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cpman
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 2:26 am    Post subject: Wifi Problems with Atheros AR928X Reply with quote

Hello everyone!
I have had a Gentoo system working perfectly on my HP dv6 laptop for around 3 months now, with only one problem.
I cannot get the wifi to work.
I know I have the proper kernel modules, as when I unload the ath9k module, ifconfig does not even show my wifi card.
However, according to iwlist, my wifi card does not support scanning.
I know which interface is wifi by unloading and reloading ath9k.

What can I do to remedy this problem?
I've been working on it since I first got my Gentoo system installed, around 3 months ago. I've been googling and trying solutions, but nothing has worked.
This is quite a nuisance to me, as this is a laptop, and I do not particularly like having to be tied to my router for ethernet, and I would prefer using Gentoo to Windows.
Thanks!
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DONAHUE
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 3:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

suggest menuconfig contain:
Quote:
[*] Networking support --->
--- Networking support
Networking options --->
[ ] Amateur Radio support ----
< > CAN bus subsystem support ----
< > IrDA (infrared) subsystem support ----
< > Bluetooth subsystem support ----
< > RxRPC session sockets
-*- Wireless --->
--- Wireless
<M> cfg80211 - wireless configuration API
[*] nl80211 testmode command
[ ] enable developer warnings
[ ] cfg80211 regulatory debugging
[ ] enable powersave by default
[ ] cfg80211 DebugFS entries
[*] cfg80211 wireless extensions compatibility
<M> Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack (mac80211)
Default rate control algorithm (Minstrel) --->
[ ] Enable mac80211 mesh networking (pre-802.11s) s
[ ] Export mac80211 internals in DebugFS
[ ] Trace all mac80211 debug messages
[ ] Select mac80211 debugging features ----
< > WiMAX Wireless Broadband support ----
<M> RF switch subsystem support ----
< > Plan 9 Resource Sharing Support (9P2000) ----
< > CAIF support ----
< > Ceph core library
< > NFC subsystem support ----
if any changes are made remake and recopy the kernel, reboot, and retest. try both wext and nl80211 drivers for wpa_supplicant; if both work nl80211 normally provides better results.
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cpman
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 4:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

When I add the options for nl80211 testmode command and cfg80211 wireless extensions compatibility, the modules ath, ath9k, and cfg80211 are unable to be loaded. Here's what I get when I try to load one under a kernel where only the two things above were changed...
Code:

modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'cfg80211': Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

I get the exact same error text for the other modules that do not load, just with the name of the module being different.

I am currently on kernel 3.8.13 from vanilla-sources. (I know I should have posted this earlier...)

When I do iwconfig with the ath9k driver loaded, I get:
Code:

Gentoo_System / # iwconfig
wlp2s0    no wireless extensions.

dummy0    no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

sit0      no wireless extensions.

Then when I remove ath9k,
Code:

Gentoo_System / # modprobe -r ath9k
Gentoo_System / # iwconfig
dummy0    no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

sit0      no wireless extensions.


As you can see, my system thinks my wifi card does not support wifi!
However, wifi works fine in both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 13.10 on the same computer...


Last edited by cpman on Tue Nov 12, 2013 5:39 am; edited 1 time in total
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DONAHUE
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 5:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

what does lspci -nnk say about your wireless nic? -- preferably from a livecd that that gives you a connection, sysresccd or ubuntu cd likely choices
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cpman
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 1:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Code:
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [168c:002a] (rev 01)
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company AR5BHB92-H 802.11abgn Wireless Half-size Mini PCIe Card [AR9280] [103c:3041]
   Kernel driver in use: ath9k

This is from Ubuntu 13.04 on an external hard drive.
I'm currently using this driver for my card on gentoo....
Hmm...
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DONAHUE
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 2:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

ath9k confirmed for 168c:002a
your notebook should have an indicator and a key combination to control the NIC's radio, cycle them
Code:
emerge rfkill
rfkill list
if a block
Code:
rfkill unblock all
rfkill list
if unblocked
Code:
ifconfig wlp2s0 up
iwlist wlp2s0 scan


does
Code:
ifconfig -a
show an ip address?
what does
Code:
dmesg  | grep -i ath9k
dmesg  | grep -i wlan0
dmesg  | grep -i wlp2s0
produce
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cpman
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 21, 2013 10:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sorry I took so long to respond. I've been too busy to get around to this for a while.
Using rfkill, the interface is not blocked, but when I do
Code:
iwlist wlp2s0 scan
I get
Code:
wlp2s0    Interface doesn't support scanning.


