Wireless does not support scanning

clatworthy · November 10, 2010, 9:01am

Please help. I am really confused. I am using an HP G60 laptop with a built in wireless NIC but am unable to get the wireless connection working. I have followed the advice in the sticky messages above and have included the information below.

I know the wireless modem is working as I have got a spare USB wireless dongle running on the desktop (ironically - I can only get it working where it is not needed!!!). The same dongle will not work on the laptop. So it is a config thing and not a hardware issue

On a trivial level, left clicking on the Network Manager icon shows the “enable wireless” greyed out.

Desktop and laptop are running SuSE 11.3 and KDE4.4.4

I have tried the traditional method as well as knetwork manager and have no success with either.

Here are the technical details…

Hardware compatibility list provides …

AR5001 802.11bg PCI/Cardbus 11.2 ath5k tick, tick, tick Works out of box

YaST => Hardware => Hardware Information provides…

PCI 200.0: 0282 WLAN controller
[Created at pci.318]
Unique ID: PL6s.9AnOduZyIOF
Parent ID: qTvu.d49UKvON2+8
SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:02:00.0
SysFS BusID: 0000:02:00.0
Hardware Class: network
Model: “Atheros AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter”
Vendor: pci 0x168c “Atheros Communications Inc.”
Device: pci 0x001c “AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter”
SubVendor: pci 0x103c “Hewlett-Packard Company”
SubDevice: pci 0x137b
Revision: 0x01
Driver: “ath5k”
Driver Modules: “ath5k”
Device File: wlan1
Features: WLAN
Memory Range: 0xd2600000-0xd260ffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
IRQ: 17 (no events)
HW Address: 00:23:4d:bf:af:d2
Link detected: yes
WLAN channels: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
WLAN frequencies: 2.412 2.417 2.422 2.427 2.432 2.437 2.442 2.447 2.452 2.457 2.462 2.467 2.472
WLAN encryption modes: WEP40 WEP104 TKIP CCMP
WLAN authentication modes: open sharedkey wpa-psk wpa-eap
Module Alias: “pci:v0000168Cd0000001Csv0000103Csd0000137Bbc02sc00i00”
Driver Info #0:
Driver Status: ath5k is active
Driver Activation Cmd: “modprobe ath5k”
Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
Attached to: #21 (PCI bridge)

lspci produces …

PCI 200.0: 0282 WLAN controller
[Created at pci.318]
Unique ID: PL6s.9AnOduZyIOF
Parent ID: qTvu.d49UKvON2+8
SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:02:00.0
SysFS BusID: 0000:02:00.0
Hardware Class: network
Model: “Atheros AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter”
Vendor: pci 0x168c “Atheros Communications Inc.”
Device: pci 0x001c “AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter”
SubVendor: pci 0x103c “Hewlett-Packard Company”
SubDevice: pci 0x137b
Revision: 0x01
Driver: “ath5k”
Driver Modules: “ath5k”
Device File: wlan1
Features: WLAN
Memory Range: 0xd2600000-0xd260ffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
IRQ: 17 (no events)
HW Address: 00:23:4d:bf:af:d2
Link detected: yes
WLAN channels: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
WLAN frequencies: 2.412 2.417 2.422 2.427 2.432 2.437 2.442 2.447 2.452 2.457 2.462 2.467 2.472
WLAN encryption modes: WEP40 WEP104 TKIP CCMP
WLAN authentication modes: open sharedkey wpa-psk wpa-eap
Module Alias: “pci:v0000168Cd0000001Csv0000103Csd0000137Bbc02sc00i00”
Driver Info #0:
Driver Status: ath5k is active
Driver Activation Cmd: “modprobe ath5k”
Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
Attached to: #21 (PCI bridge)

