Weird wireless failure...

[aSteve]

I'm unsure what's gone wrong... I've been using the latest Netbook remix on my EEE 901, and yesterday, wireless networking stopped working.

I assumed that I must have hit function-F2 and turned off wireless - but after various experiments, I found that even with wireless enabled at this level, things were still amiss.

The network manager applet says "Disconnected" - and doesn't list any Wi-Fi access points in range - and there are loads - one within a meter. When I right click, both Enable Networking and Enable Wireless (and Enable Notifications) are ticked. If I try to 'connect to hidden wireless network' - and supply my local (non-hidden) network - it asks for the password; waits a while then asks again.

"lspci" gives the relevant line:

01:00.0 Network Controller: RaLink RT2800 802.11n PCI

"rfkill list" gives

0: eeepc-wlan: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
1: eeepc-bluetooth: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no

"iwconfig" gives:

--
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions

wlan0 Ralink STA ESSID:"" Nickname:"RT2860STA"
Mode:Auto Frequency=2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate: 1 Mb/s
RTS thr: off key: off
Encryption key: off
Link Quality=10/100 Signal level: 0 dBm Noise level:-98 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
--


In my syslog, I've various errors reported, for example:



kernel: [14.037097] Skipping EBID probe due to cached ebid
NetworkManager[852]: <info> (wlan0): deactivating device (reason 2).
NetworkManager[852] <error> [1300448368.575258] [nm-device-wifi.c:1542] nm_device_wifi_set_mode(): (wlan0): error setting mode 2
NetworkManager[852]: supplicant_interface_acquire: assertion 'mgr_state == NM_SUPPLICANT_MANAGER_STATE_IDLE' failed
kernel: [14.944349] NICLoadFirmware: MCU is not ready
kernel: [14.944357] ERROR! NICLoadFirmware failed, status[=0x00000001]
kernel: [14.944365] rt28xx Initiaized fail!

Later I get a whole slew of errors from the kernel - mostly mentioning "ERROR! H2M_MAILBOX hold by MCU. command fail" or "ERROR! BBP write R"..." fail"


Is this a hardware failure, or have I been knobbled by an update? Has anyone else had problems with their EEE PC's wireless?

[Hippytaff]

Have you tried reinstalling the RaLink RT2800 driver? an update might well be responsible

Before that though what is the output of

lsmod | grep -i rt28

[aSteve]

Hmmm - I've not tried re-installing the driver... Is there a 'howto' on that? So far, with Ubuntu, I've not had to grunge-about with anything as low level as drivers...


$ lsmod | grep -i rt28
rt2860sta 504366 0
rt2800pci 8565 0
rt2800lib 28961 1 rt2800pci
rt2x00usb 9779 1 rt2800lib
rt2x00pci 6029 1 rt2800pci
crc_ccitt 1351 2 rt2860sta,rt2800pci
rt2x00lib 27307 4 rt2800pci,rt2800lib,rt2x00usb,rt2z00pci
eeprom_93cx6 1345 1 rt2800pci
$

I didn't expect to see rt2x00usb - as my RaLink Wi-fi is an internal PCI job (standard for the EEEPC 901s) and I've never plugged in a USB Wi-Fi device. That aside, I'm none-the-wiser about what is actually wrong.

When I 'locate rt28' and look at timestamps, the most recently change file was /lib/modules/2.6.35-27-generic/kernel/drivers/staging/rt2860/rt2860sta.ko - and that file changed on the 23rd of February. The netbook worked since then - but, maybe, I hadn't rebooted - so had been using an elder kernel configuration?

[Hippytaff]

youve also got an rt2860 driver...this could be causing a conflict. maybe try uninstalling both and reinstalling one, then the other to see if either work (the rt2800 probably).

modprobe -r r8xxxx

to remove drivers

 modprobe r8xxxx

to install where xxxx is the relevant number (make a note of them before you remove them edit-> don't know why I typed that - the note is here ).

what you have discovered sounds plausible...I'm only just getting to grips with ubuntu at this level - I'm loving the freedome to interact with these things via cli...but thats the nerd within

let me know how it goes

[david_ko]

Hey all,

I think it might be a bug with the new update. I have the same problem, as does this person: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10572047

I managed to solve it by booting into the old kernel.

Someone wanna file a bug report? I'm not too savvy w/ Linux, but I have a hunch that there are others out there who have also lost their wireless ability after last night's update.

[Hippytaff]

Hey all,

I think it might be a bug with the new update. I have the same problem, as does this person: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10572047

I managed to solve it by booting into the old kernel.

Someone wanna file a bug report? I'm not too savvy w/ Linux, but I have a hunch that there are others out there who have also lost their wireless ability after last night's update.

I'll wait until all avenues have been explored then I'll file a big report...it does sound like you might be right though...best to make sure first.