# Touchpad WiFi issue - Atheros driver/firmware or HW defect?



## knoer (Oct 15, 2011)

First time poster here - been lurking since the first mentions of Android for the Touchpad, and been reading many threads here.

I will try to make a long story short:
Got my TP, connected to my WiFi (with hidden SSID and WPA2) updated to webOS 3.0.2 OTA and all was good for about a week.
One morning the TP would not wake from sleep - only the center button blinked at me when pressing the power button - had to do a power+center for 20 secs to reboot the TP.
After reboot I found that overnight I had got a message on Skype, the WiFi was turned off, and I was not able to re-enable it. The drop-down menu in webos would just show a forever-spinning circle. Using the WiFi properties, I could move the slider/button to "ON" but it would never report as turned on.
Runinng system diagnostics in webos returned Error 1000 = Wi-Fi is disabled or off
I pulled the output from /var/log/messages and posted my issue to two webos forums: http://forums.precen...l-sudden-2.html
On the forum I found that there were a few others with a similar problem - one got his WiFi to work again using a sequence of BT and Ariplane mode ON/OFF toggling, but this did nothing for me.
Tried erasing & doctoring to and from webos 3.0.0 and 3.0.2, but this did not work either.
Getting nowhere on the webos forums, I put the TP aside to wait and see if the Android port would bring my WiFi back to life.
So, now, having tried the CM7.1 A1, I still have the same issue.
When I turn on WiFi in Settings, it says "Turning on.." for a minute or so, then it turns off by itself.
In the output of dmesg I can see similar errorcodes as I got in webos.

```
<1>[ 2150.852282] AR6000: hifEnableFunc(), Unable to enable AR6K: 0xFFFFFFC2<br />
<4>[ 2150.852328] ar6k_wlan: probe of [URL=mmc1:0001:1]mmc1:0001:1[/URL] failed with error -1<br />
<3>[ 2169.488991] board_sdio_wifi_disable<br />
<6>[ 2169.613751] mmc1: card 0001 removed
```
The question remains what is causing my WiFi to act up - and hence I turn to posting in this forum, hoping that all the Android wizards here will be able to shed some light on the errors I'm getting.

Since I get the same errorcodes using webos and Android, I'm inclined to believe there is an issue with the firmware in the Atheros chipset - and seeing that there, in the Android filesystem, is a directory with various firmware versions, I'm hoping someone here could provide some input as to how to use these - if at all possible?

I've attached a couple of logs from my device. If anyone has suggestions I should try, which could get me further in my quest, please let me know here. Also, if more information is needed I will provide this as necessary.
I will thank anyone able to come up with a way for me to get my WiFi back to life.

Thanks for reading this far.
[HR][/HR]
For the record, I have not tried todays release of Alpha2 or webos 3.0.4 - will try there later today, but don't think it will make any difference.
Attached are two dmesg logs pulled after a WiFi-enable: Wifi.txt & Wifi2.txt
And a logcat after a reboot and WiFi-enable: logcat.txt


----------



## Bounce (Aug 25, 2011)

Have to scanned the WiFi channels in the area for traffic/load/noise? If you don't have a scanner, have you simply tried moving your router to another channel?


----------



## trueno92 (Oct 17, 2011)

i have read that the wifi error is actually a bug in Android 2.2-2.3....

not sure if we can get around it


----------



## captnshacky (Aug 20, 2011)

I have a friend with a similar PRoblem with webos and getting a stable connection. Have you tried setting up a static IP? That seemed to solve his issue.


----------



## knoer (Oct 15, 2011)

Thanks for the suggestions - to answer them in order:

#2: I have tried all sorts of tricks with my router setup (a d-link dir-300 runnuing DD-WRT), resetting, disabling encryption, enabling SSID broadcast, changing channels etc.
I even brought it to work to see if it would pick up the wireless connection there - no luck (even though that is the only available wifi in the area according to my HTC Desire)

#3: I sure don't like the sound of that - do you have any more information on this?

#4: This is not a matter of getting a stable connection - I cannot turn my wifi on to even scan for available networks, let alone adding my own network.
I tried setting a static IP just in case that would do anything, but the system still shuts down the Atheros module according to the logs.

I appreciate all comments, but I think this is a step beyond the "standard" wifi issues many others are experiencing - but boy would I love to be proven wrong!
Could anyone here check the output of dmesg or logcat after enabling wifi on a working device?


