Why is wifi on Ubuntu/AAO so difficult?

To address the original question:

Wifi on Ubuntu/AAO is so difficult because once upon a kernel, the ath_pci module was needed to work with the AA1's Atheros wifi card; the ath5k driver did not work. Now, with recent kernels, the ath5k module works and the ath_pci module does not.

Wifi on Ubuntu/AAO is so difficult because Ubuntu 8.10 comes with a kernel that includes the non-working ath_pci module; one has to install linux-backports-modules to get the ath5k module.

Wifi on Ubuntu/AAO is so difficult because Acer does not officially support Ubuntu on the AAO

Wifi on Ubuntu/AAO is so difficult because life's not fair :lol:

 

Ohio? Here I was thinking you were in some far off place like Hawaii... LOL

I would like to leave XP on there and do a dual boot. But there is only 1 NTFS parition so I'm not sure this would work. I think I'll just keep it booting from the thumb drive for a while. That way if I mess it up I can just redo the thumb drive.

I use wpa-psk, and I'm still connected. It's been quite a few hours now. I logged out, then back in, it still works. I'll try it again tomorrow after a complete shutdown and see what happens then.

I have had no luck with getting either one of the built in card readers to work. Have you?

I'm a Linux dummy, like I said- so can anyone tell me why I can see my Windows computers on the network but not the Linux ones?

Please post details about how it goes with your install. Good luck!

Candice in PA

 

I left a 5 gig windows restore partition that Acer put there to do a system restore. I had to blow away the 150+ gig windows partition because it was ntfs. I could go back and make a smaller windows partition and dual boot windows but I'm trying to avoid that. If I could have left windows on this time, I would have done so but time was short. And it's a good thing I wasn't too hasty and I left the windows restore partition. It turns out there are no cd's with the AAO 160 gig version. If you blow away all your windows partitions, there is no going back. The "guided" partitioning will always windows away and it is necessary to do manual to preserve your restore partition.

1. Pick manual partitioning
2. Leave the 5 gig fat 32 partition
3. Delete the 150 gig ntfs partition
4. Using the free space from the deleted partition, create a 500 meg ext3 primary partition and mount it as /boot
5. Using the remaining free space, create a 1024 meg swap partition as an extended partition.
6. Using all the remaining free space, create a ext3 partition and mount it as /.

Let the install proceed from here until you get to the end. At the very end, pick advanced. Assign grub to the boot partition rather than the master boot record. You will need to remember the partition number. It's probably sda2. Now when you boot up, you will see a menu of any linux kernels you may have installed plus you will see windows in the list. If you ever pick windows, it will probably ask you if you want to restore windows to your computer and it will likely become very confused about an ext3 partition.

If I ever go back, I plan to get around this by running my ultimate boot cd and I will use partitioning tools to put back a windows partition before I attempt to do a restore. Windows needs to be on a primary partition, so I would suggest donating 10 gig to run windows. You can dynamically resize the 150 gig / partition and donate 10 gig of it to windows if you like. As for me, I'm living with one OS for now. If I decide to go back and install Linpus or Mandriva, either of these will know what to do to add themselves without causing too much chaos.

Another approach would be to create two extended partitions. One that is about 10 gig for / (which includes the OS) and another that is 140 gig for /home (for all user files). With your data in /home and your OS in / and you can blow away / whenever you feel like it without ever touching your data. Having already seen Mandriva and Linpus on my old AAO and knowing that nobody has this ethernet driver thing nailed yet, I decided it wasn't worth jumping through an extra hoop to separate my data from the OS this time.

My install went fine the other day. Then we went to let our kids have some fun splashing around in the waterpark and I was able to get a connection from my hotel room. Very nice. Tonight, I'm running the updates. I will go to bed and leave it running if it hasn't finished in the next 10 minutes or so.

BTW, I should mention that bios version might contribute to the wifi issue. My bios is 3305. On this machine, my wifi has never worked. It fails to connect to wpa-psk and keeps asking for the key over and over again. I might have to look into updating my bios. This is something I'll come back to later.

Ok, updates done and rebooting. Let's see if things work a little better... Woohoo! Wireless works* now. Kernel 2.6.29-9-generic. Ath5k driver. *Of course it will probably crap out periodically but at least it works after my new fresh install on my new machine. I can turn my attention to setting up printers and installing avant-window-manager (os x style dock).

 

Using stock intrepid kernel and latest madwifi drivers my network runs perfectly here. ath5k does not work good enough for me, I couldn't even watch 2' of movie over the network.

 

I have the same device (Atheros AR242x) on my main laptop, and my Aspire, and it works fine for me. I have no problems at all. Only thing I done is install the backport modules and upon restart, it worked fine. No random disconnects on either machine, speed is fine, etc.

