Unable to use wifi with Atheros 0042 card

[anttihjelte]

Hello!

I just installed Mint 18.3 on a brand new Acer Swift 1, but am unable to see any wireless networks in network manager, nor connect to a wireless network when specifying SSID and PSK manually. The wifi worked perfectly in Windows before I installed Mint, so the card seems to work ok.

inxi -F:

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System:    Host: hostname Kernel: 4.10.0-38-generic x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: MATE 1.18.0
           Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine:   System: Acer (portable) product: Swift SF114-31 v: V1.06
           Mobo: Acer model: Oxford2 v: V1.06 Bios: Insyde v: V1.06 date: 05/09/2017
CPU:       Dual core Intel Celeron N3060 (-MCP-) cache: 1024 KB 
           clock speeds: max: 2480 MHz 1: 1583 MHz 2: 1238 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Device 22b1
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1920x1080@60.02hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 400 (Braswell) GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.0.7
Audio:     Card Intel Device 2284 driver: snd_hda_intel Sound: ALSA v: k4.10.0-38-generic
Network:   Card: Qualcomm Atheros Device 0042 driver: ath10k_pci
           IF: N/A state: N/A speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
Drives:    HDD Total Size: NA (-) ID-1: /dev/mmcblk0 model: N/A size: 62.5GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 53G used: 5.6G (12%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/mmcblk0p2
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 4.20GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/mmcblk0p3
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 36.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 166 Uptime: 15 min Memory: 375.5/3861.4MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.2.35

Tried:

• Reinstalling Mint from scratch

• Installing a newer firmware from the Ububtu repos (as suggested in a post in Ubuntu's support forum)

Neither helped.

Any suggestions on where to start looking? Thanks in advance!

[JeremyB]

Post results from terminal for

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dmesg | grep ath; rfkill list

[anttihjelte]

dmesg | grep ath10k:

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[    6.631682] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: pci irq msi oper_irq_mode 2 irq_mode 0 reset_mode 0
[    6.994958] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/pre-cal-pci-0000:02:00.0.bin failed with error -2
[    6.994988] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/cal-pci-0000:02:00.0.bin failed with error -2
[    7.008272] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: qca9377 hw1.1 target 0x05020001 chip_id 0x003821ff sub 11ad:08a6
[    7.008277] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: kconfig debug 0 debugfs 1 tracing 1 dfs 0 testmode 0
[    7.008889] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: firmware ver WLAN.TF.1.0-00267-1 api 5 features ignore-otp crc32 79cea2c7
[    7.097043] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: board_file api 2 bmi_id N/A crc32 93da0176
[    9.452886] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: htt-ver 3.1 wmi-op 4 htt-op 3 cal otp max-sta 32 raw 0 hwcrypto 1
[    9.479946] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0 wlp2s0: renamed from wlan0

rfkill list:

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0: hci0: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no

[JeremyB]

Any results for

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iw list scan | egrep -i 'ssid|quality'

[anttihjelte]

Argh, I remembered the wrong command. I did an "iwlist scan" instead:

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wlp2s0    Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 62:45:B1:2E:CE:5A
                    Channel:36
                    Frequency:5.18 GHz (Channel 36)
                    Quality=35/70  Signal level=-75 dBm  
                    Encryption key:on
                    ESSID:""
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=000000171542502b
                    Extra: Last beacon: 22064ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: 0000
                    IE: Unknown: DD100050F2110110009D30A1000000000000

lo        Interface doesn't support scanning.

For the record, I have no networks on the 5 GHz band in the vicinity. I live in the middle of nowhere, and the only wifi network within a 1 km radius is a 2.4 GHz one.

Will run iw list scan the next time I get near that PC. I ended up installing a USB wifi adapter in the meantime to get the user on the road. Thanks for the reply.