Arch Linux

thea

Member

Registered: 2006-12-22

Posts: 86

network card not found after new installation [SOLVED]

I broke my filesystem on my Asus UL80V series laptop in trying to solve problems related to the latest glibc update, so decided to do a clean re-install. I had an installation disk at hand: 2009.08 with kernel 2.6.30.4-1 (which is supposed to have the module for my ath9k network device). However after a successful installation (including all the files from base-dev), my network device is not recognised:

dhcpcd: eth0: interface not found or invalid

although network connectivity (wired and wireless) worked perfectly before the installation attempt.

This happened yesterday (17th) and I have been scouring the web since trying to find out what the cause of this problem is, without luck.

I also burned a new installation CD with the latest stable version, but no luck there, either! Got a message at the beginning informing me that the install requires 64 Mb memory, although my laptop has 4 Gb.

I should say, the device is there and working:

lspci | grep Net

gives

02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)

I also did

modprobe ath9k

just to make sure. No luck.

Any help will be appreciated.

thanks

thea

Last edited by thea (2012-07-23 23:59:16)

Strike0

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2011-09-05

Posts: 1,489

Re: network card not found after new installation [SOLVED]

Which latest installation CD that you note above have you burnt/been using throwing that memory error, thea?

thea

Member

Registered: 2006-12-22

Posts: 86

Re: network card not found after new installation [SOLVED]

archlinux-2011.08.19-core-i686.iso

from 19-Aug-2011 06:26,    371M

downloaded by http from the computer science club at u waterloo (canada)

t.

fiddlinmacx

Member

Registered: 2011-03-02

Posts: 89

Re: network card not found after new installation [SOLVED]

Does 'lsmod' show the module to be loaded?
Does 'ip link show' give you anything useful?
Maybe you need to make a udev rule to give your interface a static name?

thea

Member

Registered: 2006-12-22

Posts: 86

Re: network card not found after new installation [SOLVED]

'lsmod' shows ath9k under led_class:

led_class        3976  2  ath9k, asus_laptop

As for 'ip link show', I don't have the ip command installed on the laptop. Can do it manually (via usb from my main computer) if it would really be helpful.

As for making a udev rule. Maybe. But I didn't have to do this originally, and, as stated, everything worked just fine (as with the installation at the time, I should note).

t.

Strike0

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2011-09-05

Posts: 1,489

Re: network card not found after new installation [SOLVED]

A udev rule should not be necessary at this point, no. But the lsmod output is not satisfactory for sure.

With "Installation at the time" you mean with the same core-ISO (2011-08?), or an earlier one?
Im asking, as unfortunately also the ath9k driver had been in a bit of flux.

Have a look at "rfkill" on the console after the modprobe (not sure it is in the image, but it would help).

edit: You definetely have "ip" in the live image you boot to install.

Last edited by Strike0 (2012-07-18 18:47:41)

thea

Member

Registered: 2006-12-22

Posts: 86

Re: network card not found after new installation [SOLVED]

I agree, the 'lsmod' output is not encouraging.

lspci -v

shows that the kernel driver ath9k is in use, while

dmesg | grep ath9k

confirms the existence of the module, but does not give an encouraging message like "eth0 link is up"

the ip command is really not on my system, although its man page is.

ditto for rfkill.

I can install either or both of these manually, if it will help. Which package contains 'ip'?

I don't really remember which disk I used to install Arch on my laptop (new laptop, fresh install). Quite possibly the 2009.0 (kernel 2.6.30.4-1) version. Certainly not the 'latest' from 2011-08, which I can't use in any case because of the memory problem (a bug?).

thanks,

t.

Strike0

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2011-09-05

Posts: 1,489

Re: network card not found after new installation [SOLVED]

Argh, ip may not be around in the 2009 image really ;-) .. Use "ifconfig" instead..

But: I meanwhile cross-checked your ath9k: http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Dri … h9k_driver
and it does not sound encouraging for the kernel you have there.

The image is far too old anyway, if you ask me (would be a darn hazzle to get that uptodate I am sure). Pity you get that memory error with the 2011 one. Maybe check forums on that. Sounds very strange, I am not aware of any post I read.

If you can burn another CD, you can try the recent ISOs as well: http://releng.archlinux.org/isos/
Beware that the ones from July dont have the AIF setup anymore.

thea

Member

Registered: 2006-12-22

Posts: 86

Re: network card not found after new installation [SOLVED]

OK, thanks for the link, I am trying a new image from June.

Meanwhile I installed iproute2, and so tried:

  ip link show

as well as:

  ip addr | sed '/^[0-9]/!d;s/: <.*$//'

For the later, the output (remember, I have to do this from another computer) is:

  1: lo
  2: wmaster0
  3: wlan0

Similarly, the 'ip link show' gave me output for these three links. The 'wmaster0' is new to me. However tried it instead of 'eth0' in my rc.conf, but still the same error message

  dhcpcd: wmaster0: interface not found or invalid

So will see if the more current fresh install works.

thanks again,

t.

thea

Member

Registered: 2006-12-22

Posts: 86

Re: network card not found after new installation [SOLVED]

Did a new installation using an image from 2010: 2010.05. This avoided memory errors I was getting on more current images. Worked my way up from wpa_supplicant following wpa_supplicant wiki article, updated my system, got my X11 up and running, and installed wicd and wicd-gtk. Now everything (including wired network) works perfectly.

Thanks again for all the help on this!

thea