No WiFi on 32bit Snapshot

[AVLinux]

Hi,

I have to admit to investing a ridiculous amount of hours into something that started as a whim.. I have a 32bit laptop that I still do some light production work on and I first tried to crossgrade a Debian Buster install to MX and I gave up after multiple snapshots had no WiFi working... so I thought better nuke this Frankenstall and start again so I installed one of the minimal 32bit MX ISO's and have spent about 2 weeks rebuilding everything . Tonight I have minted my first Snapshot ISO (I thought as a bonus I might provide a limited AVL-MXE 32bit ISO) and disappointingly even the 'pure' MX install produces an ISO with no WiFi..?

So a couple of points: I am running a custom kernel on this install BUT the WiFi on the host system on this same kernel works flawlessly. Also this 'ole girl is running Intel iwl WiFi which has been supported forever.. I actually remember Mepis 6.5 supporting it OOTB on this same machine back in 2006 so it's not a weird chipset by any stretch. When I boot the Snapshot and click on the network manager icon in the notification area it says 'device not ready' under WiFi Networks.. The MX-Tools Network assistant sees the WiFi chipset and shows the iwl drivers as loaded. I'm posting this from the booted ISO on a wired connection and here is the QSI:

Any clues as to why the running system has WiFi yet the Snapshot ISO does not? Is this a bug or a feature??

Code: Select all

Snapshot created on: 20201116_2038
System:    Host: <filter> Kernel: 5.9.1-rt19avl1 i686 bits: 32 compiler: N/A 
           parameters: quiet nosplash 
           Desktop: Openbox 3.6.1 info: xfce4-panel dm: SLiM 1.3.6 
           Distro: MX-19.3_base_386 patito feo Sept 28  2020 base: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) 
Machine:   Type: Portable System: Dell product: MP061 v: N/A serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 8 
           serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Dell model: 0FF049 serial: <filter> BIOS: Dell v: A01 date: 03/17/2006 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 28.3 Wh condition: 35.6/48.8 Wh (73%) volts: 11.5/11.1 
           model: PS2 DELL 00 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Discharging 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel T2500 bits: 32 type: MCP arch: M Yonah family: 6 
           model-id: E (14) stepping: 8 microcode: 39 L2 cache: 2048 KiB 
           flags: nx pae sse sse2 sse3 bogomips: 7980 
           Speed: 1795 MHz min/max: 1000/2000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1278 2: 1131 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX unsupported 
           Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion 
           Type: mds status: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode; SMT disabled 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           Type: spec_store_bypass status: Not affected 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling 
           Type: srbds status: Not affected 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Mobile 945GM/GMS 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics vendor: Dell 
           driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:27a2 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: intel unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa 
           compositor: compton v: 0.1~beta2+20150922 resolution: 1920x1200~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 945GM x86/MMX/SSE2 v: 1.4 Mesa 18.3.6 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio vendor: Dell 
           driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:27d8 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.9.1-rt19avl1 
Network:   Device-1: Broadcom Limited BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX vendor: Dell Inspiron 9400 Laptop 
           driver: b44 v: kernel port: 10c0 bus ID: 03:00.0 chip ID: 14e4:170c 
           Device-2: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network driver: iwl3945 v: in-tree:s 
           port: 10c0 bus ID: 0c:00.0 chip ID: 8086:4222 
           IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           IF-ID-1: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 473.24 GiB used: 2.86 GiB (0.6%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD 840 EVO 500GB size: 465.76 GiB block size: 
           physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: <unknown> serial: <filter> rev: CB6Q 
           scheme: MBR 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: Lexar model: USB Flash Drive size: 7.48 GiB 
           block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B serial: <filter> rev: 1100 scheme: MBR 
Partition: ID-1: / raw size: N/A size: 1.54 GiB used: 78.1 MiB (4.9%) fs: overlay 
           source: ERR-102 
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 1024.0 MiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap swappiness: 15 (default 60) 
           cache pressure: 100 (default) dev: /dev/sda4 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 63.0 C mobo: N/A sodimm: 49.0 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0 fan-2: 0 
Repos:     Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           1: deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian/ buster main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ buster/updates main contrib non-free
           3: deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster non-free contrib main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kxstudio-debian-ppas.list 
           1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kxstudio-debian/libs/ubuntu bionic main
           2: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kxstudio-debian/music/ubuntu bionic main
           3: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kxstudio-debian/plugins/ubuntu bionic main
           4: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kxstudio-debian/apps/ubuntu bionic main
           5: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kxstudio-debian/kxstudio/ubuntu bionic main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kxstudio-external.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64,i386] https://kx.studio/repo/ stable free
           2: deb [arch=amd64,i386] https://kx.studio/repo/ gcc5 free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mirrors.rit.edu/mxlinux/mx-packages/mx/repo/ buster main non-free
           2: deb http://mirrors.rit.edu/mxlinux/mx-packages/mx/testrepo/ buster test
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list 
Info:      Processes: 207 Uptime: 37m Memory: 1.96 GiB used: 621.6 MiB (31.0%) Init: SysVinit 
           v: 2.93 runlevel: 5 default: 5 Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 alt: 8 Shell: quick-system-in 
           running in: quick-system-in inxi: 3.0.36 

