[Solved] Wireless issue after upgrade

[kln]

Hi,
the upgrade ran well except for two things.(network upgrade)
The wireless is broken - more precisely it seems that the right driver is not loading. I get the 'booting now without full configuration network' notice.
I can connect with an ethernet cable (the connection is very unstable but as I had similar issues with the cable, it is not linked to the wireless issue, nor to the network)

A few CLI outputs : (previously I used the interface wlan0 with the RT2860 RaLink driver)

$ lspci | grep RT2
04:00.0 Network controller: Ralink corp. RT2860

$lsmod | grep RT2

doesn't return anything.
Nor does $ rfkill list.

/etc/interfaces was reset during the upgrade. So I replaced 'lo' by 'wlan0' to get the following :

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet loopback

But even after reboot, the wireless doesn't work.

$ sudo iwconfig
lo    no wireless extensions.
eth0   no wireless extensions.

wlan0 is nowhere to be seen, same with ifconfig.

$ sudo modprobe rt2860sta
FATAL: Module rt2860sta not found.

$ lshw -C net
PCI (sysfs) 
 *-network UNCLAIMED   
    description: Network controller
    product: RT2860
    vendor: Ralink corp.
    physical id: 0
    bus info: pci@0000:04:00.0
    version: 00
    width: 32 bits
    clock: 33MHz
    capabilities: bus_master cap_list
    configuration: latency=0
    resources: memory:d8200000-d820ffff
 *-network
    description: Ethernet interface
    (...)

How do I make it 'claim' the driver ?
I've checked everything I could think of. Dunno where to search now.

NB: the other issue is the /etc/fstab automounting of my main storage partition that is not working. When booting after upgrade, I got the 'serious errors on your disk, I to ignore, S to skip, M manual recovery'. I skipped everytime. Added a new end line at the end of /etc/fstab, but that was not enough to solve the problem. Removed (#) the line to mount that partition. Now the partition is shown under /media -- I don't know whether it mounts at startup or when I clicked on it, but I can access it when I need. So that can wait I got more time

[SteveRiley]

Re: Wireless issue after upgrade

Some comments.

/etc/interfaces was reset during the upgrade. So I replaced 'lo' by 'wlan0' to get the following :

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet loopback

But even after reboot, the wireless doesn't work.

Don't do that. /etc/network/interfaces (not /etc/interfaces) should reference only lo, the loopback driver. Changing lo to wlan0 is likely to be part of your problem. The interfaces file should not contain references to any interface you want to control through Network Manager. Change it back to:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

$ sudo modprobe rt2860sta
FATAL: Module rt2860sta not found.

According to a post on the Ubuntu forums, kernel 3.0.0 uses a new driver: rt2800pci. Try following the steps there and let us know if that works for you.

[kln]

Re: Wireless issue after upgrade

According to a post on the Ubuntu forums, kernel 3.0.0 uses a new driver: rt2800pci. Try following the steps there and let us know if that works for you.

Good to know! I had blacklisted rt2800pci after upgrade to Maverick last year to get the wireless working. I removed the blacklisting and now it's working well.

I still get this

$ lspci | grep RT
04:00.0 Network controller: Ralink corp. RT2860

is it normal ?
(how come some drivers have capital RT and others lower-case rt )

Don't do that. /etc/network/interfaces (not /etc/interfaces) should reference only lo, the loopback driver. Changing lo to wlan0 is likely to be part of your problem. The interfaces file should not contain references to any interface you want to control through Network Manager. Change it back to:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

Right /etc/network/interfaces, sorry. Funny ... I thought I changed lo to wlan0 precisely to solve a problem one or two years ago. I changed it back to lo, perhaps that will solve other problems I've been having with wireless/wicd. I know, it doesn't sound rational but ...

Thanks a lot for the reply and the solution/information !

[SteveRiley]

Re: Wireless issue after upgrade

Glad it's working for you.

I still get this

$ lspci | grep RT
04:00.0 Network controller: Ralink corp. RT2860

is it normal ?
(how come some drivers have capital RT and others lower-case rt )

lspci consults the file /usr/share/misc/pci.ids when it lists the names of hardware items. That file typically uses standard English capitalization and follows whatever nomenclature the vendor uses for their products -- in this case, capital letters for the model name.

File names tend to be all lowercase in Linux, it's primarily an ease-of-typing convention. Since uppercase and lowercase are distinct in Linux as opposed to Windows, it's easier to use all lowercase so you can avoid having to hit the [Shift] key so much.

I changed it back to lo, perhaps that will solve other problems I've been having with wireless/wicd. I know, it doesn't sound rational but ...

As NetworkManager has always worked well for me, I've never used Wicd, so I couldn't tell you what to expect.

[kln]

Re: [Solved] Wireless issue after upgrade

Ok, thanks.

[flaflashr]

Thanks for this. I had a similar problem, with apparently the same cause. Your solution also worked for me.