WiFi can not connect

SkarmoutsosV · 03-21-2015, 11:32 AM

Hello
I am having difficulties getting RTL8188CUS working on Debian 7.8 (wheezy) LXDE on an old HP zv5112EA laptop.
It looks to me that the WiFi dongle is recognized but it can not connect to AP. After 3 days of tests I have no conclusion.
I am posting some command results which may be useful. Any help would be much appreciated.

Code:

$uname -a
Linux debian 3.2.0-4-686-pae #1 SMP Debian 3.2.65-1+deb7u2 i686 GNU/Linux

Code:

$lsusb
0bda:8176 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188CUS 802.11n

Code:

$sudo lsmod |grep rtl
rtl8192cu        69913 0
rtlwifi          71765 1 rtl8192cu
rtl8192c_common  43842 1 rtl8192cu
mac80211        171389 3 rtl8192c_common,rtlwifi,rtl8192cu
cfg80211        113445 2 mac80211,rtlwifi
usbcore         104555 5 ehci_hcd,ohci_hcd,rtlwifi,rtl8192cu

Code:

$ sudo iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

wlan1     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr=2347 B   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          
eth0      no wireless extensions.

Code:

$ cat /etc/network/interfaces
# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
allow-hotplug eth0
#NetworkManager#iface eth0 inet dhcp

#home wifi
auto wlan1
iface wlan1 inet dhcp
  wpa-ssid SKARM_2.4GHz
  wpa-psk XXXXXXXX (<- 8 digits)

Code:

$ cat /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
update_config=1
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant

# default eapol_version=1
eapol_version=2
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1
country=GR

# psk: WPA preshared key; 256-bit pre-shared key
# The key used in WPA-PSK mode can be entered either as 64 hex-digits, i.e.,
# 32 bytes or as an ASCII passphrase (in which case, the real PSK will be
# generated using the passphrase and SSID). ASCII passphrase must be between
# 8 and 63 characters (inclusive).
# This field is not needed, if WPA-EAP is used.
# Note: Separate tool, wpa_passphrase, can be used to generate 256-bit keys
# from ASCII passphrase. This process uses lot of CPU and wpa_supplicant
# startup and reconfiguration time can be optimized by generating the PSK only
# only when the passphrase or SSID has actually changed.

#sudo wpa_passphrase SKARM_2.4GHz (here goes my 8 digits)
network={
	ssid="SKARM_2.4GHz"
	scan_ssid=1
	key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
	#psk="XXXXXXXX" (here are the above 8 digits)
	psk=xxxxxxxxx...xxxxxxxxxx (here are 64 hex digits)
}

Code:

$sudo cat /var/log/syslog
Mar 21 18:25:33 debian wpa_supplicant[1742]: wlan1: Failed to initiate AP scan

Head_on_a_Stick · 03-21-2015, 11:44 AM

Are you sure the SSID is correct?

Check by using:

Code:

# iwlist scan

SkarmoutsosV · 03-21-2015, 12:14 PM

SSID exists and is functional thru other OS at the same laptop.
Anyway the command you asked gives:

Code:

$ sudo iwlist scan
lo        Interface doesn't support scanning.

wlan1     No scan results

eth0      Interface doesn't support scanning.

Head_on_a_Stick · 03-21-2015, 12:24 PM

Do you have the firmware-realtek package installed?
https://wiki.debian.org/rtl819x#Debian_7_.22Wheezy.22

SkarmoutsosV · 03-21-2015, 12:29 PM

Yes it is installed version 0.36+wheezy.1 (which is the latest for wheezy).

Head_on_a_Stick · 03-21-2015, 12:32 PM

What is the output of:

Code:

ip l
# rfkill list

SkarmoutsosV · 03-21-2015, 12:36 PM

Code:

$ ip l
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 16436 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode 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 qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:02:3f:21:27:01 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlan1: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN mode DORMANT qlen 1000
    link/ether 04:8d:38:37:3e:1e brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

$ sudo rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no

Head_on_a_Stick · 03-21-2015, 12:54 PM

I have no clue here, sorry.

Is there anything else in the syslog?

Code:

grep wlan1 /var/syslog

EDIT: Also:

Code:

dmesg|grep wlan1

SkarmoutsosV · 03-21-2015, 01:15 PM

Actually syslog is full of two kind of messages the one is about AP scan as I posted earlier
and the second is dhclient which fails to get an IP. I suppose the latter is expected with no AP association.

Code:

$sudo grep wlan1 /var/log/syslog
debian dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on wlan1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 3

Anyway, Head_on_a_Stick, thank you for your effort.

Any other suggestions are welcome.

Code:

$ sudo dmesg|grep wlan1
[   10.920801] udevd[368]: renamed network interface wlan0 to wlan1
[   17.655755] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready
[ 4320.333857] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready