XPS13 ubuntu wireless issues.

For what it's worth, after the "sudo apt-get install linux-generic-lts-quantal" I have:

$ uname -r
3.5.0-43-generic

Hi,

I don't know it this fits here or if I should open a new issue.

I am having problems with the wifi, too; brand new XPS13 with ubuntu preinstalled. Out of the box, bluetooth did not work. Tried many things.

I ended up installing kubuntu 13.10, no sputnik PPAs.

Everything works fine, but the wifi constantly disconnecting. I have an atheros 9462.

What is more annoying, and this my biggest concern:

my ssh connections are choppy, I get random delays, huge timeouts, etc.

I connect constantly to many different servers and I get always the same problem: you type some text, text does not come out, you wait, type a bit more, then all previous text appears, it stops again.... is really annoying.

I spend most of my time in ssh using vim, so this is killing my productivity and my nerves.

I connect to these same servers with other computers and never experienced something similar.

This happens with many different wifi spots, always the same.

On the other hand I can browse the internet without any problems, pages load normally.

I have tried the fix that appears on

https://dev.uabgrid.uab.edu/wiki/ExperiencesWithSputnik#WirelessIssues

for this card and rebooted. The wifi connection seems to be more stable now (only a few minutes now since I rebooted) but I still get this ssh annoying random-delay.

As I have no possibility of attaching an ethernet cord, I am bound to this wifi.

Any hint? Thanks a lot.

Hey Chieff,

To help with ssh connections, I recommend using screen.  Then if you drop or your session becomes slow, at least you wont lose your work when you re-connect.  I know it's not a solution, but thought I would mention it anyway.  https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/

Hi jhweaver,

thank you for your tip. I use tmux, which is more or less the same. It is not a problem of getting disconnected; it is a problem of getting long delays between keystrokes and visual confirmation on the shell.

I am still debugging if that may have nothing to do with the laptop, though.

Thanks anyway.

I commented on this thread in July, and today I have at last got rid of my wireless issues on my XPS 13.

The solution - I replaced Ubuntu 13.10 with Windows 8.1 and discovered that this did NOT solve the problem. So I spent countless hours on the phone to Dell support over a week and yesterday they sent out an engineer to replace my wireless card. Wirless issues are now gone.

Over the last 4 months I came to realise that the wireless card dropped its connection around the same time that the fan started up. Others with a Windows OS have reported the same pattern on the XPS 13, suggesting there's an over-heating issue. That's not totally conclusive, but there was clearly a connection in my case.

All this time I thought my wireless issue was Ubuntu related...in my case it turns out it was a faulty wireless card.

Doug

Thanks mate. You made my day. I had the same problems than described in this thread.

I had not tried any other solution yet, preferring to leave it vanilla and call the Dell support. They replaced the whole hardware without actually asking a lot of questions nor doing any diagnosis. But the problem persisted ....

I then applied your solution and did not face any dependency issues and it completely fixed the Wifi problem.

So thanks again.

I still have the same problems, so the fix at

https://dev.uabgrid.uab.edu/wiki/ExperiencesWithSputnik#WirelessIssues

did not fix it.

I still have this damn delays when using ssh.

I will have to call dell and tell them about this forum. I hope I am able to get it working asap, this is totally frustrating.

Regards

I also had issues with slow ssh over wireless. Not on a Dell though.

What solved it for me was adding/modifying the following line in /etc/ssh/ssh_config

Thanks Jaar, I just tried that, but it makes no difference.

Thank you anyway.

Hi,

I have good news from Dell. Surprisingly, the support person was aware of the problem and told me a direct answer that fixed it.

If you have 12.04, then:

go to http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download/stable

and download compat-wireless version 3.6.8-1 (http://www.orbit-lab.org/kernel/compat-wireless-3-stable/v3.6/compat-wireless-3.6.8-1.tar.bz2)

You have to install build-essential and linux-headers-generic first

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-generic

Then follow the installation steps.

In my case I had to unzip it, then

./scripts/select-driver ath9k
make
sudo make install
sudo make unload 

Then reboot.

My wifi now is stable and ssh goes at normal speed!!!!

I tried to apply that patch to my 13.04 version but it did not compile properly, so I couldn't.

Anyway, I have a working version, I will remove 13.04.

Hope it helps anybody else, regards.

Cheiff, this is excellent thank you sir. 

Applied the changes to mine this morning and is now working like a dream. Finally feel like I have the great little machine I thought I was getting originally. 

Noticed a slight typo above. The select-driver script. It was actually named driver-select in the package I got. 

Thanks! 

Has anyone tried the new Haskell based xps13 DE that have the Intel 7260 ac + bluetooth 4.0 card?  I've opened a ticket about my wireless issues with dell (I have the Advanced-N 6235) and they've completely ignored the ticket.  Everyday without fail I get errors about not being able to flush tx queues, I've tried all the fixes (linux compat, mainline kernel, etc.  Note I do not consider disabling 802.11n a fix).  Anyhow, at this point I'm ready to just replace my card with something that hopefully doesn't suck, and I want bluetooth 4.0 LE so I'm looking at buying the same mini pcie card the latest xps13 DE has.  Thanks for any feedback.

Hi,

Cheiff's solution fixed my problems too, but they came back with a vengeance a few days ago, now it won't connect at all, or rather it connects, but there is no internet connection, and the the connection drops. The only thing I can think of that happened in the mean time was a regular system update. Any ideas?

Pim,

I am also suffering from this problem with my wireless. I think that this is related to the wireless connection when connected in 801.11n-mode. When I use the 801.11g the connection is stable (at least using up to 4 wireless routers).  You write that your problem is fixed? Did Dell replace the Atheros (I also live in NL)?

Thanks,

Sven