<SOLVED>Wireless Adapter Not Working

[Jepp]

New Linux user here. Tried to fix this myself and I fear I've made things worse.

I'm connecting to the internet with this laptop via USB tethering with my smart phone. I want to create a wireless access point on this same laptop. It was working when I installed Mint 17.2, but I lost it after upgrading to 17.3.

So, here is the info:

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inxi -Fzx

System:    Host: Laptop-Qosmio-X775 Kernel: 4.2.0-30-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 4.8.4)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 2.8.6 (Gtk 3.10.8~8+qiana) Distro: Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa
Machine:   System: TOSHIBA product: Qosmio X775 v: PSBY5U-02401P
           Mobo: TOSHIBA model: PGRAA v: 1.00 Bios: TOSHIBA v: 2.10 date: 10/30/2012
CPU:       Quad core Intel Core i7-2670QM (-HT-MCP-) cache: 6144 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 17560
           clock speeds: max: 3100 MHz 1: 1234 MHz 2: 1012 MHz 3: 967 MHz 4: 800 MHz 5: 999 MHz 6: 1733 MHz
           7: 911 MHz 8: 1053 MHz
Graphics:  Card-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Card-2: NVIDIA GF116M [GeForce GT 560M] bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.15.1 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1600x900@60.1hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Sandybridge Mobile GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.1.3 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.2.0-30-generic
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: d000 bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) bus-ID: 03:00.0
           IF: N/A state: N/A mac: N/A
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1000.2GB (2.1% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: Seagate_ST950042 size: 500.1GB
           ID-2: /dev/sdb model: Seagate_ST950042 size: 500.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 451G used: 13G (3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 8.49GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 43.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 211 Uptime: 19 min Memory: 559.8/7891.3MB Init: Upstart runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.4
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.111) inxi: 2.2.28 

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sudo rfkill list

0: Toshiba Bluetooth: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
1: hci0: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no

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iwconfig

eth0      no wireless extensions.

usb0      no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.
 

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ubuntu-drivers devices

== /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.0 ==
vendor   : NVIDIA Corporation
model    : GF116M [GeForce GT 560M]
modalias : pci:v000010DEd00001251sv00001179sd0000FC01bc03sc00i00
driver   : nvidia-340 - distro non-free
driver   : nvidia-352 - distro non-free recommended
driver   : nvidia-304-updates - distro non-free
driver   : nvidia-304 - distro non-free
driver   : nvidia-340-updates - distro non-free
driver   : xserver-xorg-video-nouveau - distro free builtin
driver   : nvidia-352-updates - distro non-free
  

[JeremyB]

First try

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sudo modprobe ath9k

[Jepp]

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 sudo modprobe ath9k
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'ath9k': Invalid argument

[JeremyB]

A guess on this one but post

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cat /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf

[Jepp]

Thanks for the assistance, I've been guessing for a couple of weeks:

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 cat /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf
cat: /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf: No such file or directory

[JeremyB]

Have to search for it another way

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for f in /etc/modprobe.d/*; do echo $f; cat $f | grep ath9k; done

[Jepp]

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for f in /etc/modprobe.d/*; do echo $f; cat $f | grep ath9k; done
/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/backports.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-ath_pci.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-firewire.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-framebuffer.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-modem.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-oss.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-rare-network.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-watchdog.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/dkms.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/fbdev-blacklist.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/libpisock9.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/mlx4.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-352_hybrid.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-graphics-drivers.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/vmwgfx-fbdev.conf
 

[JeremyB]

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cat /proc/cmdline; ls /lib/modules; dkms status

Is there anything you did with ath9k?

[Jepp]

I tried updating firmware, drivers, and some other stuff, but I couldn't tell ya for sure ... I got in over my head

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 cat /proc/cmdline; ls /lib/modules; dkms status
BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.2.0-30-generic root=UUID=02e7dfa3-e017-41b5-838e-98d53690528c ro quiet splash
3.16.0-38-generic  3.19.0-32-generic  4.2.0-30-generic
bbswitch, 0.7, 3.16.0-38-generic, x86_64: installed
bbswitch, 0.7, 3.19.0-32-generic, x86_64: installed
bbswitch, 0.7, 4.2.0-30-generic, x86_64: installed
ndiswrapper, 1.59, 3.16.0-38-generic, x86_64: installed (WARNING! Diff between built and installed module!)
ndiswrapper, 1.59, 3.19.0-32-generic, x86_64: installed
nvidia-352, 352.63, 3.16.0-38-generic, x86_64: installed
nvidia-352, 352.63, 3.19.0-32-generic, x86_64: installed
nvidia-352, 352.63, 4.2.0-30-generic, x86_64: installed
virtualbox-guest, 4.3.36, 3.16.0-38-generic, x86_64: installed (original_module exists)
virtualbox-guest, 4.3.36, 3.19.0-32-generic, x86_64: installed (original_module exists)
virtualbox-guest, 4.3.36, 4.2.0-30-generic, x86_64: installed (WARNING! Diff between built and installed module!) (WARNING! Diff between built and installed module!) (WARNING! Diff between built and installed module!)

