Atheros ar9285wb-eg problem on MINT 14

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eyal

Atheros ar9285wb-eg problem on MINT 14

Post by eyal »

Hi

I got Mint 14 installed on my Asus S400CA laptop.
When I am connecting to wireless network, it is only working if I'm really close to the source. If I get a few meters away, the signal drops and I can no longer connect.
When I boot the same machine with the Windows 8 installation the wireless is just fine.
The wireless modem is Atheros ar9285wb-eg.
When I tried to install the .inf driver with "windows wireless driver" program, It said that the driver is ok, but then when I rebooted the system didn't recognize any modem in the hardware.

Anyone knows the reason? and how do I fix it? (maybe the n-speed?)
Thanks

$ uname -a
Linux bamboo 3.5.0-17-generic #28-Ubuntu SMP Tue Oct 9 19:31:23 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:"kusiot only"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 00:0E:2E:8F:67:84
Bit Rate=54 Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=39/70 Signal level=-71 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:298 Invalid misc:3157 Missed beacon:0
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
AlbertP
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Re: Atheros ar9285wb-eg problem on MINT 14

Post by AlbertP »

Please uninstall the driver from Windows Wireless Drivers. After rebooting when wifi is working again, please run:

Code: Select all

gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf
In that text editor please put:

Code: Select all

options ath9k nohwcrypt
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eyal

Re: Atheros ar9285wb-eg problem on MINT 14

Post by eyal »

Thanks Albert for the fast response,
I did what you said (but I had no need to uninstall the windows driver- it is not installed) and then rebooted the system, but it didn't work:

Code: Select all

$ iwconfig 
lo        no wireless extensions.
I erased the file and rebooted and I got it back to the previous state.

Any other suggestions?
Thanks!
AlbertP
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Re: Atheros ar9285wb-eg problem on MINT 14

Post by AlbertP »

In your first post you said you had tried Windows Wireless Drivers to load the .inf file, so it may be that ath9k got blacklisted that way. Could you please run:

Code: Select all

sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper.conf
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eyal

Re: Atheros ar9285wb-eg problem on MINT 14

Post by eyal »

Sorry, no such file:
the files in the modprobe.d:

Code: Select all

alsa-base.conf               blacklist-oss.conf
ath9k.conf                   blacklist-rare-network.conf
blacklist-ath_pci.conf       blacklist-watchdog.conf
blacklist.conf               dkms.conf
blacklist-firewire.conf      iwlwifi.conf
blacklist-framebuffer.conf   vmwgfx-fbdev.conf
blacklist-modem.conf         
AlbertP
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Re: Atheros ar9285wb-eg problem on MINT 14

Post by AlbertP »

Ok, so setting options ath9k nohwcrypt did not work. Make sure you didn't mistype it. A typo there would indeed cause the wireless to disappear completely. Apart from that I don't know why setting this in ath9k.conf would make wlan0 disappear from the iwconfig output.
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eyal

Re: Atheros ar9285wb-eg problem on MINT 14

Post by eyal »

Hi,
did you forget =1 ?:

Code: Select all

options ath9k nohwcrypt=1
I just tested it, it doesn't improve the signal strength...
Thanks
AlbertP
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Re: Atheros ar9285wb-eg problem on MINT 14

Post by AlbertP »

The ath9k_htc needs =1 indeed when setting nohwcrypt (else it does not load), but all other Atheros drivers including ath9k should do the same thing when there is no =1.
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eyal

Re: Atheros ar9285wb-eg problem on MINT 14

Post by eyal »

Thanks Albert.
Anyway, it didn't help for the signal strength...
Any other ideas?
Thanks
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