[SOLVED?Ath5k stopped loading automatically and stopped detecting 5GHz

cactaur · 2023-02-14 18:56:33

Hi everyone,

I have a PCI wifi/bluetooth card (Feb Smart FS-AC85BT) that has been chugging along with the ath5k driver just fine for the past one and a half years I've had it (though weirdly enough the vendor recommends the ath10k driver).

When I started my desktop today, there was no wifi card detected (I use the KDE network app), and when I checked dmesg, the ath5k driver wasn't even loaded. When I load it manually using modprobe, it detects only the 2.4GHz networks from my router, and not the 5GHz networks (my phone confirms that the 5GHz networks are working fine). These two issues may or may not be related, but they happened right at the same time.

Since I haven't seen any similar posts, I'm guessing that this probably isn't caused by a software update,, but I wanted to troubleshoot fully before chalking it up to a hardware issue and getting a new one.

My system is up to date. Pacman did a kernel update after I turned on the computer to 6.1.11-arch1-1. That did not solve the problem after restarting.

Thanks everyone for your help! I've attached possibly relevant output below. Let me know if there's any other output which may be relevant.

Dmesg after running "sudo modprobe ath5k"

% sudo dmesg | grep ath5k   
[   58.034229] ath5k 0000:05:00.0: enabling device (0100 -> 0102)
[   58.034306] ath5k 0000:05:00.0: registered as 'phy0'
[   58.280323] ath5k: phy0: Atheros AR5212 chip found (MAC: 0x56, PHY: 0x41)
[   58.280330] ath5k: phy0: RF2112B 2GHz radio found (0x46)
[   58.284887] ath5k 0000:05:00.0 wlp5s0: renamed from wlan0

relevant lspci output

% sudo lspci -vnn 
---------------------------------------------------------SNIP------------------------------------------------------------------
05:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Qualcomm Atheros AR5212/5213/2414 Wireless Network Adapter [168c:0013] (rev 01)
        Subsystem: D-Link System Inc AirPlus DWL-G520 Wireless PCI Adapter (rev. B) [1186:3a13]
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 168, IRQ 17
        Memory at f7c00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
        Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
        Kernel driver in use: ath5k
        Kernel modules: ath5k

Possibly related iw list showing that only the 2.4Ghz band is detected by the driver

% sudo iw list      
Wiphy phy2
        wiphy index: 2
        max # scan SSIDs: 4
        max scan IEs length: 2285 bytes
        max # sched scan SSIDs: 0
        max # match sets: 0
        Retry short limit: 7
        Retry long limit: 4
        Coverage class: 0 (up to 0m)
        Device supports RSN-IBSS.
        Supported Ciphers:
                * WEP40 (00-0f-ac:1)
                * WEP104 (00-0f-ac:5)
                * TKIP (00-0f-ac:2)
                * CCMP-128 (00-0f-ac:4)
                * CCMP-256 (00-0f-ac:10)
                * GCMP-128 (00-0f-ac:8)
                * GCMP-256 (00-0f-ac:9)
                * CMAC (00-0f-ac:6)
                * CMAC-256 (00-0f-ac:13)
                * GMAC-128 (00-0f-ac:11)
                * GMAC-256 (00-0f-ac:12)
        Available Antennas: TX 0x3 RX 0x3
        Configured Antennas: TX 0x3 RX 0x3
        Supported interface modes:
                 * IBSS
                 * managed
                 * AP
                 * AP/VLAN
                 * monitor
                 * mesh point
        Band 1:
                Bitrates (non-HT):
                        * 1.0 Mbps
                        * 2.0 Mbps (short preamble supported)
                        * 5.5 Mbps (short preamble supported)
                        * 11.0 Mbps (short preamble supported)
                        * 6.0 Mbps
                        * 9.0 Mbps
                        * 12.0 Mbps
                        * 18.0 Mbps
                        * 24.0 Mbps
                        * 36.0 Mbps
                        * 48.0 Mbps
                        * 54.0 Mbps
                Frequencies:
                        * 2412 MHz [1] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2417 MHz [2] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2422 MHz [3] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2427 MHz [4] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2432 MHz [5] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2437 MHz [6] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2442 MHz [7] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2447 MHz [8] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2452 MHz [9] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2457 MHz [10] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2462 MHz [11] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2467 MHz [12] (disabled)
                        * 2472 MHz [13] (disabled)
                        * 2484 MHz [14] (disabled)
        Supported commands:
                 * new_interface
                 * set_interface
                 * new_key
                 * start_ap
                 * new_station
                 * new_mpath
                 * set_mesh_config
                 * set_bss
                 * authenticate
                 * associate
                 * deauthenticate
                 * disassociate
                 * join_ibss
                 * join_mesh
                 * remain_on_channel
                 * set_tx_bitrate_mask
                 * frame
                 * frame_wait_cancel
                 * set_wiphy_netns
                 * set_channel
                 * probe_client
                 * set_noack_map
                 * register_beacons
                 * start_p2p_device
                 * set_mcast_rate
                 * connect
                 * disconnect
                 * set_qos_map
                 * set_multicast_to_unicast
        software interface modes (can always be added):
                 * AP/VLAN
                 * monitor
        valid interface combinations:
                 * #{ managed } <= 2048, #{ AP, mesh point } <= 4,
                   total <= 2048, #channels <= 1
        HT Capability overrides:
                 * MCS: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
                 * maximum A-MSDU length
                 * supported channel width
                 * short GI for 40 MHz
                 * max A-MPDU length exponent
                 * min MPDU start spacing
        Device supports TX status socket option.
        Device supports HT-IBSS.
        Device supports SAE with AUTHENTICATE command
        Device supports low priority scan.
        Device supports scan flush.
        Device supports AP scan.
        Device supports per-vif TX power setting
        Driver supports full state transitions for AP/GO clients
        Driver supports a userspace MPM
        Device supports configuring vdev MAC-addr on create.
        max # scan plans: 1
        max scan plan interval: -1
        max scan plan iterations: 0
        Supported TX frame types:
                 * IBSS: 0x00 0x10 0x20 0x30 0x40 0x50 0x60 0x70 0x80 0x90 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0 0xe0 0xf0
                 * managed: 0x00 0x10 0x20 0x30 0x40 0x50 0x60 0x70 0x80 0x90 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0 0xe0 0xf0
                 * AP: 0x00 0x10 0x20 0x30 0x40 0x50 0x60 0x70 0x80 0x90 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0 0xe0 0xf0
                 * AP/VLAN: 0x00 0x10 0x20 0x30 0x40 0x50 0x60 0x70 0x80 0x90 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0 0xe0 0xf0
                 * mesh point: 0x00 0x10 0x20 0x30 0x40 0x50 0x60 0x70 0x80 0x90 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0 0xe0 0xf0
                 * P2P-client: 0x00 0x10 0x20 0x30 0x40 0x50 0x60 0x70 0x80 0x90 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0 0xe0 0xf0
                 * P2P-GO: 0x00 0x10 0x20 0x30 0x40 0x50 0x60 0x70 0x80 0x90 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0 0xe0 0xf0
                 * P2P-device: 0x00 0x10 0x20 0x30 0x40 0x50 0x60 0x70 0x80 0x90 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0 0xe0 0xf0
        Supported RX frame types:
                 * IBSS: 0x40 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0
                 * managed: 0x40 0xb0 0xd0
                 * AP: 0x00 0x20 0x40 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0
                 * AP/VLAN: 0x00 0x20 0x40 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0
                 * mesh point: 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0
                 * P2P-client: 0x40 0xd0
                 * P2P-GO: 0x00 0x20 0x40 0xa0 0xb0 0xc0 0xd0
                 * P2P-device: 0x40 0xd0
        Supported extended features:
                * [ RRM ]: RRM
                * [ FILS_STA ]: STA FILS (Fast Initial Link Setup)
                * [ CQM_RSSI_LIST ]: multiple CQM_RSSI_THOLD records
                * [ CONTROL_PORT_OVER_NL80211 ]: control port over nl80211
                * [ SCAN_RANDOM_SN ]: use random sequence numbers in scans
                * [ SCAN_MIN_PREQ_CONTENT ]: use probe request with only rate IEs in scans
                * [ CONTROL_PORT_NO_PREAUTH ]: disable pre-auth over nl80211 control port support
                * [ DEL_IBSS_STA ]: deletion of IBSS station support
                * [ SCAN_FREQ_KHZ ]: scan on kHz frequency support
                * [ CONTROL_PORT_OVER_NL80211_TX_STATUS ]: tx status for nl80211 control port support

