[Hardy, Gutsy, Intrepid Alpha 2 +] Wireless adapter not detected on MacBook Pro rev.3 (santa rosa)

[Mike Matis]

Gutsy Release Candidate does not detect the wireless interface on Apple's latest revision of the MacBook Pro. Ubuntu forums include instructions on compiling madwifi drivers from source, which do detect the wireless adapter. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=474144

[Nick Gauthier (ngauthier)]

svn checkout http://svn.madwifi.org/trunk madwifi
cd madwifi
make
sudo make install

then reboot.

So all they need to do to make the wireless work is to include a newer madwifi driver version. This should be an easy one ;-)

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Unfortunately we can't fix it, because your description doesn't yet have enough information.
Please include as attachments the following additional information, if you have not already done so (please pay attention to lspci's additional options), as required by the Ubuntu Kernel Team:
1. Please include the output of the command 'uname -a' in your next response. It should be one, long line of text which includes the exact kernel version you're running, as well as the CPU architecture.
2. Please run the command 'dmesg > dmesg.log' and attach the resulting file 'dmesg.log' to this bug report.
3. Please run the command 'sudo lspci -vvnn > lspci-vvnn.log' and attach the resulting file 'lspci-vvnn.log' to this bug report.
For your reference, the full description of procedures for kernel-related bug reports is available at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies . Thanks in advance!

[Mike Matis (mmatis)]

uname -a ---> Linux blackbird.umm.maine.edu 2.6.22-8-generic #1 SMP Thu Jul 12 15:59:45 GMT 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

I've attached dmesg.log and lspci-vvnn.log, but these are from AFTER I installed the madwifi drivers (which worked like a charm --Thanks Nick!), so I'don't know how useful they'll be.

[Mike Matis (mmatis)]

whoops! wrong file. Ignore the last one. This is the correct one.

[Brian Barnes (bcbarnes)]

Confirmed in Gutsy Tribe 3 ; device not detected with default install.

[SK (skiani)]

Ditto here for IBM T40p laptop:
$uname -a
Linux T40p 2.6.22-8-386 #1 Thu Jul 12 15:31:33 GMT 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

[SK (skiani)]

Fixed. My problem was missing "Non-free Linux 2.6.20 modules on x86/x86_64" package. Installed and now my wireless is ok.

[Guillaume Pujol (guill-p)]

This bug is also true for MacBook Pro v2 laptops (from november 2006).
The wireless adapter is not supported by the current stable version of the madwifi-ng driver.
However it is supported in svn since april 2007. I have been compiling the driver from SVN since then it works great.

Maybe you could include, alongside with the current stable release a SVN snapshot of the driver in Gutsy, which the user can EXPLICITLY choose to use instead of the stable one ?

[Daniele Dellafiore (ildella)]

is this still valid?
Last time I installed gutsy from scratch, begin of september, on MBPv2 the wifi has been detected automagically.
MBPv3 has a new wifi adapter (support 802.11n) so I cannot tell about that but for sure gutsy work out of the box with v2.

[Rachel Greenham (rachel-strangenoises)]

This problem is also showing up installing Gutsy Release Candidate on a Macbook2,1. Apart from showing up in Hardware Information, the wifi interface is simply not detected; and no errors relating to it (that I can see) are appearing in any logs.

Interestingly, wifi on this machine worked out of the box on Feisty, so it was a surprise to find it not working here. :-)

BTW, if it's of any relevance (I have no idea), this machine has *not* had 802.11n enabled as per the enabler that comes with the new Airport Extreme.

[Rachel Greenham (rachel-strangenoises)]

Apologies, this appears to be already known about, and a workaround given on the community docs page for installing on a Macbook. Am not in reach of a wired ethernet right now, so can't proceed, but it looks like it's in hand?

[Rouben (rouben)]

Confirmed, the adapter is only recognized with the manually built SVN drivers from madwifi.org on the MacBook Pro 15" 3d revision (SantaRosa).

[John Dong (jdong)]

Anyone with an Atheros AR5008* chipset, the N-capable one, will not have working drivers out of the box. This includes the core 2 duo Macbook/MBP/iMac, along with many newer systems and wifi cards based off Atheros.

The HAL that supports this new chipset is labeled by upstream as experimental and not production ready, which is why it is not installed by default.

[Rachel Greenham (rachel-strangenoises)]

... And indeed after 2-3 hours of real usage of the trunk madwifi driver, I have found it to spontaneously stop routing packets. It still thinks it's connected, and can still see the AP, but nothing moves; which is probably (though I didn't check the logs at the time as I needed to get stuff done and rebooted into OSX) due to the problems mentioned above.

That and the problems with the touchpad mean that, at present, it seems to be better to run Ubuntu in VMWare Fusion, even with the sad loss of compiz fusion (which in itself works great on the Macbook).

[Krzysztof Janowicz (janowicz)]

rachel: gutsy does not work with parallels virtualization (you have to install it as solaris and with not more than 512Mb RAM). fusion works out of the box but is really slow (also with activated vt-x / vmi and 1GB RAM). the fusion tools do not recognize xserver 1.3 but you can add vmware video drivers (and vmmouse) manually to your xorg.conf - still the system is slow (e.g. when moving windows with the mouse) so this is no good option :(. i hope the new wlan device will work out of the box with gutsy.

[Rachel Greenham (rachel-strangenoises)]

Krzysztof Janowicz wrote:
> rachel: gutsy does not work with parallels virtualization (you have to
> install it as solaris and with not more than 512Mb RAM). fusion works
> out of the box but is really slow (also with activated vt-x / vmi and
> 1GB RAM). the fusion tools do not recognize xserver 1.3 but you can add
> vmware video drivers (and vmmouse) manually to your xorg.conf - still
> the system is slow (e.g. when moving windows with the mouse) so this is
> no good option :(. i hope the new wlan device will work out of the box
> with gutsy

VMWare Fusion seemed pretty good to me. X worked out of the box with the
VMWare graphics driver included as part of the Gutsy standard install;
no manual adding necessary, it detected it itself. Mouse worked too.
I've been using it all evening, and it's been working flawlessly and
with no complaints from me about speed, even when moving windows. :-)
Even stuff like dragging files from the OSX Finder to the Ubuntu window
and having that file appear on the Ubuntu desktop Just Worked. Compiz
doesn't even *try* to work, of course, and I miss what that gives, but
apart from that it's fine. You expect it to be a *bit* slower than
running natively, and that's exactly what it is; a *bit* slower. This,
btw, was a Core 2 Duo Macbook, installing the Gutsy AMD64 version, with
the "Ubuntu 64 bit" preset selected.

How recently did you test? :-)

Anyway, this is getting a bit offtopic for the bug in question...

--
Rachel

[Krzysztof Janowicz (janowicz)]

rachel, to allow for the specific touchpad scrolling etc i had to replace the driver to vmmouse. i used the generic kernel - maybe this is the problem. i my case hdd access is slow and the system is sluggish (compared to a parallels installation with 512mb ram). for instance if you run sidux from an hdd disc image as "live-cd" it works much faster than after installation. i am using fusion 1.1b

sorry for being offtopic, but maybe this is also interesting for other people to decide whether to run gutsy natively or not.

[Rachel Greenham (rachel-strangenoises)]

Krzysztof Janowicz wrote:
> rachel, to allow for the specific touchpad scrolling etc i had to
> replace the driver to vmmouse.

Aha. Yes, touchpad scrolling isn't working for me, although double-tap
for right-button-click comes through fine. I hadn't noticed the
scrolling wasn't there for the simple reason I never got into the habit
of using it even on OSX. :-)

Still an improvement for me over trying to use it natively, where the
trackpad is hard to control. I suspect there might be some magical
combination of synaptics settings in X that'll make it behave properly
(smooth tracking, not too trigger-happy, etc) but I haven't found it
yet, and the wifi problem that this bug is actually for just pushed it
over for me. :-}

> i used the generic kernel - maybe this is
> the problem.

