Compaq Presario CQ61 406TU Atheros Wireless Adapter

[robertthebruce]

solved - upgraded my thinking to ext4 with everything in / and it worked out of box




Compaq Presario CQ61 406TU
1.4CPU, 512Ram, 40GHDD
Grub Dual Boot Win7
Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS Server

i have the dreaded

02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285
Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [168c:002b] (rev 01)

Im having problems with it starting reliably...

I've tiried a lot of the methods here and am embarrassed to post this as there is already a plethora of info about it so i thought if i blog my steps maybe someone could nudge me along in the right direction...

As to the many methods i have tried here i would next like to try blacklisting but im not sure exactly what to blacklist. My best guess is ath_pci and i tried that last install along with disabling ip6. I could have sworn it worked for one boot but that was one boot of many....

i am also sort of following this thread
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...1#post12425691


I've just done a fresh install and going thru the updates grades

apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade.

I normally also

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

but im holding off until i sort the wireless connect issue.

After above it says reboot required so i reboot twice, i havnt tried that yet......nope, reboot twice at that particular point doesnt fix it....

On the first boot from the install I have to sudo ifup wlan0
iwconfig before ifup on first boot from install

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:"BigPondE90E07"
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not Associated Tx power=14dBm
Retry long limit:70 RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Power Managementn

eth0 no wireless extensions.

Then i run

sudo ifup wlan0

it reports

ssh stop/waiting
ssh start/running, process 1327

I then iwconfig and get this

robert@camserver3:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:"BigPondE90E07"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 58:98:35:E9:0E:07
Bit Rate=26 Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Power Managementn
Link Quality=34/70 Signal level=-76 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:1 Invalid misc:26 Missed beacon:0
eth0 no wireless extensions.

running sudo lshw -C network from the other thread i get this but im exhauseted for the moment

*-network
description: Wireless interface
product: AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express)
vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
logical name: wlan0
version: 01
serial: c4:17:fe:2f:d7:44
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath9k driverversion=3.2.0-29-generic-pae firmware=N/A ip=10.0.0.3 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn
resources: irq:16 memory:93500000-9350ffff
*-network DISABLED
description: Ethernet interface
product: RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller
vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
logical name: eth0
version: 02
serial: 00:26:9e:f0:54:99
size: 10Mbit/s
capacity: 100Mbit/s
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=off broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=half firmware=N/A latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=MII speed=10Mbit/s
resources: irq:43 ioport:2000(size=256) memory:91410000-91410fff memory:91400000-9140ffff memory:91420000-9142ffff
robert@camserver3:~$

So im just going to put a cup of tea on and come back to look at this result


ps - what have i done with the quote tags? is it normal the front one shows in the page...darn it..

[robertthebruce]

so ive now done this

cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-ath_pci.conf

and getting this

robert@camserver3:~$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-ath_pci.conf
# For some Atheros 5K RF MACs, the madwifi driver loads buts fails to
# correctly initialize the hardware, leaving it in a state from
# which ath5k cannot recover. To prevent this condition, stop
# madwifi from loading by default. Use Jockey to select one driver
# or the other. (Ubuntu: #315056, #323830)
blacklist ath_pci

from what i can gather that command may have made an entry into the a file by creating a file... i reckon that's pretty clever, one day i may have time to read more about that...

[robertthebruce]

nahh, that didnt work...

imof to sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

and adding

blacklist ath5k
blacklist ath9k

and just for the hell of it,,,

# blacklist ath_pci

( but i think i already did that with itas own file earlier)


going for a reboot...

[robertthebruce]

npe, lost wlan0 completely... have gone back to modprobe to hash one of them....

and a reboot

[robertthebruce]

nope, hashing the first one didnt bring the wifi light to blue (on)

have visa-versa'a....

if this doesnt activate the wifi light from orange im going to boot into window to reactivate the wifi then boot back to u and see if the one stated will pick up

[robertthebruce]

..lovely, the iface light actuvated blue which means the card can recover from blacklisting....

ive unhashed ath9 and hashed in ath5 in the conf file and will then ty a reboot
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Old 20 Minutes Ago #7
robertthebruce
First Cup of Ubuntu




ok, so it doesnt like ath9 at all...
and unblacking ath5 brings up the card which is great
ive unhased/BL's aht_pci as well on this boot just to see what happens........nopr....i amy have to unblack it with that earlier command...hmmmm.....
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Old 6 Minutes Ago #8
robertthebruce
First Cup of Ubuntu




The wifi-light turn from orange to blue reliably

i did this by blacklisting ath9
i had earlier modprobe blacklisted ath_pci which had no effect..
i have now "rm"d that modprobe
reboot
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Unread 1 Minute Ago #9
robertthebruce
First Cup of Ubuntu


nahhh, all that hasnt worked.... im back at the full circle of the last install

it's wierd... after boot

sudo ifup wlan0
reports that it is already configured (but its not)

then it doesnt matter how long i wait it will not connect untill i run some command that touchs some part of it....even the modules file which it is not mentioned except by dependency

sudo ifup wlano
reports that ssh start stop string



i am not sure where to go to from here
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[robertthebruce]

how lovely is this.... it 2am... AGAIN! wafpoc!

[robertthebruce]

i have now "rm"d that modprobe

ends up i iddnt rm the mod file i actually rm's my entire blacklist file...

cant fnid the recycle bin so reloading 12

[squakie]

You need to not blacklist ath9k - that's the driver you need. I also noticed you are connecting to some network: BigPondE90E07

So, maybe a little clarification on what you mean by "not starting reliably". At startup? After hibernating? After suspend?

[robertthebruce]

hi Squakie many thanks for your reply...

yes you are correct i need ath5k blacklisted.

what i meant by "reliably" was that within the first few boots from install it seems i cannot reliably configure it,,,,
it worked during install - ie blue light comes on and connects to essid BigPond
it worked with ifup on second boot (after upgrades, ie blue light comes on during boot and connects to essid BigPond

on third boot blue light does not change,
ifup says its configured,
iwconfig is empty
i then run ifup again and light turns blue and connects....

I've done another fresh install....