Linux Mint Forums

I am using Mint 15 Mate on an Intel D865PERL motherboard using a TP-Link TL-WN851ND wireless card.

This card worked on Mint 14 then after an upgrade appeared to longer work, so I upgraded to Mint 15 hoping it would be resolved. No luck.

It will not get an IP from the DHCP server nor can i manually set an IP address. I've not seen anything like this before and would really appreciate some ideas. For the record, I have very little experience with wireless cards and only bought this one because it was the only PCI wireless card available.

output from mintwifi

mintwifi
-------------------------
* I. scanning WIFI PCI devices...
-- Atheros Communications Inc. AR9227 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
==> PCI ID = 168c:002d (rev 01)
-------------------------
* II. querying ndiswrapper...
-------------------------
* III. querying iwconfig...
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=20 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

-------------------------
* IV. querying ifconfig...
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0c:f1:bd:8d:2c
inet addr:192.168.0.129 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::20c:f1ff:febd:8d2c/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:289 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:370 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:180939 (180.9 KB) TX bytes:65321 (65.3 KB)

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:65536 Metric:1
RX packets:40 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:40 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:3961 (3.9 KB) TX bytes:3961 (3.9 KB)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr a0:f3:c1:ee:27:37
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

-------------------------
* V. querying DHCP...
[sudo] password for tom:
Rather than invoking init scripts through /etc/init.d, use the service(8)
utility, e.g. service smbd reload

Since the script you are attempting to invoke has been converted to an
Upstart job, you may also use the reload(8) utility, e.g. reload smbd
RTNETLINK answers: File exists
-------------------------
* VI. querying nslookup google.com...
Server: 192.168.0.1
Address: 192.168.0.1#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.237.103
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.237.105
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.237.102
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.237.100
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.237.98
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.237.99
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.237.96
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.237.101
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.237.104
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.237.110
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.237.97

As you can see, it seems to detect the card as the hw address is correct but where do I go from here.

Thanks in advance

Does your router have an IP reserved for the MAC (hardware) address of your card? I've had issues with that. Does the card work on the Mint 14 install disc? If it doesn't work there now, it might be dead.

bigj231 wrote:Does your router have an IP reserved for the MAC (hardware) address of your card? I've had issues with that. Does the card work on the Mint 14 install disc? If it doesn't work there now, it might be dead.

I have no reserved IP addresses on my router.

Just booted in Mint 14 cdrom and it appears I have the same issue. Not sure the card is dead as it is being detected with the correct hw address, but I just can't seem to be able to get an IP address on it. I tried to put in a manual address but the same issue arises

Could you try a different pci slot? I had the same problem with a laptop card. Replacing it fixed the issue.

bigj231 wrote:Could you try a different pci slot? I had the same problem with a laptop card. Replacing it fixed the issue.

We are thinking along the same lines. I tried that but no change and it was working in that slot previously.

I'm thinking that something has changed in Mint because I'm seeing other people having the same issue but I'm not seeing any of them being resolved. I'm currently downloading a Fedora live disk and I will see if that will make any difference. i should know in an hour or so.

Tried the same hardware on a live Fedora distro 19.1 and everything worked perfectly. The problem is very definitely Ubuntu / Mint related.

Ideas anyone?

More information.

My router has broadcasting the SSID disabled. If I enable it, it connects but when I disable it again, it loses the connection. So the problem is not with the card or drivers but due to no SSID. Which is very odd because everything else I know can deal with a suppressed SSID.

This is a new one for me on any system.

I would take a very close look at the dhcpd.config file <http://linux.die.net/man/5/dhcpd.conf>

This might be a not be the problem but at leaast ytou will have eliminated a possible problem. And make sure everything is correct. I have seen things not work that I thouht should because of a smal syntax error. Good luck,

Have had to jump through this many times myself.

argon99 wrote:I would take a very close look at the dhcpd.config file <http://linux.die.net/man/5/dhcpd.conf>

This might be a not be the problem but at leaast ytou will have eliminated a possible problem. And make sure everything is correct. I have seen things not work that I thouht should because of a smal syntax error. Good luck,

Have had to jump through this many times myself.

I will do this when I get home this afternoon but is there anything in particular I should be looking for?

It only seems to be an issue when there is a hidden SSID. Once it has connected I would have thought it would stay connected but when I disable the SSID broadcast, the connection drops out and won't re-establish.