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I have a raspberry pi zero 2w running buster with kernel 5.10.103 dated April 4th, 2022. I used the guidelines from Access point as WiFi router/repeater with additional WiFi-dongle. It works well with wlan0 of the pi and wlan1 an external wifi dongle. I have two issues.
1- Bandwidth variation
I connect to the pi as an access point. It seems the bandwidth is fairly good most of the time 400Kb/s but sometimes, for a few minutes, it goes down to about 20Kb/s. I am not running a special application then. Then, the higher bandwidth comes back. I am not sure how to investigate this. I looked at the processes running then and nothing seems to be hogging the CPU or taking a lot of memory. I am a bit puzzled. Is there any step I could take to investigate ?
2- Incorrect password
I connect to the pi and when nothing actually changed I get the message incorrect password on the Android phone I am connecting from. If I reboot the pi, the connection to the pi as an access point can work just fine. I ran systemctl status wpa_supplicant@wlan0.service and got an issue about 40MHz bandwidth not authorised. This issue does not happen very often but when it does I can't connect to the pi as acting as an AP. Is there anything I could configure or do to reproduce the issue more often and correct it ?
Regards

Regarding point 2 above, I captured the wpa_supplicant@wlan0.service and wpa_supplicant@wlan1.service statuses with systemctl status between a working system and a failing system.

On a working system:

wpa_supplicant@wlan0.service - WPA supplicant daemon (interface-specific version)  
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/wpa_supplicant@.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)  
Active: active (running) since Sun 2022-06-05 08:01:41 BST; 1min 54s ago
Main PID: 316 (wpa_supplicant)  
Tasks: 1 (limit: 985)  
CGroup: /system.slice/system-wpa_supplicant.slice/wpa_supplicant@wlan0.service  
└─316 /sbin/wpa_supplicant -c/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf -Dnl80211,wext -iwlan0

Jun 05 08:01:41 pizero2w systemd[1]: Started WPA supplicant daemon (interface-specific version).

Jun 05 08:01:41 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[316]: Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant

Jun 05 08:01:42 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[316]: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-REGDOM-CHANGE init=USER type=COUNTRY alpha2=GB

Jun 05 08:01:42 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[316]: wlan0: Could not connect to kernel driver

Jun 05 08:01:42 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[316]: Using interface wlan0 with hwaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx and ssid "AllIn0"

Jun 05 08:01:43 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[316]: wlan0: interface state UNINITIALIZED->ENABLED

Jun 05 08:01:43 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[316]: wlan0: AP-ENABLED

Jun 05 08:01:43 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[316]: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx completed [id=0 id_str=]


wpa_supplicant@wlan1.service - WPA supplicant daemon (interface-specific version)

Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/wpa_supplicant@.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)

Active: active (running) since Sun 2022-06-05 08:01:41 BST; 2min 40s ago
Main PID: 294 (wpa_supplicant)

Tasks: 1 (limit: 985)

CGroup: /system.slice/system-wpa_supplicant.slice/wpa_supplicant@wlan1.service

└─294 /sbin/wpa_supplicant -c/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlan1.conf -Dnl80211,wext -iwlan1


Jun 05 08:01:41 pizero2w systemd[1]: Started WPA supplicant daemon (interface-specific version).

Jun 05 08:01:41 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[294]: Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant

Jun 05 08:01:42 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[294]: wlan1: CTRL-EVENT-REGDOM-CHANGE init=USER type=COUNTRY alpha2=GB

Jun 05 08:01:43 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[294]: wlan1: SME: Trying to authenticate with yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy (SSID='FRITZ!Box 7530 PV' freq=2412 MHz)

Jun 05 08:01:43 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[294]: wlan1: Trying to associate with yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy (SSID='FRITZ!Box 7530 PV' freq=2412 MHz)

Jun 05 08:01:43 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[294]: wlan1: Associated with yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy

Jun 05 08:01:43 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[294]: wlan1: CTRL-EVENT-SUBNET-STATUS-UPDATE status=0

Jun 05 08:01:43 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[294]: wlan1: CTRL-EVENT-REGDOM-CHANGE init=COUNTRY_IE type=COUNTRY alpha2=GB

Jun 05 08:01:44 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[294]: wlan1: WPA: Key negotiation completed with yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy [PTK=CCMP GTK=CCMP]

Jun 05 08:01:44 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[294]: wlan1: CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy completed [id=0 id_str=]

On a failing system:

wpa_supplicant@wlan0.service - WPA supplicant daemon (interface-specific version)  
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/wpa_supplicant@.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)  
Active: active (running) since Sun 2022-06-05 07:38:19 BST; 6min ago
Main PID: 290 (wpa_supplicant)  
Tasks: 1 (limit: 985)  
CGroup: /system.slice/system-wpa_supplicant.slice/wpa_supplicant@wlan0.service  
└─290 /sbin/wpa_supplicant -c/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf -Dnl80211,wext -iwlan0

Jun 05 07:38:19 pizero2w systemd[1]: Started WPA supplicant daemon (interface-specific version).

