No LAN interface on Acer Aspire One (Slackware or WinXP)

amcleod · 11-13-2009, 02:35 PM

I just bought an AA1 with 160G disk. I shrunk the WinXP partition, added a new partition, and installed Slackware 13.0 via a USB stick and an external H/D. It now dual boots between Slack and (for now) WinXP.

The problem is that the LAN (wired ethernet) adapter seems to have vanished. Running 'lspsi' doesn't show any signs of it, only the Atheros Wireless Adapter. Under WinXP only the wireless adapter appears in the Device Manager.

What became of my LAN adapter?!?? I checked in the BIOS to see if it had been disabled, but there aren't many options in the BIOS, and nothing mentioning hardware options, LAN or otherwise.

Is this faulty hardware, or have I broken it?

nimnull22 · 11-13-2009, 03:40 PM

Have you checked before Slackware installation, was there ethernet card or not?

amcleod · 11-13-2009, 06:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nimnull22

Have you checked before Slackware installation, was there ethernet card or not?

It was present under WinXP and when I booted Slax from a USB stick I saw it in the output of 'lspci'. After repartitioning the disk and installing Slackware 13.0, it seems to have disappeared.

nimnull22 · 11-13-2009, 06:18 PM

do "hwinfo --netcard" without "" under root console, please.

Turn off laptop completely, take out the battery, put it back and boot again from from a USB stick.

amcleod · 11-14-2009, 01:40 AM

Running 'hwinfo' as suggested produced the following:

Code:

08: PCI 100.0: 0282 WLAN controller
  [Created at pci.301]
  UDI: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_168c_1c
  Unique ID: y9sn.FMtgsI7RFND
  Parent ID: z8Q3.ZbAWgKMCoE3
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.0/0000:01:00.0
  SysFS BusID: 0000:01:00.0
  Hardware Class: network
  Model: "Foxconn International AR5006EG 802.11 b/g Wireless PCI Express Adapter"
  Vendor: pci 0x168c "Atheros Communications, Inc."
  Device: pci 0x001c "AR5006EG 802.11 b/g Wireless PCI Express Adapter"
  SubVendor: pci 0x105b "Foxconn International, Inc."
  SubDevice: pci 0xe00d
  Revision: 0x01
  Driver: "ath5k"
  Driver Modules: "ath5k"
  Device File: wlan0
  Device Files: wlan0, wmaster0
  Features: WLAN
  Memory Range: 0x55000000-0x5500ffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  IRQ: 16 (863 events)
  HW Address: 00:25:56:22:b2:d8
  Link detected: no
  WLAN channels: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
  WLAN frequencies: 2.412 2.417 2.422 2.427 2.432 2.437 2.442 2.447 2.452 2.457 2.462
  WLAN encryption modes: WEP40 WEP104 TKIP CCMP
  WLAN authentication modes: open sharedkey wpa-psk wpa-eap
  Module Alias: "pci:v0000168Cd0000001Csv0000105Bsd0000E00Dbc02sc00i00"
  Driver Info #0:
    Driver Status: ath5k is active
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe ath5k"
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #21 (PCI bridge)

this is the wireless device, but there is no LAN device. After removing and replacing the battery the LAN device reappeared in 'lspci':

Code:

01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Attansic Technology Corp. Atheros AR8132 / L1c Gigabit Ethernet Adapter (rev c0)

Rebooting my Slackware partition, the lan device appeared in 'hwinfo' as follows:

Code:

08: PCI 300.0: 0200 Ethernet controller
  [Created at pci.301]
  UDI: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_1969_1062
  Unique ID: rBUF.twqiFxNCHv6
  Parent ID: hoOk.dFyVbcq0vm4
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.2/0000:03:00.0
  SysFS BusID: 0000:03:00.0
  Hardware Class: network
  Model: "Acer Incorporated [ALI] Ethernet controller"
  Vendor: pci 0x1969 "Attansic Technology Corp."
  Device: pci 0x1062
  SubVendor: pci 0x1025 "Acer Incorporated [ALI]"
  SubDevice: pci 0x022f
  Revision: 0xff
  Driver: "atl1c"
  Driver Modules: "atl1c"
  Device File: eth0
  Memory Range: 0x53000000-0x5303ffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  I/O Ports: 0x1000-0x2fff (rw)
  IRQ: 28 (1 event)
  HW Address: 00:23:5a:e1:e3:4b
  Link detected: yes
  Module Alias: "pci:v00001969d00001062sv00001025sd0000022Fbc02sc00i00"
  Driver Info #0:
    Driver Status: atl1c is active
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe atl1c"
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #20 (PCI bridge)

And Slackware created the eth0 interface, but couldn't find the dhcp server. I am unable to communicate over the LAN device, but at least I now have a LAN device which is an improvement. Now to try and get it to work!

Tomorrow I will look for a better driver, and report back. But it's now 3:32 AM.....

amcleod · 11-14-2009, 06:10 PM

Ok, after installing a new version of the driver (as described here) I now seem to have a functioning LAN connection. Many thanks to nimnull22 for all helpful suggestions.

Now to get wireless going!

MartianRabbit · 04-11-2010, 02:43 AM

Putting Slackware on a 64 bit N450 Acer Aspire One, the answer to fixing the AR8132 lan port driver in the Atheros drivers started working correctly after findng an obscure post in this thread about powering off and removing the battery. Took 3 days of searching the Internet and found the answer here. Thought it was a driver problem. There was a lot of activity on the kernel.org site that seems to suggest a lot of development for Atheros. The 2.26.33.1 was the latest kernel in slackware64-current.

Big thanks to "nimnull22" for solving the issue for me! Powering off and removing the battery did the trick! I like 64 Bit, in such a small package! excellent performace for the reduced power consumption! MartianRabbit