Last edited by cactaur (2023-02-18 03:30:10)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2023-02-14 18:59:01

Load up a live ISO image to see if it works there.

seth · 2023-02-14 21:20:07

And/or linux-lts.

Also post a complete system journal (before manually loading ath5k)

sudo journalctl -b | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

cactaur · 2023-02-18 03:28:28

Ok, I apologize for how strange this may seem. But all of the sudden it started working today. I had just finished downloading an arch-based livecd and saw that the wifi card worked. And once I booted back, I found that the wifi card started working again. Both automatically loading ath5k as well as detecting my 5GHz network. I didn't even do the kernel update with pacman yet!

Anyway, my answers would have been: the LTS kernel didn't help. The endeavorOS liveCD did (which I just tried today) did load ath5k (although I still couldn't see the 5GHz networks. But now, everything is working again (both with the standard and LTS kernels).

Seth, if you are still interested in the logs, they are here:
http://0x0.st/Hr6W.txt

At this point, I suspect the root cause is probably hardware-based. It doesn't make sense that some software issue would cause intermittent issues. But maybe you all might have an alternative hypothesis.

But thanks again for your help!

seth · 2023-02-18 06:00:09

But maybe you all might have an alternative hypothesis.

ath10k doesn't get in the way and you're not using iwd (accessing the NIC tooearly™ can cause this)
If you had accidentally blacklisted the module, it would not have started to work automagically.

But the PCI device is there and there're no errors on that bus either.

Though there's no indication in the journal: is there a parallel windows installation?

cactaur · 2023-02-18 15:17:48

seth wrote:

But maybe you all might have an alternative hypothesis.
ath10k doesn't get in the way and you're not using iwd (accessing the NIC tooearly™ can cause this)
If you had accidentally blacklisted the module, it would not have started to work automagically.
But the PCI device is there and there're no errors on that bus either.
Though there's no indication in the journal: is there a parallel windows installation?

Nope, this computer only has arch linux on it. No dual boot at all.

Arch Linux

#1 2023-02-14 18:56:33

[SOLVED?Ath5k stopped loading automatically and stopped detecting 5GHz

#2 2023-02-14 18:59:01

Re: [SOLVED?Ath5k stopped loading automatically and stopped detecting 5GHz

#3 2023-02-14 21:20:07

Re: [SOLVED?Ath5k stopped loading automatically and stopped detecting 5GHz

#4 2023-02-18 03:28:28

Re: [SOLVED?Ath5k stopped loading automatically and stopped detecting 5GHz

#5 2023-02-18 06:00:09

Re: [SOLVED?Ath5k stopped loading automatically and stopped detecting 5GHz

#6 2023-02-18 15:17:48

Re: [SOLVED?Ath5k stopped loading automatically and stopped detecting 5GHz

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