----------



## trueno92 (Oct 17, 2011)

google: 
wifi android 2.2 bug

"Support WiFi Error in Android 2.2 / Froyo / Samsung Galaxy Mini ...
androidforums.com › ... › Samsung Galaxy Mini (S5570)
44 posts - 36 authors - Last post: 12 Oct
Hey, I just recently got a Samsung Galaxy Mini with Android 2.2 and it's all great and all, except for one thing. The WiFi stops turning on after a.
Still having wifi problems after Froyo 2.2.1 FRG83 update ...‎ - 19 Dec 2010
HTC Desire 2.2 Wifi/Mobile Data Problem‎ - 8 Dec 2010
Wifi not working after 2.2 update‎ - 20 Sep 2010
[Themed ROM] NexFro 1.0.1 - Android 2.2 FRF57 (WIFI FIXED ...‎ - 6 Jun 2010
More results from androidforums.com »
HTC Desire - WiFi "Error" after installing Android 2.2
www.htcdesireforum.com › ... › HTC Desire Troubleshooting
15 posts - 7 authors - Last post: 8 Sep 2010
Had Desire for about six weeks, working fine on wireless network at home. Downloaded and installed Android 2.2 last night (via WiFi) so it was.
WiFi problems with Android 2.2 - Google Mobile Help
www.google.com › ... › Android Applications (not listed above)
41 answers - 23 Dec 2010
WiFi problems with Android 2.2. ... There must be a way to correct this, I am sure this is an operating system bug. PLEASE advise. I am in ..."

lots of stuff here, that i don't know if is correctable........


----------



## captnshacky (Aug 20, 2011)

Another thought is using webos doctor. Flash it back to stock.


----------



## knoer (Oct 15, 2011)

A month ago I re-flashed my TP 3 or 4 times between 3.0.0 and 3.0.2 which did nothing to solve the WiFi issue I am seeing.

Just because It could not hurt, I flashed to 3.0.4 just now - and suddenly I have a WiFi symbol in the top menu. However the WiFi still does not work - I don't know if seeing the symbol can be called "progress"
In the drop-down menu it is now indicated as "ON" - but running the diagnostics in webos again, I still get error code #1000, and dmesg still reports the system is unable to enable AR6K - and that the probe failed with error code 0xFFFFFFC2 (as mentioned in OP). This is then followed by

```
<3>[ 2169.488991] board_sdio_wifi_disable
```
Just because I'm already flashing, I will move on to the newest alpha of CM7 and see if that changes anything...

I've read mentions of the wpa_supplicant in the filesystem - does anyone know if there is something in that I should look at?


----------



## knoer (Oct 15, 2011)

Just finished a complete erase of the TP after installing webos 3.0.4.
Then I flashed Alpha2 on the TP - confirmed reading mod version 7.1.0-RC1 in Settings->About Tablet

Still no luck: dmesg still returns lines like these (more code included for googles reference in case others are searching for this):

```
<3>[  139.094496] board_sdio_wifi_enable<br />
<6>[  139.094556] wifi_power(1) 1.8V sdio: set load<br />
<6>[  139.101522] tenderloin_wifi_power: New regulator mode for 8058_s3: 1<br />
<6>[  139.107535] wifi_power(1) 3.3V<br />
<6>[  139.111272] wifi_power(1) 8901_l1 3.3V<br />
<6>[  139.114962] wifi_power(1) 8058_l19 1.8V<br />
<4>[  139.118942] wifi_power(1) CHIP_PWD<br />
<1>[  139.132948] ar6000: got ar6000 Wake on Wireless IRQ<br />
<1>[  139.133165] android_readwrite_file: file /sys/devices/platform/msm_sdcc.1/detect_change filp_open error<br />
<1>[  139.146261] android_readwrite_file: file /sys/devices/platform/msm_sdcc.1/polling filp_open error<br />
<4>[  139.467415] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x01 (3 bytes)<br />
<4>[  139.478727] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x1a (5 bytes)<br />
<4>[  139.482790] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x1b (8 bytes)<br />
<4>[  139.490109] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x14 (0 bytes)<br />
<4>[  139.495707] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x80 (1 bytes)<br />
<4>[  139.500452] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x81 (1 bytes)<br />
<4>[  139.506102] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x82 (1 bytes)<br />
<6>[  139.511543] mmc1: new high speed SDIO card at address 0001<br />
<1>[  139.630556] AR6000: hifEnableFunc(), Unable to enable AR6K: 0xFFFFFFC2<br />
<4>[  139.630604] ar6k_wlan: probe of [URL=mmc1:0001:1]mmc1:0001:1[/URL] failed with error -1<br />
<5>[  144.372678] CPU1: platform_cpu_die: normal wakeup<br />
<5>[  146.275295] CPU1: platform_cpu_die: normal wakeup<br />
<5>[  148.353265] CPU1: platform_cpu_die: normal wakeup<br />
<5>[  151.880756] CPU1: platform_cpu_die: normal wakeup<br />
<5>[  167.506925] CPU1: platform_cpu_die: normal wakeup<br />
<3>[  168.482280] board_sdio_wifi_disable<br />
<6>[  168.500827] tenderloin_wifi_power: New regulator mode for 8058_s3: 1<br />
<1>[  168.502296] android_readwrite_file: file /sys/devices/platform/msm_sdcc.1/detect_change filp_open error<br />
<1>[  168.520445] android_readwrite_file: file /sys/devices/platform/msm_sdcc.1/polling filp_open error<br />
<1>[  168.586194] android_readwrite_file: file /sys/devices/platform/msm_sdcc.1/detect_change filp_open error<br />
<1>[  168.586251] android_readwrite_file: file /sys/devices/platform/msm_sdcc.1/polling filp_open error<br />
<6>[  168.623635] mmc1: card 0001 removed
```
Does anyone know what/if the files in _msm_sdcc.1_ are good for - google was rather weak on this - other than msm_sdcc.c is a driver related to Qualcomm - but is this related to the WiFi module (on mmc1?)?


