Airlink101 AWLL6080 USB Wireless Nic wont connect on Karmic (Ubuntu 9.10)

Asked by Pete Higgins

My wireless network card wouldn't connect after I installed UBUNTU 9.10. It is an Airlink USB AWLL6080 with an Atheros Communications Inc chipset. Dual boot with XP and UBUNTU 9.04 and card works great in both OS's. Dual boot with XP and UBUNTU 9.10 and card works great in XP but not in UBUNTU. Also, after a fresh install, I can create a wireless profile with my SSID & password that shows "connected" but it doesn't work. Is in AdHoc instead of Infrastructure mode and not set to use DCHP. See machine dump below if it helps.

pete@pete-desktop:~$ sudo lshw -C network; sudo iwlist scanning; cat /etc/network/interfaces; cat /etc/lsb-release; lspci -nn; lsusb; sudo lshw -C usb; uname -a; dmesg | grep ound; dmesg | grep b43; dmesg | grep iwl; iwconfig; sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart
[sudo] password for pete:

 *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: MCP79 Ethernet
       vendor: nVidia Corporation
       physical id: a
       bus info: pci@0000:00:0a.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: b1
       serial: 00:24:1d:70:91:ce
       size: 100MB/s
       capacity: 1GB/s
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 66MHz
       capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list ethernet physical mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=forcedeth driverversion=0.64 duplex=full ip=192.168.1.103 latency=0 link=yes maxlatency=20 mingnt=1 multicast=yes port=MII speed=100MB/s
       resources: irq:27 memory:e538c000-e538cfff ioport:c400(size=8) memory:e5386000-e53860ff memory:e5387000-e538700f
lo Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=9.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=karmic
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 9.10"
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Host Bridge [10de:0a80] (rev b1)
00:00.1 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Memory Controller [10de:0a88] (rev b1)
00:03.0 ISA bridge [0601]: nVidia Corporation MCP79 LPC Bridge [10de:0aac] (rev b2)
00:03.1 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Memory Controller [10de:0aa4] (rev b1)
00:03.2 SMBus [0c05]: nVidia Corporation MCP79 SMBus [10de:0aa2] (rev b1)
00:03.3 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Memory Controller [10de:0a89] (rev b1)
00:03.4 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:0a98] (rev b1)
00:03.5 Co-processor [0b40]: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Co-processor [10de:0aa3] (rev b1)
00:04.0 USB Controller [0c03]: nVidia Corporation MCP79 OHCI USB 1.1 Controller [10de:0aa5] (rev b1)
00:04.1 USB Controller [0c03]: nVidia Corporation MCP79 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller [10de:0aa6] (rev b1)
00:06.0 USB Controller [0c03]: nVidia Corporation MCP79 OHCI USB 1.1 Controller [10de:0aa7] (rev b1)
00:06.1 USB Controller [0c03]: nVidia Corporation MCP79 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller [10de:0aa9] (rev b1)
00:08.0 Audio device [0403]: nVidia Corporation MCP79 High Definition Audio [10de:0ac0] (rev b1)
00:09.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation MCP79 PCI Bridge [10de:0aab] (rev b1)
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Ethernet [10de:0ab0] (rev b1)
00:0b.0 IDE interface [0101]: nVidia Corporation MCP79 SATA Controller [10de:0ab4] (rev b1)
00:10.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation MCP79 PCI Express Bridge [10de:0aa0] (rev b1)
00:15.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation MCP79 PCI Express Bridge [10de:0ac6] (rev b1)
00:16.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation MCP79 PCI Express Bridge [10de:0ac7] (rev b1)
01:0e.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: Texas Instruments TSB43AB23 IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link) [104c:8024]
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation C79 [GeForce 9400] [10de:086a] (rev b1)
03:00.0 Multimedia video controller [0400]: Conexant Systems, Inc. CX23885 PCI Video and Audio Decoder [14f1:8852] (rev 03)
04:00.0 IDE interface [0101]: JMicron Technology Corp. JMB368 IDE controller [197b:2368]
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 011: ID 03f0:3207 Hewlett-Packard
Bus 002 Device 010: ID 0556:0001 Asahi Kasei Microsystems Co., Ltd AK5370 I/F A/D Converter
Bus 002 Device 009: ID 2101:0201 ActionStar SIIG 4-to-2 Printer Switch
Bus 002 Device 008: ID 0471:0815 Philips eHome Infrared Receiver
Bus 002 Device 007: ID 03f0:020c Hewlett-Packard Multimedia Keyboard
Bus 002 Device 006: ID 04b4:8081 Cypress Semiconductor Corp.
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 058f:9254 Alcor Micro Corp. Hub
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 045e:0040 Microsoft Corp. Wheel Mouse Optical
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 03f0:010c Hewlett-Packard Multimedia Keyboard Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 04b4:6560 Cypress Semiconductor Corp. CY7C65640 USB-2.0 "TetraHub"
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 14b2:3c23 Atheros Communications Inc
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Linux pete-desktop 2.6.31-14-generic-pae #48-Ubuntu SMP Fri Oct 16 15:22:42 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux
[ 0.000000] found SMP MP-table at [c00f4b90] f4b90
[ 0.382227] ACPI: No dock devices found.
[ 0.534756] pnp: PnP ACPI: found 13 devices
[ 1.126443] isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
[ 1.140108] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 1.152095] hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 1.210051] hub 3-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 1.266048] hub 4-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 1.266143] PNP: No PS/2 controller found. Probing ports directly.
[ 1.267168] device-mapper: multipath round-robin: version 1.0.0 loaded
[ 1.271671] BIOS EDD facility v0.16 2004-Jun-25, 0 devices found
[ 1.844974] hub 2-1:1.0: USB hub found
[ 2.222170] hub 2-1.1:1.0: USB hub found
[ 2.561518] hub 2-1.3:1.0: USB hub found
[ 3.639249] usb-storage: device found at 11
[ 5.305985] lp: driver loaded but no devices found
[ 7.009002] cx23885[0]/0: found at 0000:03:00.0, rev: 3, irq: 16, latency: 0, mmio: 0xe5000000
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