Generic kernel here too. No special measures taken.

And VMWare 1.0 still. Hey, does the 1.1 *beta* have debugging code
enabled (and not turn-offable) like the 1.0 prerelease versions did?

--
Rachel

[Rouben (rouben)]

I got the latest Apple Bootcamp Windows driver to work with ndiswrapper on Gutsy, although very slowly (seems to saturate the bus or something, even video slows down). SVN releases of madwifi drivers didn't work for me at all, in particular probably because my wireless network is ad-hoc. Although that is supported by the madwifi drivers, it just doesn't work for me.

[macavity (bschroder)]

Installed Gutsy (full release) on my 13"Macbook and no wireless interfaces come up at all.

Kernel modules ath_pci, ath_hal, wlan don't get loaded at bootup and
there are no messages/warning/errors whatsoever in any of the logs about the wireless interface.

When I try to load the wireless kernel modules manually, I get the following log entries:
dmesg | grep -i ath
[ 2397.360000] ath_hal: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel.
[ 2397.364000] ath_hal: 0.9.18.0 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413, RF5413)
[ 2397.532000] ath_pci: 0.9.4.5 (0.9.3.2)
[ 2925.604000] ath_pci: driver unloaded
[ 2925.616000] ath_hal: driver unloaded
[ 3028.992000] ath_hal: 0.9.18.0 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413, RF5413)
[ 3029.016000] ath_pci: 0.9.4.5 (0.9.3.2)

me@macbook$uname -a
Linux macbook 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Sun Oct 14 23:05:12 GMT 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

Here is the output of lspci:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:07.0 Performance counters: Intel Corporation Unknown device 27a3 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8053 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 22)
02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5418 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)
03:03.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Agere Systems FW323 (rev 61)

When I launch the 'Restricted Drivers Manager' I get "Your hardware doesn't need any restricted drivers"
and so far I haven't even tried to install anything other then what Ubuntu installs automatically.

[Johann Prieur (jprieur)]

I have exactly the same problem on a white macbook 2nd gen

[Rouben (rouben)]

Update: ndiswrapper works fairly well with the latest Bootcamp Windows XP driver. I will have to do further tests to see if the slowness I experienced was due to a half-stunned access point or whether it was signal strength/distance/interference related.

[cleentrax (cleentrax)]

The newest MacBook has the Broadcom 4328. I cannot get it working with ndiswrapper.

[thedward (thedward)]

The wireless on my 13" MacBook (02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5418 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)) does not work with the 2.6.22-14-generic linux image, but it does work with the 2.6.22-9-generic image.

With the 22 kernel, I have same issues as macavity writes about above.

[thedward (thedward)]

Please disregard my above comment. I apparently installed the driver separately.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

The Hardy Heron Alpha2 release will be coming out soon (around Dec 20). It will have an updated version of the kernel. It would be great if you could test with this new release if this issue still exists. I'll be sure to update this report when Alpha2 is available. Thanks!

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hardy Heron Alpha2 was recently released. It contains an updated version of the kernel. You can download and try the new Hardy Heron Alpha2 release from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/hardy/alpha-2/ . You should be able to then test the new kernel via the LiveCD. If you can, please verify if this bug still exists or not and report back your results. General information regarding the release can also be found here: http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/hardy/alpha2 . Thanks!

[shclim (shclim)]

Hi Leann,

I've just tried the Alpha2 LiveCD and it did not detect my wireless adapter.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Thanks for testing. Per the kernel team's bug policy, can you please attach the following information for the newer Hardy Alpha2 kernel:

* uname -a > uname-a.log
* cat /proc/version_signature > version.log
* dmesg > dmesg.log
* sudo lspci -vvnn > lspci-vvnn.log

Please be sure to attach each file as a separate attachment. For more information regarding the kernel team bug policy, please refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies . Thanks again and we appreciate your help and feedback.