boot.msg snippet provides …

<6> 11.616850] ath5k 0000:02:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
<7> 11.616867] ath5k 0000:02:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
<6> 11.616938] ath5k 0000:02:00.0: registered as ‘phy0’
<7> 12.122739] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x67
<7> 12.122742] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a direct regpair map
<7> 12.122745] ath: Country alpha2 being used: 00
<7> 12.122746] ath: Regpair used: 0x67
<7> 12.189251] phy0: Selected rate control algorithm ‘minstrel’
<7> 12.189897] Registered led device: ath5k-phy0::rx
<7> 12.189915] Registered led device: ath5k-phy0::tx
<6> 12.189919] ath5k phy0: Atheros AR2425 chip found (MAC: 0xe2, PHY: 0x70)
<6> 12.192255] wlan0 renamed to wlan1 by udevd [426]
<6> 12.196710] udev: renamed network interface wlan0 to wlan1

iwlist scan produces…

lo Interface doesn’t support scanning.
eth0 Interface doesn’t support scanning.
wlan1 Interface doesn’t support scanning : Network is down

Please advise. Your help will be greatly appreciated. I have been using wireless on my old (now dead) laptop for two years without a problem.

Cheers.

lijews · November 10, 2010, 9:28am

I found the rfkill command very usefull. You can list all wifi devices and found which is blocked:

rfkill list

and the simply unblock it.

clatworthy · November 10, 2010, 10:59am

Thanks lijews. Downloaded rfkill and find this result…

0: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: yes
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no

So here’s the stupid question. How do I unblock the wireless?

Cheers

lijews · November 10, 2010, 11:05am

rfkill unblock all

clatworthy · November 10, 2010, 12:39pm

Hi again. This gave me

0: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: yes
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

So it is really not happy with something.

lijews · November 10, 2010, 1:06pm

I’m dunno. Did you try to find out maybe it’s block in the bios? I don’t know HP, never get one.

clatworthy · November 10, 2010, 2:23pm

I found this on an ubuntu forum

rmmod -f hp-wmi

So from “rfkill list” I now get
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

No mention of the LAN which clearly works. I am really confused.

lijews · November 10, 2010, 2:27pm

But did it help? I mean, after removing module of your wireless card is the card working??

clatworthy · November 10, 2010, 5:04pm

Hi again. We are having a new kitchen installed and it is a bit hectic here. Sorry for the delay in responding.

It is still not working. Both Yast => Network Devices => Network Settings and Knetworkmanager fail to do anything.

lijews · November 10, 2010, 5:23pm

I’m stuck. I was searching in the web and it looks like your card should be working without any problem using ath5k module.
So maybe now stupid question: did you try to enable this card using special keyboard keys? Of course you will need first add this hp-wmi module again.
And second try:

ifconfig wlan1 up

BTW. - for me it’s kind of strange, that udev renames your wifi card. Did you insert another card earlier? Or chagne mac of your card?

clatworthy · November 10, 2010, 6:53pm

Hi lijews. I’ll answer the easy part first. I connected the tried and tested USB dongle which assumed wlan0. Plugging this back in gives me the following from “rfkill list”
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes
2: phy1: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

So it is not blocked but it still does not work with ifup or knetworkmanager.

clatworthy · November 11, 2010, 12:17am

This is really perplexing. I have loaded Kubuntu 10.10 to try this out (not keen so far. But that is for another forum) and I get the same thing. ie - everything is working but it isn’t.

lijews · November 11, 2010, 11:32am

I’m pretty sure it isn’t your configuration. About the usb wifi - it’s always problem with it… But if you’re saying that it is working on your Desk computer, then I’m dunno. For me it’s looks like hardware problem with your laptop. Especially it doesn’t works with Kubuntu as well - if i understand you well.
Please paste here output of those commands:


ifconfig wlan1 up

and


iwlist wlan1 scanning

Right now I will be few days on my holidays - but will look at the forum sometimes.

clatworthy · November 11, 2010, 4:44pm

Thanks again lijews. I have now performed a complete re-install and after adding in the required repo’s have also performed a full update. So an all new system with functioning hardware. EXCEPT the ****ed wireless. I have wiped out Kubuntu and am now back to SuSE.

