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#1 2011-10-08 17:02:37

szalski
Member
Registered: 2011-10-08
Posts: 7

Acer AO722 freezes completely when issuing 'ip link set wlan0 up'

Hi,

I am a new Archlinux user. Installation on my Acer AO722 (AMD-Brazos C-60 CPU, Radeon HD 6290, 4GB DDRAM3) went flawless, but I have problems with my wireless interface.

I have searched the forums and Google but nothing relevant came up.

Thus far I was successful at solving problems referring to Arch Wiki, but this time I am clueless.

I am using Arch x86_64 with linux-3.0.6-2.

The AR9285 chipset was recognized, because wlan0 interface was available from the start.

Some basic hardware/interface info

[radek@radek ~]$ lspci | ack -i net
06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications AR8152 v2.0 Fast Ethernet (rev c1)
07:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
[radek@radek ~]$ ip link
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 16436 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN 
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 576 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP qlen 1000
    link/ether b8:70:f4:de:58:29 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN qlen 1000
    link/ether c0:f8:da:6b:fe:c3 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
[radek@radek ~]$ iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=0 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off

         

I haven't installed any drivers/firmware. I think udev recognized my card and automatically loads ath9k driver.

[radek@radek ~]$ lsmod | ack -i ath
ath9k                  86568  0 
mac80211              215908  1 ath9k
ath9k_common            1770  1 ath9k
ath9k_hw              275596  2 ath9k,ath9k_common
ath                    14667  2 ath9k,ath9k_hw
cfg80211              160772  3 ath9k,mac80211,ath
The problem

When I disconnect my ethernet cable and run this command:

[radek@radek ~]$ sudo ip link set wlan0 up

Whole computer freezes and I can only force-shutdown it.

Also, when booting without ethernet cable plugged in, booting stops at 'Starting Network' for 30 seconds (I believe this is the udev timeout set in rc.conf).
After 30 seconds booting resumes, but most of the times if not always, computer freezes right at tty1 prompt - cant even type my login.

Pluggin in ethernet cable works as it should:

  • eth0 is automatically brought up

  • wlan0 stays/is down

  • ip link set wlan0 up has no effect (and does not freeze the computer)


Additional info:

rc.conf

[radek@radek ~]$ cat /etc/rc.conf 
#
# /etc/rc.conf - Main Configuration for Arch Linux
#

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# LOCALIZATION
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# LOCALE: available languages can be listed with the 'locale -a' command
# DAEMON_LOCALE: If set to 'yes', use $LOCALE as the locale during daemon
# startup and during the boot process. If set to 'no', the C locale is used.
# HARDWARECLOCK: set to "", "UTC" or "localtime", any other value will result
#   in the hardware clock being left untouched (useful for virtualization)
#   Note: Using "localtime" is discouraged, using "" makes hwclock fall back
#   to the value in /var/lib/hwclock/adjfile
# TIMEZONE: timezones are found in /usr/share/zoneinfo
#   Note: if unset, the value in /etc/localtime is used unchanged
# KEYMAP: keymaps are found in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps
# CONSOLEFONT: found in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts (only needed for non-US)
# CONSOLEMAP: found in /usr/share/kbd/consoletrans
# USECOLOR: use ANSI color sequences in startup messages
#
LOCALE="pl_PL.UTF-8"
DAEMON_LOCALE="no"
HARDWARECLOCK="UTC"
TIMEZONE="Europe/Warsaw"
KEYMAP="pl"
CONSOLEFONT=
CONSOLEMAP=
USECOLOR="yes"

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# HARDWARE
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# MODULES: Modules to load at boot-up. Blacklisting is no longer supported.
#   Replace every !module by an entry as on the following line in a file in
#   /etc/modprobe.d:
#     blacklist module
#   See "man modprobe.conf" for details.
#
MODULES=()

# Udev settle timeout (default to 30)
UDEV_TIMEOUT=30

# Scan for FakeRAID (dmraid) Volumes at startup
USEDMRAID="no"

# Scan for BTRFS volumes at startup
USEBTRFS="no"

# Scan for LVM volume groups at startup, required if you use LVM
USELVM="no"

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# NETWORKING
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# HOSTNAME: Hostname of machine. Should also be put in /etc/hosts
#
HOSTNAME="radek"

# Use 'ip addr' or 'ls /sys/class/net/' to see all available interfaces.
#
# Wired network setup
#   - interface: name of device (required)
#   - address: IP address (leave blank for DHCP)
#   - netmask: subnet mask (ignored for DHCP) (optional, defaults to 255.255.255.0)
#   - broadcast: broadcast address (ignored for DHCP) (optional)
#   - gateway: default route (ignored for DHCP)
# 
# Static IP example
# interface=eth0
# address=192.168.0.2
# netmask=255.255.255.0
# broadcast=192.168.0.255
# gateway=192.168.0.1
#
# DHCP example
# interface=eth0
# address=
# netmask=
# gateway=

interface=eth0
address=
netmask=
broadcast=
gateway=

# Setting this to "yes" will skip network shutdown.
# This is required if your root device is on NFS.
NETWORK_PERSIST="no"

