Atheros AR9285/Ubuntu 11.04/Lenovo B575 (Wireless Disabled?)

[mdunphy]

/* SOLVED */

Hi guys, I recently bought a new laptop (Lenovo B575) for school/work and went to put Ubuntu on it. I run it on my desktop which has a wired connection and I've never had any problems. However I seem to be having a bit of trouble getting the wireless to work at all. Even with "Enable Wireless" checked off in Network Manager and my wifi switch turned on, it is still telling me that my wireless is disabled. From what I've gathered from troubleshooting this, my card (Atheros AR9285) has worked on previous versions of Ubuntu, but doesn't seem to play nice with Natty Narwhal for some reason. I have checked the wireless troubleshooting guide as well as scoured the internet to find a solution but have found nothing that has worked. I will post all recommended information as mentioned in http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6183681.

1. Make and Model: Lenovo B575

2. lspci -nn | grep 'Atheros' output:

mark@ubuntu:~$ lspci -nn | grep 'Atheros'
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [168c:002b] (rev 01)

3. ifconfig and iwconfig output:

mark@ubuntu:~$ ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr f0:de:f1:6d:e7:5c
inet addr:192.168.1.105 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::f2de:f1ff:fe6d:e75c/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:4996 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:3591 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:4687716 (4.6 MB) TX bytes:514442 (514.4 KB)
Interrupt:42 Base address:0xa000

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:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:16 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:16 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:960 (960.0 B) TX bytes:960 (960.0 B)

mark@ubuntu:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=17 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:on

4.lsmod | grep "ath9k" output:

mark@ubuntu:~$ lsmod | grep "ath9k"
ath9k 118238 0
mac80211 294370 1 ath9k
ath9k_common 13851 1 ath9k
ath9k_hw 323077 2 ath9k,ath9k_common
ath 23773 2 ath9k,ath9k_hw
cfg80211 178528 3 ath9k,mac80211,ath

5. Will post dmesg on request if necessary.

6. sudo lshw -C network output (excluding eth0 which works fine):

*-network DISABLED
description: Wireless interface
product: AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express)
vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
logical name: wlan0
version: 01
serial: d0:df:9a:12:8c:79
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath9k driverversion=2.6.38-11-generic firmware=N/A latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn
resources: irq:18 memory:e0100000-e010ffff

7. iwlist scan output:

mark@ubuntu:~$ iwlist scan
lo Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

wlan0 Failed to read scan data : Network is down

8. lsb_release -d output:

mark@ubuntu:~$ lsb_release -d
Description: Ubuntu 11.04

9. uname -mr output:

mark@ubuntu:~$ uname -mr
2.6.38-11-generic x86_64

10. sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart output:

mark@ubuntu:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart
* Running /etc/init.d/networking restart is deprecated because it may not enable again some interfaces
* Reconfiguring network interfaces... [ OK ]
mark@ubuntu:~$

I appreciate any help I can get with this issue. If any more information is needed to help, please ask. Thank you!

[wildmanne39]

Hi, Is your network set to WPA and WPA2 mixed mode? That is often troublesome. If you can, try WPA2 only. You might also try:

sudo ifconfig wlan0 down
sudo rmmod -f ath9k
sudo modprobe ath9k nohwcrypt=1
sudo ifconfig wlan0 up

if you run this command and it works then we will need to make it persistent.

Do not restart your computer this is a one time only method for testing purposes.
Thank you

[mdunphy]

Hi, Is your network set to WPA and WPA2 mixed mode? That is often troublesome. If you can, try WPA2 only. You might also try:

sudo ifconfig wlan0 down
sudo rmmod -f ath9k
sudo modprobe ath9k nohwcrypt=1
sudo ifconfig wlan0 up

if you run this command and it works then we will need to make it persistent.