[JeremyB]

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ndiswrapper -l; cat /etc/modprobe.d/dkms.conf

Have you tried booting into an older kernel to see if the problem exists?

[Jepp]

I had the version that was installed with 17.2 (I think), I did update the kernel to 4.2.2(?) as an attempted fix. (I saw that on some of the posts).

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ndiswrapper -l; cat /etc/modprobe.d/dkms.conf
# modprobe information used for DKMS modules
#
# This is a stub file, should be edited when needed,
# used by default by DKMS.
 

[JeremyB]

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modinfo ath9k; dmesg | egrep 'ath|ath9k'; history | grep ath9k

[Jepp]

I'm getting an error when I try to post the reults:

Sucuri WebSite Firewall - CloudProxy - Access Denied
What is going on?
You are not allowed to access the requested page. If you are the site owner, please open a ticket in our support page if you think it was caused by an error: https://support.sucuri.net. If you are not the owner of the web site, you can contact us at cloudproxy@sucuri.net. Also make sure to include the block details (displayed below), so we can better troubleshoot the error.
Block details

Your IP: 70.195.66.232
URL: forums.linuxmint.com/posting.php?mode=reply&f=53&t=218072
Your Browser: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:44.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/44.0
Block ID: EXPVP5
Block reason: Not identified.
Time: Tue, 08 Mar 2016 11:07:28 -0500
Server ID: cp12008

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CloudProxy is a WebSite Firewall from Sucuri. It stands between your site and the rest of the world and protects against attacks, malware infections, DDOS, brute force attempts and mostly anything that can harm it.

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[JeremyB]

Awesome, paste the info at pastebin.com and post the URL after the I am not a robot verification or at paste.ubuntu.com

Add

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lsmod

[Jepp]

http://pastebin.com/ufG25krs

[Jepp]

Sorry, here it is:

