# [SOLVED] Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 Troubles

## jyoung

Hi, I recently upgraded my laptop's internal wireless card from ... to an Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300, and I'm having trouble getting it working.  Basically I followed the instructions on http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Iwlwifi:  I recompiled my kernel, installed the firmware, loaded the iwlagn module, but no luck.  lspci detects the device, and lsmod confirms that the module is loaded.  Any ideas?Last edited by jyoung on Mon Aug 13, 2012 7:00 pm; edited 1 time in total

----------

## jyoung

For a point of comparison I booted off an ubuntu live CD and got the same results. The card was detected, and the driver module loaded, but I couldn't detect any wireless networks.  Also, I know for certain that there is a strong wireless signal in the room where I've been working.

----------

## Etal

Have you looked at dmesg output?

Does the following show anything interesting?

```
$ dmesg | grep -ie wlan -e iwl -e error
```

----------

## jyoung

dmesg reports that I'm having trouble with my firmware (thanks!).  It seems to request iwlwifi-6000-3.ucode, and failing that look for iwlwifi-6000-2.ucode and then iwlwifi-6000-1.ucode.  The copy of the microcode that I'm using is iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode.  Any thoughts here?  Why does it need an older version?

The full output of dmesg is below:

[    0.402026] uvesafb: probe of uvesafb.0 failed with error -22

[    3.183098] hda-intel: Codec #1 probe error; disabling it...

[    5.568605] iwlagn: Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link AGN driver for Linux, 1.3.27kds

[    5.568607] iwlagn: Copyright(c) 2003-2009 Intel Corporation

[    5.648304] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: PCI INT A -> Link[Z016] -> GSI 21 (level, low) -> IRQ 21

[    5.648338] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: setting latency timer to 64

[    5.648572] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: Detected Intel Wireless WiFi Link 6000 Series 3x3 AGN REV=0x74

[    5.676252] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: Tunable channels: 13 802.11bg, 24 802.11a channels

[    5.676342] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: irq 30 for MSI/MSI-X

[    5.676857] phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'iwl-agn-rs'

[   48.702230] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: firmware: requesting iwlwifi-6000-3.ucode

[   48.762217] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: iwlwifi-6000-3.ucode firmware file req failed: -2

[   48.762221] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: firmware: requesting iwlwifi-6000-2.ucode

[   48.766071] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: iwlwifi-6000-2.ucode firmware file req failed: -2

[   48.766075] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: firmware: requesting iwlwifi-6000-1.ucode

[   48.770400] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: iwlwifi-6000-1.ucode firmware file req failed: -2

[   48.770402] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: Could not read microcode: -2

[   48.771251] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: firmware: requesting iwlwifi-6000-3.ucode

[   48.775204] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: iwlwifi-6000-3.ucode firmware file req failed: -2

[   48.775208] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: firmware: requesting iwlwifi-6000-2.ucode

[   48.778862] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: iwlwifi-6000-2.ucode firmware file req failed: -2

[   48.778866] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: firmware: requesting iwlwifi-6000-1.ucode

[   48.783365] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: iwlwifi-6000-1.ucode firmware file req failed: -2

[   48.783368] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: Could not read microcode: -2

----------

## Etal

That is odd, considering all the ucodes on intel's site for the 6000-series are .4

Seeing that it says "(c) 2003-2009", are you using some old kernel version, and are you using the iwlwifi driver from the kernel?

What do "uname -r" and "grep IWL /usr/src/linux/.config" return?

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## jyoung

"uname -r" returns "2.6.31-gentoo-r10" and "grep IWL /usr/src/linux/.config" returns

CONFIG_IWLWIFI=m

CONFIG_IWLWIFI_LEDS=y

CONFIG_IWLWIFI_SPECTRUM_MEASUREMENT=y

CONFIG_IWLWIFI_DEBUG=y

CONFIG_IWLAGN=m

CONFIG_IWL4965=y

CONFIG_IWL5000=y

# CONFIG_IWL3945 is not set

The ucode that I have I got from 

http://intellinuxwireless.org/?n=downloads

which I found by following a link from

http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Iwlwifi

There were only one (obvious) link for 6000 series cards, and it contained the firmware I'm using now.

----------

## optiluca

I have your same card, running just fine on gentoo-sources-2.6.35-r8.  I have the package net-wireless/iwl6000-ucode version 9.221.4.1 installed, kernel config as follows.  I never fetched the ucode manually, just emerged the package.

grep IWL /usr/src/linux/.config

 *Quote:*   

> CONFIG_IWLWIFI=m
> 
> # CONFIG_IWLWIFI_DEBUG is not set
> 
> CONFIG_IWLAGN=m
> ...

