# [solved] Gentoo not detecting wlan0

## kahrkunne

So I finished installing gentoo, but it doesn't detect wlan0.

What do I do now? I need internet...

EDIT: modprobe ath9k gives me module not found...

Maybe I forgot to put it into my kernel?

Can anyone tell me where in the menuconfig it is? Then I can see if I have it on (and put it on and compile a new kernel if that's not the case)

EDIT: Recompiled my kernel and modprobed ath9k.

Wlan0 still doesn't show up in ifconfig or ifconfig -a

iwconfig is not installed

halpLast edited by kahrkunne on Sat May 11, 2013 5:46 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## NeddySeagoon

kahrkunne,

Use the menuconf search.  Press / and enter ath9k

The output will include

```
  │ Symbol: ATH9K [=n]                                                                                         │  

  │ Type  : tristate                                                                                           │  

  │ Prompt: Atheros 802.11n wireless cards support                                                             │  

  │   Defined at drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/Kconfig:18                                                     │  

  │   Depends on: NETDEVICES [=y] && WLAN [=y] && ATH_CARDS [=n] && MAC80211 [=y]                              │  

  │   Location:                                                                                                │  

  │     -> Device Drivers                                                                                      │  

  │       -> Network device support (NETDEVICES [=y])                                                          │  

  │         -> Wireless LAN (WLAN [=y])                                                                        │  

  │ (3)       -> Atheros Wireless Cards (ATH_CARDS [=n])                                                       │  

  │   Selects: ATH9K_HW [=n] && MAC80211_LEDS [=y] && LEDS_CLASS [=y] && NEW_LEDS [=y] && ATH9K_COMMON [=n]   
```

The Depends on: statement must be true or the option will be hidden.  Set the configuration options for that first.

Then you will find the option where Location: tells.

If you have Symbol: ATH9K [=y], then the driver is built into the kernel, not as a module, so modproble will fail as there is no module to probe.

Wireless drivers are best built as modules until they work, then you can move all the bits into the kernel binary if you wish.

Many Wireless chipsets need firmware - I have not checked ath9k.  If it needs firmware, it may or may not show up as wlan0 without it. regardless, if its required, it won't work without it.

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## kahrkunne

I recompiled my kernel and now I have ath9k. I already modprobe'd it.

Now it doesn't show up in my ifconfig list. I had the same problem when configuring my network on the live cd, but I don't remeber how I fixed it then.

EDIT: I checked dmesg, and I see this line here:

[number] systemd-udevd[number]: renamed network interface wlan0 to wlp7s1

Gonna try that now.

EDIT: Tried using wpa_supplicant with the interface wlp7s1. Wpa_supplicant clearly shows that I was succesfully connected, yet "ping google.com" gives me an unkown host error.

Again, I vaguely remember the interface name wlp7s1 from back when I was using the live cd, but I know that I eventually connected to the internet using wlan0. 

How do I "Un-probe" a module? I wanna test what happens when I do that.

EDIT: Even more proof that I am connected: When I do ifconfig -a, the "wlp7s1" interface is the only one that gives a value other than one on RX and TX packets. This number appears to be rising everything I do ifconfig -a.

I still can't ping anything or emerge any packets, though.

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## NeddySeagoon

kahrkunne,

wlp7s1 is your wireless interface under the new default naming scheme. The DVD will use wlan0 as it predates that change.

To use and interface, you need it to have an IP address, like 

```
eth0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500

        inet 192.168.100.20  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.100.255
```

in ifconfig.

If you don't have an IP address, we need to fix that.

dmesg may say something about authentication.

Once you have an IP address, you need one or more routes, that tell the kernel how to reach other IP addresses. As in  

```
$ route

Kernel IP routing table

Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface

default         router          0.0.0.0         UG    2      0        0 eth0

loopback        localhost.local 255.0.0.0       UG    0      0        0 lo

192.168.100.0   *               255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth0
```

thats a minimal routing table.

If you want to connect to other sites by name, you need some nameservers. These will be listed in /etc/resolv.conf

However, if you use DHCP, you will only get an IP address after wpa_supplicant has authenticated, the wireless link is needed to support the DHCP protocol.  DHCP will also populate /etc/resolv.conf, unless you have told it not to.

You use 

```
modprobe -r ath9k
```

 to remove the ath9k module.  Only modules not in use may be removed.  If you have compiled your kernel to support forcably removing modules in use, you get to keep the pieces when you do that. 

So, do you have an IP address on wlp7s1 and if not, what can you tell us about authentication?

Do you use DHCP ?

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## kahrkunne

Currently installing kde-meta (chrooted into my system from a liveDvd)

Will check those things when it's finished (It's like, half way or something)

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## kahrkunne

Okay, that's done (finally)

Lemme reboot and I'll try if I can get things working.

EDIT: can't startx (thread is https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-7307130.html#7307130 if interested)

Will work on the internet issue now.

Now about the wireless issue, I seem not to have an ip adress. How to fix this?

EDIT: On arch wiki I read that I need to issue "dhcpcd wlan0" in order to request an ip adress.

Of course I'll change "wlan0" to the other thing, but it says that dhcpcd isn't installed. I'm gonna try emerging it from a liveDvd.

EDIT: IT WORKED! I don't remember having to do this when installing though...

Still, everything's working now! Thanks A LOT for all of your helpLast edited by kahrkunne on Sat May 11, 2013 6:17 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## peje

Hi you have to emerge xdm (if not allready installed) and edit /etc/conf.d/xdm there you set kdm

after that you can start it with /etc/init.d/xdm start ,when everything is ok add it to the default runlevel rc-update add xdm default

cu peje

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