Re: Recent (accidental) experiments

On Tue, 2 Jun 2026 at 06:47, David Wolfskill <david@catwhisker.org> wrote:
>
> TL;DR: I found a case where iwn(4) apparently declined to associate
> while running head, but did associate & (mostly) work under stable/15.
>
> Background: I have accumulated some laptops of varying vintages and
> attributes.  Each of them (save one, and with the addition of a headless
> "build machine) is subjected to a daily regimen:
>
> * update stable (/15, at this time);
> * update all installed ports;
>   (heavy lifting is mostly done by the build machine, which builds
>   packages for a couple of other machines anyway)
> * update head;
> * reboot to stable; do a few reality checks, then poweroff.
>
> The oldest & slowest of the laptops happens to be the one I depend on
> for day-to-day use, including at work.  Thus, while it tends to get
> exposed to other environments, the others tend to stay at home, where
> there are a rather limited number of "network environments" to which to
> be exposed.
>
> Yesterday, I went out-of-town for work; I brought the normal "work"
> laptop, as well as a much newer rescue from an e-waste bin.  The old
> laptop uses an iwn(4) NIC; the newer one uses iwlwifi(4).
>
> Yesterday the machines were running:
> * stable: stable/15-n283796-0e3c9cbee4ac
> * head: main-n286313-dfd2273d2762
>
> Today, they were updated to:
> * stable: stable/15-n283801-a13800ee46d7
> * head: main-n286328-ea4888e63f6a
>
> Both laptops were able to use their wireless NICs under stable/15
> yesterday and today at the hotel.
>
> After booting to head, the iwlwifi NIC worked, but the iwn NIC declined
> to associate -- both yesterday's head and today's.  If there are tests/
> diagnostics to run, perhaps I could poke around a bit & report...?

Please file a bug, and include "ifconfig -v wlan0" and "ifconfig -v
wlan0 list sta"
to see what's changed. Especially since you're in a hotel, especially
since they're
likely using something old (eg TKIP encryption, ha!) which I definitely have
been fiddling with.

I have landed some changes in -HEAD over the last few weeks, so it's possible
I broke something there.

Are you able to boot an older -HEAD and see if it works?



-adrian