Problem with TPLlink-WN781ND wireless card

davidse · May 30, 2012, 12:12am

Hello,

I have a new desktop and I am having problems to get the wireless to work (the card is a TPLlink-WN781ND). I want to have Suse 12.1, but I have tried Kubuntu and Ubuntu too (no success). The card is detected and so on (see below) but NetworkManager stays “waiting for authorization” and then fails.

I have little experience and I have run out of ideas… and in view of HCL:Network (Wireless) - openSUSE I am in fact quite pessimistic. My latest attempts have been to install:
compat-wireless-3.3-5.1 obs://build.opensuse.org/driver:wireless
madwifi-r4180-1.1 obs://build.opensuse.org/driver:wireless

Before this I tried, in a previous 12.1 install:/usr/sbin/rfkill unblock all
sudo /sbin/modprobe ath_pci
sudo vi /etc/modprobe.d/50-blacklist.conf

[INDENT=2]blacklist ath5k
blacklist acer-wmi
[/INDENT]
yast:

[INDENT=2]madwifi-kmp-desktop
compat-wireless-kmp-desktop
[/INDENT]
I am willing to retry things anyway… my wife told me yesterday that maybe we should get Windows, help!!

Now, the data.

I think my kernel is very recent (probably an automatic update), so I didn’t try to update it more.


uname -r
3.1.10-1.9-desktop

At least the card is there… from lspci:


01:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
01:00.0 0280: 168c:002b (rev 01)


sudo /sbin/lspci -v
01:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Atheros Communications Inc. Device 30a1
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
        Memory at fe400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=]](http://piratepad.net/ep/search?query=64K%5D)
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1](http://piratepad.net/ep/search?query=1/1) Maskable- 64bit-
        Capabilities: [60] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
        Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
        Capabilities: [140] Virtual Channel
        Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number 00-15-17-ff-ff-24-14-12
        Capabilities: [170] Power Budgeting <?>
        Kernel driver in use: ath9k


dmesg | grep ath9
    3.969160] ath9k 0000:01:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
    3.969171] ath9k 0000:01:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
    4.027291] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'ath9k_rate_control'
    4.027616] Registered led device: ath9k-phy0


sudo /usr/sbin/iwconfig
wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=20](http://piratepad.net/ep/search?query=20) dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off

Something that may be useful to know:


dmesg
  646.702666] wlan0: direct probe to 00:1b:11:a8:11:62 (try 1/3)
  646.902007] wlan0: direct probe to 00:1b:11:a8:11:62 (try 2/3)
  647.101448] wlan0: direct probe to 00:1b:11:a8:11:62 (try 3/3)
  647.300886] wlan0: direct probe to 00:1b:11:a8:11:62 timed out
 1166.500270] wlan0: direct probe to 00:1b:11:a8:11:62 (try 1/3)
 1166.699655] wlan0: direct probe to 00:1b:11:a8:11:62 (try 2/3)
 1166.899103] wlan0: direct probe to 00:1b:11:a8:11:62 (try 3/3)
 1167.098535] wlan0: direct probe to 00:1b:11:a8:11:62 timed out
(etc)

This probably means nothing but just in case:


dmesg | grep mware
    0.826539] [Firmware Bug]: ACPI: BIOS _OSI(Linux) query ignored

And this is the access point I am trying to connect to:


sudo /usr/sbin/iwlist scan
wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:1B:11:A8:11:62
                    Channel:6
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                    Quality=20/70](http://piratepad.net/ep/search?query=20/70)  Signal level=-90](http://piratepad.net/ep/search?query=-90) dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    ESSID:"ghost"
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s
                    Bit Rates:6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s
                              36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=00000009a4a57183](http://piratepad.net/ep/search?query=00000009a4a57183)
                    Extra: Last beacon: 1313ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: 000567686F7374
                    IE: Unknown: 010482848B96
                    IE: Unknown: 030106
                    IE: WPA Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (2) : TKIP CCMP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (2) : TKIP CCMP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: Unknown: 050401030000
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0100
                    IE: Unknown: 32080C1218243048606C

Thanks a lot and sorry for the heavy post.[/size]

jdmcdaniel3 · May 30, 2012, 12:36am

If this is KDE, you need to start KWalletManager in order to preserve your network Passphrase. Right click on the system tray, select system tray settings and make sure the Network Manager is enabled. In YaST / Network Settings / Network Devices, you must have enabled the Network Manager and are not using ifup. Based on your description, you may not have started KWalletManager. Once KWallet is running, go into Network Manager and enter all the correct info for your network. This adapter is supposed to be compatible with openSUSE.

