Getting WiFi to work on Toshiba NB100 & Mint 17 <SOLVED>

[Bob Unitt]

I have an old Toshiba NB100 on which I've just installed Mint 17 Cinnamon 32-bit. It doesn't seem to recognise the existence of the wireless card, except is shows up in 'lspci -nn' as :-

02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Qualcomm Atheros AR242x / AR542x Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [168c:001c] (rev 01)

Searching various forums etc has got me as far as this page :

< http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath5k >

which tells me that I need to install the 'ath5k' driver. I'm by no means a Linux guru - 'apt-get' is about my limit - so could someone please point me at some step-by-step "installing-drivers-for-idiots" documentation, please ?

[JeremyB]

Look at

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lspci -nnk | grep 0280

and post because ath5k should be in the LM 17 kernel

[Bob Unitt]

Look at

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lspci -nnk | grep 0280

and post because ath5k should be in the LM 17 kernel

Nothing found.

[Bob Unitt]

The plot thickens - i just did a 'lspci -nnk|grep ath' and got the response 'Kernel driver in use: ath5k'.

[JeremyB]

Time to run the wireless script and install pastebin to make it easy to upload results

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sudo apt-get install pastebinit

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 wget -N -t 5 -T 10 http://dl.dropbox.com/u/57264241/wireless_script && chmod +x wireless_script && ./wireless_script

The script will ask if you want to upload to pastebin, choose y and then copy the URL returned in terminal with the mouse and paste in your post

[Bob Unitt]

http://pastebin.com/7eHfZpaG

[Bob Unitt]

I'm away from now till Sunday night so, if you don't mind, I'll pick this up again when I get back - and thanks for your help so far.

[JeremyB]

I'm away from now till Sunday night so, if you don't mind, I'll pick this up again when I get back - and thanks for your help so far.

Ok because this is going to take some searching unless you had an install go bad or incomplete updates, did you check the md5sum on the download?

[Bob Unitt]

Ok because this is going to take some searching unless you had an install go bad or incomplete updates, did you check the md5sum on the download?

I'm back I didn't check the MD5, where do I find it ?

This download has been successfully installed on both this desktop PC and on my 5-year old Acer laptop, so if it is a fault in the download it's very specific to the notebook wireless.

[JeremyB]

A couple things to try

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sudo iw reg set GB

If you are in London/Great Britain

And set a parameter for the wifi driver

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echo "options ath5k nohwcrypt=Y" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/ath5k.conf

Reboot

Do you know what channel/frequency your wifi is on?

[Bob Unitt]

I found the MD5 and it checks out OK (00ef2ba7f377251852045664376ecebf)

A couple things to try sudo iw reg set GB If you are in London/Great Britain

No apparent effect.

And set a parameter for the wifi driver echo "options ath5k nohwcrypt=Y" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/ath5k.conf

Responded "options ath5k nohwcrypt=Y"

Reboot

Still no wireless.

Do you know what channel/frequency your wifi is on?

Channel 1 in the 2.4 GHz band.

I'll be logging-off shortly (it was a busy weekend), so I won't see your response till the morning.

[JeremyB]

Have you tried wifi without the ethernet cable connected? Is the router set to b/g/n or ??

[Bob Unitt]

Have you tried wifi without the ethernet cable connected?

Yes. it displays "Disconnected. You are now offline" on login.

Is the router set to b/g/n or ??

It says "Interface Type: 802.11b/g", is that what you're asking for ?

[JeremyB]

Have you tried wifi without the ethernet cable connected?

Yes. it displays "Disconnected. You are now offline" on login.

Is the router set to b/g/n or ??

It says "Interface Type: 802.11b/g", is that what you're asking for ?

What security are you using on the router? Linux prefers WPA2-AES

Is this a normal install to a hard drive, not using wubi or virtual box

[Bob Unitt]

What security are you using on the router? Linux prefers WPA2-AES

WPA-PSK - same as my Acer laptop, which is also on the same Mint 17 (installed from the same ISO download).

I don't think this can be relevant. If I had working wi-fi but no router, that would show up under Networks as 'wireless disconnected' or some such. What seems to be happening here is that the notebook isn't even looking for a wifi, as it doesn't realise it has wifi hardware - except in the output from "lspci -nn".

Is this a normal install to a hard drive, not using wubi or virtual box

Normal hard-drive from USB .

[JeremyB]

What security are you using on the router? Linux prefers WPA2-AES

WPA-PSK - same as my Acer laptop, which is also on the same Mint 17 (installed from the same ISO download).

I don't think this can be relevant. If I had working wi-fi but no router, that would show up under Networks as 'wireless disconnected' or some such. What seems to be happening here is that the notebook isn't even looking for a wifi, as it doesn't realise it has wifi hardware - except in the output from "lspci -nn".

Is this a normal install to a hard drive, not using wubi or virtual box

Normal hard-drive from USB .

