Wifi - Unable to make a connection

[kdeuser]

Hello,

I have been trying for a very long time to configure wifi for Desktop multimedia pc , with no success.

My post explaining the wifi issue is posted in this link :

http://www.vdr-portal.de/board16-vid...332-avg2-wifi/

Normally, i.e. 9 times out of 10 these problems are resolved but being a German speaking forum , really need to understand what they are saying - google is not accurate enough this time.

There is something in etc/networks/interfaces script which has to be changed.

Here´s the thing, you can not or are not supposed to do this manually as the script is generated automatically.

This is my wireless card :

Ethernet controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR242x / AR542x Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)

A post from a user here solves the issue but not for me :

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2183347

Keep getting .....failed to retrieve ip no dhcp..........

Really need some help here or maybe someone knows German and can figure out what they are saying.

Thanks.

[Teunis]

I'm no expert but a long time ago I wrote down how to manually set up a WIFI link.
Recently I had a bad booting failure and used it to get a connection so it's still valid.


It's not necessary to disconnect the Ethernet (wired connection) for making a WIFI connection, they'll happily coexist.



As a start it is a good idea to check your computer sees the network card.
This command should tell you:

lspci

If using an USB card it is:

lsusb

The following command will tell you which network devices are available and what their addresses are:

ifconfig

You can narrow it down to WIFI only:

iwconfig

In my case the last one reply:

wlp3s0 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:"Area-52_5GHz"
Mode:Managed Frequency:5.18 GHz Access Point: C8:0E:14:0D:F9:9A
Bit Rate=150 Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm
Retry short limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Power Managementff
Link Quality=64/70 Signal level=-46 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:3441 Missed beacon:0

(Damn icons)
Note, until recently I would have expected wlan0 as address, now it is wlp3s0.

If you don't get any of this you have to check out how to make the wireless card load it's driver.


Another way to find out is to look in KInfoCenter.

If you DO get a reply for a WIFI card (like wlan0):

sudo iwlist wlan0 scan | grep ESSID

This will list the WIFI networks available, also called ESSID's, in my case "Area-52_5GHz".

If yours is in the list, great.
If not, better check it's switched on and that antenna you wrote about is plugged in!

Next you connect to your ESSID:

sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid "myconnection"

Replace "myconnection" with the name of your WIFI.


Next we set up DNS:

sudo dhclient wlan0

Now you are connected to a name server that can translate web addresses to IP addresses.

I assume your WIFI is protected with WPA so we need to supply your credentials:

 wpa_passphrase YOURESSID YOURWIFIPASSWORD

Replace the obvious and you should be on line.

Once this works you can investigate why the regular network widget isn't working.

[kdeuser]

Hello Teunis,

There does not seem to be any wireless :

reel@BM2LTSR66RBin:/media/hd/home/reel$ iwconfig
tun0 no wireless extensions.

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

eth1 no wireless extensions.

reel@BM2LTSR66RBin:/media/hd/home/reel$

Wifi works fine because i ran a 15.04 live cd.

How do you load the wifi driver ? That's the issue.

Not a lot i can do really.

Thanks for the detailed explanation though.

[Snowhog]

You did do this:

Re: Qualcomm Atheros AR242x / AR542x Wireless not working

Thank you very much, Bryan. Saved a lot of time finding you with the same wireless card I have, with the same problem. With your info, the fix was as simple as:

1) Open a terminal
2) Type: sudo modprobe ath5k
3) Enter the admin password
4) Smile like a Cheshire cat!

Again, thanks!

If 'yes', did you then logout and reboot?

[kdeuser]

Hello Snowhog,

I am trying : sudo modprobe ath5k again.

Can not remember if i did logout and reboot.

Just ran that command again :

reel@BM2LTSR66RBin:/media/hd/home/reel$ sudo modprobe ath5k
[sudo] password for reel: 
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'ath5k': Invalid argument
reel@BM2LTSR66RBin:/media/hd/home/reel$

Pretty sure ´Invalid argument´ wasn´t there.

[Snowhog]

sudo modprobe -a ath5k

[kdeuser]

Hi Snowhog,

Still same ( Invalid argument ) :

reel@BM2LTSR66RBin:/media/hd/home/reel$ sudo modprobe -a ath5k
[sudo] password for reel:
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'ath5k': Invalid argument
reel@BM2LTSR66RBin:/media/hd/home/reel$

[vinnywright]

what dose

lsmod

and

rfkill list

show ,,,,,,post them @hear

VINNY

[kdeuser]

@vinnywright,

The command to install the wifi driver went through after an os re-install.

