Re: [Trisquel-users] Can't get Qualcomm Atheros AR5212 802.11abg NIC to work
Update: I received the Penguine Wireless N USB adapter for GNU/Linux, plugged it in, using one of jxself's kernels that I had installed earlier and everything worked without a problem. Took seconds to install instead of spending days trying to get the other card working to no avail. It was a worthwhile learning experience though. I had to enter the password for my router, but that was it. And speed has improved noticably. The best part is the thing is so small it hardly matters, no cords, antennas and so on. On to other things now, checking this off the list.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Can't get Qualcomm Atheros AR5212 802.11abg NIC to work
Out of curiosity are other devices connected to the WiFi base station when this is happening? I'd like to know what happens if there are no other devices connected (reboot the router for good measure as well) and then try with only the laptop using the base station. Also, what is the make & model of this base station and does it have the latest firmware revision?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Can't get Qualcomm Atheros AR5212 802.11abg NIC to work
Thanks, I hadn't thought of that! There are all sorts of things attached to the router. Funny though why the other devices, even on the x60s work via that router without incident. I will clean it out and see. The router is a TP-Link TL-WR741ND v4 with the most recent firmware that will work with it (as of a couple of months ago.) DD-WRT v24-sp2 (07/20/12) std (SVN revision 19519) There are newer versions but not recommended for this router...at least as of a couple of months ago. Tried your idea. Unplugged everything except the cable modem and rebooted. Didn't make any difference, dmesg had the same deauthentication by local choice reason 3. Did anything else look or seem strange?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Can't get Qualcomm Atheros AR5212 802.11abg NIC to work
> Unplugged everything I was wondering more about other devices connected via WiFi. After unplugging physical connections was anything connected via WiFi? I had similiar problem with a router in which mine would only work if it was the only device connected to the WiFi. Trying a newer kernel can't hurt. Version 3.11 will be in my repository soon-ish which would be good to try.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Can't get Qualcomm Atheros AR5212 802.11abg NIC to work
The older Atheros G wireless mini pcie chipsets don't work terribly well... They should sort of work from my experience although there are things which won't work well or at all like power management, etc. That said I'm not sure this is the problem your having. Did you swap the wireless card out for another or was this the original? Even the older IBM laptops had digital restrictions so you might not be able to swap it for another (easily or possibly at all). If you unlocked the BIOS and you can install another wireless card I'd suggest trying an 802.11N Atheros card. We actually have them even in the old mini PCI card format (gasp! I know) in addition to the newer Mini PCIe and half height cards.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Can't get Qualcomm Atheros AR5212 802.11abg NIC to work
jxself, Oh, I just took out the plugged in cords attached to my router, there were still a couple of smartphones and a Roku that were connected wirelessly. I never thought about those… I'm wondering if it would be worth the bother to try again? It might be interesting to know, but it likely would never allow me to use that card here or elsewhere since few WiFi's are ever that empty. If you want me to try again, I will. Maybe it could confirm what happened to you? Chris, I did swap out the card. My bios had no passwords activated. It's just the standard bios that came with the computer as far as I know, showing the logos and the press the ThinkVantage button at boot up. The Atheros card supposedly is an original Lenovo part (used $10) which I assumed was whitelisted. I believe I saw it on Lenovo's list. It was a card that was available for the ThinkPad X60s. The card did not look "new", but neither did it look beat up or damaged in any way. Seemed to be a true used part. There was no problem putting it in, the Lenovo instruction book was clear. It booted up without a problem, no restriction there, it just gets "stuck" when trying to finalize a new connection and gives up with that deauthentication by local choice reason 3. I think I'll try the ThinkPenguin tiny USB. Maybe it will be faster than the Etekcity USB? On my MacBook with its built in WiFi, my wireless download speeds are around ~30m and with the Etekcity on the ThinkPad X60s, 12-15m. Uploads are typically ~4m, but with the Etekcity often hardly 1m. I think the Etekcity goes up to "g", no "n". Ethernet connected speeds on the X60s seem very fast but I haven't checked them, think I'll do that. I see the USB's you offer can be purchased with extended support; will probably buy that too after going through this! Wireless connections aren't always simple and they can break due to upgrades. Knowing only what I've read and tried and not having a lot of technical background re: GNU/Linux or its programs myself, my observation is that sometime around kernel 2.6.30-something, the way that certain tasks were handled internally changed. I remember reading something like sockets were not flexible enough, so there was a new way to handle things. Network Manager seems to have a history, rightly so I suppose, of wanting to control "everything" and will rig up whatever it needs to get the job done. When some underlying