Thankfully there is a clone of my ThinkPad T420 handy ...
Everything was fine this morning while I downloaded emails, but then
the Trisquel software update popup appeared, and I proceeded with the
58+/- MB update. Afterwards, I proceeded with some LibreOffice Calc.
spreadsheet editing ... suddenly it was 12:43 PM EDT and I noticed that
the WiFi wasn't connected ...
dmesg |tail-100 says:
[ 688.650872] usb 2-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 9 using ehci-pci
[ 688.757565] usb 2-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0cf3, idProduct=9271
[ 688.757577] usb 2-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=16, Product=32,
SerialNumber=48
[ 688.757583] usb 2-1.2: Product: UB93
[ 688.757589] usb 2-1.2: Manufacturer: ATHEROS
[ 688.757594] usb 2-1.2: SerialNumber: 12345
[ 688.759155] usb 2-1.2: ath9k_htc: Firmware ath9k_htc/htc_9271-1.4.0.fw
requested
[ 688.759482] usb 2-1.2: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
[ 688.759491] usb 2-1.2: ath9k_htc: Firmware htc_9271.fw requested
[ 689.048834] usb 2-1.2: ath9k_htc: Transferred FW: htc_9271.fw, size: 50980
[ 689.290394] ath9k_htc 2-1.2:1.0: ath9k_htc: HTC initialized with 33
credits
I have two of these: Extended-range and thumbnail, both USB-connected.
They're sold
by Think Penguin and have been 100% satisfactory in my experience for years.
I tried editing the [empty] connection; when I disable it, the usual Wi-Fi
disconnected popup appears in the expected place, but I get no response at
all
when I subsequently enable it. nor when I unplug either one and insert it
in another USB port ... nor after a reboot with the adapter in place ... nor
when I insert either one after a reboot.
The same WiFi adapter[s] automatically connect when I re-insert one in a USB
port in this T420 clone ... on which I have not yet updated the software.
Upon re-editing the WiFi connection, I see that all the settings are the same
on the T420 clone as on the broken one.
It appears as though the Think Penguin firmware upgrade permanently installed
on both the T420 clone and its broken twin initially fails to load but
subsequently loads successfully, followed by no further activity. The dmesg
response is shown above; it's the same for either WiFi device.
Here's what happens on the T420 clone when I re-insert the extended-range
WiFi
adapter, according to dmesg |tail -100:
[ 2409.060178] usb 2-1.1: ath9k_htc: USB layer deinitialized
[ 2409.848115] usb 2-1.1: new high-speed USB device number 8 using ehci-pci
[ 2409.957236] usb 2-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=0cf3, idProduct=9271
[ 2409.957248] usb 2-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=16, Product=32,
SerialNumber=48
[ 2409.957255] usb 2-1.1: Product: UB91C
[ 2409.957261] usb 2-1.1: Manufacturer: ATHEROS
[ 2409.957267] usb 2-1.1: SerialNumber: 12345
[ 2409.957984] usb 2-1.1: ath9k_htc: Firmware ath9k_htc/htc_9271-1.4.0.fw
requested
[ 2409.958319] usb 2-1.1: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
[ 2409.958329] usb 2-1.1: ath9k_htc: Firmware htc_9271.fw requested
[ 2410.245114] usb 2-1.1: ath9k_htc: Transferred FW: htc_9271.fw, size: 50980
[ 2410.486568] ath9k_htc 2-1.1:1.0: ath9k_htc: HTC initialized with 33
credits
[ 2411.558453] ath9k_htc 2-1.1:1.0: ath9k_htc: FW Version: 1.3
[ 2411.558464] ath9k_htc 2-1.1:1.0: FW RMW support: Off
[ 2411.558470] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x833a
[ 2411.558474] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a country code
[ 2411.558479] ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
[ 2411.558483] ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x37
[ 2411.558487] ath: Country alpha2 being used: GB
[ 2411.558491] ath: Regpair used: 0x37
[ 2411.567684] ieee80211 phy4: Atheros AR9271 Rev:1
[ 2411.581488] ath9k_htc 2-1.1:1.0 wlx00c0ca82ec36: renamed from wlan0
Thanks
George Langford
