Wlan not working on a Toshiba Z830Z

English Network/Internet
#1

Hi Folks

I bought a Toshiba Ultrabook Z830 Z. I deleted the preinstalled OS immediately and started to install Linux and opensuse 12.1.

FIRST: Congratulation, that is best installation process, I ever had, from handling and from performance and I am using different Linux distros for more than 6 years now…
Everything went well and smoothly, which is more than I expected by a laptop. I am convinced now from opensuse!

But SECOND: The WLAN does not work… That’s may be quite normal for a laptop (see my other post…). So I started to find the reason…

Here my findings:

  • Using networkmanger (default), i could not enable wireless in the network-applet

  • Trying the traditional method with ifup, i am able to see the wlan controller as not connected, but by editing it, the scanning process shows no results, no network name is available…

  • Then i tried it with an usb wlan-stick from netgear… absolutely the same result, with networkmanager, ifup and with 10000 times of booting and testing…

hwinfo shows:

wlan0 Intel WLAN controller
wlan1 NetGear 802.11n WLAN Adapter

and in the hard protocol, both devices are shown with their drivers and as active… see here:

29: PCI 200.0: 0282 WLAN controller
[Created at pci.319]
Unique ID: y9sn.yu7Q7GiiNjA
Parent ID: hoOk.BpEFttPxth5
SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.2/0000:02:00.0
SysFS BusID: 0000:02:00.0
Hardware Class: network
Model: “Intel WLAN controller”
Vendor: pci 0x8086 “Intel Corporation”
Device: pci 0x0091
SubVendor: pci 0x8086 “Intel Corporation”
SubDevice: pci 0x5201
Revision: 0x34
Driver: “iwlagn”
Driver Modules: “iwlagn”
Device File: wlan0
Features: WLAN
Memory Range: 0xc0500000-0xc0501fff (rw,non-prefetchable)
IRQ: 43 (1 event)
HW Address: 88:53:2e:75:b8:c2
Link detected: no
WLAN channels: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 100 104 108 112 116 132 136 140 149 153 157 161 165
WLAN frequencies: 2.412 2.417 2.422 2.427 2.432 2.437 2.442 2.447 2.452 2.457 2.462 5.18 5.2 5.22 5.24 5.26 5.28 5.3 5.32 5.5 5.52 5.54 5.56 5.58 5.66 5.68 5.7 5.745 5.765 5.785 5.805 5.825
WLAN encryption modes: WEP40 WEP104 TKIP CCMP
WLAN authentication modes: open sharedkey wpa-psk wpa-eap
Module Alias: “pci:v00008086d00000091sv00008086sd00005201bc02sc80i00”
Driver Info #0:
Driver Status: iwlagn is active
Driver Activation Cmd: “modprobe iwlagn”
Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
Attached to: #23 (PCI bridge)

46: USB 00.0: 0282 WLAN controller
[Created at usb.122]
Unique ID: KRJj.cmN+3sG6zHC
Parent ID: uIhY.029GFTetOb3
SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.4/0000:03:00.0/usb3/3-1/3-1:1.0
SysFS BusID: 3-1:1.0
Hardware Class: network
Model: “NetGear 802.11n WLAN Adapter”
Hotplug: USB
Vendor: usb 0x0846 “NetGear, Inc.”
Device: usb 0x9041 “802.11n WLAN Adapter”
Revision: “2.00”
Serial ID: “00e04c000001”
Driver: “rtl8192cu”
Driver Modules: “rtl8192cu”
Device File: wlan1
Features: WLAN
Speed: 480 Mbps
HW Address: c4:3d:c7:7d:f0:d9
Link detected: no
WLAN channels: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
WLAN frequencies: 2.412 2.417 2.422 2.427 2.432 2.437 2.442 2.447 2.452 2.457 2.462
WLAN encryption modes: WEP40 WEP104 TKIP CCMP
WLAN authentication modes: open sharedkey wpa-psk wpa-eap
Module Alias: “usb:v0846p9041d0200dc00dsc00dp00icFFiscFFipFF”
Driver Info #0:
Driver Status: rtl8192cu is active
Driver Activation Cmd: “modprobe rtl8192cu”
Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
Attached to: #44 (Hub)

(I also tried the beta opensuse 12.2 milestone 3 version… made a new install…, but this results in a kernel panic during the booting process, okay it’s beta…)

Now I am finished, i do not know what to do… who can help, please ???

Thanks CJM

#2

Here some more infos for the installed pci card (i unplugged the usb-wlan-stick):

I choose the boot option: pci=noacpi

HERE THE INFOS:

FROM lspci: 02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Advanced-N 6230 (rev 34)
FROM /sbin/lspci: 02:00.0 0280: 8086:0091 (rev 34)

FROM dmesg:
5.325244] Copyright(c) 2003-2011 Intel Corporation
5.325352] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
5.325379] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: pci_resource_len = 0x00002000
5.325381] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: pci_resource_base = ffffc900050b8000
5.325383] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: HW Revision ID = 0x34
5.325500] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: irq 24 for MSI/MSI-X
5.325539] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: Detected Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced-N 6230 AGN, REV=0xB0
5.325610] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: L1 Disabled; Enabling L0S
…
5.344919] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: device EEPROM VER=0x716, CALIB=0x6
5.344922] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: Device SKU: 0X1f0
5.344924] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: Valid Tx ant: 0X3, Valid Rx ant: 0X3
5.344947] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: Tunable channels: 13 802.11bg, 24 802.11a channels
5.345014] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: RF_KILL bit toggled to disable radio.
5.387642] EXT4-fs (sda1): re-mounted. Opts: acl,user_xattr
5.391543] iwlagn 0000:02:00.0: loaded firmware version 17.168.5.1 build 33993
…
5.427595] ifup[629]: Service network not started and mode ‘auto’ → skipping

FROM /usr/sbin/iwconfig:
wlan0 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=off
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off

FROM /usr/sbin/iwlist scan:
wlan0 Interface doesn’t support scanning : Network is down

-----> Okay, now tried it with ifup after stopping the networkmanager:

linux-9d2u:/home/cjm3 # ifup wlan0
wlan0 device: Intel Corporation Centrino Advanced-N 6230 (rev 34)
wlan0 warning: using NO encryption
DHCP6 client is already running on wlan0
RTNETLINK answers: Operation not possible due to RF-kill
Starting DHCP4 client on wlan0. .
wlan0 DHCP4 client NOT running
wlan0 DHCP6 continues in background
RTNETLINK answers: Operation not possible due to RF-kill
Cannot enable interface wlan0.
interface wlan0 is not up

SO, what does RF-kill mean ???

Thanks for helping

CJM

#3

On 05/24/2012 05:56 AM, cjmeyer wrote:
> RTNETLINK answers: Operation not possible due to RF-kill
> Cannot enable interface wlan0.
> interface wlan0 is not up
>
> SO, what does RF-kill mean ???

Something is blocking ALL wireless radios. You need to install the rfkill
utility using ‘sudo zypper install rfkill’ (network needed) and run the command
‘/usr/sbin/rfkill list’.

The reasons for the radio blocking ranges from the switch being off, a previous
run of Windows leaving it in a state that Linux cannot change, or a brain-dead
BIOS providing faulty information that causes the wrong wmi (Windows Management
Interface) module to be loaded. The output of the rfkill utility will let us
know which.

When you have problems in the future, always look at the dmesg output first.
That is where the kernel reports its stuff. Commands like hwinfo are nice, but
they miss the real details.

#4

Thanks a lot so far.

In the meantime i gathered information about the rfkill-guy, who kills my wireless…I am learning a lot here …

I installed rfkill and ‘rfkill list’ showed me that my wlan has ‘Hard blocked: yes’
I am not able to unblock it through ‘rfkill unblock’. It works only with soft blocked things…
All the time the wlan-led at the laptop is on.

Next what i have done, because this laptop has no physical wlan-switch, was to disable the wlan device in the bios. Wlan-led is off now.
I put the netgaer-usb-wlan-stick in again and after reboot, i was able to ‘enable wireless’ in the networkmanager.

But… it would have been too easy… I could not connect…at the beginning, the scan worked, but then it died… namely because of an authentication error…

Here the dmesg-listing:

6.818964] rtl8192cu: MAC auto ON okay!
6.851609] rtl8192cu: Tx queue select: 0x05
6.852360] rtl8192c_common: Loading firmware file rtlwifi/rtl8192cufw.bin
7.246749] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready
7.262241] NET: Registered protocol family 17
7.600092] bootsplash: status on console 0 changed to on
8.390962] e1000e: eth0 NIC Link is Up 100 Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: None
8.390967] e1000e 0000:00:19.0: eth0: 10/100 speed: disabling TSO
8.391309] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
9.671889] EXT4-fs (sda1): re-mounted. Opts: acl,user_xattr,commit=0
9.676418] EXT4-fs (sda2): re-mounted. Opts: acl,user_xattr,commit=0
9.719512] EXT4-fs (sda3): re-mounted. Opts: acl,user_xattr,commit=0

17.967298] fuse init (API version 7.17)
19.351349] eth0: no IPv6 routers present
173.575778] wlan1: authenticate with 00:01:e3:ea:8c:20 (try 1)
173.592905] wlan1: authenticated
173.593321] wlan1: associate with 00:01:e3:ea:8c:20 (try 1)
173.618398] wlan1: RX AssocResp from 00:01:e3:ea:8c:20 (capab=0x431 status=0 aid=2)
173.618402] wlan1: associated
173.619639] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan1: link becomes ready
173.620310] cfg80211: Calling CRDA for country: CH
173.623437] cfg80211: Regulatory domain changed to country: CH
173.623439] cfg80211: (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
173.623442] cfg80211: (2402000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm)
173.623444] cfg80211: (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm)
173.623446] cfg80211: (5250000 KHz - 5330000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2000 mBm)
173.623447] cfg80211: (5490000 KHz - 5710000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (N/A, 2700 mBm)
183.614093] wlan1: disassociating from 00:01:e3:ea:8c:20 by local choice (reason=3)
183.635058] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
183.635670] wlan1: deauthenticating from 00:01:e3:ea:8c:20 by local choice (reason=3)
183.638310] cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:
183.638312] cfg80211: (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
183.638315] cfg80211: (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
183.638317] cfg80211: (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
183.638319] cfg80211: (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
183.638321] cfg80211: (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
183.638323] cfg80211: (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
183.762875] wlan1: no IPv6 routers present
184.458688] wlan1: authenticate with 00:01:e3:ea:8c:20 (try 1)
184.658271] wlan1: authenticate with 00:01:e3:ea:8c:20 (try 2)
184.858166] wlan1: authenticate with 00:01:e3:ea:8c:20 (try 3)
185.057978] wlan1: authentication with 00:01:e3:ea:8c:20 timed out

So we are facing 2 different(?) problems, the hard blocking for the internal wlan device and some problem with the usb-device.
By the way i checked the wlan-net with my older laptop, its okay…

Now , i will make a reboot to get an iwlist scan result of the usb-stick, before the device died…

linux-9d2u:/home/cjm3 # /usr/sbin/iwlist scan
lo Interface doesn’t support scanning.

wlan1 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:01:E3:EA:8C:20
Channel:6
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
Quality=70/70 Signal level=-35 dBm
Encryption key:on
ESSID:“Dede”
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
12 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
Bit Rates:9 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=00000007fef204da
Extra: Last beacon: 348ms ago
IE: Unknown: 000444656465
IE: Unknown: 010882848B960C183048
IE: Unknown: 030106
IE: Unknown: 0706434820010D14
IE: Unknown: 2A0100
IE: Unknown: 32041224606C
IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
Group Cipher : CCMP
Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
Preauthentication Supported
IE: Unknown: DD0900037F0101000DFF7F
IE: Unknown: DD0C00037F0201010A0002A34000
IE: Unknown: DD1A00037F03010000000001E3EA8C200201E3EA8C2064002C010D08
IE: Unknown: DD180050F2020101000003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00

eth0 Interface doesn’t support scanning.

