 down", "sudo ifconfig wlan0 down" and "sudo ifconfig wlan0 up" all do nothing to help, restarting the Pandora alone doesn't help either, and choosing to disconnect and reconnect to the internet via my router's firmware also does nothing. Rebooting the router and then the Pandora, in that order, is the only thing that seems to fix it.

I noticed yesterday, and was able to reproduce it again today, that my Pandora isn't resuming its existing DHCP lease, and, if the existing one has expired, it isn't renewing it or picking up a new one either.

Does anyone know of a workaround for this? Should I report it on the bug-tracker?

Thanks for any help anyone can offer. :)
Maybe try running 'sudo dhclient wlan0' ?
 
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Tom`, thanks very much - I will give that a try that as soon as it drops again, and then report back. I rebooted the router shortly before I wrote the original post in this thread, so I can't try it just yet, as it hasn't dropped out again yet.

(Incidentally, I *knew* there was a command I was forgetting that handled that stuff - I used to have to use it on my main computer back when it was running Kubuntu 7.10. Of course, that changed in 8.04, so I forgot about it. :p)
 
I'm just bumping this to make it known that, oddly, this problem seems to have disappeared since I disabled WiFi from being enabled on boot. :blink:

I'll post back if this situation changes, though.
 
Hrmm.. how do i disable wifi on boot? Yesterday my Pandora would connect immediately to wifi. Now it just asks me over and over for my security code.

Haa.. i should really learn to look before asking. Its right in settings. Derp
 
No. Let me reboot and ill try wifi again Gruso

Edit: Connects to one router with wifi disabled on boot, but when switching to another one in my house ( i have two internet modems, one with a faster svc tier, each with its own router ) i cannot connect, im being asked for my routers security code again.

Trying to reconnect to the one that was automatically connected to as i enabled Wlan yields the same results.
 
Gruso said:
Has anyone with this problem tried sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart or similar?

Yes, and this works fine to connect to my primary router when previously i had the pandora asking for my password when trying to connect to my secondary router it ... Also works fine, wow that was easy. Thanks Gruso =)
 
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gruso, is there a way to add that to the wifi menu (right click on wifi icon)or maybe an icon on the desktop. I tried to copy an existing .desktop file and alter it with that command w/o any luck. I'm a linux noob but I'm trying :)
 
Try this:

- Open a new text file
- Enter the restart command: sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart
- Save the file in your home folder as netrestart.sh (for example) (Note: .sh makes it a shell script)
- Close text editor

Now there are two possible steps:

- Open up your file manager, right click netrestart.sh, go into properties and see if there is any checkbox to make it executable

If not,

- Open a terminal
- Enter sudo chmod +x netrestart.sh (Note: This means "Change mode to executable")

Now double click your file and see if it runs. If it does, dump it onto your desktop for quick access. :)

I'm not 100% on this being right, once again it does the job in Ubuntu. Corrections welcome.
 
Gruso said:
Try this:

- Open a new text file
- Enter the restart command: sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart
- Save the file in your home folder as netrestart.sh (for example) (Note: .sh makes it a shell script)
- Close text editor

Now there are two possible steps:

- Open up your file manager, right click netrestart.sh, go into properties and see if there is any checkbox to make it executable

If not,

- Open a terminal
- Enter sudo chmod +x netrestart.sh (Note: This means "Change mode to executable")

Now double click your file and see if it runs. If it does, dump it onto your desktop for quick access. :)

I'm not 100% on this being right, once again it does the job in Ubuntu. Corrections welcome.
You'd probably need to start the file with the appropriate shebang line, e. g. #!/bin/bash or so.
 
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Tom` said:
You'd probably need to start the file with the appropriate shebang line, e. g. #!/bin/bash or so.

I doubt you'd actually need to do that, but it's good practice.
 
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Pleng said:
Tom` said:
You'd probably need to start the file with the appropriate shebang line, e. g. #!/bin/bash or so.

I doubt you'd actually need to do that, but it's good practice.

AFAIK scripts require it. Try for yourself.
 
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Plengdora:~$ echo echo hello > hello.sh
Plengdora:~$ cat hello.sh
echo hello
Plengdora:~$ chmod u+x hello.sh
Plengdora:~$ hello.sh
bash: hello.sh: command not found
Plengdora:~$ ./hello.sh
hello
Plengdora:~$

yup. works fine.
 
Eh. I dont mind typing that on the occasion i need to use it. that or keeping it in bash_history works too
 
Prometheus said:
I'm just bumping this to make it known that, oddly, this problem seems to have disappeared since I disabled WiFi from being enabled on boot. :blink:

I'm afraid I think this problem will return as it has with me. I have two Pandora's in my household and they both randomly drop the wifi and then refuse to connect for an indeterminable time. One of them has WiFi enabled on boot. Sometimes they will stay connected for almost a day, then will refuse to connect no matter what, switching off, disable/enable wifi, ifup, ifdown.

Interestingly "dhclient wlan0" complains that /var/lib/dhcp/ directory is missing, in fact the leases are in /var/lib/dhcp3, creating /var/lib/dhcp doesn't seem to help though, a dhclient.leases file is created but it is empty. Renaming the lease file also doesn't help and it seems the system does not get a new lease and does not create another lease file. Also looking at the lease info in /var/lib/dhcp3 (filename dhclient-....-wlan0), it all looks correct except the lease dates have expired.

It's worth mentioning we have 5 other wifi devices in the household that all work perfectly, so it's not a router issue. It has to be a software issue (and hopefully not hardware).
 
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