No WiFi on Fujitsu Siemens w / AR5001 and KDE 2010

[Ɗα√ϵς§]

Just installed PCLinuxOS for a friend, whose laptop was just hopeless at running Vista, a Fujistu Seimens with Atheros AR5001 (not X).

The ath5k / ath9k drivers don't work. I blacklisted them and installed dkms-madwifi, and that doesn't work either!!

She normally connects to the internet using a Huawei 3G dongle which works OK if rather slowly. At some point she may wish to switch to normal broadband. Any ideas?

The following quote is from a thread involving the AR5001X, which I would have hoped were quite similar, and which I attempted:

You can try this.

Edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and add
blacklist ath5k
blacklist ath9k

Go into the Network Center and delete the wireless connection.
Check /etc/modprobe.conf and make sure the following 2 lines are not present. If so delete them.
alias wlan0 ath5k
alias pci:v0000168Cd00000013sv00001468sd00000406bc02sc00i00 ath5k

Reboot and come up on the wired connection.
Open Synaptic and search for madwifi
install the following 2 packages
dkms-madwifi (This will take a minute or two as it is building the kernel drivers on the fly)
madwifi

Open a konsole terminal, su to root and type modprobe ath_pci
Open the Network Center and configure Wireless.

[Texstar]

Just installed PCLinuxOS for a friend, whose laptop was just hopeless at running Vista, a Fujistu Seimens with Atheros AR5001 (not X).

The ath5k / ath9k drivers don't work. I blacklisted them and installed dkms-madwifi, and that doesn't work either!!

She normally connects to the internet using a Huawei 3G dongle which works OK if rather slowly. At some point she may wish to switch to normal broadband. Any ideas?

Did you modprobe ath_pci before trying to setup the wireless? Did you install both madwifi packages?

[frazelle09]

Thanks, texstar.  i was actually going to courteously suggest that he start a new thread since he mentioned that it's (not X)...

Have a great afternoon!  



EDIT by davecs -- Used mod power to split topic.

[Ɗα√ϵς§]

Just installed PCLinuxOS for a friend, whose laptop was just hopeless at running Vista, a Fujistu Seimens with Atheros AR5001 (not X).

The ath5k / ath9k drivers don't work. I blacklisted them and installed dkms-madwifi, and that doesn't work either!!

She normally connects to the internet using a Huawei 3G dongle which works OK if rather slowly. At some point she may wish to switch to normal broadband. Any ideas?

Did you modprobe ath_pci before trying to setup the wireless? Did you install both madwifi packages?

Yes. And on a reboot ath_pci is automatically loaded. The Hardware is apparently detected, but no wireless signals are found -- same with ath5k and ath_pci,

[Hootiegibbon]

Just installed PCLinuxOS for a friend, whose laptop was just hopeless at running Vista, a Fujistu Seimens with Atheros AR5001 (not X).

The ath5k / ath9k drivers don't work. I blacklisted them and installed dkms-madwifi, and that doesn't work either!!

She normally connects to the internet using a Huawei 3G dongle which works OK if rather slowly. At some point she may wish to switch to normal broadband. Any ideas?

Did you modprobe ath_pci before trying to setup the wireless? Did you install both madwifi packages?

Yes. And on a reboot ath_pci is automatically loaded. The Hardware is apparently detected, but no wireless signals are found -- same with ath5k and ath_pci,

davecs,

could you try posting the results of the following in a konsole please (working on a possible theroy here)

dmesg |grep ath
lsmod |grep ath
lsmod |grep wmi
lspci |grep Atheros
dmesg |grep processor

Cheers

Jase

[Joble]

OOOh!  Nice!  I hate troubleshooting Ath!  I think I'm about to learn something!

[Ɗα√ϵς§]

As requested


dmesg | grep ath
ath_pci 0000:08:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
ath_pci 0000:08:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
MadWifi: ath_attach: Switching rfkill capability off.
ath_pci: wifi0: Atheros 5424/2424: mem=0xfa000000, irq=18
ath0: no IPv6 routers present


lsmod | grep ath
ath_rate_sample         9388  1
ath_pci               145738  0
wlan                  189571  5 wlan_wep,wlan_scan_sta,ath_rate_sample,ath_pci
ath_hal               323321  3 ath_rate_sample,ath_pci

lsmod | grep wmi
snd_rawmidi            16051  1 snd_usb_lib
snd_seq_device          5214  4 snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd                    46023  17 snd_usb_audio,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,
                                 snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,
                                 snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mixer_oss
wmi                     4977  0

lspci |grep Atheros
08:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 04)

dmesg |grep processor
Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode...Ok.
Detected 1729.044 MHz processor.
Booting processor 1 APIC 0x1 ip 0x6000
Total of 2 processors activated (6915.92 BogoMIPS).
processor LNXCPU:00: registered as cooling_device1
processor LNXCPU:01: registered as cooling_device2


Anything? I won't have access to the computer later today, for a number of weeks, unless I can explain the solution over the phone to a complete beginner. As I said, it only becomes urgent if she decides to get proper broadband.

[Ɗα√ϵς§]

Plot thickens. My Samsung NC10 is an AR5001 this works perfectly with the ath5k driver!

[Joble]

Well then.  It's probably the switch.   

I hate switches.

[Hootiegibbon]

davecs,

lsmod | grep ath
ath_rate_sample         9388  1
ath_pci               145738  0

This suggests that no hardware is using the ath_pci driver that is loaded although the hardware listed should 'bite' into this.

This in itself leads to a couple of possibilities

The first is that there is switch that needs to be 'flipped' on laptops the switch may not be a physical switch but a software-controlled one, normally a particular kernel module would do this. it may be worth while seeing if the laptop in question requires this.

The other is that the wireless unit is faulty or not seated /connected physically (the latter is unlikely though as lspci sees the device)

Jase

[Ɗα√ϵς§]

I think it's a hardware fault. She's just phoned me to say that it doesn't even turn on now. I gave her a copy of the live CD because she thought her brother might be interested in it, and that doesn't boot now either.

[Ɗα√ϵς§]

Thing is, she's home and there is no way I will see her for at least four weeks, maybe longer. I think the laptop itself may be the problem.

[Texstar]

I think it's a hardware fault. She's just phoned me to say that it doesn't even turn on now. I gave her a copy of the live CD because she thought her brother might be interested in it, and that doesn't boot now either.

Headline report: Linux killed my computer. Details at the 11 o'clock news!

[Hootiegibbon]

I think it's a hardware fault. She's just phoned me to say that it doesn't even turn on now. I gave her a copy of the live CD because she thought her brother might be interested in it, and that doesn't boot now either.

Headline report: Linux killed my computer. Details at the 11 o'clock news!

Nah, Some times when something is poisoned the antivenom can be administered too late!

Did davecs say this laptop previously had vista installed?

Jase

[AndrzejL]

I think I'm about to learn something!

+1... about troubleshooting... never had to do it all 4 of my ath cards + pclos always worked 100% ootb... Thanks Texstar !

Andy