Logged out and rebooted , but no wifi.

sudo modprobe ath5k

reel@BM2LTSR66RBin:/media/hd/home/reel$ lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
lirc_serial            20480  3 
lirc_dev               20480  1 lirc_serial
autofs4                40960  1 
arc4                   16384  2 
ath5k                 135168  0 
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     49152  1 
snd_hda_codec_realtek    69632  1 
snd_hda_codec_generic    65536  1 snd_hda_codec_realtek
snd_hda_intel          32768  8 snd_hda_codec_hdmi
ath                    24576  1 ath5k
snd_hda_controller     32768  1 snd_hda_intel
mac80211              630784  1 ath5k
snd_hda_codec         122880  5 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_controller
snd_seq_midi           16384  0 
snd_hwdep              16384  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_seq_midi_event     16384  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_pcm_oss            49152  0 
snd_rawmidi            28672  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_mixer_oss          24576  1 snd_pcm_oss
nvidia               9539584  39 
edac_core              49152  0 
snd_pcm                94208  6 snd_pcm_oss,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_controller
snd_seq                57344  2 snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq_midi
serio_raw              16384  0 
edac_mce_amd           24576  0 
k8temp                 16384  0 
sp5100_tco             16384  0 
snd_seq_device         16384  3 snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_midi
cfg80211              454656  3 ath,ath5k,mac80211
snd_timer              24576  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
i2c_piix4              20480  0 
nvidiafb               45056  0 
snd                    69632  26 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_pcm_oss,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_device,snd_mixer_oss
ppdev                  20480  0 
w83627ehf              36864  0 
vgastate               20480  1 nvidiafb
ax88179_178a           24576  0 
asix                   36864  0 
usbnet                 40960  2 asix,ax88179_178a
ir_rc6_decoder         16384  0 
fb_ddc                 16384  1 nvidiafb
igorplugusb            16384  0 
soundcore              16384  2 snd,snd_hda_codec
radeon               1425408  0 
shpchp                 32768  0 
nfsd                  253952  13 
ttm                    86016  1 radeon
drm_kms_helper        114688  1 radeon
auth_rpcgss            49152  1 nfsd
parport_pc             32768  0 
drm                   286720  6 ttm,drm_kms_helper,nvidia,radeon
nfs_acl                16384  1 nfsd
nfs                   212992  0 
tpm_infineon           20480  0 
i2c_algo_bit           16384  2 radeon,nvidiafb
8250_fintek            16384  0 
ati_agp                16384  0 
nuvoton_cir            20480  0 
lockd                  81920  2 nfs,nfsd
rc_core                28672  4 igorplugusb,lirc_dev,nuvoton_cir,ir_rc6_decoder
grace                  16384  2 nfsd,lockd
i2c_viapro             16384  0 
sunrpc                278528  19 nfs,nfsd,auth_rpcgss,lockd,nfs_acl
usb_storage            53248  0 
fscache                57344  1 nfs
smsc47m192             16384  0 
mac_hid                16384  0 
hwmon_vid              16384  2 smsc47m192,w83627ehf
hdshm                  20480  5 
lp                     16384  0 
parport                40960  3 lp,ppdev,parport_pc
btrfs                 921600  0 
xor                    28672  1 btrfs
raid6_pq               98304  1 btrfs
pata_acpi              16384  0 
hid_generic            16384  0 
usbhid                 49152  0 
hid                    98304  2 hid_generic,usbhid
firewire_ohci          36864  0 
psmouse               102400  0 
ahci                   28672  5 
r8169                  73728  0 
firewire_core          61440  1 firewire_ohci
pata_atiixp            16384  0 
libahci                32768  1 ahci
mii                    16384  4 asix,r8169,usbnet,ax88179_178a
crc_itu_t              16384  1 firewire_core
reel@BM2LTSR66RBin:/media/hd/home/reel$

......and :

reel@BM2LTSR66RBin:/media/hd/home/reel$ rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
reel@BM2LTSR66RBin:/media/hd/home/reel$

Thanks for helping out.

[kdeuser]

Hi ,

Wifi Success !!

At last , wifi works .

The solution was simple in the end :

The following lines are placed at the end of /etc/network/interfaces :

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
WPA-SSID MOVISTAR_7652
WPA-PSK 12345678

- MOVISTAR_7652 = ssid / your network name
- 12345678 = your code

Thanks for all the help.

[Teunis]

Thanks for sharing your resolution!