Samsung R20...

mrmg · 2007-06-19 08:52:12

Hi guys,

I've recently got myself one of these laptops. It's a really nice machine and I've got arch running fairly nicely on it but I have a few issues I was hoping a few of you could give me a hand with as I'm a bit of a noob at solving these problems and my searches on google and here haven't quite answered anything.

First up I can't get wifi working. When I tried Ubuntu on the laptop it detects it's fine but for some reason Arch doesn't. The card is an Atheros AR5006X, the output from 'lspci -v' is as follows:

00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 7930
    Subsystem: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Unknown device c511
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64

00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 7932 (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64
    Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=64
    I/O behind bridge: 00009000-00009fff
    Memory behind bridge: c0100000-c01fffff
    Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000d0000000-00000000dfffffff
    Capabilities: <access denied>

00:05.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 7935 (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
    Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=04, sec-latency=0
    Capabilities: <access denied>

00:06.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 7936 (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
    Bus: primary=00, secondary=05, subordinate=07, sec-latency=0
    Memory behind bridge: c0200000-c02fffff
    Capabilities: <access denied>

00:12.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 Non-Raid-5 SATA (prog-if 01 [AHCI 1.0])
    Subsystem: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Unknown device c511
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 17
    I/O ports at 8438 [size=8]
    I/O ports at 8444 [size=4]
    I/O ports at 8430 [size=8]
    I/O ports at 8440 [size=4]
    I/O ports at 8400 [size=16]
    Memory at c0004000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
    Capabilities: <access denied>

00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI0) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
    Subsystem: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Unknown device c511
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 16
    Memory at c0005000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]

00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI1) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
    Subsystem: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Unknown device c511
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 18
    Memory at c0006000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]

00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI2) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
    Subsystem: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Unknown device c511
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 19
    Memory at c0007000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]

00:13.3 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI3) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
    Subsystem: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Unknown device c511
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 18
    Memory at c0008000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]

00:13.4 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI4) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
    Subsystem: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Unknown device c511
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 19
    Memory at c0009000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]

00:13.5 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB Controller (EHCI) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
    Subsystem: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Unknown device c511
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 20
    Memory at c0004400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
    Capabilities: <access denied>

00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 SMBus (rev 14)
    Subsystem: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Unknown device c511
    Flags: 66MHz, medium devsel
    I/O ports at 8410 [size=16]

00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 IDE (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
    Subsystem: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Unknown device c511
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 16
    I/O ports at 01f0 [size=8]
    I/O ports at 03f4 [size=1]
    I/O ports at 0170 [size=8]
    I/O ports at 0374 [size=1]
    I/O ports at 8420 [size=16]

00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 Azalia
    Subsystem: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Unknown device c511
    Flags: bus master, slow devsel, latency 64, IRQ 16
    Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
    Capabilities: <access denied>

00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 PCI to LPC Bridge
    Subsystem: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Unknown device c511
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0

00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 PCI to PCI Bridge (prog-if 01 [Subtractive decode])
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64
    Bus: primary=00, secondary=08, subordinate=0a, sec-latency=64
    I/O behind bridge: 0000a000-0000afff
    Memory behind bridge: f0200000-f02fffff
    Prefetchable memory behind bridge: f0300000-f03fffff

01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 7942 (prog-if 00 [VGA])
    Subsystem: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Unknown device c511
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 19
    Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
    Memory at c0100000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
    I/O ports at 9000 [size=256]
    Capabilities: <access denied>

05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Unknown device 0001:001c (rev 01)
    Subsystem: Askey Computer Corp. Unknown device 7108
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 5
    Memory at c0200000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
    Capabilities: <access denied>

08:05.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
    Subsystem: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Unknown device c511
    Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 17
    I/O ports at a000 [size=256]
    Memory at c0300000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
    Capabilities: <access denied>

Does anyone have any pointers on what do to next? I've installed madwifi and modprobe'd ath_pci but it doesn't change anything. Any tips would be welcomed!

mrmg · 2007-06-20 09:32:01

I've tried compiling madwifi from source to see if that makes a difference but I still can't get ath0 or wifi0 to appear and lspci still returns the same thing.