[JayM]

ISTR there was a new feature added to MX Snapshot that excludes network settings. If you select "all of the above" on the exclusion page these will also be excluded. Maybe that has something to do with it? You could try unselecting networks from the exclusion page and make another snapshot and test it to find out if that's what's causing it.

[AVLinux]

Hi Jay,

Thanks for the reply. I'll give that a try and have new ISO building now, that would be pretty odd if that's the problem though.. The hardware should just work if the drivers are present and indicate on login that there is a WiFi network to sign into, not require the explicit Network info, in fact I don't know how wise it would be to share an ISO with info specific to my network on it.. The 64bit Snapshot ISO's I build seem to work without including the Network config info when the ISO's are built.

[JayM]

I kind of doubt if that's the problem too but it's the only thing I could think of. It's worth trying anyway, just to eliminate it from being the cause if nothing else.

[AVLinux]

OK,

Built another ISO with my Network settings unchecked (so preserved) and the booted ISO still has no WiFi access and says 'device not ready' again. This time during the Live session I went into the Network Assistant and I blocked the loaded 'iwlegacy' driver module and then unblocked it and then WiFi worked and it connected to my home Network without needing my password.. So to summarize my personal Network settings were preserved which I don't want for a distributable ISO and the WiFi hardware still didn't work OOTB until I randomly blocked and unblocked a module..

What config file is loading both the iwlegacy and iwl3945 modules at boot? Or what should I be looking at?

[JayM]

This person also has an older laptop with Broadcom wifi. Try the suggestions I gave him, only in the forum search suggestion, search for BCM4401. It looks like there's a solved post about getting wifi working with that chipset. Regarding the suggestion involving the wiki page, in your case you may need to unblacklist the b44 driver instead of b43, I'm not sure. Possibly the b43legacy driver on a laptop that old? You may have to try them one at a time and see which one works. Don't forget step 2 to remove the wl module that conflicts with these older Broadcom driver modules, and to reboot after unblacklisting each one.

[AVLinux]

Hi again!

But this laptop has Intel iwl3945 WiFi and the Wired chip is Broadcom (and is working fine)..

I think this line from QSI may have something to do with it:

Code: Select all

 Device-2: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network driver: iwl3945 v: in-tree:s 
           port: 10c0 bus ID: 0c:00.0 chip ID: 8086:4222 
           IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter> 

Should the 'state' be 'up' and not down?

[JayM]

oops, that was the Ethernet I was seeing.
I suggest as that system and its hardware are so old that regressions in that new kernel have dropped support for that hardware. You might try the standard Debian 4.19 kernel or even the antiX 4.9 kernel and see if wifi works. I did find a solution on the forum but it's for antiX so it may not apply here, but here it is anyway:
viewtopic.php?f=40&t=50613&p=505685&hil ... BG#p505685

[AVLinux]

Hmmm,

But then why would the WiFi work on the system running the same same new kernel that the ISOs are being built with? I completely understand what you mean and that some old computers don't like 5.X+ plus kernels, but if that were the case then the WiFi wouldn't work at all either on the running system or the Snapshot. The WiFi works perfectly running the system with the 5.9.1 kernel, it's when I build a Snapshot from the system that WiFi doesn't work when booting, on top of that when I fiddle with the iwlegacy module on the Live session the WiFi will start working so the Kernel supports the hardware, it seems to me that there are either conflicting modules or something is preventing the interface from coming up at boot.

[JayM]

I hate to say RTFM but there are some pretty good wifi troubleshooting steps in section 3.4.2 that might help you figure out what's happening.

Edit: BTW I think you may be right that there may be two or more modules vying for control of the card and that's what's causing the issue. I bet Huckleberry Finn will be able to suggest some things when he comes online. He's pretty good with wifi and networking issues, among other things.