in-depth wireless troubleshooting

[Peter Kryszkiewicz]

I've installed this device (dmesg output)

rum0: <Ralink 802.11 bg WLAN, class 0/0, rev 2.00/0.01, addr 3> on usbus1
rum0: MAC/BBP RT2573 (rev 0x2573a), RF RT2528

and had it running fine on a new install, until I started populating the
ports tree. Somewhere along the way the interface stopped working. I've
done everything I know to diagnose the problem but need some more surgical
tools and advice now. Here's what I've got:

*>uname -a*:

FreeBSD dfwr.worldwins.net 10.0-RELEASE FreeBSD 10.0-RELEASE #0 r260789: Thu
Jan16 22:34:59 UTC 2014     root at snap.freebsd.org:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC
amd64
*>ifconfig -a*

nfe0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
        options=82008<VLAN_MTU,WOL_MAGIC,LINKSTATE>
        ether 00:1e:8c:36:15:37
        inet6 fe80::21e:8cff:fe36:1537%nfe0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
        inet 192.168.0.111 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.0.255
        nd6 options=23<PERFORMNUD,ACCEPT_RTADV,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
        media: Ethernet autoselect (100baseTX <full-duplex>)
        status: active
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 16384
        options=600003<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
        inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
        inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x2
        inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
        nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
rum0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 2290
        ether 00:16:44:89:46:1a
        nd6 options=29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
        media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect mode 11g
        status: associated
wlan0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
        ether 00:16:44:89:46:1a
        inet6 fe80::216:44ff:fe89:461a%wlan0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4
        inet 192.168.1.73 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
        nd6 options=23<PERFORMNUD,ACCEPT_RTADV,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
        media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet OFDM/48Mbps mode 11g

*> less  /boot/loader.conf*

if_nfe_load="YES"
if_rum_load="YES"
wlan_scan_ap_load="YES"
wlan_scan_stn_load="YES"
wlan_ccmp_load="YES"
wlan_tkip_load="YES"
kern.maxfiles=25000

*> less /var/db/dhclient.leases.wlan0*
lease {
  interface "wlan0";
  fixed-address 192.168.1.73;
  option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
  option routers 192.168.1.254;
  option domain-name-servers 192.168.1.254;
  option domain-name "Home";
  option dhcp-lease-time 86400;
  option dhcp-message-type 5;
  option dhcp-server-identifier 192.168.1.254;
  renew 0 2014/6/15 09:38:30;
  rebind 0 2014/6/15 18:38:30;
  expire 0 2014/6/15 21:38:30;
*> less /var/db/dhclient.leases.nfe0*
lease {
  interface "nfe0";
  fixed-address 192.168.0.111;
  option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
  option routers 192.168.0.1;
  option domain-name-servers 192.168.0.1;
  option dhcp-lease-time 86400;
  option dhcp-message-type 5;
  option dhcp-server-identifier 192.168.0.1;
  option dhcp-renewal-time 43200;
  option dhcp-rebinding-time 75600;
  renew 0 2014/6/15 09:33:27;
  rebind 0 2014/6/15 18:33:27;
  expire 0 2014/6/15 21:33:27;


*> less /etc/resolv.conf*

nameserver 192.168.0.1

*>less /etc/hosts*

::1                     localhost localhost.worldwins.net dfwr
127.0.0.1               localhost localhost.worldwins.net dfwr
#
192.168.1.111           dfwr.worldwins.net      dfwr

I've got another machine, a 386 laptop running 10.0, and it uses the same
AP. The only difference is that the fixed adress of the internal NIC is
192.168.0.110 and its resolv.conf gives me:

*(resolv.conf on laptop)*

search Home

nameserver 192.168.1.254


When I set the non-working machine's resolv.conf to the same, dhclient
resets it immediately to the original contents. I've tried the script fix
to disable dhclient from changing resolv.conf, but all that did was kill
the network even 'deader' (before that, it looked as though requests were
getting out - eg *ping http://someadress.com <http://someadress.com>* would
try for a few seconds before finally giving up with 'host name lookup
failure'.

Where can I go from here?

BTW: how can I submit all the source snippets in a cleaner way? I've seen
messages where the source was in a scrolling window. Haven't had time to
find out how to do that. I have to head for the bush in a few hours, and am
hoping to set up my box to install those huge ports before I go. Thanks for
your consideration.