WiFi stopped working, suggestions?

[pjsf]

After an update (using mobian) about a month or so ago my wifi suddenly stopped working, I figured something was just stuffed up with the driver but didn't have time to spend on it immediately. Just got the pinetab out again and tried to figure out the problem , but it turns out that the driver looks fine, also a complete reload of mobian didn't fix it. I then tried Ubuntu and the wifi wasn't working there either. Tried  all the fixes mentioned in the wiki. Dmesg doesn't contain anything obvious. ncmli r   shows all radios on, but nothing found on scan. Also load a new image of ubuntu  and tried arch, all with the same results. Any ideas?

[barray]

If you can't pick it up in any of the logs (even as an unknown device), then it means you can't talk to it.

If that is the case, it indicates:

1. Something came unplugged -- It should just be a quick visual check.

2. The WiFi chip is not getting power -- Which is something you should be able to test for by checking the power supply. It could be that either it's not getting a DC rail or there is a loose ground somewhere (including the battery and DC barrel jack). Try testing the PineTab on and off power to see if there is a difference.

3. The WiFi chip is blown -- There's not much you can do about this. I would suggest grabbing a USB WiFi dongle, shouldn't set you back too much.

Will be interesting to see the root cause on this anyway, so please post back in any case. As I understand it, Pine are still yet to get the next batch processed, so now is the time to discover any potential issues in the design.

[guenther]

ncmli r   shows all radios on, but nothing found on scan

Whats the output of

Code:

sudo inxi -n
sudo iwconfig
sudo iw reg get

[pjsf]

If you can't pick it up in any of the logs (even as an unknown device), then it means you can't talk to it.

If that is the case, it indicates:

1. Something came unplugged -- It should just be a quick visual check.

2. The WiFi chip is not getting power -- Which is something you should be able to test for by checking the power supply. It could be that either it's not getting a DC rail or there is a loose ground somewhere (including the battery and DC barrel jack). Try testing the PineTab on and off power to see if there is a difference.

3. The WiFi chip is blown -- There's not much you can do about this. I would suggest grabbing a USB WiFi dongle, shouldn't set you back too much.

Will be interesting to see the root cause on this anyway, so please post back in any case. As I understand it, Pine are still yet to get the next batch processed, so now is the time to discover any potential issues in the design.

Well that led to some interesting testing. I've never actually use the pinetab while it's charging before, but using the barrel jack I do get some different behaviour (this is on arch now). I do have a few wifi dongles lying around so I tried one out at random (this one's a rtl8192cu which works fine on my desktop). Without the barrel charger connected I get "failed to enumerate usb device" errors, with the barrel charger plugged in the device id registered but no driver is loaded, although that's probably because  the arch build doesn't have the rtl8192cu module.
The really odd thing tho, is that the keyboard/trackpad which was working fine before I plugged in suddenly appeared to be recognised as a device, i.e the hailuck messages appeared in dmesg and the trackpad became massively erratic. So there may be some power supply issues. I'll go back to mobian and try few more things.

[barray]

If you can't pick it up in any of the logs (even as an unknown device), then it means you can't talk to it.

If that is the case, it indicates:

1. Something came unplugged -- It should just be a quick visual check.

2. The WiFi chip is not getting power -- Which is something you should be able to test for by checking the power supply. It could be that either it's not getting a DC rail or there is a loose ground somewhere (including the battery and DC barrel jack). Try testing the PineTab on and off power to see if there is a difference.

3. The WiFi chip is blown -- There's not much you can do about this. I would suggest grabbing a USB WiFi dongle, shouldn't set you back too much.

Will be interesting to see the root cause on this anyway, so please post back in any case. As I understand it, Pine are still yet to get the next batch processed, so now is the time to discover any potential issues in the design.

Well that led to some interesting testing. I've never actually use the pinetab while it's charging before, but using the barrel jack I do get some different behaviour (this is on arch now). I do have a few wifi dongles lying around so I tried one out at random (this one's a rtl8192cu which works fine on my desktop). Without the barrel charger connected I get "failed to enumerate usb device" errors, with the barrel charger plugged in the device id registered but no driver is loaded, although that's probably because  the arch build doesn't have the rtl8192cu module.
The really odd thing tho, is that the keyboard/trackpad which was working fine before I plugged in suddenly appeared to be recognised as a device, i.e the hailuck messages appeared in dmesg and the trackpad became massively erratic. So there may be some power supply issues. I'll go back to mobian and try few more things.