Thank You,

davidse · June 5, 2012, 12:53am

Thanks a lot for the suggestion. I certainly didn’t think of that one… the first time I just said yes to kwallet, put a blank password, and thought that was all I needed. I have never had experience with that application beyond that. By the way, I am starting kwalletmanager myself, otherwise I don’t find it in the tray, is that normal?

So, this happened today: I tried, as suggested in http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/wireless/453656-do-i-need-use-kwallet-wireless-encryption-key-work-opensuse11-3-kde-2.html#post2288311 , to erase some config files. The folder .kde4/share/apps/kwallet was empty so I left it as it was, and in .kde4/share/config there was only one file related to that app which I deleted. Reboot, nothing happened. When I started kwalletmanager in the command line, I saw a default wallet with two items stored. One was called {hex stuff};802-11-wireless-security and it had a field “psk” where my WPA password was. The other item was {same hex stuff};802-1x and had three empty fields.

A few reboots later, I looked again into those folders and saw a file .kde4/share/apps/kwallet/kdewallet.kwl . I also saw both expected files in the other place. And at that time, the manager tried to connect again (it is very annoying that I don’t have a way to force an attempt), and I look into the wallet: the two items were gone, no password was stored anywhere. Of course, after a moment of “waiting for authorization” the attempt timed out. I deleted the connection from the manager and entered it again, but the password did not go to the wallet.

Another thing I tried was changing the way connection secrets are stored, from the default “in file (unencrypted)” to “secure storage” and back; nothing.

By the way, using

sudo less /var/log/NetworkManager

I found that authentication failed (“reason ‘no secrets’”) and the connection was marked as ‘invalid’ (that should explain why it doesn’t appear again in the list of detected connections).

Thanks!

jdmcdaniel3 · June 5, 2012, 2:54am

So, normally I manually start KWalletManager which places it in the system tray, but it will not do a thing. Then, I go to Network Manager and enter the SID of the network and the network password. Network Manager on a connection attempt wakes up KWallet Manager which if never run will request a master password needed on each startup to allow it to use the network pass phrase for the wireless hardware. Normally you use Network Manager when your PC could connect to any number of wireless connections. Now, if you are at home, only connect by wireless and always use the same one and never use hardwired connection, you can use the ifup method and forgo Network Manager and KWallet. Often, in order to get Wireless working in any mode at first requires you use a wired connection at first, until you get your wireless working. Many do complain about needing to input a password to KWallet, but that is how KDE is configured. I suggested using KWallet as your wireless adapter seems to be fully recognized and often the KWallet thing is the only missing action. Many never get the need to do a wired connection at first to download any missing firmware and to get a full system update after your initial installation.

Thank You,

davidse · June 7, 2012, 1:30pm

Unfortunately it’s not working yet. I have restarted the computer infinitely many times, waited infinitely many minutes (despite the “connect automatically” I need to wait almost 5 minutes to see the next attempt…). This is my experience so far: kwallet has the password, and if I am asked for it while trying to connect and I enter a wrong one it goes into kwallet. So far so good. I also have it open to access as much as I can.

