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#1 2013-07-04 19:49:45

f3doramonk3y
Member
Registered: 2013-06-25
Posts: 3

[SOLVED] Wireless Issues - interface can't be turned on?

Hi, all and thank you for taking some time to help me today.

I am unable to connect using wireless and I suspect that this is due to the Tx-power setting. Currently, this is what iwconfig will give me:

wlp2s0        IEEE 802.11bgn    ESSID:"foobarspace"
              Mode:Managed   Access Point: Not-Associated     Tx-Power=off
              Retry   long limit: 7   RTS thr:off     Fragment thr:off
              Encryption key:off
              Power Management:off
lo            no wireless extensions.
enp1s0        no wireless extensions.

I have tried running iwconfig wlp2s0 txpower on/20dBm/auto and, for all three of these options, the Tx-power will remain off. When I run ifconfig, the lo and enp1s0 interfaces are there, but my wlp2s0 interface is not. Therefore, I believe that my wireless interface is off and I am wondering what is preventing me from turning it back on.

What might have led to the problem:

I was following the wiki on Laptop Wireless setup. In the following link, I have the script under Wireless saved at ~/bin/iw-power.sh, which runs at boot within the i3 config file (my WM).
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Laptop

I have tried commenting out the code so it does not run, but that does not allow me to turn the power to my interface on. I have run this command:
ip link set wlp2s0 up:

RTNETLINK answers: Operation not possible due to RF-kill

Some other information:
uname -a:

Linux arch 3.9.8-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Jun 21:37:31 CEST 20 13 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I am using netctl to manage my networks. I own the network that I am trying to connect to and I am using WPA2 security settings. Scanning for networks produces no results.

lspci | grep -i net shows that I run a Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01) card, which (I believe) uses the ath9k module. lsmod shows that that module is loaded.

That's all the information I can think of at this time that might be relevant. Please let me know if there's anything else that you need to know to help solve this problem. Thank you so much for your time!

-RS

Edit: I was able to connect to my WiFi spot before trying to add the iw-power.sh script. After doing that, I haven't been able to.

Last edited by f3doramonk3y (2013-07-07 19:35:14)

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#2 2013-07-05 14:29:07

blablubb1234
Member
Registered: 2013-07-04
Posts: 34

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless Issues - interface can't be turned on?

f3doramonk3y wrote:

Hi, all and thank you for taking some time to help me today.

I am unable to connect using wireless and I suspect that this is due to the Tx-power setting.

Are you using a Laptop with EFI instead of BIOS? This is a very common EFI bug/problem, which I came across on my Lenovo S205 aswell.

f3doramonk3y wrote:

ip link set wlp2s0 up:

RTNETLINK answers: Operation not possible due to RF-kill

And I got exactly the same error message.

f3doramonk3y wrote:

lspci | grep -i net shows that I run a Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01) card, which (I believe) uses the ath9k module. lsmod shows that that module is loaded.

I have a similar WIFI card in my S205, let me check back @home. Nevertheless, the solution, as stupid as it may sound, to me being unable to set up my WLAN card was changing the EFI boot order. I had to make sure that the HDD with Archlinux wasn't the first boot option. I get best compatibility with Win and Arch when setting LAN as first boot device. Maybe give it a try.

Best regards.

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#3 2013-07-06 05:32:29

f3doramonk3y
Member
Registered: 2013-06-25
Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless Issues - interface can't be turned on?

Thank you for the reply blablubb1234. I tried switching the boot order with Network first and CD first, but neither has solved the problem. I am running an Inspiron 15 with UEFI on Legacy mode. I am not dual booting the system; it is a dedicated Arch machine. (Originally Win8 was on the box)

After doing some additional digging, I loaded rfkill from the package manager. Using that, I was able to see the blocks for my wlan interface. I am able to use Fn+F2 to toggle the soft block and hard block of the interface (which is interesting, because I haven't defined these keystrokes to the kernel). Once I have both blocks on off, however, I will try to do the "ip link set wlp2s0 up" command. However, the same reply as above will return. Checking rfkill, this command then caused the hard block to toggle on. Because the function key is toggling the interface even without my defining the keystroke, I think that there must be some Dell drivers that are interfering with the wi-fi setup of my box. The solution might be to just blacklist the Dell drivers. I will continue to dig and look for a solution (and/or if the blacklisting works will post an update). Any more ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Sources:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=145681

Side note @ admins/moderators: this thread might be better suited for the Laptop Issues discussion board, but I do not see an obvious way to move it there.

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#4 2013-07-06 05:34:12

jasonwryan
Anarchist
From: .nz
Registered: 2009-05-09
Posts: 30,424
Website

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless Issues - interface can't be turned on?

You can always use the report button for this sort of thing.

Moving to Laptop Issues...


Arch + dwm   •   Mercurial repos  •   Surfraw

Registered Linux User #482438

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#5 2013-07-06 07:16:03

Strike0
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2011-09-05
Posts: 1,429

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless Issues - interface can't be turned on?

I have seen such automatic blocks  happen when not setting the interface down before changing power saving features. So this might come from that script turninig the tx down without putting the ip link down first. You can be glad that the button toggles the hardblock too (that is often not implemented since it is model specific). 
Can you remove the script, do a clean reboot and look at the output from

rfkill list all
ip a
lsmod |grep acpi

then try to toggle any block with the key. If that does not help, the module are looking for should be one specific for dell handling acpi for the machine. Try unloading it (but this will probably break other functions too, if you cannot get connected after a clean reboot. You should also be able to blacklist it to test.

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#6 2013-07-07 19:34:44

f3doramonk3y
Member
Registered: 2013-06-25
Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless Issues - interface can't be turned on?

Thank you for your reply. Using the toggle blocking and removing the script, I am now able to turn on my interface and associate with a wifi spot. Marking it solved.

Thank you everyone who viewed and thought about this problem and/or replied to the topic.

Best

-RS

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