Sorry you're having trouble.

IGF

 

Are you using this with any WiFi security or it ist just Open to the world ?
Itried this and could get it to connect using Ubuntu backports when I had WEP 128bit passphrase security enabled.
I thried it on my IBM X31 laptop as wel with similar results works fine with no security enabled but it wont hold Wep 128bit passphrase so cant connect to router.

 

I use an Apple 0.5TB Time Machine router. Before I ran updates, I could not get my machine to remember the passphrase. Whenever I selected show password, I saw some long hex string but I could not connect even if I typed my passphrase over the hex jibberish. After updates, I could connect and I'm still connected 12 hours later. What remains to be seen is if this will work reboot after reboot or even after suspend/resume. I'll report back later.

To summarize...
Day 1: Even though I now have the HDD based model, I followed the 110L install instructions except that I was in a hurry and didn't run updates, and of course I ignored the SSD related instructions as I no longer need them. I should also mention that I used the Ubuntu DVD so I got more stuff installed by default. When I run du from /, it says I have 2.51 gig of stuff installed. I removed the ath_pci driver then installed ath 5k. When I rebooted, I could not connect. We were on our way out of town so I didn't deal with the issue at the time. When I got to a wide open wifi at our hotel, it worked fine.
Updates: Then, upon returning home, I still could not connect using wpa-psk to our Apple router. This is when I reverted to wired ethernet and I let updates run. Before running updates, I had added intrepid backports to updates. After updates, I connected to my wpa psk network with no problem. I don't know how long it will last, but it's working now.

 

I just tested my IBM X31 with Ubuntu 8.10 and it had the same wifi problems as my AAO so its a Ubuntu problem with the drivers not holding the WEP 128bit passphrase.
I then tried the X31 under Mandriva 2009.0 and initially it didn't connect but as soon as I went into wireless connections and enabled it and gave it the passphrase it worked with no other problems. I now need to test the AAO under Mandriva as well.


BTW: My IBM uses the same WLAN card drivers as the AAO so I can test that it is not some other strangeness. Very convenient.

 

Replying to my own post, and I'll be damned again... LOL

I just booted up the AAO from the thumb drive, and the wifi connected with no problem. It asked me twice for the password for that token keyring thing, whatever that is- but it's connected and working. I'm sending this post using it.

I figured after a complete shutdown and reboot, it wouldn't work, but it does.

I didn't do anything except update the BIOS to 3309, and do that backports thing as stated previously.

I'll leave it running for a while and see how stable it is.

Neither one of the card readers works though... :x

Candice in PA

 

Will either card reader work if there's a card in that slot at boot?
If card readers don't work, even with a card inserted at boot, then add the following two lines to /etc/rc.local:

Code:

/sbin/modprobe mmc_block
/sbin/modprobe sdhci

To get the card readers to work even i they are empty at boot, add the following to /etc/rc.local (below the above two lines if you had to add them):

Code:

/sbin/modprobe pciehp pciehp_force=1

 

It's a little off topic for this thread, but I did notice the card readers weren't working when I picked up my HDD based AspireOne. I followed the directions for getting them to work (on the ubuntu Aspire 110L installation page) and at least the one on the left works fine now. I don't care about the one on the right because the only thing I'm willing to let stick out of my AspireOne is a bluetooth dongle. My bios is still 3305 (If I believe what it says on my box which also says I only have 120 gig though I have 160 gig). I will have to check the bios version on my next reboot. BTW, I just tried both SD slots and they both work.

BTW, it's been almost 24 hours and my wifi is still working. Not bad. If it goes down again and a reboot clears it up, I think I can live with it this way until ath5k gets cleaned up. BTW, I tried submitting a bugzilla kernel complaint about ath5k but they were asking for details I didn't have handy. Also, they closed a near identical complaint without solving it because there "weren't enough details" included. Bah. They need to fix this ath5k driver so it quits disconnecting and doesn't munge our wpa passwords all the time. I've seen other posts saying they had no wifi problems at all with sickboy's kernel (2.6.28 somethingorother). I'm not eager to swap in a different kernel, but if I find out for certain that the sickboy kernel solves this wifi issue permanently I may just give it a go. NOTE: The tutorial on installing Ubuntu on the 110L has been updated today and now includes ath5k and madwifi options!

Here are more details on what I did to get the SD readers working, I did the following:

 

Ok, quick reply before I shut down.

Embarrassingly, I had to search around and try and figure out how to edit the system files...

I am a total dunce when it comes to Linux... but I found some simple info and was able to edit the files. OMG I had to run a command.... :ugeek: LOL

It is too late to try it tonight, so I'll try tomorrow to see if the card readers work.

Thank you for your patience, and I'll see if it works tomorrow.

