Unstable Wireless with 12.04 Atheros AR9462, can't compile a new ath9k driver

[suaf]

Hello,

I bought a new Acer Aspire M3-481 laptop and put Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. Everything works more or less OK but the wireless connection, which is very unstable, disconnects every several minutes. The Wireless card is Atheros AR9462, and as far as I could find on the forums, many people have problems with it.

1. I tried this decision, it seemed quite popular and working, but it did not help:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2081714

It suggested modifying the ath9k.conf by adding options ath9k nohwcrypt=1.

2. I found out that some people compiled backported drivers, as suggested here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2133296&page=2

and most of all here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2035902&page=4

However, the information is very old. The backports page looks completely different now, none of the described commands are working, and I am not really into compiling. So I couldn't actually install the latest ath9k driver to see what will happen. I followed the instructions here:

https://backports.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Documentation#Usage_guide

But the latest backports don't show the ath9k driver in the menu. I tried about 5 different versions. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

Any ideas? Thanks a lot.

[chili555]

Please get a temporary wired ethernet connection and do:


sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic build-essential

I suggest you download this to your desktop: https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/projects/backports/stable/v3.12.2/backports-3.12.2-1.tar.bz2 Right-click it and select 'Extract Here.' Now open a terminal and do:


cd ~/Desktop/backports-3.12.2-1/
make defconfig-ath9k
make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe -r ath9k && sudo modprobe ath9k

Your wireless should now be working. You will have compiled the driver for your currently running kernel only. When Update Manager installs a later linux-image, after reboot, re-compile:


cd ~/Desktop/backports-3.12.2-1/
make clean
make defconfig-ath9k
make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe -r ath9k && sudo modprobe ath9k
Post back if you get stuck.

[suaf]

make defconfig-ath9k


So that's what I was missing... It worked perfectly, thank you very much for the quick reply! I've been using the wifi for a few hours now, and it seems to work great!

[neil18]

Please get a temporary wired ethernet connection and do:


sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic build-essential

I suggest you download this to your desktop: https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/projects/backports/stable/v3.12.2/backports-3.12.2-1.tar.bz2 Right-click it and select 'Extract Here.' Now open a terminal and do:


cd ~/Desktop/backports-3.12.2-1/
make defconfig-ath9k
make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe -r ath9k && sudo modprobe ath9k

Your wireless should now be working. You will have compiled the driver for your currently running kernel only. When Update Manager installs a later linux-image, after reboot, re-compile:


cd ~/Desktop/backports-3.12.2-1/
make clean
make defconfig-ath9k
make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe -r ath9k && sudo modprobe ath9k
Post back if you get stuck.


Hi, I have problem when I rebooted my machine, wireless connected is disabled and i have to do it again :( . How can i make this permanent? Thanks!

[chili555]

Hi, I have problem when I rebooted my machine, wireless connected is disabled and i have to do it again :( . How can i make this permanent? Thanks!Please reboot. Check to see if the module ath9k is loaded:
lsmod | grep ath9kIf not, load it:
sudo modprobe ath9kThen add it to the list of modules that are to loaded automatically:
sudo -i
echo ath9k >> /etc/modules
exitYou should be all set.

[neil18]

Thanks! It works like a charm!

[Koli14]

Hy!
I also stuck with my WIFI connection. I tried a lot of suggested solution, but non of them helped.
If i try your solution, then by 'make' i get a lot of warning and error: http://pastebin.com/ZJgTdsuF (http://pastebin.com/ZJgTdsuF)
I use linux mint 17.1 Rebecca - Cinnamon 64-bit
uname -r : 3.13.0-37-generic
Acer Aspire V3-371, Qualcomm Atheros AR9462 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
And here is the output of mintwifi:

mintwifi
-------------------------
* I. scanning WIFI PCI devices...
-- Qualcomm Atheros AR9462 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
==> PCI ID = 168c:0034 (rev 01)
-------------------------
* II. querying ndiswrapper...
-------------------------
* III. querying iwconfig...
eth0 no wireless extensions.

lo no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=16 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off

-------------------------
* IV. querying ifconfig...
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 30:65:ec:4b:3b:bc
inet addr:192.168.0.2 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::3265:ecff:fe4b:3bbc/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:221819 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:282062 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:32610444 (32.6 MB) TX bytes:315023138 (315.0 MB)

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:65536 Metric:1
RX packets:1068 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1068 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:92886 (92.8 KB) TX bytes:92886 (92.8 KB)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr c0:38:96:75:a7:9f
UP BROADCAST 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)

[chili555]

Hy!
I also stuck with my WIFI connection. I tried a lot of suggested solution, but non of them helped.
If i try your solution, then by 'make' i get a lot of warning and error: http://pastebin.com/ZJgTdsuF (http://pastebin.com/ZJgTdsuF)
I use linux mint 17.1 Rebecca - Cinnamon 64-bit
uname -r : 3.13.0-37-generic
Acer Aspire V3-371, Qualcomm Atheros AR9462 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
And here is the output of mintwifi:If you are running a 3.13 kernel version, installing backports 3.12, an older driver version, is unlikely to help, even if it compiled properly.

I suggest you ask the question here: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewforum.php?f=53

[Koli14]

Ubuntu forum is just much more alive. :P But thanks. I tried it with other backports (3.18, 3.17, 3.14) but did not fixed the issue.
Kolos

[chili555]

Ubuntu forum is just much more alive. :P But thanks. I tried it with other backports (3.18, 3.17, 3.14) but did not fixed the issue.
KolosAnd what, exactly, is the issue?

It seems that many newer users think a newer or, in your case, older (!!) driver is the answer to everything.

If your car is out of fuel, for example, a different driver isn't going to change anything.

[Cem_Ara]

And what, exactly, is the issue?

It seems that many newer users think a newer or, in your case, older (!!) driver is the answer to everything.

If your car is out of fuel, for example, a different driver isn't going to change anything.

The issue is the wifi doesn't work correctly.
List of SSID shows up fine but the wifi card can't connect to any of them.
dmesg shows that authentication with <mac address of router> timed out.
I tried turning off password, WEP, WPA2 but none worked.
I have the same laptop model as him, I tried to search for a solution for weeks.
A few result with this same laptop stated that they give up trying to fix it.
I tried kernel versions from 3.13 to 4.0 and it is still not working.
The laptop is a fairly new Broadwell CPU model but the wifi adapter reports the model which is AR9462.
I think there might be a difference in the model even though the version reported is the same, that's why none of the solutions posted worked.

Tried different distro, ubuntu, linux mint, debian and all 3 didn't work.