# Stock Wifi Permanently Fried? Must Flash Custom Kernal to Work.



## Paxdad (Sep 5, 2011)

I had messed around with different custom roms. Cyanogen Mod 10.1, paranoid android, etc. When I wiped and returned to stock using Google Factory Image the Wifi would not connect. I would go to settings and turn it on and I could enter my pw for my network but the grey bars never appeared in the status bar and the connection won't connect.

The only way to fix this is to flash a custom kernel like Lean Kernel, and then all seems to function normally no problems.

So what happened to my stock kernel? Doesn't the factory image flash the stock kernel as part of the process?

Any insight into this would be appreciated.


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## AndroidChakra (Apr 14, 2012)

What type of wireless security do you have setup at home? Do you have wifi issues everywhere or just home?


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## Paxdad (Sep 5, 2011)

No issues. Ever. Never had issues with stock before. Don't have issues with stock Nexus 7. My wifi does require a pw. but again never had any problems. Security type WPA/WPA2 PSK.

Any other kernel works fine just like it is supposed to except the when I return to stock image.


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## AndroidChakra (Apr 14, 2012)

Hmm.. that is strange. I was thinking maybe you got the new wifi drivers that don't support WEP anymore but that doesn't seem to be the case here. What happens when you flash a stock rom and then flash the wifi_gps fix zip floating around here?


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## Paxdad (Sep 5, 2011)

I haven't tried that. I just flashed Lean Kernel. Also it doesn't matter which version of stock I flash ICS, 4.1 or 4.2 wifi doesn't work on any of them. I also tried relocking and unlocking the bootloader but still nothing.

I know some other people have had this same problem but the only resolution I have seen on the forum is to flash an alternate kernel. that is not a problem for me but if I borked up something at some point I would kind of like to know what is going so I don't do it again in the future.

A fix would be nice but it is kind of hard to triage on a forum.


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## DR3W5K1 (Feb 19, 2012)

Anyone think it could have anything to do with missing or corrupt EFS data?


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## JClavin (Jun 16, 2011)

Have you tried rebooting your router? I know that a lot of custom kernels create a randomly-generated MAC address which is different than the one that comes pre-programmed into your device. Maybe your router is blocking your hardware's stock MAC address that's showing up when you're running stock, but the custom kernel is allowing it to work. You don't have a static IP based on MAC addresses, do you??


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## tiny4579 (Oct 21, 2011)

JClavin said:


> Have you tried rebooting your router? I know that a lot of custom kernels create a randomly-generated MAC address which is different than the one that comes pre-programmed into your device. Maybe your router is blocking your hardware's stock MAC address that's showing up when you're running stock, but the custom kernel is allowing it to work. You don't have a static IP based on MAC addresses, do you??


the mac address patching many kernels doesn't assign mac addresses to the device if the device already has a non random mac. What it does is give the device a consistent MAC address if one isn't passed by the bootloader. This happens on some devices.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## comk4ver (Feb 28, 2013)

Have you tried to flash stock kernel?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## Hendrix17 (Feb 9, 2013)

go to ak's thread on xda and flash the "restore old wifi driver.zip" in your recovery...also might want to try fixing permissions and giving it extra time to connect...sometimes my phone will not connect to my wifi either on the first boot when using a new rom and/or kernel... here is the link to xda where you can find the restore wifi zip http://d-h.st/FtR


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## Migamix (Oct 9, 2011)

a. your efs partition is fried like mine (I sometimes wish I could enable/disable the MAC address on command , fun wardriving)

b. it sounds like you do have MAC filtering enabled on your router. linksys routers allow you to force an ip based on the device MAC,

so, until someone cares to create a way to restore or have the phone rebuild the information like what someone did with the DroidX, we are kinda SOL (I know it can be done, just that people use custom kernels as the satisfying workaround)


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## tiny4579 (Oct 21, 2011)

there is a way to restore the factory Mac address mentioned on xda. I can confirm it works on Toro. however it won't be the same Mac address as the custom kernel assigns but it will be the correct one and won't change regardless of kernel.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4 Beta


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