Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 Wireless

pr0xibus · 10-17-2012, 01:41 PM

Evening guys.

I have installed a new wireless card (Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 )
i then done a clean install of slackware 14 32 bit.

wlan0 doesnt show up and i cant see it on lspci

Code:

root@darkstar:~# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub (rev 07)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset PCI Express Graphics Port (rev 07)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 6 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 93)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation ICH9M LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801IBM/IEM (ICH9M/ICH9M-E) 4 port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV620 [Mobility Radeon HD 3400 Series]
01:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV620 HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 3400 Series]
06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5784M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 10)
07:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 05)
07:01.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)
07:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12)
07:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 12)

Code:

root@darkstar:~# ifconfig -a
eth0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.137.7  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.137.255
        inet6 fe80::221:70ff:fe88:e5d0  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether 00:21:70:88:e5:d0  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 2982  bytes 2494252 (2.3 MiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 3115  bytes 410809 (401.1 KiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
        device interrupt 17  

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 16436
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10<host>
        loop  txqueuelen 0  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 8  bytes 560 (560.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 8  bytes 560 (560.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

anyone else have this same wireless card?

Alien Bob · 10-17-2012, 02:57 PM

With the kernel-firmware package of Slackware 14, you should have the firmware for that card on your computer: /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode .
Perhaps the kernel log shows more information about the initialization of your wireless card. As root, run:

Code:

dmesg | grep -E 'wlan|iwl'

and examine the output.

Eric

pr0xibus · 10-17-2012, 03:38 PM

Thanks for the reply Alien Bob.

Code:

root@darkstar:~# dmesg | grep -E 'wlan|iwl'
root@darkstar:~#

nothing came up at all.

Alien Bob · 10-17-2012, 03:46 PM

There was another -implied - question. Do you have that firmware file on your computer? And I find it strange that the card does not show up on "lspci" output. Was it properly seated in its PCI express slot?

Eric

pr0xibus · 10-17-2012, 03:56 PM

Sorry, i forgot to mention the file IS listed in lib/firmware/.

I have re-checked the seating on the wireless card and its screwed in firmly. I have removed the wireless card and seated it in the next half size pci slot and with the same commands above, nothing shows.

donito · 10-17-2012, 07:57 PM

I upgraded my Dell Vostro with the same card (Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 ) and just finished installing Slackware 14 32-bit.

Rebooting after installation, the wifi card is detected just fine.

Code:

# dmesg | grep -E 'wlan|iwl'
[    8.087293] iwlwifi 0000:0c:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
[    8.087407] iwlwifi 0000:0c:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[    8.087435] iwlwifi 0000:0c:00.0: pci_resource_len = 0x00002000
[    8.087521] iwlwifi 0000:0c:00.0: pci_resource_base = f86f0000
[    8.087605] iwlwifi 0000:0c:00.0: HW Revision ID = 0x35
[    8.087817] iwlwifi 0000:0c:00.0: irq 46 for MSI/MSI-X
[    8.087881] iwlwifi 0000:0c:00.0: Detected Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced-N 6200 AGN, REV=0x74
[    8.088115] iwlwifi 0000:0c:00.0: L1 Enabled; Disabling L0S
[    8.105385] iwlwifi 0000:0c:00.0: device EEPROM VER=0x436, CALIB=0x6
[    8.105470] iwlwifi 0000:0c:00.0: Device SKU: 0X1f0
[    8.105575] iwlwifi 0000:0c:00.0: Tunable channels: 13 802.11bg, 24 802.11a channels
[    8.136816] iwlwifi 0000:0c:00.0: loaded firmware version 9.221.4.1 build 25532
[    8.137545] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'iwl-agn-rs'

# lspci | grep 6200
0c:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Advanced-N 6200 (rev 35)

I'm not sure why your card is not being detected. Perhaps your laptop is one of those that only allows certain wifi cards to be used? I've heard of certain models of Thinkpads being that way.

What brand / model laptop are you using?

pr0xibus · 10-18-2012, 02:10 AM

Its a Dell Studio 1537.

I have got my hands on another wireless card full size. It works fine. Just seems to be the halfsize slots or the wireless card

ttk · 12-14-2012, 01:19 PM

I upgraded my Lenovo Thinkpad T510 from 13.1 to 14.0. It has the Intel centrino 6200 AGN, which is handled by the iwlwifi module (obstensibly the iwlagn module, but this is correctly aliased to iwlwifi in the module config).

When I "modprobe -v iwlwifi 11n_disable=1" It loads the iwl4965 module okay, but when it loads iwlwifi the following error pops up in /var/log/syslog:

Dec 14 11:51:14 wip kernel: [ 537.153913] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: request for firmware file 'iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode' failed.
Dec 14 11:51:14 wip kernel: [ 537.153916] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: no suitable firmware found!
Dec 14 11:51:14 wip udevd[2556]: error: can not open '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:03:00.0/firmware/0000:03:00.0/loading'

.. and ifconfig -a shows no wireless interface.

When I look in /lib/firmware, the firmware binaries are already present:
# ls -l /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-4965-* /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-6000-*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 187608 Jul 2 2008 /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-4965-1.ucode
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 187972 Aug 4 11:43 /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-4965-2.ucode
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 454608 Aug 4 11:43 /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode

I downloaded the latest firmware binaries from http://intellinuxwireless.org/?n=Downloads, but when I compared these to the binaries in /lib/firmware, they are identical (in both name and md5sum).

I tried a few things (made a /lib64/firmware directory and copied the binaries to there, looked through the module sources in /usr/src/linux/drivers/net/wireless/iwlwifi for hints) but so far, nada.

Googling around shows people have issues when the module loads before the filesystem is available, but that is obviously not the case here since I am loading the module by hand long after bootup.

This worked without a hitch under Slackware 13.1. Does anyone have suggestions?

ttk · 12-22-2012, 12:05 PM

I couldn't even find a relevant bug for this driver, so ended up getting an ASUS USB-N13. Slackware 14.0 recognizes it without a hitch -- ifconfig -a shows wlan1 a few seconds after I plug it in.

I'm going to revisit this problem at some point because I'd rather be using the internal wireless device, and any tips/pointers would be welcome.

ttk · 12-30-2012, 08:36 PM

Okay, I said "without a hitch", but it appears to be an intermittent thing. The rfkill module keeps soft-blocking the device, and "rfkill unblock" doesn't always cut it. Sometimes I need to unplug the N13 and plug it back in a few times.

On top of it, khub faults about 10% of the time when I hotplug USB devices (not just the N13, but thumbdrives as well), taking my entire system down. I've taken photos of the khub fault, and will upload them later.

These problems are making Slackware 14.0 unsuitable for my laptop. My desktop's been running 14.0 without a hitch for a few months now (and loving it!), and I will keep 14.0 running there, but will revert my laptop to 13.1 (which did not have these problems) and try upgrading some of the software packages piecemeal.