cant get wifi to work. ZydaS ZD1211B

[thomas5676]

Hello everybody,

I just installed a clean version of linux mint 17 on my laptop. But i cant get my wifi to work. I am now using my phone with usb tethering.

I hope someone can help me with this problem.
Kind regards,
Thomas

Here are some outputs from the terminal:

vanderzijl@vanderzijl ~ $ inxi -Fxz
System: Host: vanderzijl Kernel: 3.16.0-38-generic i686 (32 bit, gcc: 4.8.2)
Desktop: MATE 1.10.0 Distro: Linux Mint 17.2 Rafaela
Machine: Mobo: MEDION model: WAM2030 Bios: Phoenix version: R01-B0F date: 03/19/2007
CPU: Dual core AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile TL-50 (-MCP-) cache: 512 KB flags: (lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 svm) bmips: 3214.76
Clock Speeds: 1: 800.00 MHz 2: 800.00 MHz
Graphics: Card: NVIDIA C51 [GeForce Go 6150] bus-ID: 00:05.0
X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: nouveau (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1280x800@60.1hz
GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on NV4E GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.1.3 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card: NVIDIA MCP51 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:10.1
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.16.0-38-generic
Network: Card-1: NVIDIA MCP51 Ethernet Controller driver: forcedeth port: 30b8 bus-ID: 00:14.0
IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
Card-2: ZyDAS ZD1211B 802.11g driver: zd1211rw ver: 1.0 usb-ID: 001-002
IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 120.0GB (3.9% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: WDC_WD1200BEVS size: 120.0GB
Partition: ID: / size: 110G used: 4.5G (5%) fs: ext4 ID: swap-1 size: 0.94GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
RAID: No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 51.0C mobo: 48.0C gpu: 72.0
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 152 Uptime: 10 min Memory: 335.8/874.6MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.4
Client: Shell (bash 4.3.11) inxi: 1.9.17

vanderzijl@vanderzijl ~ $ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0ace:1215 ZyDAS ZD1211B 802.11g
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root

vanderzijl@vanderzijl ~ $ ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:16:d3:82:9d:46
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:65536 Metric:1
RX packets:1310 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1310 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:132076 (132.0 KB) TX bytes:132076 (132.0 KB)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:60:b3:37:52:d5
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

[JeremyB]

Post the result for

Code: Select all

rfkill list all

[thomas5676]

vanderzijl@vanderzijl ~ $ rfkill list all
1: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no

[JeremyB]

Code: Select all

sudo rfkill unblock all

Is it an Acer laptop?

[thomas5676]

no it is an medion md98300. I think this laptop is about 6 years old

[JeremyB]

no it is an medion md98300. I think this laptop is about 6 years old

If the rfkill command didn't unblock the wifi then post

Code: Select all

lsmod | grep acer

[thomas5676]

vanderzijl@vanderzijl ~ $ lsmod | grep acer
acer_wmi 31735 0
sparse_keymap 13708 1 acer_wmi
wmi 18689 3 acer_wmi,mxm_wmi,nouveau
video 19475 2 acer_wmi,nouveau

[thomas5676]

I'm not sure if this has something to do with the problem. But I also have a ralink wireless usb device and when I connect it the icon next to the clock will show the zydas and ralink wirelles network. Although is it light grey where i cant click on. And when I disconnect the ralink usb device, it doesn't show the zydas wireless network. But when i run lsusb in the terminal it will show the zydas both times. (when i connected the ralink wireless usb and when I didn't connected it)

So my question is, does the ralink usb wireless device has something to do with the zydas network card?

When the zydas network card is not possible to work, I can use the ralink usb device. But I rather use the onboard wireless card.

I included two photo's that show the difference between when I connected the ralink usb device and without.

I hope this information helps a bit to the solution.

[JeremyB]

Please run the following in terminal with both wifi devices

Code: Select all

wget -N -t 5 -T 10 https://github.com/UbuntuForums/wireless-info/raw/master/wireless-info && \
chmod +x wireless-info && \
./wireless-info

and post the info from wireless-info.txt

If you want you can paste it at paste.ubuntu.com and post the URL here

[thomas5676]

Sorry for the bit of late reply, I appreciate your time.

This is the outcome.

http://paste.ubuntu.com/12397608/

[JeremyB]

Lets see if things improve with

Code: Select all

sudo modprobe -r acer-wmi && sudo rfkill unblock all

Hopefully the wifi cards will work after this

[thomas5676]

Hello,

Yes they work indeed. Thank you very much for your help. I really appreciate it.

Tanks again,

Greetings Thomas.

[JeremyB]

It will happen again after a reboot unless you

Code: Select all

echo "blacklist acer-wmi" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/acer.conf

[thomas5676]

Yes that is what I also noticed and it would be my next question, but it was already answered.

Thank you again.

[thomas5676]

Hello again,

I hadn't had that much time to work with this computer but I found out that although wifi is working and the computer is recognizing the wireless devices, the internet is going very slowly.

So do you know if there is a solution for that?

Greetings,
Thomas

[JeremyB]

Run

Code: Select all

./wireless-info

and post the new results from the new wireless-info.txt

[thomas5676]

Onboard wifi only
http://paste.ubuntu.com/12446723/

with ralink usb wifi attached
http://paste.ubuntu.com/12446734/

[JeremyB]

The only things I saw that might cause the internet to be slow is mixed mode encryption on the wifi router and the signal strength is a bit low.

If you can change the encryption on the router, use WPA2 only, WPA2-AES, or WPA2-PSK without WEP or TKIP