It seems the problem is the card just isn't being read when the bus in scanned. Are there any options I could try adding onto the kernel in grub? The wifi card is detected and works in Windows Vista (yuck!) and Ubuntu.

Please, someone point me in the right direction to start looking!

guano · 2007-06-20 18:25:21

I'm with the exact same problem! Just get a new R20, with the Atheros Wifi card, Ubuntu can recognize it, but Arch can't I tried a lot of stuff and I can't get an ath0 interface!!
please help!!

mrmg · 2007-06-21 08:35:37

Great Guano, maybe we can help each other trying to solve any issues we have.

My friend keeps telling me to put Ubuntu on the machine but I'd far rather have arch running as I just like the way it all works.

The latest is I've tried compiling madwifi into the kernel but this still doesn't help it get detected. I think the issue is something to do with the detection of the card when the bus is scanned. Does anyone know any options or anything we can try to help with this?

Guano, does you laptop also freeze while booting at the scanning ACPI bit? Not sure if this might be related.

haflinger · 2007-06-23 21:59:48

I've the same problem, an I've tried compiling madwifi from source but still dont work.

On vista and ubuntu no problem...

haflinger · 2007-07-20 11:58:11

I have a solution...

Go to your kernel config : make menuconfig
In Bus Options > PCI access mode > select BIOS

xCrucialDudex · 2007-08-19 15:26:09

Hi guys. Even though I'm not a ArchLinux user I've registered to contribute to this thread of the forum by confirming that selecting "BIOS" PCI Access mode in linux kernel configuration makes lspci detect and display WLAN device properly.

But this didn't help solve the issue with madwifi kernel driver. It modprobes OK but it doesn't create a ath0 device.

What is even more important and disappointing is that "BIOS" PCI Access mode leads towards system instability. Please, keep in mind that I'm talking about only my Samsung R-20 (which is X-002 model to be precise). With "BIOS" PCI Access mode my keyboard refused to work as usual. The other time I held down the Backspace key in order to delete a long line of text in console it would delete just one character and wouldn't delete the rest. I've also experienced system freezes (even though mouse mointer device was still partly working - I could move the cursor but buttons and the wheel would not respond) which required me to force reboot the notebook by powering it off and powering on by holding down for a while a power button.

As you may expect all that made me recompile kernel with "ANY" PCI Access mode again (boot up messages say that linux uses "MMCONFIG" PCI Access mode) and get along with it. With this PCI Access mode system stability isn't questioned at all but WiFi device cannot be detected properly.

"BIOS" PCI Access mode helps get rid of long PCI Root detection at start up time but unfortunately proved to make system unstable.

So, was anyone lucky and got the WiFi device in this notebook working? If so, please, tell us how you did that.

Last edited by xCrucialDudex (2007-08-19 16:07:13)

xCrucialDudex · 2007-12-02 16:56:27

guano wrote:

I'm with the exact same problem! Just get a new R20, with the Atheros Wifi card, Ubuntu can recognize it, but Arch can't I tried a lot of stuff and I can't get an ath0 interface!!
please help!!

Okay guys, I have finally found a solution. Long story short, use ndiswrapper (http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/joomla/index.php). A bit longer story (with explanations what I did in order to get wifi device up and working) is written here: http://madwifi.org/ticket/1255#comment:14

xCrucialDudex · 2010-02-26 08:26:38

Now works fine and right out of the box. No need for ndiswrapper anymore.

Arch Linux

#1 2007-06-19 08:52:12

Samsung R20...

#2 2007-06-20 09:32:01

Re: Samsung R20...

#3 2007-06-20 18:25:21

Re: Samsung R20...

#4 2007-06-21 08:35:37

Re: Samsung R20...

#5 2007-06-23 21:59:48

Re: Samsung R20...

#6 2007-07-20 11:58:11

Re: Samsung R20...

#7 2007-08-19 15:26:09

Re: Samsung R20...

#8 2007-12-02 16:56:27

Re: Samsung R20...

#9 2010-02-26 08:26:38

Re: Samsung R20...

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