10.04 Atheros AR5001 HPG50 "Wireless is disabled"

[Rubidot]

I'm using an HPG50 I got on a Black Friday a couple years ago. I used to have Windows 7 on it, and the wireless networking worked. I created a bootable usb drive with Ubuntu 10.04, and tested it live from the usb drive. Everything worked fine, including the wireless networking, so I formatted the drive and installed Ubunutu.

After rebooting into the fresh install, the wireless networking no longer worked. I tried booting from the USB drive again, but the wireless didn't work in that any more either. I've done a lot of googleing, but I still don't know how to get it to work. The network manager applet says "wireless is disabled" under "Wireless Networks"

~$ lspci
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 02)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)

~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

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

~$ lsmod |grep ath5k
ath5k 121792 0
mac80211 204922 1 ath5k
ath 7611 1 ath5k
cfg80211 126485 3 ath5k,mac80211,ath
led_class 2864 1 ath5k

~$ sudo lshw -C network
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller
vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
logical name: eth0
version: 02
serial: 00:1f:16:41:c6:85
size: 100MB/s
capacity: 100MB/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=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=full ip=192.168.0.43 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=MII speed=100MB/s
resources: irq:26 ioport:3000(size=256) memory:d0410000-d0410fff(prefetchable) memory:d0400000-d040ffff(prefetchable) memory:d0420000-d043ffff(prefetchable)
*-network DISABLED
description: Wireless interface
product: AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter
vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
logical name: wlan0
version: 01
serial: 00:23:4d:a3:1a:96
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath5k latency=0 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg
resources: irq:17 memory:d2600000-d260ffff


~$ iwlist scan
lo Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

wlan0 Failed to read scan data : Network is down



~$ lsb_release -d
Description: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
~$ uname -mr
2.6.32-22-generic i686

[DarkHellBird]

I know this might sound lame, but did you check that the wireless/bluetooth switch was turned on, I'm only posting because the exact situation has happened to me!

In case it was the problem, be sure to install the linux-backport-modules-wireless-lucid-generic, and headers modules as well.
The Atheros driver in Lucid is extremley buggy. If these don't help, you'll have to try to install the compat-wireless drivers for your atheros card.

If it was turned on and your wireless is actually disabled, then Im not sure what could be the cause because you atheros card appears to be supported in Ubuntu.

Good Luck

[Rubidot]

The wireless button didn't work before, but this morning I turned on my laptop and the wireless was working. The button randomly switches between on/off colors, but it works now...

Maybe it was installing updates, and then rebooting with the ethernet unplugged?

Thanks for your suggestions - I'll be back if the wireless randomly decides not to work.