In the manager there are three options for storing secrets (I understand this would be the wlan password):

store securely: I am asked several times for the “secrets”, I enter the wlan password a few times, fail. It is some KDE daemon who asks, but it has “always allow” access to the wallet.
store in the open:“waiting for authorization” forever, no prompts.The password is correctly entered in networkmanager (which says, funnily, “connected” when I go to edit the connection).
no store (prompt always): “waiting for authorization” forever, no prompts. I noticed that kwallet does not contain the password any more, maybe gone in the previous step, didn’t check. I disabled the kwallet, nothing changed. At this point I made it a “system connection” but nothing changes (except that I am asked for the root password). When I unchecked that I noticed something next to it, where I could add my user to the list of people who can activate the connection XD (done, same…)

I don’t know what else to try with kwallet and the network manager. Any other suggestions? Ah, I also changed to ifup, used the defaults, didn’t work.

Thanks a lot for the help.

davidse · June 12, 2012, 12:01am

Hi,

Any suggestions? My wife has told me again that we should stop fooling around and buy Windows 7, help!

Thanks

jdmcdaniel3 · June 12, 2012, 12:26am

If there was me I would download a different Linux distribution such as Linux Mint LiveCD, boot from the CD and see if your wireless works with them. It might indicate if a problem with everyone or just one Linux distro.

Thank You,

glistwan · June 12, 2012, 3:49am

davidse:

Unfortunately it’s not working yet. I have restarted the computer infinitely many times, waited infinitely many minutes (despite the “connect automatically” I need to wait almost 5 minutes to see the next attempt…). This is my experience so far: kwallet has the password, and if I am asked for it while trying to connect and I enter a wrong one it goes into kwallet. So far so good. I also have it open to access as much as I can.

In the manager there are three options for storing secrets (I understand this would be the wlan password):

store securely: I am asked several times for the “secrets”, I enter the wlan password a few times, fail. It is some KDE daemon who asks, but it has “always allow” access to the wallet.

store in the open:“waiting for authorization” forever, no prompts.The password is correctly entered in networkmanager (which says, funnily, “connected” when I go to edit the connection).

no store (prompt always): “waiting for authorization” forever, no prompts. I noticed that kwallet does not contain the password any more, maybe gone in the previous step, didn’t check. I disabled the kwallet, nothing changed. At this point I made it a “system connection” but nothing changes (except that I am asked for the root password). When I unchecked that I noticed something next to it, where I could add my user to the list of people who can activate the connection XD (done, same…)

I don’t know what else to try with kwallet and the network manager. Any other suggestions? Ah, I also changed to ifup, used the defaults, didn’t work.

Thanks a lot for the help.

The good news is I can assure you this wireless card works with openSUSE. I’ve got the same model and it works like charm and out of the box so you don’t need to install compat-wireless or anything like that. The default kernel driver is sufficient.

Please try the second option (store in the open) and more importantly please switch back to NetworkManager from ifup. Delete any profiles you have created with network manager plasmoid and create a new one. This will store your wifi password in a text file in clear text and bypass kwallet. Alternatively setting up kwallet with a blank password to access kwallet works as well but basically I think it’s the same level of security as with storing the password in a file.

Also please post the output of this commands :


# ls -la /etc/sysconfig/network/

And please post the contents of the file ifcfg-wlan0 :


# cat /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-wlan0

The second file might contain your wireless password. If that is the case please obfuscate it, rename the file to something like ifcfg-wlan0.bak and reboot after creating new NetworkManager profile. If this doesn’t work please let us know

davidse · June 26, 2012, 12:45am

Well, you make me happy It’s still possible that my card is defective, of course…

I think I did… I followed http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/wireless/462780-cannot-remove-old-wifi-profiles-what-files-delete-please.html#post2363791 and the first of those two has never been recreated again. The second contains a file with the password in clear text.

Here they are. After renaming as you suggested, the file wasn’t recreated as you can see.


