Ralink RT2860[1814:0781] Wireless card worked in 10.10, stopped working in 12.04

[Gaurish Sharma]

Till Now,
I was running Ubuntu 10.10 & Today, I have installed 12.04 & my wifi stopped working. It was a fresh install(not a upgrade). Wireless gets detected as RT2790 & show available network but doesn't not connect to any wireless network(tried secured & unsecured) for some strange reason.

here is the lspci outout from Ubuntu 10.10 where my wireless card was working:

01:00.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2860
    Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 130f
    Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
    Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
    Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 4 bytes
    Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
    Region 0: Memory at fd9f0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: rt2800pci
    Kernel modules: rt2860sta, rt2800pci

you can find the lspci output of 12.04 where the same card doesn't work as attachment. Interesting thing to notice here is: the same card gets detected as two different chipsets(RT2790 vs RT2860)

the Wireless card in question here is: Asus PCE-N10 Wireless PCI Express Adapter(http://www.asus.com/Networks/Wireless_Adapters/PCEN10/) with device id: [1814:0781]. I think chipset in this card is RT2860(not RT2790). I further suspect this wrong detection in Ubuntu 12.04 is the reason that it doesn't connect/work.

So, Please let me know if my suspicion is correct? If yes, then what I need to do to fix this mess & get my wireless card working in Ubuntu 12.04?

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: linux-image-3.2.0-23-generic-pae 3.2.0-23.36
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-23.36-generic-pae 3.2.14
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-23-generic-pae i686
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu6
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: gaurish 1459 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xfdff8000 irq 44'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC883'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0883,1458c603,00100002'
   Controls : 41
   Simple ctrls : 21
Date: Fri Apr 27 13:36:55 2012
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=cc3e05b6-7643-4ce9-b57e-d68597183248
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release i386 (20120423)
MachineType: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. G31M-ES2L
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_IN:en
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_IN
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-23-generic-pae root=UUID=ae55b340-4aa1-48e3-8367-89fc9fb00da7 ro quiet splash
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.2.0-23-generic-pae N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.2.0-23-generic-pae N/A
 linux-firmware 1.79
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 09/29/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Award Software International, Inc.
dmi.bios.version: F10
dmi.board.name: G31M-S2L
dmi.board.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAwardSoftwareInternational,Inc.:bvrF10:bd09/29/2009:svnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:pnG31M-ES2L:pvr:rvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:rnG31M-S2L:rvr:cvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:ct3:cvr:
dmi.product.name: G31M-ES2L
dmi.sys.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the latest v3.4kernel[1] (Not a kernel in the daily directory). Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag(Only that one tag, please leave the other tags). This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text.

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, for example it will not boot, please add the tag: 'kernel-unable-to-test-upstream'.
Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug as "Confirmed".

Thanks in advance.

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.4-rc4-precise/

[Gaurish Sharma (gslive)]

Tested with following upstream kernel

$ uname -r
3.4.0-030400rc4-generic

& it WORKS!!

[Ben Whitten (benwhitten)]

I can confirm that this bug also affects the Intel pro/wireless 4965agn mini-pci card, can the title be changed to reflect this?

[Ben Whitten (benwhitten)]

Patch info found, with quick fix...

http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel.wireless.general/84095

[Ronald Teune (zeekoe)]

Bug seems to affect me too, but I cannot see any networks at all.

zeekoe@zeekoe-d630:~$ sudo iwlist scan
[sudo] password for zeekoe:
wlan2 Interface doesn't support scanning : Device or resource busy

(now I disabled the device by hardware button)

zeekoe@zeekoe-d630:~$ sudo iwlist scan
wlan2 Interface doesn't support scanning : Network is down
zeekoe@zeekoe-d630:~$ sudo ifconfig wlan2 up
zeekoe@zeekoe-d630:~$ sudo iwlist scan
wlan2 No scan results

(and it stays like that. NetworkManager does not see any networks either)

...if that may help.

I'm now going to try mainline too.

[Gaurish Sharma (gslive)]

Hey Guys,
I was wondering if they fix/patch from mainline kernel would be backported into ubuntu?

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Gaurish Sharma, this bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? If so, could you please test for this with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ .

If it remains an issue, could you please run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

Also, could you please test the latest upstream kernel available (not the daily folder, but the one all the way at the bottom) following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds ? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested. If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tags:
kernel-fixed-upstream
kernel-fixed-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested. For example:
kernel-fixed-upstream-v3.12

This can be done by clicking on the yellow circle with a black pencil icon next to the word Tags located at the bottom of the bug description. As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the following tags:
kernel-bug-exists-upstream
kernel-bug-exists-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug's Status as Confirmed. Please let us know your results. Thank you for your understanding.