Code:
dmesg | grep -i ath9k
produces
Code:
[    6.563615] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'ath9k_rate_control'
and nothing else.
Code:
dmesg | grep -i wlan0
produces
Code:
[    6.725995] systemd-udevd[1169]: renamed network interface wlan0 to wlp2s0
and nothing else.
Code:
dmesg | grep -i wlp2s0
produces
Code:
[    6.725995] systemd-udevd[1169]: renamed network interface wlan0 to wlp2s0
[   10.935425] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlp2s0: link is not ready
and nothing else.

Is this any help?
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rustyscience
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 22, 2013 3:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Do you have all the necessary options enabled in kernel?
Aside ath9k, you must have ath, mac80211, cfg80211
Code:
[*]   Atheros 802.11n wireless cards support
[*]     Atheros ath9k PCI/PCIe bus support (NEW) 
[ ]     Atheros ath9k AHB bus support (NEW)
[ ]     Atheros ath9k debugging (NEW)
[*]   Atheros ath9k rate control (NEW)
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cpman
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 4:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've got all those modules loaded as well...
I really don't know what to do now. This problem has been annoying me for moths. I really like Gentoo, but I can't use it unless I get wifi working...
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cpman
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 5:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

From what I've read elsewhere, DONAHUE's original reply should have worked, however, whenever I enable cfg80211 wireless extensions capability, the modules fail to load. I get te above error message.
According to what I've read, enabling this is the ONLY solution to my problem...
Any ideas?

*EDIT*
I've narrowed down the problem with the modules loading to cfg80211.
Code:
dmesg | grep ath
provides nothing, and so does
Code:
dmesg | grep mac80211
.
However,
Code:
dmesg | grep cfg80211
provides this:
Code:
cfg80211: Unknown symbol wireless_send_event (err 0)
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Jaglover
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 5:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This error usually pops up when running kernel is not same build with modules.
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cpman
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 5:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

That is odd as I did
Code:
make && make modules_install && make firmware_install

The last part is there for the radeon driver, so it should not be applicable here. I then copied the image to my /boot/ and configured LILO to boot to the new one...

Anyway, all the other drivers load fine, except the wireless related ones.
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Jaglover
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 5:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you have separate /boot, was it mounted when you copied the image over?
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cpman
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 5:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It is not on a separate partition. I was just saying I copied it to the folder /boot. Anyway, here is my kernel config that is not working (on pastebin). It was my most recent attempt to get the wifi working. It was compiled less than 10 minutes ago, and is what I'm posting from right now on Ethernet. Everything else works fine, it is only the wifi that is broken.
The method I described above with copying the kernel to /boot after recompiling and then reconfiguring LILO worked in the past when I was trying to get the radeon driver to work...
I don't know why it work any differently now...
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Jaglover
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 5:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just to make sure, check with uname -rv, does it show what you expect to see?
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cpman
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 6:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm a total idiot. I forgot to install the LILO changes.
I'll post back with what happens when I reboot...
*EDIT*
Well, that did not help at all...
I'm still having the same problem.

It does show what I expect it to...
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mrbassie
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 02, 2013 12:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have the same nic if you want to compare any .confs or whatnot to help you troubleshoot.
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Jaglover
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 02, 2013 1:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

cpman wrote:
Well, that did not help at all...
I'm still having the same problem.

Show us the error message.
If you are still having "Unknown symbol" errors work further with your kernel/modules versions. Keep in mind even if the kernel version matches the modules the build version can still cause this error.
OTOH, you can build those functions in instead of building as modules.
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cpman
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 10:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think I'll try building them into the kernel. I haven't had time to reconfig my kernel lately, so I'm still stuck on the same problem.
Thanks!
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