Kernel Panic when associating using r8187 driver

[samuri]

IBM Lenovo T60, BT 2.6.38 #1, ALFA 36H

Using the inbuilt wireless I have no problems associating with WEP and WPA access points.

With a USB ALFA 36H adaptor when associating with a WEP encryption access point the laptop kernel panics and locks with the last message stating a failed trace.

the process which occurs every time is as follows:

rmmod rtl8187 (this driver does not work with my card and didn't in B4R2 either)
modprobe r8187
iwconfig wlan1 essid ssid
iwconfig wlan1 key s:key
ifconfig wlan1 up

iwconfig then shows the card coming up, attempting to associate and then at the moment of association, the device panics and then locks. Only a power reboot will recover the device.
Note that the device is fine when being used to associate with open access points and can be used with airmon-ng, airodump-ng and aireplay-ng to succesfully recover enough IV's to crack the WEP key.

[5cardcharlie]

I have the same problem with an alfa 36h clone. Locks up every time and flashes the caps lock light repeatedly when trying to connect to WEP with r8187. I can only restart by removing my laptop's battery. Laptop is Toshiba Satellite 1905, adapter is dealextreme "backtrack dragon" 1000mW rtl8187l

[Azkrath]

Hey m8, i actually had the same problem, altho the card isn't the same. It only happens when accessing encrypted networks. Just download the compat-wireless 2.6.39 stable drivers and execute:

:
tar -xf /path/to/compat-wireless-driver.tar.bz2
cd /path/to/compat-wireless-driver-folder
./scripts/driver-select <driver-name>
make
make install
make wlunload
modprobe <driver-name>

See if it works.

Here is a list of the supported cards/drivers: http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers

[5cardcharlie]

Azkrath, I don't believe the r8187 driver is included in compat-wireless. rtl8187 is, but that's not what we were referring to.

[Azkrath]

The Alfa USB wifi adapter uses the rlt8187 driver from realtek, since the Alfa adapter has a Realtek 8187L chipset. If you check the page, you will see that the drivers are included. The only one not included is r8187se wich is the one for pci adapter (probably onboard or pci card). When you click the r8187se driver on the supported drivers page it appears this information:

Supported Chips

rtl8180 PCI driver:
RTL8180
RTL8185
rtl8187 USB driver:
RTL8187
RTL8187B

Unsupported Chips

RTL8187SE PCI (0x10ec:0x8199): This device will work with the r8187se driver (currently at linux-2.6/drivers/staging), which is the vendor driver converted to compile with a 2.6.29, or later, kernel.

I hope i've helped in some way.

[5cardcharlie]

There are two different drivers used for the rtl8187l chipset. rtl8187 and r8187. We know perfectly well about the driver you're referring to, but that isn't what this thread is about. The fact still remains that trying to connect to an AP with wep crashes the system every time when using r8187.

[coslinux]

I have the same problem with an alfa 36h clone. Locks up every time and flashes the caps lock light repeatedly when trying to connect to WEP with r8187. I can only restart by removing my laptop's battery. Laptop is Toshiba Satellite 1905, adapter is dealextreme "backtrack dragon" 1000mW rtl8187l

I have exactly the same problem on my Toshiba Satellite L305 with the genuine Alfa.

To determine if the problem came from BackTrack or from my laptop, I installed r8181 drivers on my debian instal.
And same problem, kernel panic

I thought it was a hardware problem. So I tried it on my desktop computer (ASUS motherboard) with a live CD.
And yet the same problem

Here a screenshot of the kernel panic :

[iwantu2brich]

Yea!

I have Lenovo R500 and similar problem like coslinux, but I am able to establish very stable Internet connection, but when I want to check some configuration or to change it via iwconfig, no matter what is after this command (even when I'm stroke TAB), laptop freezes and power off/on only helps.

I know only one partial workaround of this problem for connecting to AP. I do simple script or another words, all configuration necessary for proper connection (essid, rate, highpower 1, iwconfig txpower... etc.) do, before ifconfig wlan0 up, then I am able to have (only with WEP or without encryption) connecion, untill I do iwconfig again and it will freeze. So I have another script witch rmmoding r8187 and ieee80211_... and other dependent modules, for the purpose of resetting card (maybe ifconfig wlan0 down also works, I don't know...) ...

Also, network-manager and wifi-radar and wlan-mon and wicd, all program which uses iwconfig or iwlist, can (on r8187 drivers) cause system freeze. So, in my script I always do:

/etc/init.d/network-manager stop
/etc/init.d/wicd stop

All these problems occur of course on 2.6.32-5-686 kernel on Debian Squeeze or in newest version of most kernel in Ubuntu.

I also want to mention than on oldest kernel in Ubuntu 7.10 (2.6.24...someting) and on Debian Squeeze with 2.6.26-2-686 kernel (only rtl8187_2.6.24v3 patch applied), all works out of the box and command iwconfig can be used without any problems!
Worth mention is also that on my old Celeron PC (not laptop) the very problem also occur in the same way. So it is not problem of the hardware I guess...

I was able successful update Debian Lenny to Debian Squeeze where the very 2.6.26-2-686 kernel with r8187 driver, stay on, with me after this upgrade. So I use old kernel on newest Debian witch is fine, but come on... I want to have newest kernel because of features like possibility to use another card in my laptop witch is Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 5100 AGN (iwlagn driver)

So... I think it can help people who wants to use this driver but can be careful and cautious using iwconfig command.
My goal is to find answer, how to compile this driver or how to workaround this problem to be able to use iwconfig command hopefully on the newest kernel...

P.S.
Please don't believe people who claim that RTL8187 driver is better (on WEP or without encryption usage) than r8187 driver. Check it by yourself and feel the power of txpower