This does sound like a supply rails problem then... If your lucky, it's just that some wire inside became unplugged - but I doubt it. As you can see inside, the USB, CPU and power supply are all on the same board: http://coffeespace.org.uk/projects/openi...-board.jpg

But essentially you will won't to (carefully) probe out the connections between the battery, barrel jack and USB. Remember you should be able to take a nice ground off of the shielding metal.

[javier.pb]

After an update (using mobian) about a month or so ago my wifi suddenly stopped working

Have you tried to unload & load the kernel wifi module? I apparently broke mi wifi some weeks ago, although wasn't sure how it happened. In my case, a kernel crash can be seen on serial interface while booting mobian (nothing shown on ubports, much more quiet), but a similar crash could be seen by loading/unloading module (not remember if stdout or kernel log). Unfortunately I cannot offer you any solution, if you get the same error than me.
In my case, also bluetooh stopped working, which might be a fast way to verify whether you might have the same problem

[pjsf]

ncmli r   shows all radios on, but nothing found on scan

Whats the output of

Code:

sudo inxi -n
sudo iwconfig
sudo iw reg get

Code:

sudo inxi -n

Network:
  Device-1: mmc-pwrseq-simple driver: pwrseq_simple
  Device-2: sun50i-a64-emac driver: N/A
  IF: usb0 state: down mac: 46:37:8b:0c:73:e1
  IF-ID-1: wlan0 state: down mac: 26:3e:35:b2:89:8a

Code:

sudo iwconfig

wlan0    unassociated  Nickname:"<WIFI@REALTEK>"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency=2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated 
          Sensitivity:0/0 
          Retry:off  RTS thr:off  Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0  Missed beacon:0

Code:

sudo iw reg get

global
country 00: DFS-UNSET
        (2402 - 2472 @ 40), (6, 20), (N/A)
        (2457 - 2482 @ 20), (6, 20), (N/A), AUTO-BW, PASSIVE-SCAN
        (2474 - 2494 @ 20), (6, 20), (N/A), NO-OFDM, PASSIVE-SCAN
        (5170 - 5250 @ 80), (6, 20), (N/A), AUTO-BW, PASSIVE-SCAN
        (5250 - 5330 @ 80), (6, 20), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW, PASSIVE-SCAN
        (5490 - 5730 @ 160), (6, 20), (0 ms), DFS, PASSIVE-SCAN
        (5735 - 5835 @ 80), (6, 20), (N/A), PASSIVE-SCAN
        (57240 - 63720 @ 2160), (N/A, 0), (N/A)

I've also set the country code successfully, but it makes no real difference.

---

After an update (using mobian) about a month or so ago my wifi suddenly stopped working

Have you tried to unload & load the kernel wifi module? I apparently broke mi wifi some weeks ago, although wasn't sure how it happened. In my case, a kernel crash can be seen on serial interface while booting mobian (nothing shown on ubports, much more quiet), but a similar crash could be seen by loading/unloading module (not remember if stdout or kernel log). Unfortunately I cannot offer you any solution, if you get the same error than me.
In my case, also bluetooh stopped working, which might be a fast way to verify whether you might have the same problem

Bluetooth is out as well. when I tried unloading/loading the module I did get something that looked a bit crashy in the log, but I can't reproduce it.

---

If you can't pick it up in any of the logs (even as an unknown device), then it means you can't talk to it.

If that is the case, it indicates:

1. Something came unplugged -- It should just be a quick visual check.

2. The WiFi chip is not getting power -- Which is something you should be able to test for by checking the power supply. It could be that either it's not getting a DC rail or there is a loose ground somewhere (including the battery and DC barrel jack). Try testing the PineTab on and off power to see if there is a difference.

3. The WiFi chip is blown -- There's not much you can do about this. I would suggest grabbing a USB WiFi dongle, shouldn't set you back too much.

Will be interesting to see the root cause on this anyway, so please post back in any case. As I understand it, Pine are still yet to get the next batch processed, so now is the time to discover any potential issues in the design.

Well that led to some interesting testing. I've never actually use the pinetab while it's charging before, but using the barrel jack I do get some different behaviour (this is on arch now). I do have a few wifi dongles lying around so I tried one out at random (this one's a rtl8192cu which works fine on my desktop). Without the barrel charger connected I get "failed to enumerate usb device" errors, with the barrel charger plugged in the device id registered but no driver is loaded, although that's probably because  the arch build doesn't have the rtl8192cu module.
The really odd thing tho, is that the keyboard/trackpad which was working fine before I plugged in suddenly appeared to be recognised as a device, i.e the hailuck messages appeared in dmesg and the trackpad became massively erratic. So there may be some power supply issues. I'll go back to mobian and try few more things.

