ASUS X551CA 15.6" Laptop no WIFI

[wrender]

I just purchased this laptop on clearance sale for a family member and it shipped with Windows 8.

They are actually asking me to put Kubuntu on it because they hate the Metro UI.


However after I finally figured out how to live boot up Kubuntu I could not get the wifi to work let alone even recognize there is a wifi card existing. Any help would be much appreciated.



http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/...rchPageIndex=1

[SteveRiley]

Boot the live OS again. Open a console window and maximize it. Run the following:

sudo lshw -C net

Take a clear photo of the screen and upload it here. We need to see the details of the computer's network interface, and the above command will display this informaiton.

[wrender]

Ok here is the output. (If I plug it directly into the router the wired network connection works)

kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo lshw -C net
  *-network DISABLED      
       description: Wireless interface
       product: AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter
       vendor: Qualcomm Atheros
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: wlan0
       version: 01
       serial: 48:d2:24:94:8c:13
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath9k driverversion=3.11.0-12-generic firmware=N/A latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn
       resources: irq:17 memory:f7d00000-f7d7ffff memory:f7d80000-f7d8ffff
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0.2
       bus info: pci@0000:03:00.2
       logical name: eth0
       version: 06
       serial: d8:50:e6:3a:9b:66
       size: 10Mbit/s
       capacity: 100Mbit/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=half firmware=rtl8402-1_0.0.1 10/26/11 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=MII speed=10Mbit/s
       resources: irq:42 ioport:e000(size=256) memory:f0004000-f0004fff memory:f0000000-f0003fff

[wrender]

Did I post the information correctly?

[Snowhog]

Don't worry. Steve's likely on a business trip.

[SteveRiley]

Indeed, I was in San Francisco all week (except for Wednesday night, during which I returned home for wind symphony rehearsal).

The output of lshw indicates that the wireless interface is disabled. Is there a switch somewhere on the laptop to enable/disable wireless? How about combination of modifier and function keys? For example, on my Thinkpad, Fn+F5 enables and disables the radios.

Let's try a few more things:

rfkill list

cat /var/lib/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.state

[wrender]

No worries! I finally got access to the laptop and tried it out with the lastest alpha2 of 14.04 kubuntu hoping it would make a difference but it was the same. So here is the output of what you requested!

I realized that none of the function keys work on the laptop in kubuntu so I could not try toggling the wifi. That said it was working in windows before I rebooted so I would hope the laptop would keep the settings during boot to kubuntu live.

kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ rfkill list
0: asus-wlan: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: yes
kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ cat /var/lib/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.state
[main]
NetworkingEnabled=true
WirelessEnabled=true
WWANEnabled=true
WimaxEnabled=true

[SteveRiley]

See that Hard blocked: yes line? Some switch somewhere is in an off position. Depending on your hardware, this switch might have a software interface that would be controlled via another module. Please show the complete output of

lsmod

[oshunluvr]

One of my old HP's had a hard-wired switch that, when used, would leave to wifi hard blocked like this. In my case, the solution was to issue an "rfkill unblock all" once and then leave the darn switch alone. As long as I turned it off and on with software only, it was fine.

[SteveRiley]

Reports vary regarding the success of using rfkill unblock all to release a hard block. Sometimes it works, sometimes it works if other manufacturer-related modules are loaded, sometimes it doesn't work at all. Other solutions I've seen include booting Windows (because it always works with switches, duh?) and opening the BIOS/UEFI firmware and performing a reset.

[wrender]

See that Hard blocked: yes line? Some switch somewhere is in an off position. Depending on your hardware, this switch might have a software interface that would be controlled via another module. Please show the complete output of

lsmod

Here is the output

kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ lsmod
Module Size Used by
arc4 12608 2
intel_rapl 18773 0
ath9k 164049 0
x86_pkg_temp_thermal 14162 0
ath9k_common 13551 1 ath9k
intel_powerclamp 14705 0
ath9k_hw 453856 2 ath9k_common,ath9k
coretemp 13435 0
snd_hda_codec_hdmi 46207 1
kvm_intel 143060 0
uvcvideo 80885 0
ath 28698 3 ath9k_common,ath9k,ath9k_hw
snd_hda_codec_realtek 61356 1
videobuf2_vmalloc 13216 1 uvcvideo
snd_hda_intel 52355 3
mac80211 626584 1 ath9k
kvm 451519 1 kvm_intel
videobuf2_memops 13362 1 videobuf2_vmalloc
snd_hda_codec 192906 3 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_i ntel
videobuf2_core 40664 1 uvcvideo
dm_crypt 23177 0
videodev 134688 2 uvcvideo,videobuf2_core
snd_hwdep 13602 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm 102099 3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
crct10dif_pclmul 14289 0
crc32_pclmul 13113 0
snd_page_alloc 18710 2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
ghash_clmulni_intel 13259 0
snd_seq_midi 13324 0
joydev 17381 0
cfg80211 490477 3 ath,ath9k,mac80211
cryptd 20359 1 ghash_clmulni_intel
asus_nb_wmi 16990 0
asus_wmi 24191 1 asus_nb_wmi
sparse_keymap 13948 1 asus_wmi
snd_seq_midi_event 14899 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_rawmidi 30144 1 snd_seq_midi
dm_multipath 22873 0
snd_seq 61560 2 snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq_midi
microcode 23656 0
mei_me 18581 0
scsi_dh 14882 1 dm_multipath
snd_seq_device 14497 3 snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_midi
psmouse 101945 0
parport_pc 32701 0
mei 81994 1 mei_me
bnep 19624 2
lpc_ich 21080 0
snd_timer 29482 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
ppdev 17671 0
serio_raw 13462 0
snd 69238 17 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_ codec_hdmi,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_cod ec,snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_device,snd_seq_midi
lp 17759 0
rfcomm 69160 0
soundcore 12680 1 snd
bluetooth 395423 10 bnep,rfcomm
parport 42348 3 lp,ppdev,parport_pc
mac_hid 13205 0
squashfs 48362 1
overlayfs 27916 1
nls_utf8 12557 1
isofs 39835 1
dm_mirror 22135 0
dm_region_hash 20862 1 dm_mirror
dm_log 18411 2 dm_region_hash,dm_mirror
hid_generic 12548 0
usbhid 52616 0
hid 106148 2 hid_generic,usbhid
r8169 67581 0
mii 13934 1 r8169
wmi 19177 1 asus_wmi
i915 783311 3
video 19421 2 i915,asus_wmi
i2c_algo_bit 13413 1 i915
ahci 25819 1
drm_kms_helper 52758 1 i915
drm 302631 4 i915,drm_kms_helper
libahci 32168 1 ahci
kubuntu@kubuntu:~$