The inbuilt wireless LAN is now wlan0 so here is the information you requested.

ifconfig wlan0 up
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Unknown error 132

iwlist wlan0 scanning
wlan0 Interface doesn’t support scanning : Network is down

You have a good holiday and please do not access the forum just for me and this issue. I’ll go back to the cable running across the floor. Not 21st century but very secure and very effective.

Cheers and thanks for looking into this for/with me.

rodhuffaker · November 11, 2010, 8:46pm

You’re not trying to use the wireless with the cable plugged in as well, right?

lijews · November 11, 2010, 10:10pm

Right now I really don’t know what can be the problem. I also had similiar problems ,i.e. wifi card was detected properly, but after hibernation I was unable to bring it up.
But solution was simply - the card was blocked by the software somewhere and rfkill simply unblocked it.
Maybe your card is blocked by those HP hotkeys (hp-wmi module)? Did you try to rmmod the module and ifup the interface?

clatworthy · November 16, 2010, 8:57am

Right, I have had a change of direction with this. I have tried to disable the onboard wireless NIC in order to use the tried and tested dongle. To re-state the situation, the dongle (USB Wireless LAN) works fine on the desktop so I know all the infrastructure is okay and that the hardware is working with SuSE.

Here’s the situation after re-booting…

linux-j2k8:~ # rfkill list
0: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: yes
1: phy1: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
2: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no

linux-j2k8:~ # rfkill unblock all

linux-j2k8:~ # rfkill list
0: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes
1: phy1: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
2: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

linux-j2k8:~ # iwlist wlan0 scanning (THE ONBOARD ONE)
wlan0 Interface doesn’t support scanning : Network is down

linux-j2k8:~ # iwlist wlan1 scanning
wlan1 Interface doesn’t support scanning : Network is down

linux-j2k8:~ # ifconfig wlan1 up

linux-j2k8:~ # iwlist wlan1 scanning
wlan1 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: E8:39:DF:4D:B7:EE
Channel:1
Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
Quality=62/70 Signal level=-48 dBm
Encryption key:on
ESSID:“TALKTALK-4DB7EC”
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
Bit Rates:24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=0000005eacdf0daa
Extra: Last beacon: 1170ms ago
IE: Unknown: 000F54414C4B54414C4B2D344442374543
IE: Unknown: 010882848B960C121824
IE: Unknown: 030101
IE: Unknown: 2A0100
IE: Unknown: 32043048606C
IE: Unknown: 2D1A0E101EFFFF000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: 3D1601050000000000000000000000000000000000000000
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: DD180050F2020101000003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00
IE: Unknown: DD9C0050F204104A0001101044000102103B000103104700106304125310192006122800E04C8670011021001B5265616C74656B2053656D69636F6E647563746F7220436F72702E1023000752544C383637311024000D45562D323030362D30372D32371042000F3132333435363738393031323334371054000800060050F2040001101100114144534C204D6F64656D2F526F75746572100800020082
IE: Unknown: DD1E00904C330E101EFFFF000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: DD1A00904C3401050000000000000000000000000000000000000000
IE: Unknown: DD0600E04C020120
Cell 02 - Address: 00:18:4D:03:96:A0
Channel:1
Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
Quality=57/70 Signal level=-53 dBm
Encryption key:on
ESSID:“shelley1”
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 22 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=00000084ed731158
Extra: Last beacon: 1532ms ago
IE: Unknown: 00087368656C6C657931
IE: Unknown: 010582848B962C
IE: Unknown: 030101
IE: Unknown: 2A0100
IE: Unknown: 32080C1218243048606C

linux-j2k8:~ # ifup wlan1
wlan1 name: RTL8187B_WLAN_Adapter
wlan1 is controlled by ifplugd

So there it is. Everthing working. Ah no! firefox will not connect via the wireless. YAST seems to think that the module name is rtl8187 whereas ifup thinks it is ifplugd. Almost there though.

