[solved] Wireless interface not showing up -- Eeepc 1000HE

King_Critter · 2010-05-06 02:23:34

Edit: for future generations, the fix is to install rfkill, then do "rfkill unblock all". wlan0 should then show up with iwconfig.

I've followed the Wireless Setup guide as best I could, but it's still not working. ifconfig only sees eth0 and lo.

The page for my laptop doesn't seem to apply -- it says that wireless works out of the box (it doesn't) and that if it doesn't, the command "ifconfig wlan0 up" should produce "SIOCSIFFLAGS: no such file or directory".

But for me, it produces "wlan0: unknown interface: No such device"

I've tried all the drivers that seemed relevant, and ath_pci seems to be the right one; at least, lsmod shows that the module wlan is being used by ath_pci, which I guess is a step in the correct direction. I honestly don't know.

Did I just stupidly miss a step somewhere, or is something actually wrong?

Thanks in advance.

Edit: output of lspci:

01:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)

Last edited by King_Critter (2010-05-06 18:07:44)

Mektub · 2010-05-06 02:48:09

King_Critter,

check on the BIOS if WLAN is enabled.

Mektub

King_Critter · 2010-05-06 03:04:01

It is. (Actually, I'm using a different distro on the same laptop, and everything is perfect.)

ewaller · 2010-05-06 03:11:34

Could you let us know what chipset your wireless uses. We need the output of lspci

King_Critter · 2010-05-06 03:18:13

01:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)

humanzoo · 2010-05-06 03:51:28

My EeePC 1000HE using the ath9k driver for wireless; autodetects it, too. Maybe try putting ath9k in the MODULES= line of rc.conf and rebooting (in cause you got that ath_pci or whatnot still loaded).

King_Critter · 2010-05-06 04:06:41

Thanks for the suggestion, but it didn't work.

humanzoo · 2010-05-06 05:08:14

Searches on Google for the error you're getting show people with the same problem needed to install firmware for their cards. Maybe reinstall the kernel26-firmware package? Seems odd, I have the same model netbook/same chipset and ath9k just gets loaded automatically on boot and wicd connects without issue. Do you have anything like madwifi installed? If so, get rid of it, you shouldn't need it and it might be interfering. Maybe?

King_Critter · 2010-05-06 05:53:44

Removed madwifi drivers, reinstalled kernel26-firmware. Still not working. This is odd... maybe I screwed something up during the install process, or didn't configure something correctly? Out of the box, should the interface show up or do I need to edit a config file somewhere?

humanzoo · 2010-05-06 06:30:39

Does ath9k even load? If not, and you do "modprobe ath9k", does it give you an error? If it is loaded, does wlan0 appear when you run "ifconfig -a"?

Other wireless-related packages I have installed are: iw, rfkill, wireless-tools, wpa_supplicant. I don't know if any of those things are needed just to get a wlan0 device, but it might be worth a try.

I don't see that I put anything special in rc.conf (other than commenting out the netcfg stuff because I use wicd.

Also, after removing madwifi, did you reboot, there's a whole bunch of drivers loaded by that which don't go away without rebooting or some fancy footwork with rmmod (rebooting is easier).

King_Critter · 2010-05-06 07:06:01

ath9k loads fine. Ifconfig still doesn't show wlan0. I installed rfkill and wireless_tools, but it didn't help. And yeah, I've been rebooting every time I mess around with something (good thing Arch boots so quickly ).

jasonwryan · 2010-05-06 07:37:07

Check dmesg

# dmesg | grep firmware

What does iwconfig show?

King_Critter · 2010-05-06 08:29:52

elantech.c: assuming hardware version 2, firmware version 2.48

I believe that's referring to my touchpad.

iwconfig says:

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

jasonwryan · 2010-05-06 08:37:39

If ath9k is loading properly, the only other thing that occurs to me is that another driver is also being loaded and fuxoring your ath9k. Have a look at lsmod and make sure there are no other culprits that need to be blacklisted...

hokasch · 2010-05-06 10:46:59

Out of the box, should the interface show up or do I need to edit a config file somewhere?