 

----------

## Etal

Yeah, you have to upgrade to at least version 2.6.32, since it's the first one to use the *.4 firmware

```
  48 /* Highest firmware API version supported */

  49 #define IWL6000_UCODE_API_MAX 3

```

```
  48 /* Highest firmware API version supported */

  49 #define IWL6000_UCODE_API_MAX 4

```

The package for gentoo-sources 2.6.31 is not even in Portage anymore, so that's another reason to update - you're not protected against all sorts of exploits that have surfaced recently.

If you like using old kernels, 2.6.32 would acutally be a good choice since it should to be supported (at least by the kernel developers) for a few years.

I'd recommend using the latest, though.  :Smile: 

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## jyoung

Okay, I've upgraded to kernel-2.6.34.  Sadly, the upgrade triggered two snags that are holding me up a bit. First, my keyboard sometimes quits on my.  Basically I'll start typing and after some number of keystrokes I'll will stop registering - not even a screen echo.

Second, when I boot up repeatedly on the new kernel (twice or more in a row without booting off the old kernel in between) it halts at 'Waiting for uevents to be processed ...'   It complains that it can't overwrite /dev/mapper/control.  My old kernel reported the same error on boot up but kept going.

Any thoughts?

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## jyoung

Hi, I just did some searching and found a few threads that report bugs in the 2.6.34-r6 kernel.  Given that, should I use 2.6.32 instead?

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## Etal

That's up to you. You can try different kernels and see which ones work best. You could try by unkeywording some other versions adding =sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-[version] to /etc/gentoo/package.keywords for 2.6.34-r11 (in case it was fixed in a later patchset) or even 2.6.35-r9.

The nice thing about kernels is that it's easy to switch between them - just put several entries in the bootloader, and if one doesn't work right, you reboot and use the other.  :Smile: 

Edit: fixed the part keywordingLast edited by Etal on Thu Sep 30, 2010 2:32 am; edited 1 time in total

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## jyoung

That sounds reasonable, I could switch around until I found one that worked.  I'm having a little trouble with package.keywords, though.  I added

=gentoo-sources-2.6.34-r11

to package.keyword, and emerge complained that it was an invalid atom.  Then I tried 

=gentoo-sources-2.6.34-r11 ~amd64

which is a syntax that I've used before, and the same error was reported.  I'm a little new to this - any idea what I'm doing wrong?

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## Etal

Oops, my bad.  :Embarassed:   You need to put the full package name, so it's:

```
=sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-2.6.34-r11
```

I think the "~amd64" bit is not required anymore, but it won't hurt keeping it.

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## jyoung

Right, got it.  I've now tried 2.6.34-r6, 2.6.34-r10, and 2.6.35-r8.  All of them suffered from the same problems:  keyboard lock up after a few keystrokes, and failure to boot up multiple times in a row.  Then, I tried to switch to 2.6.32, and emerge wouldn't let me go back down.  To test this, I tried to go to releases of 2.6.34 lower than r6 but it wouldn't let me.

That aside, I'm starting to wonder if I'm missing something somewhere else.  Is there a menuconfig parameter that I should look at?

And, one more possible clue:  When I plug in an external usb keyboard, the problem persists.

----------

## Etal

What do you mean by portage won't let you? Did you do it by specifying the version?

```
emerge -av =gentoo-sources-2.6.32*
```

As for the keyboard, I'm afraid I can't help you - I never had that kind of a problem. You should probably open a separate topic for that.

----------

## jyoung

I did it by adding   =sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-2.6.32-r18  in package.keywords and then emerge -av sys-kernel/gentoo-sources.  For versions earlier than 2.6.34-r6 it simply emerged 2.6.34-r6 (or tried, but I said 'no' at the prompt).

About the keyboard issue, I was about to start another thread (since it seemed unrelated), but then I tried one more test:  I put the old wireless card back in the computer, and tried booting off the new kernel (2.6.34-r6).  This time it worked, no hang ups on boot, no keyboard problems.  Is it possible that the firmware or drivers for the new card (ultimate-N) are causing the problem?  The ucode was masked with ~amd64.

----------

## Etal

 *jyoung wrote:*   

> I did it by adding   =sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-2.6.32-r18  in package.keywords and then emerge -av sys-kernel/gentoo-sources.  For versions earlier than 2.6.34-r6 it simply emerged 2.6.34-r6 (or tried, but I said 'no' at the prompt).

 

If you just give portage the name, it will try to install the latest version it can; in this case it's 2.6.34.

