Wifi...pleeeeease help

Discussion in 'Asus Eee PC' started by thatisandwas, Sep 18, 2008.

  1. thatisandwas

    thatisandwas

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    Ok guys. I've done it alllll..And i mean everything. I can't see the wifi networks under the network icon on the toolbar. I've done the modprobe ath_pci and i can even see wifi networks in terminal, but not in the network connections manager. i followed 3 different guides, and none of them are working. Pleaseeeee please help me.


    EDIT: This sucks. I've recompiled these drivers 4 times now. If i do a wifi scan in terminal i can see all the networks. So why the hell cant i see any networks in the network manager? It doesn't make sense. Im too tired to keep messing with this crap. Ubuntu has let me down tonight. If anyone has any suggestions im all ears.
     
    thatisandwas, Sep 18, 2008
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  2. thatisandwas

    thatisandwas

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    Anybody? I know one of you guys must have had this same problem. I can't be alone. Im considering just installing onelinux, but i've heard people say that wifi doesn't work in it either sometimes. I don't want to install a complete other distro and have it not work. What about Intrepid? Doesn't the wifi work out of the box on it? Would anyone reccomend it? I really want to get netbook remix, but wifi is of the upmost importance. Please, anyone who can comment, i'm all ears.
     
    thatisandwas, Sep 18, 2008
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  3. thatisandwas

    N6546R

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    I'm using OneLinux beta 3 and it's quite solid. No problem with wifi. The only thing I've found shaky in two days of heavy use is that it doesn't suspend cleanly. The install itself was a bit rugged, I had to install grub manually to get the thing to boot.

    Perry
    www.kidpub.com
     
    N6546R, Sep 18, 2008
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  4. thatisandwas

    thatisandwas

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    Yeah...I have definitely thought about OneLinux, but unfortunately there server is down, and you can't download the images right now :(

    So when i get home im going to upgrade via terminal to the Intrepid alpha 5, and hope for the best. If that doesn't work, i guess im just screwed. I really dont want to try and go with another distro, all though i've heard mandrive spring 2008 supports the acer out of the box. But i really want my Ubuntu to work. Its the best distro i've used by farrr...and i've used quite a few. But do you guys have any idea what might be causing the actual problem with my install of the drivers? I mean this is a clean install from a disk that ubuntu mailed me, and i followed the guide to a tee....I just dont get it :( :( :(
     
    thatisandwas, Sep 18, 2008
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  5. thatisandwas

    ceratophyllum

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    First of all, let's be clear about which AAO I have: 120GB, SN: LUS050B11183200FADE2535, dual boot ubuntu & win XP, wifi chipset atheros ar58xb63. No, I didn't run lspci; there's a sticker on the bottom that identifies the Wifi.

    I just went ahead and installed Intrepid. My Wifi totally sucked under Hardy Heron. madwifi was flakey and so was ndiswrapper. Both would stop working when I downloaded large amounts of data. (I was trying to sftp 20GB of music from my main desktop machine to the AAO and the wifi would stop working always before downloading 1GB)

    I understand that intrepid is alpha, but AAO is USELESS without wifi and reliable suspend. So far, wifi works more slowly under intrepid but it's more reliable and hasn't mysteriously died on me yet(2 days, heavy use 2GB plus downloaded.).

    I set my power preferences in gnome to sleep when the lid is closed and it so far works well, but I've only been testing for two days. Curiously, if I suspend from the GDM menu, the machine wakes up with a blank screen and there's nothing to do but hold the power key and then restart.

    Sound doesn't survive the suspend/resume, but was working well before I put the AAO to sleep.

    I suspect that people are having varying degrees of success because every computer called "Acer Aspire One" does not have the same wifi chipset, soundcard, motherboard, hard/SSD, etc. So to say that such and such distribution works on Acer Aspire One really isn't that helpful.
     
    ceratophyllum, Sep 19, 2008
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  6. thatisandwas

    thatisandwas

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    Thanks for your reply. I appreciate your input on this problem.

    I have been at work all day and during my downtime i've been reading up on how the install goes..Unfortunately most everything i've read i already tried to do last night. But, i will go home and try to compile these drivers one more time...And if it doesn't work im upgrading to Interpid alpha 5. I agree 100 percent, without wifi, the AAO is useless.
     
    thatisandwas, Sep 19, 2008
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  7. thatisandwas

    thatisandwas

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    Updating to intrepid ibex as i type this. WOW this is taking a long time. When it started it said 11 hours remaining. Now about 90 minutes later it says 3 hours remaining, and it seems fairly accurate. What is taking so freakin long? I downloaded the gigantic file in about 10 minutes, but installing these packages is appartently taking 3-4x longer then a fresh install from a live cd! wow!

    on another note, i got a live cd of kubuntu in the mail today, im pokin' around on it right now on my girlfriends HP. Pretty sweet interface. i wanna see how compiz looks on it. I love the blue.
     
    thatisandwas, Sep 19, 2008
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  8. thatisandwas

    RockDoctor

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    Uninstalling the old version and seamlessly putting the new version in place?
     
    RockDoctor, Sep 19, 2008
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  9. thatisandwas

    scottro

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    If you'd been more specific in your first post, it would have been far easier to offer assistance. :)

    http://home.nyc.rr.com/computertaijutsu ... .html#5007

    Goes through the various things with Intrepid and Hardy.

    See if that helps at all.

    Interesting that it takes so long on the 120 Gig drive. I have the SSD and had tried to do updates, with similar absurdly long times--I put it down to having the 512 MB of RAM and the overly slow speed of the SSD. It seems that those aren't necessarily the factors, and I thank you for that information.

    I can also add that with me, onelinux's wireless worked flawlessly.

    As for lspci---No, lspci does NOT detect this card correctly. It hasn't and this has been documented on MadWifi's site, so running it would have only given hints, not an actual answer.

    It will give various answers, depending upon kernel and architecture, slightly older kernels misidentifying as AR5006EG and these days, usually shown as 242x. It's an Atheros 5007EG card, and there are various tutorials on Ubuntu forums about it--although, from what I've seen, several aren't kept up to date and give incorrect advice.

    The link I gave you is my own and is current as of two days ago. If you're using Hardy, get the drivers I suggest, if using Intrepid, blacklist ath_pci and be sure to modprobe ath5k.

    Also, be sure the wireless switch is on--you'd be surprised how often people forget that. :)
     
    scottro, Sep 19, 2008
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  10. thatisandwas

    thatisandwas

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    Ok guys update time. So around 4 am last night the updates finished. I had intrepid on my AAO. However, NOTHING worked. No network connection, certainly no wifi...So i decided i'd put my livestick back in and reinstall 8.04.1. So i dozed off and when i woke up...it was just a blank desktop on thelive screen. So i really dont know what happened. I like to think that maybe my cat jumped on the keyboard and hit cancel... Because when i went to reboot i got a : Error 15 when grub was loading. So now im at work and im reinstalling from the livestick again, with no cats around, and im awake to see what happens. Im not going to do a sudo apt-get upgrade when its done installing, im just going to follow the directions to see if i can get the wifi working. I have a suspicion that if i wouldn't have done the upgrade i would have been able to get the wifi working. But only time will tell. I really hope this works.

    Does anyone have an image of onelinux beta 2 iso that they could send me? Their server is apparently STILL down...And if this doesn't work its really my only option left.

    Oh, and i dont have the 120...I have the 8gig ssd...yeah it took forevvvver
     
    thatisandwas, Sep 19, 2008
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  11. thatisandwas

    Lenoig

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    It's not down... www.onelinux.org but I think they ran into some problems so they don't have anything in the downloads section right now...
     
