happy_gnu wrote:

I have a TP-Link TL-WN722N wich uses firmware ath9k_htc/htc_9271-1.4.0.fw

i'm afraid that file isn't part of any Parabola package. htc_9271.fw however is. do you have ath9k-htc-firmware installed?

It was working but now I can't connect to internet.

do you remember if this began the next boot after a kernel upgrade?

do you have ath9k-htc-firmware installed?

Yes. Just to be sure I just did
sudo pacman -Syy ath9k-htc-firmware
But it didn't fix it.

do you remember if this began the next boot after a kernel upgrade?

Yes it did. I was hoping that an update to ath9k-htc-firmware would fix it.

strange. what are the contents of your /usr/lib/firmware/ ?

$ls
av7110/ b43-open/ dsp56k/ htc_7010.fw htc_9271.fw keyspan_pda/

now that i see it, only these are coming from your WLAN dongle:

[ 13.893405] usb 3-3: Direct firmware load for ath9k_htc/htc_9271-1.4.0.fw failed with error -2
[ 539.922881] usb 3-3: Direct firmware load for ath9k_htc/htc_9271-1.4.0.fw failed with error -2

messages about nonfree firmware from other hardware happened to get in between. so, were ath9k_htc/htc_9271-1.4.0.fw present, maybe linux-libre wouldn't even try to block it.

ath9k_htc/htc_9271-1.4.0.fw is indeed a valid place this free firmware could be stored in. whatever is to blame for the new behavior, we could make a change to our ath9k-htc-firmware to support both locations...

could you test for us that this will work by creating /usr/lib/firmware/ath9k_htc/ with the same permissions as its parent, then copying/linking from /usr/lib/firmware/htc_9271.fw to /usr/lib/firmware/ath9k_htc/htc_9271-1.4.0.fw ?

$ ls
ath9k_htc/ b43-open/ htc_7010.fw keyspan_pda/
av7110/ dsp56k/ htc_9271.fw

ath9k_htc]$ ls
htc_9271-1.4.0.fw

I used both soft link and copy of htc_9271.fw

It still did not work. When I boot, systemd shows:


ago 20 20:56:55 libre kernel: 0000:03:00.0: Missing Free firmware (non-Free firmware loading is disabled)
ago 20 20:56:55 libre kernel: r8169 0000:03:00.0: Direct firmware load for /*(DEBLOBBED)*/ failed with error -2

this are lines 762 and 763

I used journalctl -b to watch all the systemd logs and I also have this


ago 20 20:56:54 libre kernel: usb 3-3: ath9k_htc: Firmware ath9k_htc/htc_9271-1.4.0.fw requested
this is line 660

happy_gnu wrote:

When I boot, systemd shows:


ago 20 20:56:55 libre kernel: 0000:03:00.0: Missing Free firmware (non-Free firmware loading is disabled)
ago 20 20:56:55 libre kernel: r8169 0000:03:00.0: Direct firmware load for /*(DEBLOBBED)*/ failed with error -2


i'm willing to bet you would still be seeing those even in the absence of the wifi card, because they are generated by an unrelated realtek driver (r8169). some devices such as ethernet cards will essentially work, even though they ask for extra nonfree firmware. this could be one such case, use lspci -k to find out which hardware it is.

I used journalctl -b to watch all the systemd logs and I also have this


ago 20 20:56:54 libre kernel: usb 3-3: ath9k_htc: Firmware ath9k_htc/htc_9271-1.4.0.fw requested


only that? looks like a successful load. perhaps a fuller dmesg log could shed extra light. also give a second look to netctl or whatever connection manager you use.

This was fixed after upgrading to Linux-libre 4.12.9.