/etc/sysconfig/network> ls -la
total 100
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root  4096 Jun 26 00:10 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root  4096 May 28 17:52 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 13894 Jun 25 23:40 config
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  9965 Jun 25 23:40 dhcp
-rw------- 1 root root   201 May 28 17:26 ifcfg-eth0
-rw------- 1 root root   151 Mar  5 15:36 ifcfg-lo
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 29394 Mar  5 15:36 ifcfg.template
-rw------- 1 root root   835 Jun  7 13:22 ifcfg-wlan0.bak
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root  4096 May 28 17:26 if-down.d
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   239 Mar  5 15:36 ifroute-lo
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root  4096 May 28 17:26 if-up.d
drwx------ 2 root root  4096 Oct 25  2011 providers
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root  4096 May 28 17:26 scripts

And here are the contents… I think I haven’t said before that I use WPA-Personal


/etc/sysconfig/network> sudo more ifcfg-wlan0.bak
BOOTPROTO='dhcp'
BROADCAST=''
ETHTOOL_OPTIONS=''
IPADDR=''
MTU=''
NAME='AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express)'
NETMASK=''
NETWORK=''
REMOTE_IPADDR=''
STARTMODE='auto'
USERCONTROL='no'
WIRELESS_AP=''
WIRELESS_AP_SCANMODE='1'
WIRELESS_AUTH_MODE='psk'
WIRELESS_BITRATE='auto'
WIRELESS_CA_CERT=''
WIRELESS_CHANNEL=''
WIRELESS_CLIENT_CERT=''
WIRELESS_CLIENT_KEY=''
WIRELESS_CLIENT_KEY_PASSWORD=''
WIRELESS_DEFAULT_KEY='0'
WIRELESS_EAP_AUTH=''
WIRELESS_EAP_MODE=''
WIRELESS_ESSID='ghost'
WIRELESS_FREQUENCY=''
WIRELESS_KEY=''
WIRELESS_KEY_0=''
WIRELESS_KEY_1=''
WIRELESS_KEY_2=''
WIRELESS_KEY_3=''
WIRELESS_KEY_LENGTH='128'
WIRELESS_MODE='Managed'
WIRELESS_NICK=''
WIRELESS_NWID=''
WIRELESS_PEAP_VERSION=''
WIRELESS_POWER='no'
WIRELESS_WPA_ANONID=''
WIRELESS_WPA_IDENTITY=''
WIRELESS_WPA_PASSWORD=''
WIRELESS_WPA_PSK='*********************'

Thanks a lot

glistwan · July 3, 2012, 5:27am

Does it work at this stage or still not ? Here’s my ifcfg-wlan0 file with which it works :

grzes@opensuse:~> sudo cat /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-wlan0
root's password:
BOOTPROTO='dhcp'
BROADCAST=''
ETHTOOL_OPTIONS=''
IPADDR=''
NAME='AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express)'
NETMASK=''
NETWORK=''
REMOTE_IPADDR=''
STARTMODE='auto'
USERCONTROL='no'
WIRELESS_AP=''
WIRELESS_AUTH_MODE='psk'
WIRELESS_BITRATE=''
WIRELESS_CA_CERT=''
WIRELESS_CHANNEL=''
WIRELESS_CLIENT_CERT=''
WIRELESS_CLIENT_KEY=''
WIRELESS_CLIENT_KEY_PASSWORD=''
WIRELESS_DEFAULT_KEY='0'
WIRELESS_EAP_AUTH=''
WIRELESS_EAP_MODE=''
WIRELESS_FREQUENCY=''
WIRELESS_KEY=''
WIRELESS_KEY_0=''
WIRELESS_KEY_1=''
WIRELESS_KEY_2=''                                                                                                                                                                               
WIRELESS_KEY_3=''                                                                                                                                                                               
WIRELESS_MODE='Managed'                                                                                                                                                                         
WIRELESS_NICK=''
WIRELESS_NWID=''
WIRELESS_PEAP_VERSION=''
WIRELESS_POWER='yes'
WIRELESS_WPA_ANONID=''
WIRELESS_WPA_IDENTITY=''
WIRELESS_WPA_PASSWORD=''

You can also check NetworkManager logs if it’s not working still :

sudo less +F /var/log/NetworkManager

davidse · July 3, 2012, 10:40pm

No it doesn’t. I used your contents and got the same result as before.

It seems to give me the same output I had written a few posts ago, I don’t see anything I can use.

I will try with the Live DVD that someone mentioned previously. If this fails, I will assume it’s the hardware. I cannot think of anything else. Unfortunately I don’t have a modern Windows at hand to try something different.