Arch Linux

kurt.walker

Member

Registered: 2010-08-22

Posts: 3

starling netbook second generation wireless issues

I've got a starling netbook from system76, and I'm having trouble getting the wireless working.  It worked fine with the Ubuntu install that was on it initially.  Here is what lspci says:

$ lspci | grep -i net
05:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 8172 (rev 10)
09:00.5 Ethernet controller: JMicron Technology Corp. JMC260 PCI Express Fast Ethernet Controller (rev 02)

the device 8172 is not mentioned on the Wireless setup wiki page.  According to this page: http://www.linwik.com/wiki/using+the+re … buntu+9.10.  I should be able to use the driver for 8192, which the wiki page indicates is part of the kernel.  Either 8192 is the wrong driver for my card or its not getting loaded because iwconfig does not show the wireless card.

$ iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

Anyone know how to get the 8172 card working?  Thanks.

Varg

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2010-07-07

Posts: 272

Re: starling netbook second generation wireless issues

I assume that this is a fresh arch install ? As far as I know rc.conf isn't set to bring up the wireless interface at boot.
Try:

ifconfig -a
ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig

When ifconfig -a doesn't show your wireless card it's a driver problem and I can't help you. When it is listed it means that the wireless card just isn't activated and thus not showing up in iwconfig.

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beg … reless_LAN

---

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avatar: The Oathmeal

kurt.walker

Member

Registered: 2010-08-22

Posts: 3

Re: starling netbook second generation wireless issues

Thanks Varg. It is a fresh install.  ifconfig -a does not show wlan0, so I think it is a driver issue.

kurt.walker

Member

Registered: 2010-08-22

Posts: 3

Re: starling netbook second generation wireless issues

Update:
I installed the 8192se driver that was in the AUR.  Now it appears the card is recognized.

$ ifconfig wlan0
wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 74:F0:6D:27:41:6D  
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:16 Memory:f8340000-f8340100

But, it won't detect any wireless networks.  I know the wireless router is working, as I have other computers connected to it.

$ iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0     No scan results

Any ideas?

Varg

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2010-07-07

Posts: 272

Re: starling netbook second generation wireless issues

That sounds familiar...

I have a atheros card and I had the same problem when trying to use the ath5k driver. The card is active but doesn't work and I couldn't detect any network either.
1) The new driver is still not the correct one. I'm using the wext driver and it works fine ( I set it up according to the beginners manual in the wiki )
2) The driver is the good one but your card is corrupted because of the previous wrong driver. I had this with the ath5k driver. Lost my wifi on Arch and also on my W7 dual boot... In this case you need to unplug your laptop and take out the battery for ~10 min. to reset your bios.
3) both the above

I would go for resetting the bios, and reset your rc.conf to standard values ( only what's wifi related and especially those modules ). Then try to get your wifi working with wext by following the beginners guide. See if that works first. When you are sure that the new driver works with your card you can try to load it later. It's possible that you'll have to repeat this several times and try out some different things to see what's causing the problem. Because you'll have to shutdown and unplug al power this is sort of time consuming and frustrating but this is how I solved my wifi problems. Hope it helps for you.

---

github - tweets
avatar: The Oathmeal

drelyn86

Member

From: Indianapolis, IN

Registered: 2009-04-10

Posts: 80

Re: starling netbook second generation wireless issues

did this ever get resolved? I just bought a Starling from System76, and I'm hoping to not have the same issues when it shows up.

phubai

Member

Registered: 2011-01-28

Posts: 6

Re: starling netbook second generation wireless issues

Well, I don't know if the OP was able to resolve or not, but the post previous to yours, should in fact work. I have a Realtek card, and was able to get it working without any problem at all beyond setting up wpa_supplicant to connect to my particular lan. It was working out of the box, with the exception of wpa with the wext driver. Network manager automated the process nicely for me, so I wouldn't be too worried about your System 76 and getting it connected.

--phubai