If you want to install the older version, you have to tell it which version you want. You can use the one I gave you above, or you can give it the same full name/version as you put in the package.keywords:

```
emerge =sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-2.6.32-r18
```

----------

## jyoung

Okay, thanks for the help on emerge usage.  I've now install 2.6.34-r7, and it runs without keyboard hangups.  But, I'm still having trouble with the wireless card.  When I try to start it up with 'fconfig wlan0 up', the computer hangs.  Any thoughts on that?

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## jyoung

Hey, was thinking of upgrading to 2.6.35-r8 as that's what optiluca is using (in the hopes of solving the hang-up-on-boot problem), but I've read in a few places of people having other problems with 2.6.35-r8.  What do you guys think?

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## optiluca

 *jyoung wrote:*   

> Hey, was thinking of upgrading to 2.6.35-r8 as that's what optiluca is using (in the hopes of solving the hang-up-on-boot problem), but I've read in a few places of people having other problems with 2.6.35-r8.  What do you guys think?

 

On 2.6.36-r1 now actually, and 2.6.35-r8 isn't even in the tree anymore I believe.

Good luck  :Smile: 

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## jyoung

Okay, I'm graded to 2.6.36-r5 now, and the issue persists with the same symptoms, so it definitely isn't a kernel version issue. Any other thoughts?  optiluca, maybe if you sent me your .config file I could compare  and tease out the problem.

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## optiluca

 *jyoung wrote:*   

> Okay, I'm graded to 2.6.36-r5 now, and the issue persists with the same symptoms, so it definitely isn't a kernel version issue. Any other thoughts?  optiluca, maybe if you sent me your .config file I could compare  and tease out the problem.

 

As requested:

http://pastebin.com/ZeWdGznF

On the 2.6.37 series now, hope it helps  :Smile: 

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## jyoung

Okay, after looking through our .config files it's not clear to me where to go with this.  I looked for parameters which seemed to be related to this issue which had been set differently.  Some differences I found were mac80211 and cfg80211 were compiled as modules rather than directly into the kernel.  I changed my configuration to comply, with no effect.

So, two questions:  First, is there a good resource to look up what the parameters mean?  Even something that would correlate them to the options in menuconfig would be great.  Even better would be a deeper explanation of the options in menuconfig; though many are self explanatory some don't make sense unless you already know what they mean.

Second, do you folks this it's possible that my problem is that I have an option turned on which is interfering with the card?  If so, are there any likely candidates?

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## optiluca

You can look up the parameters within menuconfig itself.  Just press shift + ? with an option selected to find out what the option does.  You can also press shift + / to do a search in case you find an option in my .config but cannot see it anywhere in menuconfig.  Just type it in, press enter and it will tell you where to find it, what it is and whether it is set or not.

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## jyoung

Hey Folks,

I'm still trying to tackle this wireless card issue.  I've messed around with diferent paramenter settings in .config, often emulated optiluca's .config file (thanks again, by the way).  I've upgraded to 2.6.38-gentoo-r6.  When I upgraded I started with a fresh config file, and then added stuff to support the ultimate-N wireless card one piece at a time.  I discovered that all was well until I enabled iwlagn as a module.  When I did this, the problem recurred.

So, my question now is why would the iwlagn module cause my machine to hang while 'processing uevents' during boot up?  Why would it cause my computer to hang at all (it froze immediately after I compiled and loaded the module even without rebooting).  Note that this problem does not occur if the ultimate-N card isn't in the computer at that time, but still occurs if a different but similar intel wireless card is used.

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## jyoung

Hey Folks,

The problems / solutions described here sound similar to what I'm seeing.  Do you think this could be the right solution for me?

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-880149.html

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## jyoung

Guys?

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## roarinelk

do you still have the same iwlagn errors in the kernel log? 

First install a newer kernel, and then emerge all 4 net-wireless/iwl6*-ucode packages.

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## jyoung

There are no mentions of iwlagn in /var/log/kern.log.  Would there be, though, since it's not able to get through the boot-up process?  Remember, it hangs at the uevents step and I have to kill it at the power button.

I guess what I'm asking is if there would be any records left in /var/log/kern.log from a failed reboot?  After I kill the failed reboot, swap out the wireless card, and reboot again, would any messages from the failed reboot still be in there?

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## jyoung

Okay, I've also updated my net-wireless/iwl6*-ucode packages.  When I wrote last December the only one available was iwl6000, but now 6005, 6030, and 6050 are available; I've installed them all.

This actually changed things a lot.  Now the computer boots and gets through the uevents step, which is where it was hanging before.  Sadly, when I try to start dhcp with dhcpcd wlan0, it then hangs.  The machine is totally frozen in the sense that it won't kill the process with ctrl+c, and I can't switch to another screen using the function keys (I haven't started X at this point).

