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    can't install Wifi on sony vaio laptop. Help needed badly

    Dear all,
    I’m trying to install the wifi card on my VAIO laptop and although there are many post about issues about wifi card in (k)ubuntu, it just seems that it’s bit and pieces and unfortunately I can’t work how to make it work...and it is driving absolutely nuts!
    In a previous install, I had managed to setup the wifi for the same laptop but I had to a reinstall (hard drive died) and didn’t have a backup (I know it’s stupid).

    Last time I was using ubuntu and this time I went for Kubuntu but I believe it shouldn’t make much difference for the wifi setup, right? When I set it up the first time it was after days and days of trials, installations of packages, removals of packages, changing config files, etc..., and to be honest it was just down to luck that I finally succeeded making it work. I didn’t wrote down the steps I took and as I’ve done it once more about 8 months ago now I can’t remember how to do it. I’ve spent hours trying to install it this time and I think I need to call on the help of the community.

    It would be great if someone could help with a step by step procedure. I’m not new to linux/kubuntu but I mostly rely on synaptics if you know what I mean, I rarely work directly on configuration files...although I do from time to time. So when you say activate this or remove that, it would be great if you write down the command line.
    I to tried to use ndiswrapper, ath5k, ath9k but it’s none is working so I might have made a bit of a mess with drivers and config files... I feel there is just one little thing that is wrong with my setup (a line of code somewhere, or the deactivation of something) but I can’t narrow it down.
    I will paste some details about my system that will probably be useful in the next post.
    Thanks a lot.
    Chris

    #2
    Re: can't install Wifi on sony vaio laptop. Help needed badly

    Here are some details about my system. Hopefully if will be useful.

    Laptop model: Sony Vaio VGN-NR32M
    Operating System: Kubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex 32bit
    Kernel: 2.6.27-11-generic #1 SMP Thu Jan 29 19:24:39 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux
    Wireless card: AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter

    output of lspci:
    02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8039 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller (rev 15)
    06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)

    output of iwconfig:
    lo no wireless extensions.
    eth0 no wireless extensions.
    pan0 no wireless extensions.

    output of iwlist wlan0 scan
    wlan0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

    output of lshw -C network
    *-network
    description: Ethernet interface
    product: 88E8039 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller
    vendor: Marvell Technology Group Ltd.
    physical id: 0
    bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
    logical name: eth0
    version: 15
    serial: 00:1a:80:f9:40:f5
    size: 100MB/s
    capacity: 100MB/s
    width: 64 bits
    clock: 33MHz
    capabilities: pm vpd msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
    configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=sky2 driverversion=1.22 duplex=full firmware=N/A ip=192.168.1.2 latency=0 link=yes module=sky2 multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100MB/s
    *-network
    description: Ethernet controller
    product: AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter
    vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
    physical id: 0
    bus info: pci@0000:06:00.0
    version: 01
    width: 64 bits
    clock: 33MHz
    capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix bus_master cap_list
    configuration: driver=ndiswrapper latency=0 module=ndiswrapper
    *-network DISABLED
    description: Ethernet interface
    physical id: 1
    logical name: pan0
    serial: 8e:9b:eb:3e:23:85
    capabilities: ethernet physical
    configuration: broadcast=yes driver=bridge driverversion=2.3 firmware=N/A link=yes multicast=yes

    output of ifconfig:
    eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1a:80:f9:40:f5
    inet addr:192.168.1.2 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
    inet6 addr: fe80::21a:80ff:fef9:40f5/64 Scope:Link
    UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
    RX packets:360780 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
    TX packets:277774 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
    collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
    RX bytes:332828576 (332.8 MB) TX bytes:20427660 (20.4 MB)
    Interrupt:16

    lo Link encap:Local Loopback
    inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
    inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
    UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
    RX packets:130 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
    TX packets:130 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
    collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
    RX bytes:6500 (6.5 KB) TX bytes:6500 (6.5 KB)


    output of ifconfig wlan0 up
    wlan0: ERROR while getting interface flags: No such device

    output of lspci | grep Atheros
    06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)

    sudo kate /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

    # This file lists those modules which we don't want to be loaded by
    # alias expansion, usually so some other driver will be loaded for the
    # device instead.

    # evbug is a debug tool that should be loaded explicitly
    blacklist evbug

    # these drivers are very simple, the HID drivers are usually preferred
    blacklist usbmouse
    blacklist usbkbd

    # replaced by e100
    blacklist eepro100

    # replaced by tulip
    blacklist de4x5

    # causes no end of confusion by creating unexpected network interfaces
    blacklist eth1394

    # snd_intel8x0m can interfere with snd_intel8x0, doesn't seem to support much
    # hardware on its own (Ubuntu bug #2011, #6810)
    blacklist snd_intel8x0m

    # Conflicts with dvb driver (which is better for handling this device)
    blacklist snd_aw2

    # causes failure to suspend on HP compaq nc6000 (Ubuntu: #10306)
    blacklist i2c_i801

    # replaced by p54pci
    blacklist prism54

    # replaced by b43 and ssb.
    blacklist bcm43xx

    # most apps now use garmin usb driver directly (Ubuntu: #114565)
    blacklist garmin_gps

    # replaced by asus-laptop (Ubuntu: #184721)
    blacklist asus_acpi

    # low-quality, just noise when being used for sound playback, causes
    # hangs at desktop session start (Ubuntu: #246969)
    blacklist snd_pcsp

    #instructions from #https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...Driver/Atheros
    blacklist ath_hal
    blacklist ath_pci

    sudo kate /etc/network/interfaces
    auto lo
    iface lo inet loopback
    auto wlan0
    iface wlan0 inet dhcp

    sudo kate /etc/modules
    # /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
    # This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
    # at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.

    fuse
    lp
    sbp2
    #ath9k
    ndiswrapper

    As you can see I have eth0 and lo0 but no wlan0...I think that might be one of the problem
    I disabled the ath_pci and hal support
    I install the windows driver through Ndiswrapper (although I’m not entirely sure it is the correct driver).
    I don’t know which route to go: Ndiswrapper? Madwifi? Ath5K? Ath9K?
    I even installed compact-wireless
    Apparently ath9k is preinstalled with Kubuntu 8.10 but not sure it is useful for me..perhaps it is better to use ath5k...

    Maybe I should remove the various packages and start clean...

    By the way internet connection with a cable (eth0) works fine.

    I’ll be eternally thankful, I swear!

    Chris

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