[SOLVED] LM 11 and Atheros ar5b93 WiFi

[Tharkis]

Ok I have an Acer AS7551G-6477 which has an Atheros ar5b93 wifi card in it. Unfortunately, the OS doesn't detect it and I'm having a heck of a time trying to figure out how to install it. I don't have internet access in linux without it, so this means I have to boot into windows and download whatever I need. So far nothing I have tried has worked, but admittedly I don't know what I am doing so this is not surprising. I have tried to add the drivers using ndiswrapper but they still don't seem to show up. Any help would be appreciated.

[Tharkis]

So no answers eh? Linux says the card is a AR9287. I tried a couple other distros including SuSE and ubuntu. Seems like no distro seems to work with this card. So much for me trying it out. I guess I will just go back to windows.

[SimonTS]

http://www.google.co.uk/#sclient=psy&hl ... aebdbbd579

Never used that card, but I reckon you will find the solution in one of these 8 results.

[Tharkis]

Unfortunately no, I did the google thing before I came here. Love to hear any other suggestions though.

[SimonTS]

Have you tried to install the Windows drivers for the card, as per this post?
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=51284

[Tharkis]

I have tried to add the drivers using ndiswrapper but they still don't seem to show up.

Yes I have tried it... Since I've never seen wireless working in linux, it is hard to tell but I think the drivers are installed. It's like the wireless is disabled. The FN-F3 keys don't enable it, neither does checking "enable wireless".

[Tharkis]

The more I look at it, the more I think the wireless driver is installed. It just looks like the hardware is disabled for some reason (the wifi light is not lit). There is no hardware switch to enable/disable it. But you can enable/disable it in windows by using Fn-F3. Doesn't seem to work in Mint though. Any ideas?

[AlbertP]

Please post the output of this command:

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rfkill list

Probably this can solve the problems:

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sudo rfkill unblock all

The difference in 9287 / 5B93 name is normal. 5B93 is the card's name, 9287 is the chip used on that card.

[Tharkis]

Thanks Albert, I will look when I get home. I have also tried Ubuntu and SuSE, both have the exact same problem which makes me wonder if the Linux driver isn't enabling it for some reason like the windows driver does.

[AlbertP]

The Atheros driver is not the problem. It's the button that forces the card to turn off, that doesn't work with Linux.

[Tharkis]

So there is no way to fix this?

[AlbertP]

Probably the commands in my post above can force the card to enable when the button doesn't do the job.

[Tharkis]

Well it didn't make a difference...

tharkis@Loki-Linux ~ $ sudo rfkill unblock all
tharkis@Loki-Linux ~ $ rfkill list
0: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

Any other ideas?

[Tharkis]

Finally figured it out.. I found this website: http://computerandu.wordpress.com/2011/ ... ss-n-1000/

To summarize, once I did:
sudo rmmod -f acer-wmi

sudo rfkill unblock all

sudo rfkill list all

The wireless came on and I connected.

[AlbertP]

Glad you got it working.

acer-wireless is your wireless on/off button, and it said Soft blocked: yes. When it's soft blocked (not hard) you can usually turn on wireless in the network menu by clicking Enable Wireless, but in this case it did not help. So ignoring the button (unloading its kernel module with sudo rmmod acer-wmi) fixed your problem: the network card itself, phy0 in the rfkill list, is not blocked.

If the old behaviour returns after a reboot, then you might want to do this:

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gksu gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

This opens a file with all blacklisted kernel modules and the reason why they are blacklisted. You can add this to the file:

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blacklist acer-wmi

Save the file and reboot.
Please do this only when the problems return. If it just works from now on, just leave it working.

[Tharkis]

I ended up having to blacklist the acer-wmi. It stopped working after the reboot. All seems to be well now. Thanks for the help, and I hope this post helps others who might have the same problem.