kernel things changed, some people had trouble with their ath5k setups. When wpa_supplicant is mixed in, apparently at times battling with Network Manager, along with those kernel changes, even if the ath and ath5k drivers themselves were ok, they perhaps could no longer "fit" nicely with all the other code that had changed or been adapted. I think the ath5k driver project ended in 2010. People moved on. Many people had the error messages I had (shown earlier) and it seemed to start for nearly everyone at the point of an upgrade. When they changed back to an earlier version they were ok. A couple of people had their physical WiFi switches shut off by accident and a few, sometimes posting weeks or months later, said a later upgrade of one thing or another fixed things for them. Chris you may well have it correct that the chipset itself has issues, perhaps worsened by various software changes over the years that re-broke some earlier fixes. At one time, that Atheros card should have worked. It did for other people, for years they say. I wonder if anyone has such a setup working now? My guess is no, not out-of-the-box. Maybe using older kernels or older methods to connect, but I do not wish to go that route even if I had the brains to do it. Just looking for a free software laptop experience similar to the corporate OS's, but without the bloat and spyware and so on. One final thing, in general. I looked at the usual online sources for confirmation that my hardware and drivers would work, and on paper as they say, there is no issue with my setup. Reality is different. A part of me wanted to believe I guess that somehow hardware that was known to work with GNU/Linux would "always" continue to be compatible. Like my hardware would die one day but would not be put out to pasture because of software upgrades. I am not complaining about this. Thinking about it now, it would be foolish to try to encompass everything old and new into current software. This was just a belief I had that doesn't seem to be true, and was unrealistic. Thank you both for trying to help. I'm very impressed with Trisquel and am enjoying learning how to use it. So far, so good.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Can't get Qualcomm Atheros AR5212 802.11abg NIC to work
It absolutely should work. That it doesn't sounds like buggy software. But where? In the kernel? In the router? Elsewhere? My previously laptop had a WiFi card that used ath9k instead of your which uses ath5k. My friend had a WiFi router that I'd try to use and there was a bug in his router's firmware in which I could only use it if my laptop was the only device connected via WiFi. If anything else was connected then DHCP didn't work for me. My choice was to replace the WiFi card or wait for a bug fix for his router. I ended up getting a ThinkPad X60s anyway 'cause I wanted support for coreboot and it works just fine. Sometimes bugs are that specific. It can be hard to debug, which is why I was hoping you'd try a newer kernel (3.11 is now available in my repository) to test. Also, does it work with other WiFi base stations? That's another important clue.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Can't get Qualcomm Atheros AR5212 802.11abg NIC to work
jxself, Man, you are full of ideas! I've never tried using the computer with a different WiFi router, I've only had the computer a couple of weeks. I could do that as I have another router, not hooked up at the moment. When I have some time, I'll try that and report back. Also, I will try the new kernel. Easy to do. Will report back on that as well. The message I get upon failure, the deauthenticating "reason 3" means the following: 3 Deauthenticated because sending STA is leaving (or has left) IBSS or ESS. The access point went offline, deauthenticating the client. http://www.aboutcher.co.uk/2012/07/linux-wifi-deauthenticated-reason-codes/ It seems to me that the software is assuming some sort of blessed handshake has taken place because certain steps have transpired without a problem. However it is as if it cannot wait long enough for the DCHP type info to be picked up (It must be there, other devices pick it up ok). Or maybe it can't hear it and deauthenticates/does not complete the connection. It thinks the AP went offline when in reality something simply didn't take place as thought by the software, leaving a gap that perhaps is seen as the AP not being there. Perhaps the gap is a spot that was brought about by changes in the kernel or in Network Manager or wpa_supplicant. I am not a coder so I can only guess at this. Could be the dd-wrt software in the router is bad too I guess, I haven't checked their forum, which is huge, might be info there. This doesn't happen with the USB WiFi but yeah, that uses a different driver. I noticed the core boot potential in the X60s too and would like to try that some day. Seems complicated.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Can't get Qualcomm Atheros AR5212 802.11abg NIC to work
jxself, Tried the new linux-libre32. Same deauthenticating message as with the other kernels. When I test the other router I will try it with the various kernels, just in case. Also will check the dd-wrt forum.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Can't get Qualcomm Atheros AR5212 802.11abg NIC to work
