Wireless causes system freeze: Atheros AR9285, Ubuntu 11.04 64-bit, Acer Aspire 5250

[Zanazabar]

To summarize, if I look at /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf there is an entry there for atl1c. But it is being loaded anyway and appears when I run lsmod. Any suggestions for how to stop this?

Also, the wireless situation may not be ideal. While it connects if the laptop is sitting directly next to the router, it seems to lose connection if I wander more than ~10 feet away. I read threads about this issue to and have already gone through the things suggested trying to fix my other problem, unfortunately.

[nm_geo]

To summarize, if I look at /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf there is an entry there for atl1c. But it is being loaded anyway and appears when I run lsmod. Any suggestions for how to stop this?

Also, the wireless situation may not be ideal. While it connects if the laptop is sitting directly next to the router, it seems to lose connection if I wander more than ~10 feet away. I read threads about this issue to and have already gone through the things suggested trying to fix my other problem, unfortunately.

We could double up on that driver.
Let open a editor as root and add a statement that might stop the athl1c..

gksudo gedit /etc/rc.local

Copy and paste or write carefully above the exit 0.

modprobe -r athl1c

Save and Close

Maybe that will stop it..

[Zanazabar]

Okay, got to a milestone at least. When I add that line to /etc/rc.local (looks like a typo there, the driver is atl1c) I can boot up straight into Ubuntu with no ethernet cable plugged in and no system freeze.

An interesting thing to note. Found this before I made the above change to /etc/rc.local. If I did an initial boot in to Windows 7, then selected to restart from Windows 7, if I then went into Ubuntu, I would be fine. atl1c would still show loaded in lsmod, and the disconnected Wired adapter would show in the context menu of the Network icon in the upper right, but no system freeze. I don't know if anyone can explain that, but there seems to be some really weird behavior with the AR8152, and Windows has some secret to 'correct' the problem.

Regarding the AR9285 wireless, I can use it now with major limitations. I can not get more than about 10 feet from the router without dropping the connection. I also have limited bandwidth, if I try to for instance torrent a Linux ISO, the traffic will overload my connection and I lose all throughput. I still show Connected, but I can't send or receive data. If I manually Disconnect and then Connect again, I will be able to resume. If I throttled the download speed to 250kB/s I could maintain (that was about the max).

Is it reasonable to think these chipset issues will be fixed or worked-around in future updates?

[wildmanne39]

Hi, there are a few things you can try to make you connection more stable.
1.Set your router to g,b,n speed and not just n speed.

2. Set your router to wpa2 not mixed or wep.

3.Run these commands one at a time.

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

if this helps we will make the 3rd suggestion permanent.

Please do not restart your computer after running those commands it is for test purposes and will be gone when you restart.

Also make sure your wired connection is unplugged before you run the commands.

As for the issues being fixed in the next release they could be but in my experience a lot of times somethings do not get fixed and we still have to use the work arounds.
Thank you

[hofik]

Hi guys, I have the same issue with Notebook Acer 5250; Wifi AR5B95 brand new, brand new Ubuntu 11.04 installed. It works on cable LAN, freezes when I remove the cable (turning on Wifi).

[wildmanne39]

Hi, please go back and read post 2 and do what the link says and see if that fixes your problem if not then we will go from there.
Thank you

[hofik]

Thanks a lot!!!! It seams to be working!!! I used a few more tips from that doc. Extremely helpful!... One thing I havent managed to solve is waking-up from sleep mode, despite successfully installing Jupiter. I guess Ill need to spend a little bit more time on that.

[wildmanne39]

Hi, yes that can be a problem is it your wireless card that does not wake up or your computer, also if I have been helpful would you consider showing your support for me becoming an ubuntu member by clicking on the red link in my signature?
Thank you

[Zanazabar]

Okay, I followed the steps to try out the nohwcrypt option with ath9k. I did not see any change to my wireless connection, unfortunately.


Some other random data points: I installed Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. I found it doesn't freeze up, seemingly because it doesn't offer any support for the AR8152 (no atl1c in the mod listing, and no ability to connect to a Wired connection). Still has the same issues with wireless using the ath9k driver (works well next to router, but no distance).

FWIW, my router only does 802.11b,g so I don't have to disable 802.11n. I have it set to WPA2 only. I have also tried disabling encryption entirely, and the issue remained the same.

[wildmanne39]

Hi, have you checked to see if you wireless power is turned up all the way in your router?

This usually

Bit Rate=54 Mb/s Tx-Power=9 dBm

reads
20 at least.

Try this please:

sudo iwconfig wlan0 power off

sudo iwconfig wlan0 rate auto

sudo service network-manager restart

Thank you