wifi unable to connect

[dyneshqmar]

Hello there,
I have a dell vostro 1014 Laptop, which runs a ubuntu 12.04. My wireless is enabled, but the LED doesnt glow and its also unable to find the connections nearby. When i was trying to sort out this issue with RTC, someone told me that it is an "rfkill soft-off" issue. Previously, someone told me that there are many interfaces created which is creating a problem for wifi. i am not sure, what that meant. Anyway, thats all i know about the problem. my wireless driver is an AR9285, by Atheros Communication Inc. Help me out guys!!

[chili555]

Please open a terminal and run and post:

lspci -nn | grep 0280
rfkill list all
dmesg | grep ath9

Thanks.

[dyneshqmar]

bravo@Roy-PC:~$ lspci -nn | grep 0280
0c:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [168c:002b] (rev 01)
bravo@Roy-PC:~$ rfkill list all
0: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
1: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
2: dell-bluetooth: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
bravo@Roy-PC:~$ dmesg | grep ath9

[chili555]

bravo@Roy-PC:~$ dmesg | grep ath9

Fascinating.

Let's kick it a bit harder. Please run and post:

sudo modprobe ath9k
dmesg | grep ath9
iwconfig

someone told me that it is an "rfkill soft-off" issue. Previously, someone told me that there are many interfaces created which is creating a problem for wifi. i am not sure, what that meant.

It means a lot of people really don't know much.

Other than the fact that the driver ath9k isn't loading on boot, so far, we see nothing unusual.

[dyneshqmar]

bravo@Roy-PC:~$ sudo modprobe ath9k
[sudo] password for bravo: 
WARNING: All config files need .conf: /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist, it will be ignored in a future release.
WARNING: All config files need .conf: /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf.save, it will be ignored in a future release.
bravo@Roy-PC:~$ dmesg | grep ath9
[ 1452.965130] ath9k 0000:0c:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
[ 1452.965145] ath9k 0000:0c:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 1453.074186] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'ath9k_rate_control'
[ 1453.074927] Registered led device: ath9k-phy0
bravo@Roy-PC:~$ iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=0 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:on
          
eth0      no wireless extensions.

Thank you!

[chili555]

Hmmm, somebody has been busy! Let's unravel things. Please let me see:

cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
cat /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf.save
cat /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf

Let's fix those problems before we proceed.

[dyneshqmar]

bravo@Roy-PC:~$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

#Remove To Install MadWIFI Drivers
blacklist ath9k
blacklist ath5k

#Remove To Install MadWIFI Drivers
blacklist ath9k
blacklist ath5k
bravo@Roy-PC:~$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf.save
cat: /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf.save: Permission denied
bravo@Roy-PC:~$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf
cat: /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf: No such file or directory
bravo@Roy-PC:~$

[dyneshqmar]

and this MadWIFI thing was also suggested by some one. it didn't work either. I've been tied up with my wired connection on my laptop all day! relieve me brother! thank you!

[chili555]

bravo@Roy-PC:~$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

#Remove To Install MadWIFI Drivers
blacklist ath9k
blacklist ath5k

#Remove To Install MadWIFI Drivers
blacklist ath9k
blacklist ath5k

Fascinating. Did you try to install Madwifi? It seems that the driver you need is blacklisted, unless, of course, you've tried some other drivers.

bravo@Roy-PC:~$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf.save
cat: /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf.save: Permission denied

Even more fascinating! How about:

sudo cat /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf.save

[dyneshqmar]

bravo@Roy-PC:~$ sudo cat /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf.save
[sudo] password for bravo: 
options ath9k nohwcrypt=1
bravo@Roy-PC:~$