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iwlist not showing networks

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Bitmeister
Posts: 9
Joined: 2016-07-19 13:39

iwlist not showing networks

#1 Post by Bitmeister »

Hello,

Just installed Debian Jessie on my new Asus vivobook A55QG

Everything went fine and after installing the firmware-realtek_0.43_all.deb the networkmanager in KDE showed all the available networks.

After a while the same day though it disconnected me from the wifi and stopped showing networks.
So i went to the terminal an did

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root@laptop:/home/jan# iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0     No scan results
Sometimes after a reboot the command and networkmanager shoing networks but after a minute or two no networks are showing up anymore.
Even after

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root@laptop:/home/jan# ifconfig wlan0 down
and
root@laptop:/home/jan# ifconfig wlan0 up
It doesn't come back to life

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root@laptop:/home/jan# lspci -nn | grep Network
01:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8821AE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter [10ec:8821]

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root@laptop:/home/jan# lsmod | grep rtl8821ae
rtl8821ae             523031  0 
mac80211              482315  1 rtl8821ae
cfg80211              413730  2 mac80211,rtl8821ae

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root@laptop:/home/jan# uname -r
3.16.0-4-amd64

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root@laptop:/home/jan# ip link
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default 
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00                                                                                                            
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000                                                   
    link/ether 2c:4d:54:35:fd:61 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff                                                                                                               
3: wlan0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN mode DORMANT group default qlen 1000                                                      
    link/ether f0:03:8c:34:e5:71 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff      

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root@laptop:/home/jan# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11abgn  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr=2347 B   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          
eth0      no wireless extensions.
lspci -k
[snip]

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01:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8821AE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
        Subsystem: AzureWave Device 2161
        Kernel driver in use: rtl8821ae
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 10)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 200f
        Kernel driver in use: r8169
[snip]

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root@laptop:/home/jan# rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
1: asus-wlan: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
root@laptop:/home/jan# 

User avatar
mystified
Posts: 179
Joined: 2007-04-05 14:11

Re: iwlist not showing networks

#2 Post by mystified »

Not much help but I went through the same thing. The only thing that worked was installing the non-free version of debian jessie. I don't know why because when I first installed all II did was install firmware-realtek. but after jumping through hoops I just gave up.

Bitmeister
Posts: 9
Joined: 2016-07-19 13:39

Re: iwlist not showing networks

#3 Post by Bitmeister »

mystified wrote:Not much help but I went through the same thing. The only thing that worked was installing the non-free version of debian jessie. I don't know why because when I first installed all II did was install firmware-realtek. but after jumping through hoops I just gave up.
Wouldn't it be enough to edit the sourceslist and add the contrib non-free repository’s?

Also when i shut-down and lock the wifi in the bios and reboot and again change the wifi in the bios to unlock the networks are visible again.
But just for a 10 minutes or so :(

User avatar
mystified
Posts: 179
Joined: 2007-04-05 14:11

Re: iwlist not showing networks

#4 Post by mystified »

I did have them in sources.list That's how I installed firmware realtek. The thing that is particularly annoying to me is this computer was designed for linux. I realize that debian does not support non free and it has to be added but I have had more problems with realtek and from the number of posts I read it's a common problem. As someone pointed out to me if you search this forum there are a ton of posts on realtek. Maybe you can find an answer. good luck

Bitmeister
Posts: 9
Joined: 2016-07-19 13:39

Re: iwlist not showing networks

#5 Post by Bitmeister »

Well, i did a new install this time trough the firmware-8.7.1-amd64-netinst.iso.

Sadly the same result :( No wifi on my laptop if i want to use Debian.

User avatar
stevepusser
Posts: 12930
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Re: iwlist not showing networks

#6 Post by stevepusser »

Lots of complaints about this device dropping connections on various Linux forums, not much joy. You can try updating the driver from a modified github source, or backporting the 4.2 kernel drivers for the 3.16 version, or adjusting the power settings as in the Arch wiki:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Asus_TX201LA#WiFi

run as sysadmin

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modinfo rtl 8821ae
first to check the "parms", as mine has 1 and 0 instead of Y and N for the 4.9 kernel.

Maybe using the Windows driver in ndiswrapper would be worth a shot.

If all else fails, it could be possible to swap out the wifi card on your laptop for an Intel one. Some machine have a convenient panel that makes the swap easy, and some make it difficult.
MX Linux packager and developer

Bitmeister
Posts: 9
Joined: 2016-07-19 13:39

Re: iwlist not showing networks

#7 Post by Bitmeister »

Tried this one
https://blogs.fsfe.org/stefan.a/2011/06 ... atty_1104/

but no luck either

Since it's a new laptop I'm all ready thinking of returning it to the store and maybe exchange it for another with a different chipset or simply live without a laptop.

It's been a week and i tried all kind of distro's but every single one has problems from installing it to wifi, especially with the wifi. And hey it's a laptop.

Installing windows it's no option since i don't know how to use it :( I was a happy Linux user for 17 years but never experienced this and have to say I'm pretty disappointed that after years of experience and promoting Linux as a established OS also outside the server-world i can't get it to run on a laptop and to connect to wifi. At least not without a lot of hassle.

I'll stick to it on my desktop (Mint since OpenSuse is starting to get worse also) but have to say this really made me real sad.

Bitmeister
Posts: 9
Joined: 2016-07-19 13:39

Re: iwlist not showing networks

#8 Post by Bitmeister »

Got it working with a SITECOM WL-168 Wireless Network USB Adapter now. Surprised because it also has a realtek chipset. And this time it worked almost plug and play.
Since it's very slow and big i will look for another smaller faster wifi adapter.

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