[Rouben (rouben)]

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assignee ubuntu-kernel-team
status confirmed
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[Rouben (rouben)]

I'm attempting to set the status on the linux-source-2.6.24 to "Confirmed", since we have a confirmation here (reported by Scott), however, every time I try it I get an error saying that this bug was already reported in linux-source, with the package name changed from "linux-source-2.6.24" to just "linux-source". I can reproduce this on both launchpad.net and edge.launchpad.net (the beta site). Is this normal behaviour, or should this be reported as a Launchpad bug?

Either way, this bug also affects the Hardy 2.6.24 kernel, since it never inherited the new version of the madwifi source which supports the wireless adapter present in the MBP Santa Rosa. Given the evidence submitted by Scott, I believe that the status for the linux-source-2.6.24 package should be set to "Confirmed" and the bug assigned to "Ubuntu Kernel Team".

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi Rouben,

Actually linux-source-2.6.24 is an Invalid task for the Hardy kernel and it should have never been added. Not being able to change the status is an error with Launchpad and they are aware of it. Starting with the Hardy kernel the source package naming convention switched from 'linux-source-2.6.xx' to just 'linux'. I apologize for any confusion this may have caused. Thanks.

[Rouben (rouben)]

Thanks for clearing that up! I'll be waiting to test things re: this bug when they become available.

[Boris Dušek (dusek)]

Wireless still not working in Hardy Alpha 5. Macbook Pro rev3 (Santa Rosa), lspci reports AR5418 for the wireless (same as macavity's Macbook).

[shclim (shclim)]

The Linux weather forecast reports that kernel 2.6.25 will include the ath5k driver, providing support for Atheros wireless chipsets. Can we backport this driver into the 2.6.24 (Hardy) kernel when it comes available?

http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/Linux_Weather_Forecast

[Rouben (rouben)]

Looks like they're still working on the ath5k driver, however, since it's been included in the master kernel git tree it means that it's passed whatever standards drivers typically need to be included in the kernel. And that's a good thing. :)

Theoretically it should be possible to test drive the driver right now by using the following steps:

1. svn co http://svn.madwifi.org/ath5k/trunk ./ath5k-source
2. cd ath5k-source
3. make
4. sudo make install
5. sudo modprobe ath5k

More info is available in the README file and at http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/ath5k. You can also browse the source code in SVN at http://madwifi.org/browser/ath5k/trunk.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Just adding a note that this report will remain open against the actively developed kernel bug against 2.6.22 this will be closed. Thanks.

[Alexander Jones (alex-weej)]

Ath5k doesn't want to install...

alex@fizz:~/ath5k/trunk$ sudo make install
[sudo] password for alex:
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.24-15-generic/build M= "INSTALL_MOD_DIR=updates" modules_install
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.24-15-generic'
  DEPMOD 2.6.24-15-generic
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.24-15-generic'
:( modprobe is not picking up
/lib/modules/2.6.24-15-generic/updates/ath5k.ko
as the next loadable ath5k module.
You should temporarily move or delete this file module:

You can see the recovery code is being fooled... there's no "file module" listed to remove.

alex@fizz:~/ath5k/trunk$ sudo modprobe ath5k
FATAL: Module ath5k not found.

It's not installed into /updates like it thinks it is, in fact it's nowhere in the tree according to "find".

alex@fizz:~/ath5k/trunk$ sudo insmod ath5k.ko
insmod: error inserting 'ath5k.ko': -1 Unknown symbol in module

?

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi Guys,

Just to see if it helps, care to test the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 kernel? It was most recently rebased with the upstream 2.6.25 kernel and contains the ath5k driver. It is currently available in the following PPA:

https://edge.launchpad.net/~kernel-ppa/+archive

If you are not familiar with how to install packages from a PPA basically do the following . . .