----------



## evoic (Oct 19, 2011)

Have you considered using an external WiFi dongle to see how that cooperates with your system?
Just throwing darts at a board, but it might be useful just to have it as knowledge in hand......
If there is some deeper error not allowing the connection, it would manifest itself in that manner still, no?


----------



## lev (Jun 17, 2011)

If its not working in webos you should rma


----------



## knoer (Oct 15, 2011)

#10 I have been thinking about trying out the USB host on the TP. I have an older dongle which I know works in Linux, so that is something to try out.
Thanks for the suggestion..

#11 Having installed Android I believe my warranty is voided, also it is an US import, with HP not even recognizing the TP in my country.


----------



## fialdj (Oct 4, 2011)

on Android Alpha 2.1 try this:

HOW DO I CLEAR OUT *ALL* MY WIFI SETTINGS AND START FRESH?

If you find that your wifi is "strobing" on and off, or you wish to completely wipe out all wifi settings, you can do this in one of three ways:

THE "RIGHT" WAY (USING ADB):

adb shell rm -rf /data/misc/wifi && reboot

(this will remove the settings and then force a reboot)

THE "I-DON'T HAVE ADB INSTALLED" WAY:

From the Terminal app.

# rm -rf /data/misc/wifi && reboot

(similar command as above. The # is a prompt-- don't type that part. If you see a $ prompt instead, type "su" (no quotes) and it should become a #)


----------



## knoer (Oct 15, 2011)

fialdj said:


> on Android Alpha 2.1 try this:
> 
> HOW DO I CLEAR OUT *ALL* MY WIFI SETTINGS AND START FRESH?
> 
> ...


Now that I erased my TP, and installed webos and Alpha2.1 from scratch, I'm not sure why this would make any change - but i will be trying this when I get near my TP again, can't hurt anyway.
Thanks for the suggestion.


----------



## sonjohn1 (Oct 31, 2011)

I'm having all the same issues that have been discussed. I've tried everything I can think of. Because it works perfectly well in WebOS and not at all with the Android OS suggests to me that it is something in the Cyanogen Mod release. What is most confusing is that it works well with Android for many people. I hope someone finds a solution soon.


----------



## frojj (Oct 20, 2011)

Have you tried setting the cyanogen mod back to factory default? I was having problems with cyanogen mod (can't connect, not seeing my 5ghz ssid, etc) until I did a factory reset.

Also, it seems that connecting my tp to different public networks over time corrupts the wifi settings somehow and I'll have to do a factory reset again to fix it. And no, deleting the wifi folder and reboot didn't help. Another observation is that when the wifi settings become "corrupted", I would experience a lot of delays trying to get into the wifi settings window. That continues until I turn wifi off.



sonjohn1 said:


> I'm having all the same issues that have been discussed. I've tried everything I can think of. Because it works perfectly well in WebOS and not at all with the Android OS suggests to me that it is something in the Cyanogen Mod release. What is most confusing is that it works well with Android for many people. I hope someone finds a solution soon.


----------



## lbcaptivate (Sep 21, 2011)

Not sure if this is the right place to post this. WHen I am in WebOS I can get full signal strength to the Wifi Network, but when I am in Adroid I can see the network but I can't even get one bar of signal strength. Anyone else have this problem or not of a fix? Seems like Android in unable to fully use the antena in the TP.