Jun 05 07:38:19 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[290]: Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant

Jun 05 07:38:20 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[290]: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-REGDOM-CHANGE init=USER type=COUNTRY alpha2=GB

Jun 05 07:38:22 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[290]: Using interface wlan0 with hwaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx and ssid "AllIn0"

Jun 05 07:38:22 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[290]: wlan0: interface state UNINITIALIZED->ENABLED

Jun 05 07:38:22 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[290]: wlan0: AP-ENABLED

Jun 05 07:38:22 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[290]: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx completed [id=0 id_str=]


wpa_supplicant@wlan1.service - WPA supplicant daemon (interface-specific version)

Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/wpa_supplicant@.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)

Active: active (running) since Sun 2022-06-05 07:38:19 BST; 8min ago
Main PID: 320 (wpa_supplicant)

Tasks: 1 (limit: 985)

CGroup: /system.slice/system-wpa_supplicant.slice/wpa_supplicant@wlan1.service

└─320 /sbin/wpa_supplicant -c/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlan1.conf -Dnl80211,wext -iwlan1


Jun 05 07:38:19 pizero2w systemd[1]: Started WPA supplicant daemon (interface-specific version).

Jun 05 07:38:19 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[320]: Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant

Jun 05 07:38:20 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[320]: wlan1: CTRL-EVENT-REGDOM-CHANGE init=USER type=COUNTRY alpha2=GB

Jun 05 07:38:21 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[320]: wlan1: Trying to associate with SSID 'FRITZ!Box 7530 PV'

Jun 05 07:38:22 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[320]: wlan1: Associated with yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy

Jun 05 07:38:22 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[320]: wlan1: CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy completed [id=0 id_str=]

Jun 05 07:38:22 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[320]: wlan1: CTRL-EVENT-SUBNET-STATUS-UPDATE status=0

Jun 05 07:38:22 pizero2w wpa_supplicant[320]: wlan1: CTRL-EVENT-REGDOM-CHANGE init=COUNTRY_IE type=COUNTRY alpha2=GB

There is a significant difference between wlan1 status where one has a WPA key negotiation completed and not when it fails. I did not expect this as wlan1 is the client to the internet router and internet works fine so the client connection seems to work. However, the connection via wlan0 to the Rpi as an access point does not work. I get the "Incorrect password" message.

I captured the first packets exchanged on wlan0 when requesting a connection to the RPi AP.

When it works:

No.     Time           Source                Destination           Protocol Length Info  
1 0.000000000    Raspberr_xx:xx:xx     yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy     EAPOL    113    Key (Message 1 of 4)  
2 0.015441346    yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy     Raspberr_xx:xx:xx     EAPOL    137    Key (Message 2 of 4)  
3 0.017014157    Raspberr_xx:xx:xx     yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy     EAPOL    141    Key (Message 3 of 4)  
4 0.032316128    yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy     Raspberr_xx:xx:xx     EAPOL    113    Key (Message 4 of 4)  
5 0.047697006    Raspberr_xx:xx:xx     yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy     EAPOL    153    Key (Group Message 1 of 2)  
6 0.056710230    yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy     Raspberr_xx:xx:xx     EAPOL    113    Key (Group Message 2 of 2)

There are then additional messages exchanged and th Rpi works as an access point.

When it does not work:

No.     Time           Source                Destination           Protocol Length Info  
1 0.000000000    zz:zz:zz:zz:zz:zz     yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy     EAPOL    113    Key (Message 1 of 4)  
2 0.100374141    zz:zz:zz:zz:zz:zz     yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy     EAPOL    113    Key (Message 1 of 4)  
3 1.100721634    zz:zz:zz:zz:zz:zz     yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy     EAPOL    113    Key (Message 1 of 4)  
4 2.101044204    zz:zz:zz:zz:zz:zz     yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy     EAPOL    113    Key (Message 1 of 4)

No other type of messages are exchanged and the negotiation fails.

I would really appreciate some guidance on what might be wrong and how to fix it other than rebooting and hoping the working configuration is set up.

Best regards,

JF

jean francois
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  • Maybe @ingo will re-visit this? – Seamus May 08 '22 at 21:50
  • Hi, I was wondering if we the information added to this post, some people would have ideas as to how solve this erratic configuration I get on the RPi. Any help is welcome. – jean francois Jun 11 '22 at 09:08
  • It does appear to be a complicated problem. As I read it through again just now, the only idea that occurred to me was to perhaps try to isolate the problem. You've got an external wifi dongle, and an Android phone. If it were my problem I think I would try to eliminate those two variables; i.e. is this caused by the RPi - or is it due to the dongle or the Android? – Seamus Jun 11 '22 at 10:27

1 Answers1

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I followed the advice from Seamus and tried to change the configuration of my setup regarding the issue connecting to the access point implemented on the Rpi. Initially, I used a RTL8188CU based usb wifi dongle and, as described above, I would sometimes have an unexpected behaviour. I replaced this usb wifi dongle with one based on an AR9271 chip. Since then, I had sufficient times the Rpi reboot and did not have the incorrect password statement randomly occurring. It leads me to believe that my problem is related to the usb wifi dongle I initially used.
Best regards,
JF

jean francois
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