Any ideas?  To me it seems like the same or a similar phenomenon is occuring at at later step.

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## jyoung

Another update:  I was curious which of the net-wireless/iwl6*-ucodes was actually responsible for the new functionality of the wireless card.  So, I removed them all and re-emerged them one at a time, each time trying the wireless card.  It turns out it was the iwl6000 firmware that was allowing me to detect the wireless card at all.  This makes a lot of sense because the intel wireless linux page (http://intellinuxwireless.org/?n=downloads) which is linked to off the gentoo wireless page (http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Iwlwifi), indicates that iwl6000 is the firmware that the Ultimate-N 6300 card needs.  I can only assume that my earlier hang-at-boot issues were due to an older version of the same iwl6000 firmware or something about my configuration has changed since I last had this problem.  The later possibility makes a lot of sense; probably before my machine was enabling wlan0 at boot and hanging, whereas now it's leaving me to enable it later on by hand (which then causes it to hang in the same way).

However, as roarinelk suggested earlier, I've check my kernel log.  While I reported before that there were no mentions of iwlagn in it, there are now.  That is a big change from previous behavior.  I'm guessing that it's because I can now complete the bootup process with the card in place?  Here's the results of 'grep iwlagn /var/log/kern.log' that apply to the most recent bootup.  There are no obvious warnings, but then if it's only reporting stuff from the bootup there wouldn't be (since that's successful now).

Mar 30 11:20:20 murbella kernel: [    9.109357] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: PCI INT A -> Link[Z016] -> GSI 21 (level, low) -> IRQ 21

Mar 30 11:20:20 murbella kernel: [    9.109388] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: setting latency timer to 64

Mar 30 11:20:20 murbella kernel: [    9.109419] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: pci_resource_len = 0x00002000

Mar 30 11:20:20 murbella kernel: [    9.109421] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: pci_resource_base = ffffc90001f8c000

Mar 30 11:20:20 murbella kernel: [    9.109423] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: HW Revision ID = 0x35

Mar 30 11:20:20 murbella kernel: [    9.109540] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: irq 41 for MSI/MSI-X

Mar 30 11:20:20 murbella kernel: [    9.109609] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: Detected Intel(R) Centrino(R) Ultimate-N 6300 AGN, REV=0x74

Mar 30 11:20:20 murbella kernel: [    9.109714] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: L1 Enabled; Disabling L0S

Mar 30 11:20:20 murbella kernel: [    9.126178] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: device EEPROM VER=0x436, CALIB=0x6

Mar 30 11:20:20 murbella kernel: [    9.126180] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: Device SKU: 0X1f0

Mar 30 11:20:20 murbella kernel: [    9.126181] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: Valid Tx ant: 0X7, Valid Rx ant: 0X7

Mar 30 11:20:20 murbella kernel: [    9.126205] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: Tunable channels: 13 802.11bg, 24 802.11a channels

Mar 30 11:20:20 murbella kernel: [    9.580220] iwlagn 0000:06:00.0: loaded firmware version 9.221.4.1 build 25532

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## jyoung

Hey, the folks on this wiki seem to mention my problem in a round about way.  They explain how to setup wpa_supplicant.  As part of the trouble shooting section, they suggest trying iwconfig and dhcpcd.  At the bottom of this section, they mention that if the system hangs (like mine is), then something is setup wrong.  Sadly, they don't go on to elaborate.  Do you folks think this could be a refernce to my problem?  Should I talk to these folks to see if they could suggest diagnostics for this problem?  Also, do you think wpa_supplicant would be more successful than iwconfig and dhcpcd?

http://www.gentoo-wiki.info/HOWTO_Wireless_Configuration_for_TUDelft

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## kimmie

jyoung,

The iwlagn module has been completely superceded by iwlwifi in recent kernels. I would try a 3.2 kernel.

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## jyoung

Thanks kimmie, that could me a real game changer for me.  My goal is to upgrade my system this weekend; I'll post back when that's done.

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## jyoung

Okay, after some complications I've upgraded to kernel version 3.3, and I've switched over to the Iwlwifi driver.  Thanks again, kimmie, for pointing out this significant change.

Sadly, I'm still having similar problems.  When I boot up, my maching gets stuck when it starts dhcpcd.  It's definitely stuck (I've left it for hours just to make sure it won't eventually get past this step).  Boot up messages prior to this indicate that the wireless card is being detected.  Also, in the interests of being thorough, I tried compiling the Iwlwifi driver into the kernel rather than as a module (which is explicitely advised against on the wiki page:  http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Iwlwifi, but why not give it a try?), and the effect was the same.

