Qualcomm Atheros AR242x / AR542X Wireless
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Hello all,
I was given a Toshiba laptop today for work I did on another laptop and decided to see how it ran Trisquel GNU/Linux. Much to my surprise it seems to be able to support Trisquel nearly completely because it has the Qualcomm Atheros AR242x / AR542x chipset.
It had said that wifi was on and working ,but for some reason it didn't seem to be able to search for my broadcasted SSID.
Because it was doing that I decided to use the keyboard key to stop and restart wifi by hitting "fn+f8". Now it says it's disabled and will not come back on.
Any thoughts on how I can get the full functionality of this wifi adapter in Trisquel.
Some info on the system that may or may not help:
Toshiba L45-S4687
Intel Pentium dual-core T2080
Mobile Intel 943GML Express Chipset
1GB of DDR2 RAM
Qualcomm Atheros 802.11 b/g wireless adapter (AR242x / AR542x according to lspci)
Trisquel GNU/Linux 7.0 Belenos version of Trisquel that I am running.
Thanks for the help in advance!
grimlok
ive had a bug with the current trisquel like this. i booted into
trisquel 6 and it was able to re-enable it.
Well, restarting has re-enabled it, but the card still doesn't seem to be able to find my wifi network...
I am a translator!
https://trisquel.info/en/forum/not-all-wifi-access-points-listed
See if what Banana Magique did there can help, that is - changing the channel and restarting the Wifi router.
I will give it a shot, but I don't think it's quite the same problem. I don't see any access points/routers no matter where I am with the laptop (I took it to work too to give it a try.)...
I am a translator!
I see. Try searching on the net, although it is somehow a difficult and rare issue to search on, being that "opensourcerers" just install non-libre drivers and "solve" their issues by putting proprietary code into their boxes..
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I'm not sure where the problem lies, but the chipset isn't as well supported as newer atheros chipsets (but not all the newer ones, the 802.11ac are not supported at all).
Try running it from the terminal:
sudo iwlist wlan0 scan
* Replace wlan0 with whatever your wifi card is. Run iwconfig for that.
I get 'No scan results' upon doing that command Chris. Not sure what's going on...
Also, not sure if I mentioned it. If I set the SSID manually, that doesn't work either.
I am a member!
I re-read your original message and realized the problem your having is probably related to a 'broken' wifi switch. That is it isn't supported. There might also be another issue going on here though as it sounds like it is "working". It might be related to the digital restrictions (?). Did you replace the original card that came in the system with this one?
Try running:
rfkill list
If your Wireless LAN device indicates a hardware or software block try the following commands:
rfkill unblock all
If you still do not have wireless working run:
rfkill unblock 1 (or whatever number the Wireless LAN device is on your machine)
Run rfkill list again to find out if you have successfully enabled the wireless
It might be worth upgrading the card and/or going with a USB adapter instead. The later is probably the most likely thing to work. Replacing the card may not work as Toshiba does or has used digital restriction on the card slot.
I did find something about madwifi drivers, but are they proprietary or are they just all together irrelevant?
I am a member!
Madwifi was a driver for various atheros chipsets. At the time it was in use it was dependent on a proprietary abstraction layer due to regulatory concerns. It has long since been abandoned, was never in the mainline kernel, and is now irrelevant. The driver supporting your card should be the ath5k driver which is in the mainline and linux-libre kernels.
First off, thank you all for your help troubleshooting this matter.
I have found out the problem, and it's one of those things that keep you as a computer technician humble. I found a physical switch on the front of the laptop for Wifi... That was apparently not switched on. :: face palm ::
Again, Thank you Chris, Alexander, and Supertramp.
grimlok
I am a member!
That's the best kind of problem to have! Glad you found the naswer to your problem!
I am a translator!
now that you mention it my sister's lappy had this thing. I remember when I fixed her computer I had some 20 or 30 minutes trying several things to get the wifi until I found out it was the switch!! :-)
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