My wifi is still up and running BTW, so I have made some progress. Linux is making my brain hurt... LOL

Candice in PA

 

I think I love you... LOL

I was embarrassed at having to admit I didn't know how to edit the system files. Some saint on his website posted a simple keyboard shortcut (Alt+F2) and command, which brought up a box, into which I entered "gksudo nautilus", and suddenly I had access. That was a pivotal breakthrough for me. I'm a total n00b, and I am really struggling with Linux. I come from the Windows world and the earliest version I ever used was Win95 and I rarely had to use any kind of command...

Anyway, I did exactly what you said. I created the one file, and modified the other.

I just tried it with a 2, 4, and 8 GB card and BOTH card readers WORK!!!!!!!!!

I am so thrilled at having made this much progress!

BTW- my wifi is STILL working too!

Wow. What a great start to the day! LOL

I couldn't have done it without your help. Thank you so much!

Candice in PA

 

Tested AAO under Mandriva 2009.0 and it works fine.
Hurrah a Linux build that works OOTB with the AAO.

 

Careful. Tested under Mandriva 2009.0 needs to be clarified. Did you install Mandriva or simply run the Live CD?

Wifi worked for me under Mandriva 2009.0 but only from the Live CD. Once the install was done, wifi stopped working.

 

Are you running the KDE desktop environment or the Gnome desktop environment?

 

I was a little annoyed when I found out that working from the Live CD didn't guarantee working after the install so I didn't waste any time getting back to Ubuntu. But I pretty much stick with gnome if given a choice. I'm running gnome now under Ubuntu. My wifi has not stopped working since my most recent reinstall, though I don't assume it's totally fixed, rather simply something I can live with.

I did like some things about Linpus and Mandriva. That claustrophobic 8 gig SSD situation pressured me into sticking with one distro and I choose Ubuntu. Now that I've got a 160 gig drive, I could possibly carve out some time to multi boot Ubuntu/Linpus/Mandriva and make some comparisons.

Don't expect me to do anything with the other distros any time soon. For now, I've tinkered (and suffered) enough and I want to get some use out of my AAO for a while. For instance, my 9 cell battery came in the mail today and it's about 75% charged. I can't wait to see how long I get with the 9 cell. Yay!

 

Wow. 9 cells. That must be a big battery...

Under XP, and using the wifi constantly- I get 4 and a half hours from my 6 cell battery. I have not tested it under Ubuntu because Ubuntu is running from a thumb drive, so I don't think it would be a legit test.

Hopefully you'll do 6 hours or more with that 9 cell. Keep us posted. Inquiring minds want to know...

Candice in PA

 

To me that's a little odd and makes me wonder what the symptoms were for your WIFI not working after install. When I did my install with Mandriva 2009 Gnome I setup my WIFI in the live CD before installing Mandriva and after the install was done my wireless was working and I didn't even have to reinsert my WIFI security code.

I ask because it seems from what I read here that the KDE desktop environment for the AAO is a little more finicky and harder to get right than Gnome and is one of the reasons I have stuck to Gnome with Mandriva. Now I really like Gnome as it seem to look better to me.

The only thing I liked about Linpus was the quick load times and that is not so important to me as some other things.

I took care of the size situation by using an SDHC card as my home partition giving me more room for both root and home.

Good luck with it. I'll be watching to see how it goes for ya. It seems the results of these batteries has been all over the board making it hard to evaluate.

 

The only thing I liked about Linpus was the quick load times and that is not so important to me as some other things.

I took care of the size situation by using an SDHC card as my home partition giving me more room for both root and home.

Good luck with it. I'll be watching to see how it goes for ya. It seems the results of these batteries has been all over the board making it hard to evaluate.[/quote:3j4kyqse]

I don't remember what the issues were under Mandriva. I seem to remember it prompting me for my wifi password as it was rebooting after the install. It seemed to change drivers on me as well.

What I liked about Linpus was the promise of "everything working" including the webcam and wifi but that wasn't the case. I also liked the fact that the screen elements were sized for 1024x600 rather than 768. I get sick of trying to find ways to scroll down to buttons that are off the screen. The Asus EEE has a 1024 x 768 graphics mode with pan and scan as you hit the top or bottom of the screen. That feature probably only works in Windows, though.

I definitely didn't want /home mapped to something removeable. I also didn't want the SSD mapped to anything real because I wanted to be able to pop it out before suspending or resuming because I read on the 110L community site that SD could be wiped out by leaving it in during suspend/resume.

I've been running with the 9 cell battery this evening. The machine estimates I have 6 hours 30 minutes left when the battery is down to 95%. At 90% it was still saying 6 hours. It makes the machine heavier. But when you're starting from 2 pounds, there's a little wiggle room, especially when that weight brings power independence. The real test will be taking my machine on the road and seeing how long it lives between charges.