[SOLVED] Wireless stopped detecting networks

Varg · 2010-07-28 12:15:17

Hi,

Today when I booted my laptop my wireless suddenly isn't able to detect any networks. I installed Arch yesterday but also installed it couple of weeks ago and I had the same problem back then. On my first Arch install it was "solved" after two days without doing anything about it. I thought that it was a hardware problem and that maybe due to the very warm weather something overheated. I installed different distro's since then ( Mandriva and Mint ) but decided to switch back to Arch. Since the problem happens again I doubt that it's a hardware problem.

I installed Arch yesterday and set up my wifi with wpa without any problem. After I installed my graphical user interface, I installed wicd and configured it according to the wiki. Everything was running fine.

Now this morning I boot up my laptop and wifi was gone. I've spent some hours searching the wiki and the forum and trying out different things but nothing seems to work.

At first I got an error when I tried to bring up the wlan0 interface, I searched it on the net and found a topic on this forum someone said it could be BIOS related, someone else used the program rfkill to check and unblock blocked interfaces. When running it I saw that my wlan0 was hard blocked, unblocked it, rebooted and the error was gone but still no wireless networks.
I'm dual booting with W7 and Windows can't detect any networks either( the windows problem solver thing couldn't find any solutions either, not that it ever does but I could only try...). This could mean it's a something in the BIOS but my wlan interface seems to be running and is powered on, at least that's what it looks like to me. I tried to look in the boot bios but I only get a shortened version ( time, date, password, bootorder,... ) and not the full bios. Searching google didn't gave me any answers either.

Since the problem disappeared after two days last time, there must be some solution to this but I'm out of ideas.

Some more hardware and system info:

Acer aspire 7520G
Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
( I have madwifi installed and the ath5k module loaded. )

[root@Arch_Laptop jorick]# rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
[root@Arch_Laptop jorick]# ifconfig
          .
          .
          .
          wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1C:26:89:D1:54  
          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)
[root@Arch_Laptop jorick]# iwconfig wlan0
          wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
[root@Arch_Laptop jorick]# iwlist wlan0 scanning
          wlan0     No scan results
[root@Arch_Laptop jorick]# lsmod | grep ath
          ath_pci               201028  0 
          wlan                   214475  1 ath_pci
          ath_hal               407884  1 ath_pci
          ath5k                 129829  0 
          mac80211          182791  1 ath5k
          ath                         8790  1 ath5k
          cfg80211            141568  3 ath5k,mac80211,ath
          led_class                2347  2 ath5k,sdhci

Any help would be appreciated.

Last edited by Varg (2010-07-30 11:28:37)

Stebalien · 2010-07-28 14:17:47

First, try connecting to another network that you know works (i.e. a friends network). You could also try disabling the wireless switch in your bios. If you still can't see any networks, try using a tool like kismet or aircrack-ng to listen for raw packets on your interface.

wizulis · 2010-07-28 15:45:58

I had same problem, i just took out battery and unpluged it from the wall for ~ 5 minutes ... work well after that.

Varg · 2010-07-28 16:04:28

Thanks for the reply.

Normally I should detect the network of my neighbours but it's not there to.
I tried changing the bios settings but I can't even enter the bios. I can press F2 during post boot and that brings up a shortened bios but the only thing that I can set there is boot order, date, time and passwords. I searched the net and apparently nobody knows how to get in the bios of a acer laptop. I'll do some more searching and probably contact acer support and see if they can tell me how.
Is there a way into the bios through Arch ? This problem only occurs after a Arch install so Arch must have altered something in the bios then ?
To me it looks as if the wireless card is on, that's what I make out of the iwconfig output and the led light of my wifi is burning and blinks when wicd is scanning for networks.

I tried one of the applications. As far as I understand the documentation of kismet and did everything correct I can add my wlan0 interface but it doesn't detect a thing. No networks no packages. I only get:
Started source wifi
ERROR: Could not connect to GPSD server, will reconnect in 30s.

I couldn't figure out aircrack-ng, to me it only looks like a tool to hack into a network ?

EDIT:

wizulis you posted right before me Well I already did the same, unplugged it ( battery and cable ) for about 20min and still the same...Might try it again but unplug for let's say an hour ? I don't really know the potential risk, I'm not very familiar with the bios.

Last edited by Varg (2010-07-28 16:32:00)

Varg · 2010-07-29 12:09:56

Great, the problem seems to be fixed on windows after I unplugged my laptop for 1.5h. Now I just need to get it working on Arch. So it's obviously not a hardware problem.

I'll try to remove any daemon and module and program that I installed concerning my network and start from scratch since it worked right after I installed Arch.

Varg · 2010-07-29 13:18:56

Still nothing. The ath5k driver should be the right one since I can't bring up the wlan interface with anything else. I just can't assign a acces point to the wlan0 interface and thus not detect any network.

And what's the deal with Arch breaking W7 and the other way around ? Wireless in Arch breaks down wireless in W7, on my previous Arch install W7 broke down Arch after a boot....

EDIT:
It seems that it was the ath5k driver. It was able to bring up the wlan0 interface but apparently not able to run it and it sort of corrupted the network card. Anyway, I should have noticed it. Always learning something

Last edited by Varg (2010-07-30 09:43:29)

Arch Linux

#1 2010-07-28 12:15:17

[SOLVED] Wireless stopped detecting networks

#2 2010-07-28 14:17:47

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless stopped detecting networks

#3 2010-07-28 15:45:58

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless stopped detecting networks

#4 2010-07-28 16:04:28

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless stopped detecting networks

#5 2010-07-29 12:09:56

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless stopped detecting networks

#6 2010-07-29 13:18:56

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless stopped detecting networks

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