After one minute the the device is dead:

linux-9d2u:/home/cjm3 # /usr/sbin/iwlist scan
lo Interface doesn’t support scanning.

wlan1 Interface doesn’t support scanning : Device or resource busy

eth0 Interface doesn’t support scanning.

Okay, what now…I am afraid of the hard block, but may be i am able to work with the small usb-stick…

Thanks CJM

#5

On 05/24/2012 09:46 AM, cjmeyer wrote:
>
> Okay, what now…I am afraid of the hard block, but may be i am able to
> work with the small usb-stick…

If ANY wireless device has a block, then it blocks all. Are you sure the
computer has no wireless switch. Toshiba likely implements it as a soft key that
requires some kind of kernel support. That may not be there for your particular
laptop.

#6

Yes, it has the Fn+F8 key to toggle the wireless, it works in windows7, the wlan-led turns on and off (i tested it before scratching the partitions).

But now the led is on, but the hard block is nevertheless active…and the Fn+F8 key is not working…

I remember that i had last year a similar problem with the HP 6460 laptop and Mandriva 2010.2, now with 2012 it is working…so it must has to do with the kernel-version… may be i have to wait for the opensuse 12.2 …

With the pci-wireless device disabled in BIOS and the usb-stick in, ‘rfkill list’ shows only:

Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

I am working further on this stick-issue … it is showing the network is up now, but it is not connecting…

By the way, your sticky posted advices how to handle wireless problems were very helpful, thanks!

#7

UPDATE:

I played a little bit with the usb-wlan-stick.
I disabled the pci-wlan in BIOS.
Switched to ifup-method.
Set the wlan to manually start.
Reboot.

and get the following result with the if-commands:
**
linux-9d2u:/home/cjm3 # ifstatus wlan1**

wlan1     name: 802.11n WLAN Adapter

DHCP4 client NOT running
wlan1 is down

linux-9d2u:/home/cjm3 # ifup wlan1
wlan1 name: 802.11n WLAN Adapter
command ‘iwconfig wlan1 power off’ returned
Error for wireless request “Set Power Management” (8B2C) :
SET failed on device wlan1 ; Operation not supported.
wlan1 warning: WPA configured, but is untested
wlan1 warning: with this device
wlan1 starting wpa_supplicant
Starting DHCP4 client on wlan1. . . . . . . .
wlan1 DHCP4 continues in background

**
linux-9d2u:/home/cjm3 # /usr/sbin/iwlist scan**

wlan1 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:01:E3:EA:8C:20
Channel:6
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
Quality=70/70 Signal level=-35 dBm
Encryption key:on
ESSID:“Dede”
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
12 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
Bit Rates:9 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Mode:Master
Extra:tsf=0000001b36bca12a
Extra: Last beacon: 403ms ago
IE: Unknown: 000444656465
IE: Unknown: 010882848B960C183048
IE: Unknown: 030106
IE: Unknown: 0706434820010D14
IE: Unknown: 2A0100
IE: Unknown: 32041224606C
IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
Group Cipher : CCMP
Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
Preauthentication Supported
IE: Unknown: DD0900037F0101000DFF7F
IE: Unknown: DD0C00037F0201010F0002A44000
IE: Unknown: DD1A00037F03010000000001E3EA8C200201E3EA8C2064002C010D08
IE: Unknown: DD180050F2020101000003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00

linux-9d2u:/home/cjm3 # /usr/sbin/iwconfig

wlan1 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=20 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off

Strange, the iwlist scan shows: Encryption key:on
the iwconfig shows: Encryption key:off

dmesg:

