# Where's my wireless gone?

## joefish

I've got a fresh install, but on the same hardware as previously (where my wireless was working fine).

I'm trying to set up my wireless again, but having some headaches.

lspci shows: *Quote:*   

> 01:06.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5212/AR5213 Multiprotocol MAC/baseband processor (rev 01)

 

but iwconfig shows:

 *Quote:*   

> lo        no wireless extensions.
> 
> eth0      no wireless extensions.
> 
> tunl0     no wireless extensions.
> ...

 

On my previous system, the card was identified as ath0.

My kernel config is pretty much exactly the same as it used be (I simply upgraded to the latest in portage to get ext4 support). On my old system I could use the madwifi or the wext drivers..

Thanks for your help.

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## DawgG

lspci shows the card is in your system, but that's got nothig to do with a driver beeing loaded.  a lot has changed since the old madwifi-drivers. i reccomend you use the in-kernel drivers for atheros chips, they are somewhere in the wirelss/drivers-area and they are called ath5k (took a quick look at you .config but did not see them activated). i use them myself in my notebook and i am very satisfied. you could also use external madwifi-drivers (have you installed/loaded them??), but i think in-kernel is much better.

haven't used wireless in a long time, but i think the interfaces will be called wifiX. better read some documentation because, as mentioned, some things have changed in the atheros drivers since the madwifi-ng-days.

GOOD LUCK!

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## joefish

Thanks DawgG,

I've made some progress, but am now running into a new problem. I found the drivers that needed to be enabled in the kernel (http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath5k#Enablingath5k helped here), but now I get the following:

 *Quote:*   

> # /etc/init.d/net.wlan0 start
> 
>  * Service net.wlan0 starting
> 
>  * WARNING:  net.wlan0 has started but is inactive

 

There are a few posts around where people have this problem, but they either weren't solved or didn't work for me.

Some things I tried for which the output may give some clues:

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> # wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
> 
> CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS
> ...

 

 *Quote:*   

> # dmesg
> 
> ...
> 
> ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
> ...

 

# dhcpcd wlan0

wlan0: dhcpcd 4.0.7 starting

wlan0: waiting for carrier

[/quote]

Where should I proceed from here?

/etc/conf.d/net:

 *Quote:*   

> dns_domain_lo="windmill"
> 
> config_eth0=("dhcp")
> 
> dhcp_eth0=("nodns")
> ...

 

/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf:

 *Quote:*   

> update_config=1
> 
> ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
> 
> eapol_version=1
> ...

 

My phone and laptop which are beside me connect to the AP without any problems.

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## DawgG

looks like some issue with wireless/wpa_suppplicant.

as long as the wireless part is not fully functional you don't even need to start dhcpcd on the interface. on my notebook (which is not here right now) i have used the in-kernel iwl-drivers burt not the ath5k-drivers with wpa-supplicant, but i can have a look at it in some time.

 *Quote:*   

> wlan0: waiting for carrier 

 

this is quite obvious.

i'd try to set up the wireless completly by hand so you can see all the error messages.

i've once had problems with wireless which were solved by just issueing

```
ifconfig <wlan-if> up
```

 before setting all the wireless parameter, but that was w/out wpa_supplicant.

i'll try to get my notebook pretty soon.

GOOD LUCK!

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## joefish

'ifconfig wlan0 up' runs without error, and now wlan0 appears in the list if I run ifconfig, but it still doesn't connect to the AP. How do I find out what's wrong with wpa_supplicant? I can't rely on wireless-tools, as my AP is WPA.

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## Gentoo-Ed

hi. I run wpa_supplcicant on my wireless. It's connecting to my ap on both my laptops. My wpa_supplicant contains more information thuogh. I run wpa2-psk/wpa-psk (supports both  :Smile:  ).

My wpa_supplicant.conf

```
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant

ctrl_interface_group=0

networ={

  ssid="YOUR_SIDD"

  proto=WPA

  key_mgmt=WPA-PSK

  pairwise=CCMP TKIP

  group=CCMP TKIP

  psk="YOUR_KEY"

  priority=2

}
```

Also see http://linux.die.net/man/5/wpa_supplicant.conf

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## joefish

Hi Gentoo-Ed,

Thanks for your ideas. I took a look at that page, but didn't see anything that is obvious to me stopping my config from working (this config did work on my old install). I tried adding the extra options you show, but this doesn't seem to help (I still get the same message about the card not being active).

Joseph.

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## joefish

Anyone have any other ideas I can try?

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## joefish

Now it's disappeared again!

 *Quote:*   

> # /etc/init.d/net.wlan0 start
> 
>  * Service net.wlan0 starting
> 
>  network interface wlan0 does not exist
> ...

 

Modules are definitely loaded:

 *Quote:*   

> # lsmod
> 
> Module                  Size  Used by
> 
> snd_mixer_oss          16448  0
> ...

 

This is really driving me nuts!

UPDATE: For some reason, wlan0 has turned into ath0!

 *Quote:*   

> # ifconfig -a
> 
> ath0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1d:0f:b4:c2:6e  
> 
>           inet6 addr: fe80::21d:fff:feb4:c26e/64 Scope:Link
> ...

 

I don't have madwifi drivers installed at all (although I have previously). Still the same problem though:

 *Quote:*   

> # /etc/init.d/net.ath0 start
> 
>  * Caching service dependencies ...                                                                                                                                        [ ok ]
> 
>  * Service net.ath0 starting
> ...

 

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## das bletch

I'm having a very similar problem.

Try running /etc/init.d/net.wlan0 --verbose start

Does anyone know the difference between the above command and ifconfig wlan0 up? It seems sometimes I have to turn off wireless using ifconfig, but start it again with the init.d/net.wlan0 script.

wpa_supplicant also was shutting off my wireless at times, and to restart you need to remove wlan0 from /var/run/wpa_supplicant

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## joefish

Right, I managed to turn ath0 back into wlan0 by removing the net.ath0 file and changing /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules (I don't think that it was a problem, but I wanted to be consistent).

Anyway,

 *Quote:*   

> # /etc/init.d/net.wlan0 --verbose start
> 
>  * Service net.wlan0 starting
> 
>  * Starting wlan0
> ...

 

I don't know what the difference between the commands is. 'ifconfig wlan0 up' doesn't show me any output when it runs.

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## joefish

Well, I sort of solved my problem. I emerge wicd, and then that managed to connect to my router. I don't know why I couldn't connect without it, but I'm at the point where I've spent too long to really care... (although if someone knew the answer, it wouldn't hurt to know!)

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