While it isn't realistic that free software drivers/firmware will work indefinitely (and we certainly wouldn't claim that) but there is a certain level of community support behind these drivers and support over the long haul. These drivers have been pushed into the mainline kernel and things have tended to work very well for a very long time. The thing with Atheros is if you go back far enough they were no better than broadcom (broadcom's a headache, although there is one chipset that has support, but I was told by the developer its usage is ill-advised, but there are people here who use at and think its fine). Now getting a realistic perception of the problems is a challenge because there are many other issues which can negatively impact networking and wifi. From on/off switches (common issue on laptops) that don't work to people having BIOS configuration issues (plug-n-play support disabled in BIOS) to blacklisting to having installed non-free wrappers and screwed up there wireless/networking. Sometimes figuring out where the problem actually lies is hard to near impossible. I think the problem is the ath5k stuff was never terribly well supported. It was “good enough” for the time period (and actually a lot of stuff I'd still say is just “good enough” unfortunately, but at least it generally meets 95% of users needs). I have tested ath5k wireless cards as we have a batch and they worked fine a year or two ago. We never actually sold these cards mind you and the ath5k drivers and cards date back 10+ years if I'm not mistaken. The fact they are still working at all is pretty impressive given the majority have moved on. Well.. we did accidentally sent out a batch of several to a certain free software organization... that was a bit embarrassing. However- I learned from them that some additional issues with the ath5k stuff I wasn't aware of. But even before this I was aware older Atheros stuff was not that great. And before that there wasn't any support at all. Atheros did a reverse flip several years ago. They went from not supporting GNU/Linux at all to hiring an outside developer to come and work for them who was working on drivers for its chipsets already. The result of all this is I have a lot of respect for the company or somebody within for taking action and fixing the problem. Mind you like most companies they are far from perfect though and I'd still advise avoiding many of the companies products (although in many cases I'd still advise there products over others because the others don't provide any free software support and there is a better chance Atheros might... if we push a bit... which is another reason I'm a big fan of ThinkPenguin... as we are pushing as one might expect... and after all I did founded it...).
Re: [Trisquel-users] Can't get Qualcomm Atheros AR5212 802.11abg NIC to work
jxself, Tried the other router, with nothing connected wireless or wired except the modem. Used the Atheros card to try and connect. Didn't work. Tried 3 kernels, all the same response when giving up: deauthenticating by local choice reason 3. Each of the kernels were slightly different in dmesg listings and the listings themselves were a little different because of this router which has dual bands, etc. the results were pretty much the same and definitely no connection at all. Plugged in the USB WiFi, that again worked just fine. I can check the dd-wrt forum, haven't done that yet, but things are looking dim. I've put enough time into this and on a $10 part, it's time to move on. There's lots I need to figure out in Trisquel yet as I try to set it up for daily use. I read about some ath5k bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/269253 Trouble since 2008 and still so in 2012. Different from what I am experiencing but still bugs. Quite a few WiFi bugs on "deauthenticating" also (a long link but it should work copy and paste): https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux?field.searchtext=deauthenticating&search=Search&field.status%3Alist=NEW&field.status%3Alist=INCOMPLETE_WITH_RESPONSE&field.status%3Alist=INCOMPLETE_WITHOUT_RESPONSE&field.status%3Alist=CONFIRMED&field.status%3Alist=TRIAGED&field.status%3Alist=INPROGRESS&field.status%3Alist=FIXCOMMITTED&field.assignee=&field.bug_reporter=&field.omit_dupes=on&field.has_patch=&field.has_no_package= Thanks for your help. Hope to hear more about your core boot one day. Take care.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Can't get Qualcomm Atheros AR5212 802.11abg NIC to work
Chris, Interesting. Like Mic sings, "You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometime..." Looking at some bug reports I was amazed at how torturous bad code can be to hardware. Temporarily freezing it up and so on. Also in looking over the various outputs, there is WAY MORE activity going on under the hood than I ever knew. Things just going and going, good, bad, and otherwise. It's a miracle anything works at all. A much less efficient and elegant process than I had thought. I thought coders just wrote and compiled, but man their hardware takes a beating on some things. Much more physical than I had thought. It's not just code, it's hardware and software. Would be great to get it right. One hand into the other. Proprietary approaches make such efforts hopeless. How can things ever get ironed out that way? I never knew, or never appreciated I guess. Look for my order shortly for one of those USB Wifi nubs. Glad you are offering hardware that is "known". Need the coders too but with known hardware/firmware at least they'll know what they are up against. So much to be amazed by around here. Thank you for your help and the backgrounds on Atheros/WiFi. Take care.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Can't get Qualcomm Atheros AR5212 802.11abg NIC to work
I have installed Trisquel 6.0 with twoo users and after installing so much programs i can not log in i get a failure, How can i recover from console the system
Re: [Trisquel-users] Can't get Qualcomm Atheros AR5212 802.11abg NIC to work
What exactly happens?
