Wifi seems to freeze the system when throughput is increased

[dadim]

On my old netbook (hp pavillion pm1 amd athlon ii / radeon) I'm constantly getting desktop & keyboard freeze when networking connection is via WiFi and the throughput increases. I initially noticed this even with the 7.4 openbox 64bits live USB. Then I used a utp ethernet connection to install the system with no problem. Since yesterday, each time I tried to install openjdk via GSlapt or in command line via slapt-get, the system stopped responding and I had to power it off and reboot.

Today, I encountered it once more. I switched my network connection to utp cable and the installation completed successfully. Is there any hint or suggestion about this?

[djemos]

Sometimes wicd is not working well with some wifi providers. wicd is not updated or maintained anymore. I had problems also with wicd could not connect at all after dbus-python package update in slackware current. Now it is working again after a rebuild of dbus-python in slackware current. In next slackel release i maybe use networkmanager as default app for connecting to internet.
But is really strange for wicd to freeze the system.

So if this is the problem do the following
install NetworkManager

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sudo slapt-get -i NetworkManager network-manager-applet

Stop wicd-daemon and start networkmanager

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sudo service stop wicd
sudo service restart networkmanager

If networkmanager applet do not appeared in the right corner of the bar log out and log in again.
Click on cancel when wicd message appeared on the screen.
Click on networkmanger-applet and connect to your wifi
Then you can remove wicd if networkmanager is working for your connection.

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sudo spkg -d wicd

or

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sudo removepkg wicd

Also sourceforge.net servers where slackel repos exist, sometimes are very slow and updating is freezing because of slow connection.

[dadim]

I installed the network manager, thanks. By the way, I had to use the ---no-md5 checksum skipping option, both for the network manager and the applet. The connection to my WiFi was established, as well as the automatic re-connection after a reboot. I removed the wicd package.

I am not able to check whether I can successfully install packages via WiFi so far, because I'm getting the missing MD5 error in each attempt and I prefer to wait for the moment, in case there is a temporary problem with the repositories. I copy below just for information the output of inkscape installation attempt (sorry, is in greek):

damian[~]$ sudo slapt-get -i inkscape
Password:
Ανάγνωση Λίστας Πακέτων...Ολοκληρώθηκε
Τα παρακάτω ΝΕΑ πακέτα πρόκειται να εγκατασταθούν:
c-ares gsl librevenge libvisio libwpd libwpg potrace inkscape
τα 0 αναβαθμίστηκαν, τα 0 επανεγκαταστάθηκαν,τα 8 μόλις εγκαταστάθηκαν,τα 0 είναι προς απομάκρυνση,τα 0 δεν αναβαθμίστηκαν.
Χρειάζεται να ανακτηθούν 19,7MB/19,9MB αρχείων.
Μετά το άνοιγμα θα χρησιμοποιηθούν 85,8MB στο δίσκο.
1/8 Λήψη https://slackware.uk/slackware/slackware64-current/ c-ares 1.18.1-x86_64-1 [4,0kB]...Ολοκληρώθηκε
Αποτυχία λήψης: Το άθροισμα MD5 λείπει, αγνοήστε το με --no-md5
damian[~]$

[djemos]

no problem here with md5sum. Maybe a previous broken update cause this problem. Do a

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sudo slapt-get --clean 
sudo slapt-get -u
sudo slapt-get --upgrade

i run sudo slapt-get -i inkscape with no problem

[dadim]

Clean and update done, thanks. Upgrade got frozen (together with the desktop & keyboard), at the 63% of the mozilla upgrade downloading. After power-off and restart, the operation completed successfully by the wired connection.

So, despite the installation of the Network Manager and the removal of the wicd, the problem with the freezes when connected via WiFi persists. Thanks for all the support so far.

[djemos]

I have another HP G62-b80ev laptop dual core with 2GB of memory which i think is older than yours running slackel 64 bit and i do not have such problems. It is really strange it happens to yours. Sorry i cannot help to solve the problem.