# Enable these netcfg profiles at boot-up. These are useful if you happen to
# need more advanced network features than the simple network service
# supports, such as multiple network configurations (ie, laptop users)
#   - set to 'menu' to present a menu during boot-up (dialog package required)
#   - prefix an entry with a ! to disable it
#
# Network profiles are found in /etc/network.d
#
# This requires the netcfg package
#
#NETWORKS=(main)

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# DAEMONS
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Daemons to start at boot-up (in this order)
#   - prefix a daemon with a ! to disable it
#   - prefix a daemon with a @ to start it up in the background
#
# If something other takes care of your hardware clock (ntpd, dual-boot...)
# you should disable 'hwclock' here.
#
DAEMONS=(hwclock @syslog-ng network netfs @crond dbus alsa acpid laptop-mode)

rfkill

I have a keyboard shortcut that toggles wlan/bluetooth (it works). So just to be sure I installed rfkill.

[radek@radek ~]$ rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no

If you would like to see outputs on any other commands or contents of logs (I am not sure which ones would be relevant here), i'd be happy to provide them.


Thanks in advance!

Regards,
Radek

Last edited by szalski (2011-10-08 17:28:36)

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#2 2011-10-09 12:14:55

Ricepicker
Member
Registered: 2011-10-08
Posts: 7

Re: Acer AO722 freezes completely when issuing 'ip link set wlan0 up'

I got the same problem as you, and I also got an Acer AO722 but with 2GB of RAM.

Here's a guy who fixed this problem by installing netCFG, I tried it but didn't get it too work. If you do however, please let me know!
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=127282

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#3 2011-10-09 12:47:26

szalski
Member
Registered: 2011-10-08
Posts: 7

Re: Acer AO722 freezes completely when issuing 'ip link set wlan0 up'

Ricepicker wrote:

I got the same problem as you, and I also got an Acer AO722 but with 2GB of RAM.

Here's a guy who fixed this problem by installing netCFG, I tried it but didn't get it too work. If you do however, please let me know!
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=127282

Thanks for letting me know.

I searched more and found something that might solve these problems:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=104231
http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-wire … 54555.html
https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/20735

I am currently installing compat-wireless (takes a while). I'll let you know as soon as I'm done.

Last edited by szalski (2011-10-10 19:03:04)

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#4 2011-10-10 19:09:29

szalski
Member
Registered: 2011-10-08
Posts: 7

Re: Acer AO722 freezes completely when issuing 'ip link set wlan0 up'

Update

Since this a a big update and a workaround in one, I decided to post this separately.

I am not marking this as SOLVED, because the core problem has barely been diagnosed. The mentioned workaround is merely a trick, to get the laptop/interface working.

I hope that this can be more easily solved now, once we dealt with ath9k drivers. I don't have enough experience to tackle this problem alone and would be grateful for any suggestions and help. This can possibly make life of people with AR9285 chipsets a lot easier.

I'll still be trying things out. Maybe logs will show something more now, after the drivers have been updates. I will post those once I get some time to work on this issue.

/Update




After upgrading Atheros drivers (ath9k) using compat-wireless version 3.0.2 stable (http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download/stable/) I was able to bring wlan0 interface up without a hang/crash.

The problem is, that computer still hangs right after boot completes IF the Ethernet cable is unplugged.

So at this point:

  1. plugged cable -> working wlan0

  2. unplugged cable -> hangs at boot (if you unplug cable when the laptop is booted and bring wlan0 up - it also crashes)




Temporary Workaround

Blacklist atl1c driver (responsible for eth0) in modprobe.conf.

Now eth0 cannot be found at boot, and everything works flawlessly. I can use wlan0 alright.

If you want to use Ethernet:

Load the atl1c module like so:

modprobe atl1c

Bring the eth0 up

ip link set eth0 up

Configure IP address or request one if using DHCP eg.:

dhcpcd eth0

But do not touch wlan0 at all! Or it will hang!





After successful boot I made some more tests

  1. enabling atl1c module with modprobe atl1c -> success

  2. ip link lists eth0 as an interface -> success

  3. ip link set wlan0 up -> success

  4. ip link set eth0 up -> success

  5. ifconfig now shows eth0 -> success

  6. ip link set wlan0 up -> hangs


So, it seems like a conflict between eth0 and wlan0 + some fun stuff with ath9k. While I understand the need to update ath9k with compat-wireless I have no idea what happens with eth0 and wlan0.

I hope I shed some light on this issue.

These MIGHT be simillar issues:

Last edited by szalski (2011-10-10 19:11:42)

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#5 2011-10-11 21:35:12

Ricepicker
Member
Registered: 2011-10-08
Posts: 7

Re: Acer AO722 freezes completely when issuing 'ip link set wlan0 up'

Hello, Szalski.

I actually got it, I restarted the computer and changed the boot to network boot and I was on the web wireless. I'm not sure though if that was the fix, however, I'm not running Arch anymore on my laptop. I might go back to arch when I get the time to sit down with a cup of coffee.
Thank you for sharing your termporarily fix.

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