Wireless Driver issue (Atheros AR9485)

[luis@debethencourt.com (Luis de Bethencourt)]

On Thu, Sep 17, 2015 at 08:54:28AM -0400, David Scaperoth wrote:
> I'm attempting to run pm-suspend on my laptop (by shutting my lid and on
> command line), and its putting my AR9485 wifi card into a funk (i.e. wlan0
> interface seen through ifconfig never returns upon resume).
> 
> I know theres a lot to this (power management - pm-utils and kernel,
> wireless drivers, general linux drivers, and possibly other things), just
> need a little direction on which rabbit hole to start down...haha.
> 
> Ive looked through the ath9k and wireless list archives and had no luck
> finding the same issue.  I have tried different solutions (mostly related
> to pm-utils) from ubuntu's forums too.
> 
> an example of where it failed /var/log/pm-powersave.log
> <snip>
>    Running hook /usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d/wireless true:
> Turning powersave for wlan0 on...Error for wireless request "Set Power
> Management" (8B2C) :
>     SET failed on device wlan0 ; Operation not supported.
> Failed.
> /usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d/wireless true: success.
> <snip>
> 
> AND...according to
> https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/documentation/dynamic-power-save
> I tried:
> iw dev wlan0 set power_save on
> command failed: Operation not supported (-95)
> 
> This is my first post to this list, so I'm not sure what information would
> be useful to help find a solution (or workaround).  Here goes nothing
> (perhaps I should attach text files next time for large diagnostic
> information?):
> 
> I built an upstream kernel against gregkh staging tree with a Ubuntu distro
> just to see if this would fix my issue and it did not.  Either way, here is
> some information:
> 
> >> uname -a
> Linux xxx 4.2.0+ #1 SMP Sun Sep 6 05:53:34 EDT 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64
> GNU/Linux
> 
> >> lsb_release -a
> No LSB modules are available.
> Distributor ID:    Ubuntu
> Description:    Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS
> Release:    14.04
> Codename:    trusty
> 
> cat /proc/version
> Linux version 4.2.0+ (gcc version 4.8.4 (Ubuntu 4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04) ) #1
> SMP Sun Sep 6 05:53:34 EDT 2015
> 
> >>lspci -vvnn
> <snip>
> 01:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 Wireless Network
> Adapter [168c:0032] (rev 01)
>     Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company AR9485/HB125 802.11bgn 1??1 Wi-Fi
> Adapter [103c:1838]
> <snip>
> 
> I could provide more information from lspci and lshw but I'm not sure what
> would help (if at all).  The strangest thing about the whole matter is that
> if I reboot, the card comes back online just fine.
> 
> Thanks again for any help you can provide!
> 
> David

Hi David,

I recommend you start with the support community of your distribution, which
in your case is Ubuntu.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WirelessTroubleShootingGuide
That has a trouble shooting guide and a link to where to ask if the problem
persists.

Distribution communities are great to solve issues like this. The Kernel
Newbies mailing list focuses in people new to Linux Kernel development.

Hopefully your wifi works well soon :)
Luis