[dadim]

I think that your laptop is of similar release date with my netbook, but is based on intel chips and mine on amd. Just for the record, I copy below the output of the neofetch script:

damian[~]$ neofetch
##### damian@cherubino.local
####### ----------------------
##O#O## OS: Slackel Linux Openbox x86_64
####### Host: Hewlett-Packard 148B
########### Kernel: 5.10.4
############# Uptime: 3 mins
############### Packages: 845 (pkgtool)
################ Shell: bash 5.1.12
################# Resolution: 1366x768
##################### WM: Openbox
##################### WM Theme: Clearlooks-Olive
################# Theme: Adwaita [GTK2/3]
Icons: matefaenza [GTK2/3]
Terminal: lxterminal
Terminal Font: Terminus 12
CPU: AMD Athlon II Neo K125 (1) @ 1.700GHz
GPU: AMD ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4225/4250
Memory: 771MiB / 1718MiB

With my previous linux lite (ubuntu based) setup I hadn't experienced similar problems with the WiFi.

I appreciate very much your availability and kindness to help. Thanks.

[Papasot]

I had similar problems caused by NetworkManager years ago. It didn't like my wifi usb dongle on an old desktop computer, and caused sudden wifi hangs/resets every few minutes. That's why I never use NetworkManager since then, even on modern laptops. Wicd worked fine, but started to have problems some time ago when a new version of dbus-python was introduced which was not compatible with Wicd.

Perhaps you should try connman. I use it for more than one year, and never had a problem with it. So try to install connman - for an applet you can also install either connman-gtk (more suitable for Openbox) or cmst (preferred if you are using KDE). Then configure your wifi in connman, and make sure the connman service is enabled at System -> System Services (also disable NetworkManager service). I did so once and forgot about it since then. It just works everywhere I tried so far (netbook, laptop, different wifi providers).

P.S.: My netbook is actually older than yours

[djemos]

I think that your laptop is of similar release date with my netbook, but is based on intel chips and mine on amd. Just for the record, I copy below the output of the neofetch script:

With my previous linux lite (ubuntu based) setup I hadn't experienced similar problems with the WiFi.
I appreciate very much your availability and kindness to help. Thanks.

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djemos[~]$ neofetch 
        #####           djemos@slackel-hp.example.net 
       #######          ----------------------------- 
       ##O#O##          OS: Slackel Linux 5.15.8 x86_64 
       #######          Host: Hewlett-Packard 1439 
     ###########        Kernel: 5.15.8 
    #############       Uptime: 9 mins 
   ###############      Packages: 1226 (pkgtool) 
   ################     Shell: bash 5.1.12 
  #################     Resolution: 1366x768 
#####################   WM: Openbox 
#####################   WM Theme: Clearlooks-Olive 
  #################     Theme: Adwaita [GTK2/3] 
                        Icons: matefaenza [GTK2/3] 
                        Terminal: lxterminal 
                        Terminal Font: Terminus 12 
                        CPU: Intel Pentium P6100 (2) @ 1.999GHz 
                        GPU: Intel Core Processor 
                        Memory: 1207MiB / 1836MiB 

I think it is a wireless driver problem
the output of lspci |grep controller of HP G62

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lspci|grep controller
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset HECI Controller (rev 06)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 05)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset 4 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 05)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 02)
03:00.0 Network controller: Ralink corp. RT3090 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe

I have Network controller: Ralink corp. RT3090 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe
Type the same command to find your chipset

[djemos]

I found such a problem in HP forums . Have to disable a thermal module. Try and see if this solves the problem.
Try this

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sudo geany /etc/default/grub

on line 16 add this thermal.off=1
so line will look like GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX='vt.default_utf8=1 thermal.off=1'
save the file and run

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sudo update-grub

reboot

I also read there that a kernel upgrade may solve the problem. Do this with ethernet cable connecting not WiFi to be sure upgrade will done.

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sudo slapt-get -i install-upgrade-kernel
sudo install-upgrade-kernel upgrade huge
sudo slapt-get -i kernel-firmware

reboot