Wireless network lost after upgrade to -2.6.32-22 kernel

[pwabrahams]

After upgrading from the -21 kernel to the -22 kernel, no wireless networks could be found on my Atheros-based system using wicd. I verified that the kernel version was the problem by reverting to the -21 kernel, and my wireless network reappeared and worked perfectly.

In the past, I was always able to solve this problem after a kernel upgrade by using a procedure posted by Dr. P.J. Kurian (see http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1309072). This time that procedure didn't work. I even preceded the recompilation of madwifi by make clean to ensure a full recompilation. That made no difference either.

Has anyone else encountered this problem? Have you solved it?

[2lood]

Re: Wireless network lost after upgrade to -2.6.32-22 kernel

Yes, I can confirm exactly the same problem. I upgraded Karmic to Lucid and my wireless card is blocked too. I already had wicd on Karmic (which is better for me) so I uninstalled KNetworkManager.

And , yes, any kernel above -21 turns wireles switch off. I checked it by running rfkill list and it returns my wlan0 is Soft blocked: No but Hard blocked: Yes. There's no amount of trying that I know of to make it work. ex.

sudo rfkill unblock 0

does nothing.
I even tried

echo 1 > /sys/devices/..../rfkill0/state

but it looks like there is some active process that changes it immediately back (state = 2).

I am somehow relieved to see that this is not problem with my computer. :P

pwabrahams, there is a workarround that makes my wireless work, I'm interested if it will work in your case.
if you boot to -22-recovery mode and select to proceed normal boot, log in and type startx. You can check even before starting gui if you can bring your wireless UP. It works for me and only then I can use wireless in -22 kernel.

I hope someone with more experience realizes what am I talking about because I am stuck here with no more ideas.

[wizard10000]

Re: Wireless network lost after upgrade to -2.6.32-22 kernel

Known issue.

For some reason in Lucid a wicd install no longer purges knetworkmanager and the two of them don't play nice together.

sudo apt-get remove --purge network-manager-kde

will most likely solve your issues.

cheers -

[2lood]

Re: Wireless network lost after upgrade to -2.6.32-22 kernel

sudo apt-get remove --purge network-manager-kde

will most likely solve your issues.

no, I've completly removed network-manager-kde. the problem still persists
if i boot -21 kernel and check dmesg i get

phy0: hwaddr 00:1e:2a:45:9a:21, RTL8187BvE V0 + rtl8225z2
rtl8187: wireless switch is on

but in kernel -22

phy0: hwaddr 00:1e:2a:45:9a:21, RTL8187BvE V0 + rtl8225z2, rfkill mask 2
rtl8187: wireless switch is off

so, where to make this rfkill mask to 1?
Also note that when i go to recovery mode in -22 this output IS the same, but i can ifconfig wlan0 up with no SIOCCFLAGS(?):unknown error 123

oh yes one more thing. if i use udevadm monitor while sudo rfkill unblock 0
, monitor returns

KERNEL[1273271499.836087] change  /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb2/2-2/2-2:1.0/ieee80211/phy0/rfkill0 (rfkill)
UDEV [1273271499.836347] change  /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb2/2-2/2-2:1.0/ieee80211/phy0/rfkill0 (rfkill)

is that normal?

[pwabrahams]

Observation but no solution yet

The network manager conflict is indeed not the problem. To clarify: the problem has two levels -- discovering the network and making the connection. If you discover the network but can't make the connection, then the network manager conflict is the problem. But if you can't even discover the network ("No wireless network found"), then network-manager is not the problem.

That's where I'm at -- no network. (I'm sending this message using the -21 kernel.) The problem is not with Lucid, since that's exactly what I'm running right now.

Since rfkill is a kernel component, perhaps we're dealing with a kernel bug that only a kernel recompilation will fix.

[pwabrahams]

SOLVED - and now in the Ubuntu wiki

Update: see http://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wif...Driver/Atheros (which I extended) for a solution that works for me.