1.826720] usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0846, idProduct=9041
1.826726] usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
1.826730] usb 1-1.2: Product: 802.11n WLAN Adapter
1.826732] usb 1-1.2: Manufacturer: Realtek
1.826735] usb 1-1.2: SerialNumber: 00e04c000001

5.202488] rtl8192cu: MAC address: c4:3d:c7:7d:f0:d9
5.202493] rtl8192cu: Board Type 0
5.207390] rtlwifi: rx_max_size 15360, rx_urb_num 8, in_ep 1
5.210987] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'rtl_rc'
5.211430] usbcore: registered new interface driver rtl8192cu
5.240828] udevd[396]: renamed network interface wlan0 to wlan1

6.365311] systemd[1]: NetworkManager.service: control process exited, code=exited status=1
6.381251] systemd[1]: Job NetworkManager-wait-online.service/start failed with result 'dependency'.
6.381264] systemd[1]: Unit NetworkManager.service entered failed state.
7.553149] e1000e 0000:00:19.0: irq 42 for MSI/MSI-X
7.603993] e1000e 0000:00:19.0: irq 42 for MSI/MSI-X
7.604387] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
7.625430] bootsplash: status on console 0 changed to on
9.163730] e1000e: eth0 NIC Link is Up 100 Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: None
9.163735] e1000e 0000:00:19.0: eth0: 10/100 speed: disabling TSO
9.164150] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
9.202678] NET: Registered protocol family 17
9.832727] EXT4-fs (sda1): re-mounted. Opts: acl,user_xattr,commit=0
9.881858] EXT4-fs (sda2): re-mounted. Opts: acl,user_xattr,commit=0
9.933587] EXT4-fs (sda3): re-mounted. Opts: acl,user_xattr,commit=0

17.774090] fuse init (API version 7.17)
19.715295] eth0: no IPv6 routers present
77.596039] rtl8192cu: MAC auto ON okay!
77.665519] rtl8192cu: Tx queue select: 0x05
77.666741] rtl8192c_common: Loading firmware file rtlwifi/rtl8192cufw.bin
78.083346] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready

Okay, that looks not so bad, and the whole time wlan1 is up… so, we have only to convince it to connect…

Am i on the right way?? Problem with the Authorization? It seemed that i got some uploads, but no downloads…

is there a tool to visualize net traffic ??

#8

UPDATE:

I found Linux-kernel-modules for several omnibooks including Toshiba in the repositories. I loaded them down and now the softkey Fn+F8 to toggle the internal wireless is working…

So far so good, but as i write softkey and it is a softkay at least…

Rfkill shows me that i am able now to toggle the soft blocked feature only, the hard blocked thing keeps on ‘yes’ :-((
I was nearly to throw the laptop out of the window…
Now i am finished, may be i try at Toshiba forum…

One remark: To find the omnibooks modules, i searched with ‘toshiba’ in the software management in yast. But only when i also marked 'Search in description ', i was able to find them… that cost me a lot of hours… so a tip for everyone, if you want to find something, mark everything for searching in.

Now i go on with my usb-wireless-stick…

#9

LAST UPDATE !!!

#10

LAST UPDATE !!!

INTERNAL WLAN IS RUNNING NOW.

Thanks to a remark from Iwfinger that a previous run of Windows may have left the radio in a blocked state that Linux cannot change, i used the system recovery usb stick to reinstall windows.
I installed it on only one partition (41GB) and brought the wireless to life.

Then I installed opensuse 12.1 on the rest of the harddisk and… in the networkmanager the wireless can be enabled now.
Rfkill list shows that everything is unblocked now!!!
Wireless is working even after several shutdowns and reboots!!

I made the mistake to erase the whole disk and install linux… so the compromise for this kinds of laptops is to let at least one windows partition on the disk… you do not have to use it.

I will post this again for all the guys who spent desperate nights because their wireless will not work because of the ‘hard block yes’ - item.

At least i learned a lot. Thanks Iwfinger.

CJM