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[SOLVED] New WiFi Card gives 'device not ready' in NetworkManager

Posted: 2018/03/29 19:29:38
by HairLoss
Hi,

I have installed a TP-LINK TL-WN881ND Wi-Fi PCIe card into an old Dell Dimension 5150, running Centos 6.7. Unfortunately NetworkManager tells me 'device not ready'

running 'lspci' shows me the card is recognised;
02:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR9287 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)

running 'lspci -nvv' shows information about the card which is listed at the end of this post.

running 'ifconfig -a' gives the following information;

eth0
Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:12:3F:B7:A2:59
inet addr:192.168.1.111 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::212:3fff:feb7:a259/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:6419 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:181 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1071768 (1.0 MiB) TX bytes:13991 (13.6 KiB)

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:65536 Metric:1
RX packets:36 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:36 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:2160 (2.1 KiB) TX bytes:2160 (2.1 KiB)

wlan0
Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 7C:8B:CA:12:D8:71
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)


From what I can understand I am missing a 'ifcfg-wlan0' configuration file. Running find / -name "ifcfg-wlan0" gives no results.

What is the best way to create 'ifcfg-wlan0'?

Do you think creating 'ifcfg-wlan0' will get the Wi-Fi regocgnised by NetworkManager?

Many thanks,
Mark


running 'lspci -nvv'
02:00.0 0280: 168c:002e (rev 01)
Subsystem: 168c:30a4
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
Region 0: Memory at efcf0000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable)
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2- AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0+,D1+,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold-)
Status: D0 NoSoftRst- PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
Address: 00000000 Data: 0000
Capabilities: [60] Express (v2) Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
DevCap: MaxPayload 128 bytes, PhantFunc 0, Latency L0s <512ns, L1 <64us
ExtTag- AttnBtn- AttnInd- PwrInd- RBE+ FLReset-
DevCtl: Report errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal+ Fatal+ Unsupported-
RlxdOrd+ ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop-
MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 512 bytes
DevSta: CorrErr- UncorrErr- FatalErr- UnsuppReq- AuxPwr- TransPend-
LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, ASPM L0s L1, Latency L0 <512ns, L1 <64us
ClockPM- Surprise- LLActRep- BwNot-
LnkCtl: ASPM Disabled; RCB 64 bytes Disabled- Retrain- CommClk+
ExtSynch- ClockPM- AutWidDis- BWInt- AutBWInt-
LnkSta: Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, TrErr- Train- SlotClk+ DLActive- BWMgmt- ABWMgmt-
DevCap2: Completion Timeout: Not Supported, TimeoutDis+, LTR-, OBFF Not Supported
DevCtl2: Completion Timeout: 50us to 50ms, TimeoutDis-, LTR-, OBFF Disabled
LnkCtl2: Target Link Speed: 2.5GT/s, EnterCompliance- SpeedDis-
Transmit Margin: Normal Operating Range, EnterModifiedCompliance-
ComplianceSOS-
Compliance De-emphasis: -6dB
LnkSta2: Current De-emphasis Level: -6dB, EqualizationComplete-, EqualizationPhase1-
EqualizationPhase2-, EqualizationPhase3-, LinkEqualizationRequest-
Capabilities: [100 v1] Advanced Error Reporting
UESta: DLP- SDES- TLP- FCP- CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF- MalfTLP- ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSViol-
UEMsk: DLP- SDES- TLP- FCP- CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF- MalfTLP- ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSViol-
UESvrt: DLP+ SDES+ TLP- FCP+ CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF+ MalfTLP+ ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSViol-
CESta: RxErr- BadTLP- BadDLLP- Rollover- Timeout- NonFatalErr-
CEMsk: RxErr- BadTLP- BadDLLP- Rollover- Timeout- NonFatalErr+
AERCap: First Error Pointer: 00, GenCap+ CGenEn- ChkCap+ ChkEn-
Capabilities: [140 v1] Virtual Channel
Caps: LPEVC=0 RefClk=100ns PATEntryBits=1
Arb: Fixed- WRR32- WRR64- WRR128-
Ctrl: ArbSelect=Fixed
Status: InProgress-
VC0: Caps: PATOffset=00 MaxTimeSlots=1 RejSnoopTrans-
Arb: Fixed- WRR32- WRR64- WRR128- TWRR128- WRR256-
Ctrl: Enable+ ID=0 ArbSelect=Fixed TC/VC=01
Status: NegoPending- InProgress-
Capabilities: [160 v1] Device Serial Number 00-15-17-ff-ff-24-14-12
Capabilities: [170 v1] Power Budgeting <?>
Kernel driver in use: ath9k
Kernel modules: ath9k

Re: New WiFi Card gives 'device not ready' in NetworkManager

Posted: 2018/03/30 11:02:40
by aks
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0

Re: New WiFi Card gives 'device not ready' in NetworkManager

Posted: 2018/03/30 12:40:01
by HairLoss
Thanks aks but how do I create /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0 ?

Re: New WiFi Card gives 'device not ready' in NetworkManager

Posted: 2018/04/01 11:10:52
by aks
I used vi and named it acording to ESSID (so mine was called /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-mysid). COntents:
HWADDR=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:ED
ESSID="mysid"
MODE=Managed
KEY_MGMT=WPA2-PSK
SECURITYMODE=open
MAC_ADDRESS_RANDOMIZATION=default
TYPE=Wireless
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
DEFROUTE=yes
PEERDNS=yes
PEERROUTES=yes
IPV4_FAILURE_FATAL=no
IPV6INIT=yes
IPV6_AUTOCONF=yes
IPV6_DEFROUTE=yes
IPV6_PEERDNS=yes
IPV6_PEERROUTES=yes
IPV6_FAILURE_FATAL=no
IPV6_ADDR_GEN_MODE=stable-privacy
NAME=mysid
UUID=a36d7437-5ddc-4c20-9eed-0990a1620601
ONBOOT=yes

I think networkmanager made the UUID entry though.

Re: New WiFi Card gives 'device not ready' in NetworkManager

Posted: 2018/04/04 16:04:17
by HairLoss
Hi Aks, thanks for the copy of the wireless configuration file. I tried adding it to the setup, and various variations on a theme but without success.

Digging deeper I was beginning to wonder if there were problems with the driver and on a few sites I read that the one installed with Centos 6 was a but unreliable. So I decided to upgrade to the latest version of 7. The installation procedure detected the card, asked for the password and automatically set it up (though it crashed on the first attempt!).

I now have WiFi working! (Though it did not detect the Ethernet connection, a problem for another time).

Below I have listed some technical details for those that might peruse this post in the future.

Cheers,
Mark

This youtube video shows how to connect a wireless card purely through the command line;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVqkldgPjjo

The video shows how to use ifconfig and iwconfig to get the necessary information about your wireless card and wireless connections. I believe that both these tools are contained in the 'wireless-tools' package which you may need to download and install.

The wireless card 'wlan0' has to be associated with the ESSID of the desired wireless connection, in this case ' TP-LINK_E34E'. This is done with this command;
iwconfig wlan0 essid TP-LINK_E34E

After running this command I looked at the wireless configuration using;
iwconfig wlan0

In the data listed the ESSID was correctly showing as TP-LINK_E34E but 'Access point' instead of being a 12 digit MAC address was saying 'None found'.

At this point I concluded an upgrade might solve the problem.

Had the access point been correctly assigned the connection would have been completed by allocating an IP address;
dhclient wlan0
This may take a few minutes to complete. Check an IP address has been found by running;
iwconfig wlan0