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daspostloch

Member

Registered: 2009-12-17

Posts: 40

[Solved] Wireless problem: wpa_supplicant yields rfkill & ioctl error

After a hard disk crash and reinstall, wifi (via my USB wifi card, Edimax Realtek RTL8188CUS, because the internal card is broken) stopped working. The wpa_supplicant error is below, first some system info:

$ lsusb -v 
[...]
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 7392:7811 Edimax Technology Co., Ltd EW-7811Un 802.11n Wireless Adapter [Realtek RTL8188CUS]
Device Descriptor:
  bLength                18
  bDescriptorType         1
  bcdUSB               2.00
  bDeviceClass            0 
  bDeviceSubClass         0 
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  bMaxPacketSize0        64
  idVendor           0x7392 Edimax Technology Co., Ltd
  idProduct          0x7811 EW-7811Un 802.11n Wireless Adapter [Realtek RTL8188CUS]
[...]

$ dmesg | grep usbcore
[    0.685266] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
[    0.685277] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
[    0.685309] usbcore: registered new device driver usb
[    7.909476] usbcore: registered new interface driver rtl8192cu
[    9.492908] usbcore: registered new interface driver uvcvideo

$ ifconfig
enp0s25: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.178.92  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.178.255
        inet6 fe80::b2b2:402d:c93e:aaa8  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether 00:24:7e:6a:db:bf  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 1005  bytes 799882 (781.1 KiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 2  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 1046  bytes 104663 (102.2 KiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
        device interrupt 20  memory 0xfc400000-fc420000  

enp0s26f7u1: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        ether 74:da:38:02:5d:25  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 11  bytes 1463 (1.4 KiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 71  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 3  bytes 465 (465.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 3 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10<host>
        loop  txqueuelen 1  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

$ ip link
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: enp0s25: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:24:7e:6a:db:bf brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: enp0s26f7u1: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN mode DORMANT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 74:da:38:02:5d:25 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Since all "iw dev" -related commands fail, or rather, produce no output, I'm going for wext:

# ip link set dev enp0s26f7u1 up
# wpa_supplicant -B -i enp0s26f7u1 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/home.conf -D wext
Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant
rfkill: Cannot get wiphy information
ioctl[SIOCSIWAP]: Operation not permitted
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Invalid argument
ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Invalid argument
# dhcpcd enp0s26f7u1
enp0s26f7u1: waiting for carrier
timed out
dhcpcd exited
# 

The wpa_supplicant .conf file was created via wpa_passphrase.

Also, wicd-gtk fails, but funnily on a bad password which is definitively correct.

I searched both google and the forums, and found a few posts related to the wpa_supplicant errors, but none of them were directly applicable, it seemed to me.

Any hints and pointers most welcome - thanks!

Edit: PS: 8192cu-dkms is installed via AUR

Last edited by daspostloch (2017-06-10 01:42:00)

daspostloch

Member

Registered: 2009-12-17

Posts: 40

Re: [Solved] Wireless problem: wpa_supplicant yields rfkill & ioctl error

Anyone?

R00KIE

Forum Fellow

From: Between a computer and a chair

Registered: 2008-09-14

Posts: 4,734

Re: [Solved] Wireless problem: wpa_supplicant yields rfkill & ioctl error

Bumping is against the forum's code of conduct: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … ct#Bumping

That said you don't seem to have any wireless cards on your system, at least cards that have loaded drivers and working. Wireless cards' name usually start with wl, note that you have two en which usually is the name given to wired ethernet cards. Make sure that you have the correct driver for your wireless card and that the driver is actually being loaded. Also check if you need to install an extra firmware package.

---

R00KIE
Tm90aGluZyB0byBzZWUgaGVyZSwgbW92ZSBhbG9uZy4K

daspostloch

Member

Registered: 2009-12-17

Posts: 40

Re: [Solved] Wireless problem: wpa_supplicant yields rfkill & ioctl error

Sorry for the bump, I see... In any case, it is solved now - oddly by simply removing the AUR package 8192cu-dkms again, which on my old system was the only driver working with that USB wifi adapter. A few comments below for future reference.

The en-vs-wl naming problem is apparently an odd but known artifact, see e.g. https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=197270  and https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comm … behaviour/ . The second one also lead me to simply removing the AUR package 8192cu-dkms , and now everything works the standard kernel's driver. So the bottom line is: something changed through my complete system re-install, and what was once needed on my old system (8192cu-dkms) is now hindering the USB wifi adapter from working properly, and removing it solved all my problems.

Thanks, Rookie, for your reply!