Any suggestions?  I'm starting to wonder if it's something about my setup other than the driver - what do you folks think?

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## jyoung

Another question:  is there any way to get more information back from dhcpcd about why it's hanging?  Can I set it to be verbose?  One complication is that it's hanging at boot - is there any way to tell it not to launch dhcpcd at boot so that I can launch it later by hand?

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## jyoung

Hi Folks,

I was thinking that perhaps one of my config files has an explicit reference to eth1, or perhaps to the old broadcom card.  When I put the new intel card in (the one that doesn't work), it appears as wlan0.  Of course this back when I didn't have dhpc starting at boot (a few posts back).  So, I did a grep -r eth1 in my /etc directory, and, sure enough, there is a reference to eth1 in /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules.  I've copied the text below:

SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="0c:ee:e6:89:56:73", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth1"

Now, if you recall, back when I first posted my machine was hanging at boot at the point where it processes uevents, so it makes some sense that the problem might be in this configuration file.  Where should I go from here?  I could comment out the reference to eth1.  Or, write a rule for wlan0.  But, there already seems to be a wlan0 rule:

SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:24:d7:1a:66:34", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="wlan*", NAME="wlan0"

Is there something wrong with this wlan0 rule?  If so, that would seem to be an explanation.  That said, it's kind of weird that the machine would boot and detect wlan0 at all (as it has done in the past, though, not now).

----------

## Tolstoi

Hey jyoung,

thanks for pointing that out. I never cared about udev rules. After reading your post I took a look at my 70-persistent-net.rules file just to

see that only one entry was correct - the one pointing to my eth0 wired connection. 

I simply deleted the whole file and now my connection works flawlessly again - at least for now.

----------

## jyoung

Hi Tolstoi,

I tried this technique myself, with no luck.  If I commented out the wlan0 rule, the machine simply got at processing uevents.  May I ask, what was your original situation?  What symptoms was your machine having?  And, what kind of machine and wireless card is it?  And, one final question, how did you know which rules in 70-persistent-net.rules were correct and which weren't?

----------

## Tolstoi

I never had problems with Intel wireless card until I recently swapped my Broadcom card for an Intel 6200 wireless one. I always ran into connection problems, either a dropping connection, no connection at all or one building up slowly. I tried a lot without success. 

After your post I took a look at the udev file and recognized old configurations which must have been around from the times of my 4695 Intel card, and the Broadcom. I decided to delete the whole file.

Next thing I did was that I built the 6000 ucode into the kernel. The wireless kernel settings are built in and not as modules. So everything works fine now here.

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## jyoung

One thing I hadn't done so far was build the ucode into my kernel.  I did that, but no change.  I also booted off a live CD, and the 70-persistent-net.rules file that it created was the same as the one I'm already using.  I now suspect that, while I may have had udev problems in the past, my current problem is just with DHCP.  Do you know of any reason that it might hang on startup?

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## Tolstoi

Are you using some kind of networkmanager like NetworkManager or Wicd or Wpa_Supplicant ?

----------

## jyoung

No, I used to use NetworkManager but pulled it out about six months ago because I wanted something that was more hand-on, and also that I could run without starting X11.  I've been using wireless tools, but had wpa_supplicant installed.  Just in case wpa_supplicant was somehow confusing wireless-tools, I just now unemerged it; no change, my boot-up still hangs when the dhcp client tries to start.

I've done some google searching for clues on what might cause this.  I'm finding a lot of hits for dhcp troubles, but none seems to really describe what I'm having. 

I'm not sure how much your've read through the older posts, but in the past my dhcp has not launched on boot, and I'm not sure why it is now.  Back when it didn't launch at boot, I was able to boot up successfully, but the machine hung in a similar way when I tried to launch dhcp manually.

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## jyoung

One more thing to save you from digging through older posts: I'm upgrading from a broadcom wireless card to this intel wireless card, and I when I put the broadcom card back in I don't have the problem with dhcp.

----------

## Tolstoi

I had problems with my Broadcom card using the broadcom-sta driver for that model. So I switched to Intel.

I'm sure you've done that already but I would remove everthing related to Broadcom, then go through the guides again, to check if you've got everything right. Check if you have net.eth0 and net.wlan0 linked to net.lo, if you've added net.wlan0 to the default runlevel, kernel settings etc. .

Sometimes it's just a small thing we just overlooked. I don't have any dhcp problems for my part.