Do not restart your computer this is a one time only method for testing purposes.
Thank you

My apologies, I should have been a bit more clear as to my actual problem. I am unable to even see any wireless networks as it is grayed out in the Network Manager on the top right of my screen. There is also a grayed out message that says "wireless is disabled" despite "Enable wireless" being checked off in the same drop down menu. Also, my network is WPA2-Personal, not mixed mode for future reference.

After trying those commands, I am still unable to detect any networks as it seems wireless is still disabled. Thank you for the response. I should also mention that my wireless works without any issues in Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

[wildmanne39]

Hi, I suspect you need the firmware, run these commands and post the results.

dmesg | grep wlan0

dmesg | egrep 'ath|firm'

rfkill list all

Thank you

[mdunphy]

Hi, I suspect you need the firmware, run these commands and post the results.

dmesg | grep wlan0

dmesg | egrep 'ath|firm'

rfkill list all

Thank you

dmesg | grep wlan0 output:

mark@ubuntu:~$ dmesg | grep wlan0
[   16.735323] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[ 6838.007998] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

dmesg | egrep 'ath|firm' output:

mark@ubuntu:~$ dmesg | egrep 'ath|firm'
[    1.407146] device-mapper: multipath: version 1.2.0 loaded
[    1.407157] device-mapper: multipath round-robin: version 1.0.0 loaded
[   15.917031] ath9k 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
[   15.917053] ath9k 0000:03:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[   15.968536] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x65
[   15.968544] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a direct regpair map
[   15.968551] ath: Country alpha2 being used: 00
[   15.968554] ath: Regpair used: 0x65
[   16.021020] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'ath9k_rate_control'
[   16.022126] Registered led device: ath9k-phy0::radio
[   16.022169] Registered led device: ath9k-phy0::assoc
[   16.022210] Registered led device: ath9k-phy0::tx
[   16.022244] Registered led device: ath9k-phy0::rx
[ 6799.341183] ath9k 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A disabled
[ 6799.341254] ath9k: Driver unloaded
[ 6818.920975] ath9k 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
[ 6818.920997] ath9k 0000:03:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 6818.973227] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x65
[ 6818.973231] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a direct regpair map
[ 6818.973238] ath: Country alpha2 being used: 00
[ 6818.973241] ath: Regpair used: 0x65
[ 6818.977063] ieee80211 phy1: Selected rate control algorithm 'ath9k_rate_control'
[ 6818.978536] Registered led device: ath9k-phy1::radio
[ 6818.978580] Registered led device: ath9k-phy1::assoc
[ 6818.978619] Registered led device: ath9k-phy1::tx
[ 6818.978665] Registered led device: ath9k-phy1::rx

rfkill list all output:

mark@ubuntu:~$ rfkill list all
0: ideapad_wlan: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
1: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: yes
	Hard blocked: no
3: phy1: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no

Thanks

[wildmanne39]

Hi, disconnect your wired connection then run this command and give it a minute to work then see if you can connect.

But do not restart your computer this is a one time only command and if it works we will need to make it persistent.

rmmod -f acer-wmi

Thank you

[mdunphy]

Hi, disconnect your wired connection then run this command and give it a minute to work then see if you can connect.

But do not restart your computer this is a one time only command and if it works we will need to make it persistent.

rmmod -f acer-wmi

Thank you

That seems like it's almost done the trick. I'm now able to see available wireless networks. However, I'm unable to connect to my WPA2 secured network. I was able to connect to my neighbor's unsecured network though. Might need to change some of my router settings around? Thanks again for your help, we're almost there!

[mdunphy]

Nevermind, apparently my router was set for TKIP and AES. Changed it to just AES and can now connect without issue. Just need to know how to go about making this fix permanent now. Thanks!

[wildmanne39]

Hi do what I suggested in post 2 for the wpa2 issue and do this to make it persistent.

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf

Add one line:

options ath9k nohwcrypt=1

Proofread, save and close gedit and you should be all set.
Thank you

[wildmanne39]

Hi, sorry wrong directions just a minute.