It is definitely disconnected and for whatever reason it doesn't want to scan for networks

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iwlist scan

There might be some errors in syslog that might be relevant so

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cat /var/log/syslog | egrep 'ath | wlan0'

[Bob Unitt]

It is definitely disconnected and for whatever reason it doesn't want to scan for networks iwlist scan

~ $ iwlist scan
wlan0 No scan results

lo Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

~ $

There might be some errors in syslog that might be relevant so cat /var/log/syslog | egrep 'ath | wlan0'

~ $ cat /var/log/syslog | egrep 'ath | wlan0'
Oct 19 22:04:56 notebook NetworkManager[753]: SCPlugin-Ifupdown: devices added (path: /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:02:00.0/net/wlan0, iface: wlan0)
Oct 19 22:04:56 notebook NetworkManager[753]: SCPlugin-Ifupdown: device added (path: /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:02:00.0/net/wlan0, iface: wlan0): no ifupdown configuration found.
Oct 19 22:04:56 notebook kernel: [ 22.634777] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
Oct 19 22:04:56 notebook kernel: [ 22.640651] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
Oct 19 22:04:56 notebook wpa_supplicant[838]: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-STARTED
Oct 19 22:05:55 notebook kernel: [ 81.666797] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
Oct 19 22:09:05 notebook NetworkManager[754]: SCPlugin-Ifupdown: devices added (path: /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:02:00.0/net/wlan0, iface: wlan0)
Oct 19 22:09:05 notebook NetworkManager[754]: SCPlugin-Ifupdown: device added (path: /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:02:00.0/net/wlan0, iface: wlan0): no ifupdown configuration found.
Oct 19 22:09:05 notebook kernel: [ 22.261479] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
Oct 19 22:09:05 notebook kernel: [ 22.262589] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
Oct 19 22:09:06 notebook wpa_supplicant[845]: Could not set interface wlan0 flags (UP): Operation not possible due to RF-kill
Oct 19 22:16:19 notebook NetworkManager[785]: SCPlugin-Ifupdown: devices added (path: /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:02:00.0/net/wlan0, iface: wlan0)
Oct 19 22:16:19 notebook NetworkManager[785]: SCPlugin-Ifupdown: device added (path: /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:02:00.0/net/wlan0, iface: wlan0): no ifupdown configuration found.
Oct 19 22:16:19 notebook kernel: [ 22.732860] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
Oct 19 22:16:19 notebook kernel: [ 22.733938] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
Oct 19 22:16:19 notebook wpa_supplicant[850]: Could not set interface wlan0 flags (UP): Operation not possible due to RF-kill
Oct 20 09:29:37 notebook NetworkManager[776]: SCPlugin-Ifupdown: devices added (path: /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:02:00.0/net/wlan0, iface: wlan0)
Oct 20 09:29:37 notebook NetworkManager[776]: SCPlugin-Ifupdown: device added (path: /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:02:00.0/net/wlan0, iface: wlan0): no ifupdown configuration found.
Oct 20 09:29:37 notebook kernel: [ 22.699961] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
Oct 20 09:29:37 notebook kernel: [ 22.707214] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
Oct 20 09:29:37 notebook wpa_supplicant[840]: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-STARTED
Oct 20 17:46:23 notebook NetworkManager[756]: SCPlugin-Ifupdown: devices added (path: /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:02:00.0/net/wlan0, iface: wlan0)
Oct 20 17:46:23 notebook NetworkManager[756]: SCPlugin-Ifupdown: device added (path: /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:02:00.0/net/wlan0, iface: wlan0): no ifupdown configuration found.
Oct 20 17:46:24 notebook kernel: [ 22.672850] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
Oct 20 17:46:24 notebook kernel: [ 22.674529] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
Oct 20 17:46:24 notebook wpa_supplicant[818]: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-STARTED
~ $

[JeremyB]

One more thing even though the rfkill didn't report any wifi block but it is mentioned in syslog

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echo "options ath5k no_hw_rfkill_switch=Y" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/ath5k.conf

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sudo modprobe -r ath5k

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sudo modprobe ath5k

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sudo rfkill unblock all

If that doesn't work go to mint update manager, click on view select linux kernels and install 3.13.0-37 and we will find out if this was some regression that got fixed

[Bob Unitt]

One more thing even though the rfkill didn't report any wifi block but it is mentioned in syslog

username@notebook ~ $ echo "options ath5k no_hw_rfkill_switch=Y" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/ath5k.conf
[sudo] password for username:
options ath5k no_hw_rfkill_switch=Y
username@notebook ~ $ sudo modprobe -r ath5k
username@notebook ~ $ sudo modprobe ath5k
at this point a message popped up on the screen "Disconnected, you are now offline"
username@notebook ~ $ sudo rfkill unblock all
username@notebook ~ $

None of the above made any difference.

If that doesn't work go to mint update manager, click on view select linux kernels and install 3.13.0-37 and we will find out if this was some regression that got fixed

Made no difference.

I then created a new wireless profile with 'Network Connections', identical to the functioning wifi on my laptop (except for the Device MAC address). This showed the device on the Notebook as 'Out of Range'. Expanding this showed it as 'Unavailable', but correctly showed the MAC address. If I edited to the profile MAC address to something else, the profile disappeared on Network Connections - so the software must be seeing the wifi node as there, but inaccessible.

I also tried the above commands again, on the new kernel. This gave exactly the same results as the old kernel.

[JeremyB]

Can you try 'connect to hidden network' in network manager and choose the connection from the list to connect?