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## jyoung

Wow, I had actually forgotten to create a net.wlan0 linked to net.lo.  I did this, and I recompiled my kernel after removing everything related to broadcom, but with no effect.  Then I tried one more trick, compiling the iwlwifi driver as a module.  The wiki for the iwlagn driver recommends to compile it as a module.  When I switched over to the newer iwlwifi driver, I've been trying both the in-kernel and module compiles.  This time, just a few minutes ago, when I compiled the iwlwifi driver as a module, I got stuck at the processing uevents step again.  This is kind of odd since the main reason that the wiki indicates that compiling the driver as a module is important is because the firmware on the harddrive isn't available to the kernel when it's first loaded (since the harddrive isn't mounted).  Now that my firmware is compiled into the kernel, I wouldn't think this would matter.

The one other trace of the broadcom stuff is the broadcom-sta driver itself.  One other test would be to try and remove that and see what happens.  Unfortunately, I'm going out of town for a couple of days and I won't be able to tinker with this until Monday at the earliest.  If you think of any other ideas or possible fixes or diagnostics over the weekend, feel free to post them and I'll them a try early next week.

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## Tolstoi

Well, I've got all the settings for iwlwifi that are pointed out in the wiki built in the kernel. And as mentioned above the firmware as well. As you're not using any kind of networkmanager take a look at your /etc/rc.conf at the line rc_hotplug.

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## jyoung

Okay, I compiled the driver into the kernel (along with the firmware), and then had a look at my rc.conf file.

My rc.conf  had the line:

#rc_hotplug="*"

The comments above it seemed to suggest that this line would be useful for bringing up services such as wlan0, so I uncommented this line and attempted to reboot.  The machine still got stuck, but the error messages were different and it's not clear that it got stuck at the same point.  As a copy and paste is impossible, I've written them down and transcribed them here:

*Bringing up interface eth0

  *No configuration specified; defaulting to DHCP

  *dhcp ...

     *Running dhcp ...

*dhcpcd[1709]:  version 5.5.6 starting

*dhcpcd[1709]:  eth0:  waiting for carrier

At this point the computer waiting about 30 seconds, and then proceeded with:

*dhcpcd[1709]:  timed out

*dhcpcd[1709]:  allowing 8 seconds for IPv422 timeout

*dhcpcd[1709]:  timed out

  *ERROR:  net.eth0 failed to start

  *Bringing up interface wlan0

This is where the computer got stuck.  Thi s error seemed familiar, so I looked in my log and found and entry from about ten months ago saying that I had commented out this line, 'rc_hotplug="*" ', in order to surpress the attempt to initialize eth0 when there's no ethernet cable plugged in.  At that point in time the machine wasn't attempting to start up wlan0 and then getting stuck, I just wanted to not have to wait 30 seconds during boot-up while the computer figured out that it wasn't plugged into a network.

That said, it's not clear to me what's really going on.  What configuration is it expecting?  I mean DHCP is a great default, but should I be telling it that explicitely?  Why does it take 30 seconds to figure out that there's no ethernet cable plugged in?  And, perhaps most important, is there any way to get feedback on why wlan0 is failing to startup?  Some kind of verbose setting?

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## jyoung

Some google searching on my problem did not reveal any clues as to why net.wlan0 gets stuck.  But, by setting rc_hotplug="net.wlan0 !net.*" I surpress the attempt to start eth0 at boot.  But, wlan0 still gets stuck.  It's actually not clear to me that starting it at boot in this fashion is useful.  If I could prevent it from starting at boot and then start it manually with infconfig, maybe I could learn more about what's going on?

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## Tolstoi

Did you add net.wlan0 to the default runlevel?  Perhaps that's the issue. Your rc.conf looks ok now with net.wlan0 added to the uncommented rc_hotplug line.

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## jyoung

I tried adding wlan0 to the default runlevel, with no effect.

Any other ideas?  Is there any way I could set the initialization to verbose so that it would give me more feedback on where it's getting stuck?  Another idea:  When I boot off a live CD it detects wlan0, even though it doesn't have the microcode to run the card.  Could I compare with the configuration files to get ideas about what I might be missing?

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## jyoung

The really weird thing is, if I do a google search on "bringing up interface wlan0" there are lots of gentoo related hits, but none of them describe their machine getting frozen at this step (as mine does).  They all seem to get an error messaged like "net.wlan0 failed to start".

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## jyoung

One more thing before I get back to the real world, I thought to check my kernel log for references to wlan0 (after, of course, I booted the computer off a kernel that didn't have the iwlwifi driver and so wouldn't get hung up on the wlan0).  There were a few references, specifically the following line appeared on many different dates:

Loading kernel module for a network device with CAP_SYS_MODULE (deprecated).  Use CAP_NET_ADMIN and alias netdev-wlan0 instead.

The last time this line occures is June 22, so I'm guessing that this is back when I was playing around with compiling the driver as a module versus compiling it into my kernel (as it is now).  But, could this be a clue to what's wrong?