 * Reconfiguring network interfaces... Ignoring unknown interface eth0=eth0.
                                                                         [ OK ]
pete@pete-desktop:~$

Revision history for this message
Mark Rijckenberg (markrijckenberg) said :
#1

This seems to be a bug that only occurs in Ubuntu 9.10, not in Ubuntu 9.04 (as you already stated).

Please see this bugreport:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/441652

Revision history for this message
Best Mark Rijckenberg (markrijckenberg) said :
#2

Wow, this is a pretty severe bug: please try the workaround mentioned here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/460323

Put the following line in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

blacklist rt2800usb

This workaround is consistent with the very smart analysis that was done here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/441652

Hope it helps.

Revision history for this message
Pete Higgins (petehiggins-roadrunner) said :
#3

Mark,

Thank you for your very speedy reply. I work out of town and won't return home until Friday. I'll try blacklisting it when I get home and let you know the outcome.

Again thanks for the help.

Pete

Revision history for this message
Pete Higgins (petehiggins-roadrunner) said :
#4

Mark,

I tried your suggestion and it worked perfectly! 'This Solved My Problem'
1.I did a fresh install of UBUNTU 9.10 with the computer connected to the wired network
2.Rebooted and logged in. Opened terminal and entered “sudo passwd root” and assigned a root password.
3.Logged out and logged back in as “root”.
4.Opened /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf and appended “blacklist rt2800usb” to the end of the file and saved it.
5.Rebooted the computer and when I logged back in it was able to see my wireless network.
6.Clicked on it, added my wireless security key, clicked “connect” and it connected right up.
Thank you very much,

Pete

Revision history for this message
Pete Higgins (petehiggins-roadrunner) said :
#5

Thanks Mark Rijckenberg, that solved my question.