Network interface card is not listed in Debian 7
 

I have a wireless device on my computer. The operating system is Debian 7.
The file /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules
recognizes the presence of the wireless device because two of the lines in the file read as follows:

# PCI device 0x8086:0x4236 (iwlagn)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:21:6a:b2:fd:42", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="wlan*", NAME="wlan0"

Also, I used other means to verify that the wireless device is recognized:

lspci | grep -i wireless
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300

dmesg | grep -i wireless
[ 47.624265] Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link AGN driver for Linux, in-tree:

So, the system recognizes the wireless device.
However, when I entered the command: ifconfig -a
The wireless interface card (wlan0) was not listed.

These are the steps that I have taken so far:
Following the link https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi and other links therein,
I downloaded and installed the firmware iwlwifi.
Next, loaded the related modules:
# modprobe -r iwlwifi ; modprobe iwlwifi
Next, logged out and logged in.

The problem still prevails. When, issuing the command "ifconfig -a", the interface wlan0 is not listed.

It is noteworthy that Debian 6 is installed on another partition, but there is no problem, regarding the wireless, with that version of Debian.

Any idea what is happening?

First things firt, please could you post the result of:
Also do you have installed the packages: wpasupplicant and wireless-tools?

Regards

Reply is below:

I am now using a live DVD (live debian 7) to experiment this.
As mentioned previously, I have also debian 6 installed on a separate partition.
The wireless is working perfectly with the debian 6.
I am presenting below, the results of my experiments on both debian 6 and the live debian 7.

Experiments with debian live 7 (on which both wpasupplicant and wireless-tools are installed):

$ lspci -k | -A2 -i net
bash: -A2: command not found

$ lspci -k
Selexcted output:
Network controller: Intel Corporation Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device 1011

It seems that there were no drivers installed.

Next, I installed iwlwifi, and ran the command again. The result was the same.

Experiments with the debian 6 (on which wpasupplicant is installed but not wireless-tools):

$ lspci -k | -A2 -i net
bash: -A2: command not found

$ lspci -k
Selected output:
Network controller: Intel Corporation Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device 1011
Kernel driver in use: iwlagn


Having made the experiments, there are now too many questions in my head. For example:
Could it be that the presence of both wpasupplicant and wireles-tools on the live debian 7 makes a contradiction?
Should iwlagn be installed on the live debian 7? (it might be an old driver after all)


Regards

Im so sorry i missed the grep, the original post is fixed with the proper command.
Now you are able to do that.

Regards

Ok this is the information i was looking for, now does Debian 7 uses the same driver?

Regards

Experiment with debian live 7:


user@debian:~$ lspci -k | grep -A2 -i net
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82567LM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 03)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device 20ee
Kernel driver in use: e1000e
--
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device 1011
15:00.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev ba)


Next, installed iwlwifi.

user@debian:~$ lspci -k | grep -A2 -i net
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82567LM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 03)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device 20ee
Kernel driver in use: e1000e
--
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device 1011
15:00.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev ba)




Experiment with debian 6:

parviz@localhost:~$ lspci -k | grep -A2 -i net
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82567LM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 03)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device 20ee
Kernel driver in use: e1000e
--
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device 1011
Kernel driver in use: iwlagn


It seems that debian live 7 is not using iwlagn.

please post the output for this under Debian 7:
By the way use the BBcodes and the code code to post the outputs for better readability.

Regards

The same computer, with debian 6:

Try typing `modprobe iwlagn`. See if the network card appears. If not, most likely there are some relevant entries in syslog which you could paste here.

What is the output of iwconfig?

I have already tried "modprobe iwlagn". It does not change the scenario. The wireless interface would still not show up.
Do you mean /var/log/syslog ? What should I do with it?

Next, I installed iwlwifi (firmware-iwlwifi_0.36+wheezy.1_all.deb) as suggested by https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi

My wireless works fine with debian 6, and I guess the reason is because of the presence of iwlagn.
Now the page https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi says that iwlagn is in iwlwifi (it says this somehow).
But after installing iwlwifi, I cannot still see the presence of iwlagn as a driver because:

This is while debian 6 shows the presence of iwlagn because:


Is there really a file by the name of iwlagn so I install it directly? How can I get it?


Thanks to all who contributed to this article.
The problem is solved now.
The problem was that after installing iwlwifi, I could not take advantage of rebooting
because I was using a live DVD.
Apparently, after installing iwlwifi, I needed to reboot. But rebooting with a live DVD would not make much sense.
So, I decided to install debian 7.
After installing iwlwifi on the installed system, I faced the same problems. But rebooting fixed the issue.
Now wireless is working.

Does anyone have any idea as to how the solution could extend to a live environment.
Mind you, in a live environment, logging out and logging in did not work.

So in Debian 7 there is no driver and/or firmware installed, you'll have to do it manualy.
Install the package firmware-iwlwifi
type in the terminal as root (or the way you are used to install packages):
Regards

Some thing in Debian have been changed regarding firmware etc. Do you have contrib and non-free added to you repositories? Installing firmware ukiuki proposed might be needed if Debian skipped this during installation.

jlinkels