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## Tolstoi

Are you using the genkernel method or are you building the kernel yourself from scratch?

The computer shouldn't freeze because of the network - it would boot normally and you just wouldn't be able to connect. Verbose output should be there unless you are using fbsplash (fbcondecor) and set the splash to silent in the grub kernel line. But you would know that because you have to do it yourself.

If that's not the case change the /etc/inittab line from:

```

c1:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty1 linux

```

to

```

c1:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty --noclear 38400 tty1 linux

```

Is your kernel linked properly? Find it out with  ln -s /usr/src/linux  - it should point to your kernel. If not, delete the directory and link it to your kernel source with ln - s  /usr/src/kernel-version   linux

The go over the network settings again --> the ones under network and the ones under device drivers.

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## jyoung

I'm building my kernel from scratch.  I've also never used a boot splash.  Perhaps thi s is as verbose as it gets?

I just checked, and my kernel is linked properly.  Also, I double my kernel settings against http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Wireless/Configuration#Networking_section, and it all checks out.  Are there any other how-to sites you'd recommend checking against?

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## Tolstoi

Try this one: http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Iwlwifi

But stick to the built-in option and not modules. Curiously the German wiki doesn't mention modules.

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## jyoung

Thanks, I that one is more specific.  The only thing I had missed was 'RF switch subsystem support ', which I've now enabled.  Still, I get stuck at boot when wlan0 starts.

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## Tolstoi

I'm sorry but I've run out of ideas at the moment.

What I don't really understand is, does your pc hang or freeze while it boots or does it simply not start the network services. I just can't get what you mean when you say your machine gets "stuck at boot".

If your machine really gets stuck I really don't think it's a network problem, but something else. Did you solve the problem with the boot messages?

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## jyoung

When it's going through the boot up sequence it gets to the step where it prints the message "bringing up interface wlan0", and then it stops.  The text printed to the screen remains there, but there is no further action.  It never completes the boot up sequence; I never get a login prompt.  Because I can't login and do additional diagnostics, it's really hard to say what's going on.  That's mostly why I was interested in the idea that there might be a more verbose setting - to try to figure out what's going on with "bringing up interface wlan0" while that line is printed to the screen and nothing else is happening.

Here's one possible idea:  I've created a new live CD from an image that I just got from gentoo.org.  I'm going to boot my machine off it and see if it detects and "brings up" wlan0.  The old live CD, the one that I used to setup gentoo on my machine, didn't have the right firmware, but perhaps that's been added to new copies of the live CD image.  With any luck the machine will be able to boot off that, and I can get a fix on what a working configuration looks like.

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## Tolstoi

Well that sounds complicated. There is still Systemrescuecd around with which you can chroot into your system. I still can't imagine that your boot process hangs because of the network. After a time out it should boot normally without network. There must be something else going on I believe.

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## Tolstoi

Just a few questions I had over the weekend:

Do you have dhcp or dhcpcd installed?

Do you need WPA encryption for your router?

If you need wpa you should install wpa_supplicant and configure it to your needs to have the capability to connect to your router with WPA.

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## dewke

Wow, I just read through this.  I have the same card in my laptop and it works with no issues.  The only difference is I use wicd.

Out of curiosity, if you don't bring up the wlan0 interface at boot, can you bring it up without dhcp and have it capture other wifi traffic?   It might be you have rf-kill set in which case it won't come up at all.

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## jyoung

Tolstoi:  I'm using dhcpcd.  My router (at home) is unencrypted.  I unmerged wpa_supplicant a while back in case it was somehow conflicted with wireless tools.  My plan was to switch back to wpa_supplicant once I've gotten the bugs work out of the wireless card, but, for now, it seemed best to keep my setup as simple as possible.

dewke:  I'm not sure how to not bring up dhcp at boot.  Even when I removed it from the default runlevel, it still comes up.  When I run 'rc-status', dhcpcd appears under "Dynamic Runlevel: needed".  When I comment out the hotplug line in my rc.conf file to bring up wlan0, I get stuck at "Starting DHCP Client Daemon'  - that is, the machine prints this line during the bootup process and nothing thereafter, and never fully boots up.  Here's a question:  What is the difference between dhcp and dhcpcd?

And, a report on my Live CD experiment:  It didn't get very far, as the Live CD didn't have the firmware microcode needed to run the wireless card.  Is there a way of installing that firmware on the Live CD?  The only kind of Live CD I've made so far is just by downloading the image file.

