No Atheros Wireless with Kernel 2.6.24-21-generic in 8.04 (hardy)

[Ohb01]

Binary package hint: kernel-image-2.6.24-21-generic-di

I always include the latest kernel updates (including image, modules and restricted modules) from both Proposed and Security repository sources. Atheros wireless used to work with 2.6.24-21-generic until a recent update (October 29 or November 7, 2008 - sorry, unsure which one did it, as I did not use this kernel recently until after both updates were done).

Problem Symptoms:

- No wireless connection or signal bars shown.

- Network Settings applet showing no Wireless entry at all.

- Network Admin applet saying "The interface does not exist"

- Connection Properties applet showing ath0 > Status: Error

To be able to use wireless, I've gone back to the old, reliable (for me) 2.6.20-16-generic (sorry, I did not have time to test other available kernel versions between 2.6.20-16-generic and 2.6.24-21-generic).

Commit Log for Fri Nov 7 16:50:50 2008

Upgraded the following packages:
linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-21-generic (2.6.24-21.32) to 2.6.24-21.33
tk8.4 (8.4.16-2ubuntu1) to 8.4.16-2ubuntu1.1

Commit Log for Wed Oct 29 00:51:38 2008

Upgraded the following packages:
apt (0.7.9ubuntu17) to 0.7.9ubuntu17.1
apt-utils (0.7.9ubuntu17) to 0.7.9ubuntu17.1
libgphoto2-2 (2.4.0-8ubuntu7) to 2.4.0-8ubuntu8
libgphoto2-port0 (2.4.0-8ubuntu7) to 2.4.0-8ubuntu8
linux-headers-2.6.24-21 (2.6.24-21.42) to 2.6.24-21.43
linux-headers-2.6.24-21-generic (2.6.24-21.42) to 2.6.24-21.43
linux-image-2.6.24-21-generic (2.6.24-21.42) to 2.6.24-21.43
linux-libc-dev (2.6.24-21.42) to 2.6.24-21.43
update-notifier (0.70.9) to 0.70.10
update-notifier-common (0.70.9) to 0.70.10
wine (1.1.6~winehq0~ubuntu~8.04-0ubuntu1) to 1.1.7~winehq0~ubuntu~8.04-0ubuntu1
xserver-xorg-video-amd (2.9.0-1ubuntu2.4) to 2.9.0-1ubuntu2.5
xserver-xorg-video-ati (1:6.8.0-1) to 1:6.8.0-1ubuntu1
xserver-xorg-video-geode (2.9.0-1ubuntu2.4) to 2.9.0-1ubuntu2.5

Sysinfo > System > Kernel: 2.6.24-21-generic (#1 SMP Tue Oct 21 23:43:45 UTC 2008)

Hardware: Dell Dimension 4700 (desktop) computer

lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82915G/P/GV/GL/PL/910GL Memory Controller Hub (rev 04)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82915G/P/GV/GL/PL/910GL PCI Express Root Port (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev d3)
00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FR (ICH6/ICH6R) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FW (ICH6/ICH6W) SATA Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV370 5B60 [Radeon X300 (PCIE)]
01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV370 [Radeon X300SE]
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR2413 802.11bg NIC (rev 01)
03:01.0 Communication controller: Conexant HSF 56k Data/Fax Modem
03:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82562ET/EZ/GT/GZ - PRO/100 VE (LOM) Ethernet Controller (rev 03)

Please let me what other information would be helpful to provide.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Ohb01 (ohb01)]

I shoulld have mentioned that I'm running Ubuntu 8.04 (hardy).

[Eric Miao (eric.y.miao)]

Hi Ohb01,

Thanks for your report and sorry for late reply on this. Can you confirm this issue exists with the most recent Jaunty Jackalope 9.04 release - http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-9.04-desktop? Or if you still want to use hardy, can you please try installing the linux-backports-modules-hardy package. The linux-backports-modules-hardy package contains and updated compat-wireless stack which may help. Be sure to reboot after installing this package in order to test. Please let us know your results.

[Ohb01 (ohb01)]

Thanks for your reply. After many updates, kernel 2.6.24-24-generic [currently at 2.6.24-24.56 from the Hardy - Proposed repository] became workable for me. It resumes from suspend/hibernate most of the time, Atheros wireless works except sometimes after resume from suspend/hibernateand ALSA sound works as well. But closed-source ATI driver does not work -- when I try to enable it and reboot, it still is not enabled.

Would installing linux-backports-modules-hardy help with other things besides wireless (e.g. closed-source ATI driver, more reliable resume from suspend/hibernate)? On the other hand, are there any known risks to installing linux-backports-modules-hardy given my situation?

[Eric Miao (eric.y.miao)]

We do not know what's inside the closed source ATI driver, thus have no idea if that helps those drivers. Basically, the backports-modules package includes drivers back ported from more recent kernel, which are normally pretty safe. Given the result, I'd like to first close this bug atm. Thanks very much for the testing.

[Eric Miao (eric.y.miao)]

fixed in linux-backports-modules-hardy