Any ideas anyone?

Cheers.

pistazienfresser · November 16, 2010, 12:20pm

Realtek RTL8187B or Atheros AR5001?

I may be a little rude sometimes to my hardware but I would be thinking about just turning the laptop and look on the PCI card (non magnetic screwdriver, non static-electrical charge, on your own risk).

Or at least:

lshal > lshal.txt

might give you a big file “shal.txt” in your home directory you could use to seach for “wireless”, “wlan”, etc.

Just two thoughts
do not take me too serious in technical matters
pistazienfresser

lwfinger · November 16, 2010, 3:50pm

If ANY wireless device is asserting the “Hard block” as shown in the “rfkill
list” command, ALL wireless devices will be down. You either need to fix the
condition, or unload the driver for the device that is blocked using


sudo /sbin/modprobe -rv <drivername>

Once you have found the driver that needs to be unloaded, add its name to
/etc/modprobe.d/50-blacklist.conf to keep it from being loaded in the future.

clatworthy · November 16, 2010, 6:48pm

Pistazienfresser - you are crazy with hardware! I cannot even get the laptop open without the risk of breaking everything. If this were a desktop then I would have done as you suggested and ripped out the offending card.

However - progress is being made. I now have followed lwfinger’s advice and have removed the driver and blacklisted the ath5k and ath9k Atheros drivers. The little blue light remains red during and after a reboot so that is good news. So now I only have the dongle (which worked on my old laptop and my desktop but not on the laptop as required).

hwinfo gives this result…

61: USB 00.0: 0282 WLAN controller
[Created at usb.122]
Unique ID: Zj8l.sfmFuxjLWYE
Parent ID: pBe4.QtYiGM_hXFF
SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:04.1/usb2/2-4/2-4:1.0
SysFS BusID: 2-4:1.0
Hardware Class: network
Model: “Realtek RTL8187B_WLAN_Adapter”
Hotplug: USB
Vendor: usb 0x0bda “Realtek Semiconductor Corp.”
Device: usb 0x8189 “RTL8187B_WLAN_Adapter”
Revision: “2.00”
Serial ID: “00e04c000001”
Driver: “rtl8187”
Driver Modules: “rtl8187”
Device File: wlan1
Features: WLAN
Speed: 480 Mbps
HW Address: 00:14:d1:40:f5:0f
Link detected: no
WLAN channels: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
WLAN frequencies: 2.412 2.417 2.422 2.427 2.432 2.437 2.442 2.447 2.452 2.457 2.462 2.467 2.472 2.484
WLAN encryption modes: WEP40 WEP104 TKIP CCMP
WLAN authentication modes: open sharedkey wpa-psk wpa-eap
Module Alias: “usb:v0BDAp8189d0200dc00dsc00dp00icFFiscFFipFF”
Driver Info #0:
Driver Status: rtl8187 is active
Driver Activation Cmd: “modprobe rtl8187”
Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
Attached to: #55 (Hub)

unecessary details removed

68: None 01.0: 1070a WLAN
[Created at net.124]
Unique ID: djUx.QXn1l67RSa1
Parent ID: Zj8l.sfmFuxjLWYE
SysFS ID: /class/net/wlan1
SysFS Device Link: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:04.1/usb2/2-4/2-4:1.0
Hardware Class: network interface
Model: “WLAN network interface”
Driver: “rtl8187”
Driver Modules: “rtl8187”
Device File: wlan1
HW Address: 00:14:d1:40:f5:0f
Link detected: no
Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
Attached to: #61 (WLAN controller)

The device is not blocked according to rfkill and ifup seems happy too. But it does not work. This is so frustrating.

iwlist wlan1 scanning produces similar output to that above and the LED on the dongle flashes madly - as if working normally - and yet firefox cannot access the web.

Thanks again for the help.