Also, I should note an intermittant problem.  Sometimes, though rarely, when I boot up the machine gets stopped at a different step.  It prints 'L1 Enabled; Diabling L0S", and gets hung there (that is, it never fully boots up and I never get a working prompt).  I've done some google searching on this message - there are lots of people who talk about it, but I can't find anyone whose machine gets stopped there.  This problem occurs about 1/10th of the time.

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## Tolstoi

Try the Systemrescuecd - at least it works here with my card.

Those problems you described with L1 and LOS - could possibly be related to ASPM enabled/disabled ? You could try to boot with the kernel line set to ASPM off.

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## jyoung

Well, I gave the Systemrescuecd a try, with no luck.  I wasn't even able to boot off the systemrescuecd.  I got the image from http://www.sysresccd.org/SystemRescueCd_Homepage (is that right?).  When I selected the default setup, it got stuck at processing uevents (and by stuck, I mean that the machine became frozen at that step and never booted up).  When I selected 64 bit (my machine is 64bit), it got stuck at syslog-ng.

What could possibly make a systemrescuecd choke?

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## Tolstoi

Strange  :Smile:  . What machine do you have?

At least you know now that you didn't do much wrong with your setup before. I'm afraid the problems you run into are some really essential ones. Perhaps you open up a new thread with all the information you can provide.

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## jyoung

About the ASPM enabled/disable suggestion, my menuconfig is actually a little confusing on this issue.  I've uploaded a screenshot:

http://www2.astro.psu.edu/~jyoung/menuconfig_screenshot.png

As you can see,  the 'PCI Express ASPM' control is permanently on with -*-.  I tried recompiling the kernel with all of 'PCI Support' turned off, but the results were the same (maching got stuck once while brining up wlan0, and another time froze after reporting "L1 Enabled; Diabling L0S".

Before I start another thread, I need to ask  - does this sound like it might be a hardware issue?  Could I have a bad wireless card?  The intermittent nature of the L0S issue suggests that to me.

----------

## jyoung

Tolstoi, my machine is a Dell Studio XPS13.

----------

## Tolstoi

If you go on the help option of menuconfig you can read some information about the related setting. BTW I have the same PCI configuration as you have. Try setting pcie_aspm=off in the kernel line. See: http://smackerelofopinion.blogspot.de/2011/03/making-sense-of-pcie-aspm.html

Good luck!

----------

## jyoung

Reading this blog gives me cause for optimism.  "... some PCIe devices that case Linux hang at boot ..." - this sounds exactly like what's happening to me.  I'm going to try this when later today, after I tie up a few duties, and I'll report back.

----------

## jyoung

Sadly, no luck.  In the interest of thoroughness I tried all the pcie_aspm settings (off, default, performance, and powersave), and the results were the same - it froze while bringing up wlan0.  And, the LOS problem recurred several times (perhaps 1 time in 10), suprisingly once even with pcie_aspm=off.  When this LOS problem occured, I tried again with the same setting.

You know, it's really odd - it did sound like they were talking about the LOS issue that I've be having.

----------

## Tolstoi

In this thread : https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=138105&p=3 they suggest the pcie_aspm=force option in the kernel line or a newer kernel preferably 3.3.1 and up.

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## jyoung

Wow Tolstoi, that did it!  I can now boot up with the intel card in and detect it as wlan0 - this is a HUGE breakthrough.  Seriously, I started this thread in 2010, almost two years ago, and this is the first time.

Before we log this thread as solved, I'd like to actually fire up the wireless and make sure that it's actually working.  When I execute the commands below (which is my normal procedure for starting up the wireless), wlan0 waits for the carrier and then times out.  My wife's machine can log onto the same wireless just fine, which isn't encrypted, so I know it's not the network.

ifconfig wlan0 up

iwlist wlan0 scan  # scans for (and detects) the wireless network

iwconfig wlan0 essid <network name>

dhcpcd wlan0  # waits for carrier and times out

----------

## Tolstoi

Hey, glad you got it working  :Smile:  !

I'd go over the documentation again and see if you've forgot something, perhaps edit /etc/conf.d/net accordingly. You shouldn't be too far away from the solution now.

As posted before, if you have WPA/WPA2 you need wpa_supplicant because the other ones can't deal with WPA.

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## jyoung

Hey Folks, I was finally able to connect; in fact, I'm writing to you using the intel card.  Thanks to everyone for all the help - you're awesome!

----------

## EthosX

 *jyoung wrote:*   

> Hey Folks, I was finally able to connect; in fact, I'm writing to you using the intel card.  Thanks to everyone for all the help - you're awesome!

 

Hello 

I got question

I have purchased Intel Centrino WiFi Ultimate card but for lenovo and I installed it into my sony vaio laptop but it says device cannot start 

Any ideas  ? 

thnk you

----------