Create the file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kernel-ppa.list to include the following two lines:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kernel-ppa/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/kernel-ppa/ubuntu hardy main

Then run the command: sudo apt-get update

You should then be able to install the linux-image-2.6.25 kernel package. After you've finished testing you can remove the kernel-ppa.list file and run 'sudo apt-get update' once more. Please let us know your results. Thanks

[Alexander Jones (alex-weej)]

Hi Leann

The wireless-compat package[1], failed to load ath5k for my chip last time I
tried it.

As far as I'm aware, ath5k still doesn't support the AR5418 chip yet, which
is the chip in MacBook Pro 3.1's.

http://madwifi.org/ticket/1781

Will give it a go later, though.

[Alexander Jones (alex-weej)]

[1] http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Download

[Alexander Jones (alex-weej)]

[ 7715.490558] ath5k_pci 0000:0b:00.0: registered as 'phy0'
[ 7715.495022] ath5k phy0: Device not yet supported.

From the daily archive. Will check the newer kernel just in case when I get
a chance to reboot.

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

Bug confirmed.

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

Bug confirmed for Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 2 64-Bit, fully updated.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

The Ubuntu Kernel Team is planning to move to the 2.6.27 kernel for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. As a result, the kernel team would appreciate it if you could please test this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. There are one of two ways you should be able to test:

1) If you are comfortable installing packages on your own, the linux-image-2.6.27-* package is currently available for you to install and test.

--or--

2) The upcoming Alpha5 for Intrepid Ibex 8.10 will contain this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. Alpha5 is set to be released Thursday Sept 4. Please watch http://www.ubuntu.com/testing for Alpha5 to be announced. You should then be able to test via a LiveCD.

Please let us know immediately if this newer 2.6.27 kernel resolves the bug reported here or if the issue remains. More importantly, please open a new bug report for each new bug/regression introduced by the 2.6.27 kernel and tag the bug report with 'linux-2.6.27'. Also, please specifically note if the issue does or does not appear in the 2.6.26 kernel. Thanks again, we really appreicate your help and feedback.

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

Thanks for these proposals. I'd prefer waiting for the update on Sep 4. This computer is being updated regularly, so I'll file another entry if this problem persists. It has not happened today.

[Alexander Jones (alex-weej)]

Intrepid is now using ath9k for AR5418.

I can associate with my WEP network, but it fails to negotiate DHCP. If I recall, this is a similar issue as with madwifi/ath_pci.

SVN madwifi works as usual.

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

Testing with unencrypted WLAN works fine.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

For those still having issues, one of our kernel devs has packaged version of the madwifi drivers in their PPA for people to test. If you would be willing to install and test this package that would be great:

https://edge.launchpad.net/~timg-tpi/+archive

For those unfamiliar with how to install packages from a developers PPA, please refer to:

https://help.launchpad.net/Packaging/PPA

Thanks.

[Dirk Kurfuerst (kurfuer)]

this package solved my problem - thanks a lot!!! Is working also encrypted with WPA2/PSK
Lenovo Z60t
Linux version 2.6.27-7-generic (buildd@rothera) (gcc version 4.3.2 (Ubuntu 4.3.2-1ubuntu10) ) #1 SMP Fri Oct 24 06:42:44 UTC 2008
13:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

There are some issues with an Enterprise WPA system testing with. Can this have something to do with the driver?

The notebook loses the connection to the WPA system frequently.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Per a decision made by the Ubuntu Kernel Team, bugs will longer be assigned to the ubuntu-kernel-team in Launchpad as part of the bug triage process. The ubuntu-kernel-team is being unassigned from this bug report. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies for more information. Thanks.

[Manoj Iyer (manjo)]

Can you confirm this issue exists with the most recent Jaunty Jackalope 9.04 release - http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-9.04-desktop . Please let us know your results. Thanks.

[Przemek K. (azrael)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!
Also please note that madwifi has been deprecated upstream in favour of ath5k and ath9k drivers