This does sound like a supply rails problem then... If your lucky, it's just that some wire inside became unplugged - but I doubt it. As you can see inside, the USB, CPU and power supply are all on the same board: http://coffeespace.org.uk/projects/openi...-board.jpg

But essentially you will won't to (carefully) probe out the connections between the battery, barrel jack and USB. Remember you should be able to take a nice ground off of the shielding metal.

does seem power related. back on mobian now and I've got the dongle working, but it's very hit and miss. I have to plug and unplug it a couple of times until it starts registering properly, it doesn't look like the usb port is getting enough power either. it's stable at the moment with the micro usb cable doing the charging, wasn;t getting good results from the barrel connector, but that's probably just the luck of the draw.

[Takaszi]

Bardzo mi przykro, ale mój Pinetab też umarł. Wi-Fi i Bluetooth nie działają. Czy jest szansa, aby to naprawić? Zakup części? wysyłasz gdsieś do serwisu? Szkoda i było tak fajnie. Co dziwne, nie korzystałem z mojego Pine'a podczas ładowania, działało normalnie, ale kiedy go wyłączyłem, było cieplej niż zwykle w jednym miejscu. Błąd wystąpił po aktualizacji Mobian. Przeprowadziłem wszystkie testy jak koledzy powyżej i zwłoki online.

[barray]

> does seem power related. back on mobian now and I've got the dongle working, but it's very hit and miss. I have to plug and unplug it a couple of times until it starts registering properly, it doesn't look like the usb port is getting enough power either. it's stable at the moment with the micro usb cable doing the charging, wasn;t getting good results from the barrel connector, but that's probably just the luck of the draw.

@pjsf Sounds like you need a new motherboard...

One thing you should check is the 5V USB rail, I highly suspect you have a problem there if you have both WiFi and USB dropping.

If you have a USB load tester, check the load under working and non-working conditions - you should be able to rule out a short that way.

Other than that, check the solder joints for both connectors. After that you'll need to probe that supply rail back to the USB supply rail, I really suspect you have a connection problem.

In theory it could also be the data lines D-/D+ or ground, so check them out too.

[guenther]

Code:

sudo inxi -n

Network:
  Device-1: mmc-pwrseq-simple driver: pwrseq_simple
  Device-2: sun50i-a64-emac driver: N/A
  IF: usb0 state: down mac: 46:37:8b:0c:73:e1
  IF-ID-1: wlan0 state: down mac: 26:3e:35:b2:89:8a

Code:

sudo iwconfig

wlan0    unassociated  Nickname:"<WIFI@REALTEK>"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency=2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated 
          Sensitivity:0/0 
          Retry:off  RTS thr:off  Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0  Missed beacon:0

Code:

sudo iw reg get

global
country 00: DFS-UNSET
        (2402 - 2472 @ 40), (6, 20), (N/A)
        (2457 - 2482 @ 20), (6, 20), (N/A), AUTO-BW, PASSIVE-SCAN
        (2474 - 2494 @ 20), (6, 20), (N/A), NO-OFDM, PASSIVE-SCAN
        (5170 - 5250 @ 80), (6, 20), (N/A), AUTO-BW, PASSIVE-SCAN
        (5250 - 5330 @ 80), (6, 20), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW, PASSIVE-SCAN
        (5490 - 5730 @ 160), (6, 20), (0 ms), DFS, PASSIVE-SCAN
        (5735 - 5835 @ 80), (6, 20), (N/A), PASSIVE-SCAN
        (57240 - 63720 @ 2160), (N/A, 0), (N/A)

I've also set the country code successfully, but it makes no real difference.

---

Maybe an HW (power) issue, but from the output it's recognized correctly but seems soft blocked!?
You probably know that already, but I would recommend the following:

Code:

sudo rfkill list

If it shows "soft blocked yes", you can unblock with

Code:

sudo rfkill unblock 0

I would also recommend to (once again) set the correct country code with:

Code:

#Change "XX" to your country code, e.g. "DE" for Germany
sudo iw reg set XX

Make it permanent in the crda file (REGDOMAIN=XX) in

Code:

sudo nano /etc/default/crda