----------



## kingofmyworld324 (Dec 9, 2011)

Hey, knoer, I've been having the same problem as you.

I've tried everything short of replacing the wifi driver (don't know how).

Have you solved the problem?

Would anything on this page help? http://linuxwireless...Drivers/Atheros

Also, Webos appears to be open source now, will that lead to a fix?


----------



## knoer (Oct 15, 2011)

Hey King...

I have not been spending more time on this issue since my last post (all the negative replies sort of killed off my interest for investigating further).
The only progress has been updating to webOS 3.0.4 and CM7 Alpha2.1 - but still no results.
(have been sideloading some apps into the Android system and enjoying these without network access)

I think the next attempt should be to experiment with the USB host and seeing if it is possible to use an external WIFI dongle - although I would prefer getting the internal WIFI to work.

I saw that page earlier, when I was looking at options for solving this, but I also don't know enough about this to use this for anything.

Don't know if open sourcing webOS will do anything to solve our problem - I have only come to know of about 10 other people with this issue..
I believe that there is a greater chance that this will be solved in the Android system - since there are not that many webOS developers compared to Android. But I have not had the time to get into that sort of understanding or development.

So, any and all comments are still appreciated here.

Maybe we should ask in the CM forums and see if they know anything?
As far as I remember, they had some issues getting the WIFI to work correctly before the first alpha release, so maybe they know something.
Or else we should wait and see if a ICS port is on the way (though I'm not too confident it will solve this issue)...


----------



## ChronoReverse (Oct 14, 2011)

Try the Xron version of CM7.1

Some fixes have been made and the wifi seems to be more stable for most people.


----------



## knoer (Oct 15, 2011)

Thanks for the suggestion - will try the latest version out as soon as possible..


----------



## knoer (Oct 15, 2011)

So.. Installed the latest Xron Android version - I must say it is quite nice compared to the CM7 Alphas.
- however it did not do anything in terms of solving my WiFi issues - still automatically disables the WiFi some 30 seconds after enabling it.

I would recommend everyone to try out the Xron version - I just installed it using CWM - wiping cache and dalvik. -very fast booting system!

Had a different thought looking through the messages (identical to the ones in post #9) on the TP using Xron Android version:
In the messages there are repeated messages relating to some read/write commands, shortly after which the WiFi returns an error and is disabled.
<1>[ 139.132948] ar6000: got ar6000 Wake on Wireless IRQ
<1>[ 139.133165] android_readwrite_file: file /sys/devices/platform/msm_sdcc.1/detect_change filp_open error
<1>[ 139.146261] android_readwrite_file: file /sys/devices/platform/msm_sdcc.1/polling filp_open error
<4>[ 139.467415] mmc1: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x01 (3 bytes)
Looking in the /sys/devices/platform/msm_sdcc.1/ directory on my TP I see the file "polling", but "cat polling" only returns "0"
The "detect_change" is not present on my TP - is this supposed to be so?

Can anyone here check their TP and the existence and content of the files "polling" and "detect_change"?
(use terminal emulator: cd /sys/devices/platform/msm_sdcc.1/ then ls, for anyone not knowing how to)


----------



## nevertells (Oct 29, 2011)

knoer said:


> So.. Installed the latest Xron Android version - I must say it is quite nice compared to the CM7 Alphas.
> - however it did not do anything in terms of solving my WiFi issues - still automatically disables the WiFi some 30 seconds after enabling it.
> 
> I would recommend everyone to try out the Xron version - I just installed it using CWM - wiping cache and dalvik. -very fast booting system!
> ...


Just for grins, go set your router to channel 6 and tell me what happens. Not sure this applies to your situation, but after weeks of problems connecting to
wifi, I saw a post somewhere here suggesting this and have not has a wifi problem since. Let us know.


----------



## knoer (Oct 15, 2011)

Not sure if I tried channel 6 yet...

In the beginning I was running on channel 7 or 9 (don't remember which) - which were fine until it suddenly stopped working.
Last week I changed to channel 1 (read that someone else had success with that - and there are no other APs on channel 1 from my living room, so that was a win-win)
I also set up a virtual AP with SSID broadcast and WEP encryption, but my TP still does not find any networks at all (even though I elsewhere on my PC can see 20+ networks using various channels)

So.. none the wiser - but I may just run through all channels on my router when I have time - can't hurt)

Anyone had the chance to check their TP for the existence and contents of aforementioned files?


----------