    Lenoig, Sep 19, 2008
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  12. thatisandwas

    thatisandwas

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    EDIT, UPDATE : The reinstall went as planned. I have a clean copy of 8.04.1. So i guess i'll follow your guide when i get home tonight and see if i can get the wifi poppin. I really hope so. I'm gonna search around and see if anyone else in the world is hosting a onelinux iso. If anyone here has one pleeeease let me know if you can serve it to me!
     
    thatisandwas, Sep 19, 2008
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  13. thatisandwas

    thatisandwas

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    Hey another dumb question.

    Just to be sure, i should be able to, after this guide is followed...right click on the netowork manager on the top taskbar and click on "select wireless network" or whatever it says, you know what i mean, and see all the wirless networks, right? There isn't another program im supposed to use to view the wifi networks, is there? Just making sure. I just want to make sure i can get this working tonight...I absolutely love me AAO and i just sold my EEE2g surf today, so i really want to make sure i get this wifi working..im sure you all can sympathise with me.
     
    thatisandwas, Sep 19, 2008
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  14. thatisandwas

    scottro

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    Ah, I misread who wrote what and thought you said you had the hard drive. Yes, the updates take too long to make it worthwhile at this point with that drive (in my humble opinion.)

    I think if you follow the instructions in the link I gave in my previous post, you should be able to get the card working on Hardy.
     
    scottro, Sep 20, 2008
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  15. thatisandwas

    thatisandwas

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    ok sooo...
    i have followed your directions to a tee. im very sure that i have this installed properly. when i do iwlist ath0 scan i can see all of the networks around me. i can even do iwconfig ath0 essid "linksys" and connect, supposedly. but nothing happens. no wifi networks show up in the network manager. i know its all installed right, what am i missing ? please please someone help !!!
     
    thatisandwas, Sep 20, 2008
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  16. thatisandwas

    scottro

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    Oh.....kay.

    You can see the networks, but can't connect. You're using Hardy, so I assume you're using network manager.

    Sigh, I don't have a Hardy install here to test.
    You might have to blacklist ath5k. You might even have to blacklist ath_hal, though I don't remember that being an issue.
    (You may have already blacklisted ath5k.)

    You did system=>hardware and disabled the Atheros modules.

    Please try a reboot, then, after you've gotten to the desktop, open a terminal and type

    modprobe ath_pci

    Actually, if you don't mind having to possibly do an extra reboot, also try adding

    blacklist ath_hal

    to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

    It seems to me that some folks had to do that with Hardy--however, my memory is a bit hazy on it.

    I've got to get to sleep, so won't be able to add any more input till tomorrow morning, but give those things a try. The fact that the scan is giving results is a Good Thing(TM).
     
    scottro, Sep 20, 2008
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  17. thatisandwas

    thatisandwas

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    Ive got them both blacklisted already. modprobe wont do it either....it just doesnt make sense...
     
    thatisandwas, Sep 20, 2008
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  18. thatisandwas

    scottro

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    Well, I'm still up. :)

    I just took a look at the instructions for Ubuntu install.

    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne

    Towards the bottom there's a wireless section.

    You've gotten it installed, but see if any of their suggestions for blacklisting, modprobing and the like work. I see they're suggesting different files than the ones that I've always used.
    One question--had you tried any other madwifi versions before hand? That can sometimes conflict.

    Now I *really* am going to sleep.
     
    scottro, Sep 20, 2008
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  19. thatisandwas

    thatisandwas

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    The back of my AAO says Atheros AR5BXB63 soooo do i have the same wifi as you guys? im losing my mind. i suppose this is enough for tonight. mind you, this is night number 4 of fucking with this wireless all night long and getting nowhere. im starting to regret selling my eee...
     
    thatisandwas, Sep 20, 2008
    #19
  20. thatisandwas

    thatisandwas

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    WOW THIS IS RIDICULOUS.....

    I have now spent a combined 15 hours trying to get wifi to work.

    I am putting up a bounty.

    If anyone can give me info on how to make it work, i will send you 20 bucks via paypal, an no, im not kidding.

    Thanks.
     
    thatisandwas, Sep 20, 2008
    #20
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