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lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
isofs                  40960  1 
rndis_host             16384  0 
cdc_ether              16384  1 rndis_host
cdc_acm                36864  0 
usbnet                 40960  2 rndis_host,cdc_ether
bbswitch               16384  0 
rfcomm                 69632  8 
bnep                   20480  2 
uvcvideo               90112  0 
videobuf2_vmalloc      16384  1 uvcvideo
videobuf2_memops       16384  1 videobuf2_vmalloc
videobuf2_core         49152  1 uvcvideo
v4l2_common            16384  1 videobuf2_core
videodev              172032  3 uvcvideo,v4l2_common,videobuf2_core
media                  24576  2 uvcvideo,videodev
binfmt_misc            20480  1 
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     49152  1 
snd_hda_codec_realtek    86016  1 
snd_hda_codec_generic    73728  1 snd_hda_codec_realtek
snd_hda_intel          36864  3 
snd_hda_codec         135168  4 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_intel
snd_hda_core           65536  5 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep              16384  1 snd_hda_codec
mxm_wmi                16384  0 
snd_pcm               102400  4 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_core
snd_seq_midi           16384  0 
snd_seq_midi_event     16384  1 snd_seq_midi
dm_multipath           24576  0 
snd_rawmidi            32768  1 snd_seq_midi
scsi_dh                16384  1 dm_multipath
intel_rapl             20480  0 
x86_pkg_temp_thermal    16384  0 
intel_powerclamp       16384  0 
coretemp               16384  0 
kvm_intel             163840  0 
snd_seq                69632  2 snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq_midi
kvm                   507904  1 kvm_intel
snd_seq_device         16384  3 snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_midi
crct10dif_pclmul       16384  0 
input_leds             16384  0 
crc32_pclmul           16384  0 
joydev                 20480  0 
aesni_intel           167936  0 
aes_x86_64             20480  1 aesni_intel
btusb                  45056  0 
lrw                    16384  1 aesni_intel
btrtl                  16384  1 btusb
gf128mul               16384  1 lrw
btbcm                  16384  1 btusb
glue_helper            16384  1 aesni_intel
btintel                16384  1 btusb
ablk_helper            16384  1 aesni_intel
cryptd                 20480  2 aesni_intel,ablk_helper
serio_raw              16384  0 
snd_timer              32768  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
bluetooth             512000  25 bnep,btbcm,btrtl,btusb,rfcomm,btintel
lpc_ich                24576  0 
snd                    81920  17 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_device
ath                    32768  0 
jmb38x_ms              20480  0 
mac80211              630784  0 
memstick               20480  1 jmb38x_ms
cfg80211              536576  2 ath,mac80211
soundcore              16384  1 snd
compat                 16384  2 cfg80211,mac80211
mei_me                 32768  0 
mei                    98304  1 mei_me
shpchp                 36864  0 
toshiba_haps           16384  0 
toshiba_bluetooth      16384  0 
toshiba_acpi           40960  0 
sparse_keymap          16384  1 toshiba_acpi
acpi_als               16384  0 
kfifo_buf              16384  1 acpi_als
ene_ir                 20480  0 
industrialio           61440  2 acpi_als,kfifo_buf
rc_core                28672  1 ene_ir
wmi                    20480  2 toshiba_acpi,mxm_wmi
mac_hid                16384  0 
parport_pc             32768  0 
ppdev                  20480  0 
lp                     20480  0 
parport                49152  3 lp,ppdev,parport_pc
dm_mirror              24576  0 
dm_region_hash         20480  1 dm_mirror
dm_log                 20480  2 dm_region_hash,dm_mirror
hid_generic            16384  0 
usbhid                 49152  0 
hid                   118784  2 hid_generic,usbhid
uas                    24576  0 
usb_storage            69632  1 uas
i915                 1126400  3 
i2c_algo_bit           16384  1 i915
drm_kms_helper        126976  1 i915
psmouse               126976  0 
ahci                   36864  3 
drm                   360448  5 i915,drm_kms_helper
libahci                32768  1 ahci
sdhci_pci              24576  0 
r8169                  81920  0 
sdhci                  45056  1 sdhci_pci
mii                    16384  2 r8169,usbnet
video                  40960  2 i915,toshiba_acpi 

[JeremyB]

Show

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history | grep defconfig; modinfo compat

[Jepp]

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history | grep defconfig; modinfo compat
  359  make defconfig-ath10k
  409  history | grep defconfig; modinfo compat
filename:       /lib/modules/4.2.0-30-generic/updates/compat/compat.ko
version:        backported from Linux (next-20151120-0-ga78de01) using backports backports-20151120-0-g906a6b3
license:        GPL
description:    Kernel backport module
author:         Luis R. Rodriguez
srcversion:     2665E4F541B52292FF0BC27
depends:        
vermagic:       4.2.0-30-generic SMP mod_unload modversions 
parm:           backported_kernel_name:The kernel tree name that was used for this backport (Linux) (charp)
parm:           backported_kernel_version:The kernel version that was used for this backport (next-20151120-0-ga78de01) (charp)
parm:           backports_version:The git version of the backports tree used to generate this backport (backports-20151120-0-g906a6b3) (charp)
 

[JeremyB]

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cd backports-20151120
sudo make uninstall

reboot

[Jepp]

Are you getting this hair ball unravelled?

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 ~/backports-20151120 $ sudo make uninstall
[sudo] password for pappey: 
  uninstall /lib/modules/4.2.0-30-generic/updates/net/wireless/cfg80211.ko
  uninstall /lib/modules/4.2.0-30-generic/updates/net/mac80211/mac80211.ko
  uninstall /lib/modules/4.2.0-30-generic/updates/compat/compat.ko
  uninstall /lib/modules/4.2.0-30-generic/updates/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath.ko
  uninstall /lib/modules/4.2.0-30-generic/updates/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath10k/ath10k_pci.ko
  uninstall /lib/modules/4.2.0-30-generic/updates/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath10k/ath10k_core.ko
Note:
You may or may not need to update your initramfs, you should if
any of the modules installed are part of your initramfs. To add
support for your distribution to do this automatically send a
patch against "update-initramfs.sh". If your distribution does not
require this send a patch with the '/usr/bin/lsb_release -i -s'
("Ubuntu") tag for your distribution to avoid this warning.

Your backported driver modules should be uninstalled now.
Reboot.