It should show up "out of the box" once the module is loaded. Is your system up to date?
What is the output of "rfkill list all"? And could you paste the whole dmesg and lsmod in a pastebin?1

If you suspect madwifi messing things up, install compat-wireless - newest wireless driver + script disabling madwifi on install.

King_Critter · 2010-05-06 15:54:17

Ooh, this looks interesting!

# rfkill list all

0: eeepc-wlan: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: yes
        Hard blocked: no
1: eeepc-bluetooth: Bluetooth
        Soft blocked: yes
        Hard blocked: no
2: eeepc-wwan3g: Wireless WAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no

dmesg output:
http://pastebin.com/0VL4jGG9

lsmod (after loading ath9k):
http://pastebin.com/rxKjP01U

And no, my system is mostly not up to date, because the only access I have to high speed internet is via wifi . I did manually download and install the most recent kernel26 packages, however, in an attempt to get things working.

Last edited by King_Critter (2010-05-06 16:14:18)

hokasch · 2010-05-06 16:24:35

without looking at the log files - have you tried to unblock your wlan then?

King_Critter · 2010-05-06 18:05:18

...awesome. I learn something new every day.

That fixed it. To everyone who responded: thank you! You guys are awesome. ^_^

Edit: ok, another problem.

when I run this:

iwconfig wlan0 essid "MyEssid" key s:asciikey

I get:

Error for  wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) : 
SET failed on device wlan0; Invalid Argument

I get quite a few hits on google for the problem, but no solutions that would work for me. One solution is to use Network Manager, but I don't have a gui set up yet, so that's out.

Edit: Ok, I think I fixed it... I don't have a wireless network around at the moment to test it out, but at least it's now going through the motions. The solution is to use netcfg instead if iwconfig. In /etc/network.d/examples/ there are examples for different network types. Just take the relevant one, copy it up one directory (so it's in /etc/network.d/) alter the details, make sure it's named "wireless" and that the CONNECTION line in the script is also "wireless" (or rather, I think they just need to match).

Then run netcfg wireless and it'll hopefully work. You may have to be running the net-profiles daemon -- I added that to rc.conf while trying something else out and I don't know if it's actually needed.

Last edited by King_Critter (2010-05-06 23:12:33)

Arch Linux

#1 2010-05-06 02:23:34

[solved] Wireless interface not showing up -- Eeepc 1000HE

#2 2010-05-06 02:48:09

Re: [solved] Wireless interface not showing up -- Eeepc 1000HE

#3 2010-05-06 03:04:01

Re: [solved] Wireless interface not showing up -- Eeepc 1000HE

#4 2010-05-06 03:11:34

Re: [solved] Wireless interface not showing up -- Eeepc 1000HE

#5 2010-05-06 03:18:13

Re: [solved] Wireless interface not showing up -- Eeepc 1000HE

#6 2010-05-06 03:51:28

Re: [solved] Wireless interface not showing up -- Eeepc 1000HE

#7 2010-05-06 04:06:41

Re: [solved] Wireless interface not showing up -- Eeepc 1000HE

#8 2010-05-06 05:08:14

Re: [solved] Wireless interface not showing up -- Eeepc 1000HE

#9 2010-05-06 05:53:44

Re: [solved] Wireless interface not showing up -- Eeepc 1000HE

#10 2010-05-06 06:30:39

Re: [solved] Wireless interface not showing up -- Eeepc 1000HE

#11 2010-05-06 07:06:01

Re: [solved] Wireless interface not showing up -- Eeepc 1000HE

#12 2010-05-06 07:37:07

Re: [solved] Wireless interface not showing up -- Eeepc 1000HE

#13 2010-05-06 08:29:52

Re: [solved] Wireless interface not showing up -- Eeepc 1000HE

#14 2010-05-06 08:37:39

Re: [solved] Wireless interface not showing up -- Eeepc 1000HE

#15 2010-05-06 10:46:59

Re: [solved] Wireless interface not showing up -- Eeepc 1000HE

#16 2010-05-06 15:54:17

Re: [solved] Wireless interface not showing up -- Eeepc 1000HE

#17 2010-05-06 16:24:35

Re: [solved] Wireless interface not showing up -- Eeepc 1000HE

#18 2010-05-06 18:05:18

Re: [solved] Wireless interface not showing up -- Eeepc 1000HE

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