WiFi driver installation fails - SSL error:02001002:system library:fopen:No such file or directory: bss_file.c:175

Question

I have just installed 16.04 on my Aspire E 15 (E5-573-35Q3)

I have a Qualcom Atheros shown by the following:

$ lspci -vvnn
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros Device [168c:0042] (rev 30)
    Subsystem: Lite-On Communications Inc Device [11ad:0806]
    Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
    Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
    Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
    Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 50
    Region 0: Memory at b0400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2M]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: ath10k_pci
    Kernel modules: ath10k_pci

To install the drivers, I followed the following, as I did with previous disros:

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r) git
echo "options ath10k_core skip_otp=y" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/ath10k_core.conf
wget https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/projects/backports/stable/v4.4.2/backports-4.4.2-1.tar.gz
tar -zxvf backports-4.4.2-1.tar.gz
cd backports-4.4.2-1
make defconfig-wifi
make
sudo make install

All runs well except the "make install". I get gazillion messages like the following:

INSTALL /home/cecil/backports-4.4.2-1/compat/compat.ko
At main.c:222:
- SSL error:02001002:system library:fopen:No such file or directory: bss_file.c:175
- SSL error:2006D080:BIO routines:BIO_new_file:no such file: bss_file.c:178
sign-file: certs/signing_key.pem: No such file or directory

which are repeated for each .ko that it wants to install (123 of them)

Then it says:

sign-file: certs/signing_key.pem: No such file or directory
  DEPMOD  4.4.0-21-generic
depmod will prefer updates/ over kernel/ -- OK!
Note:
You may or may not need to update your initramfs, you should if
any of the modules installed are part of your initramfs. To add
support for your distribution to do this automatically send a
patch against "update-initramfs.sh". If your distribution does not
require this send a patch with the '/usr/bin/lsb_release -i -s'
("Ubuntu") tag for your distribution to avoid this warning.

Your backported driver modules should be installed now.
Reboot.

I then fetch the firmware with:

git clone https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware.git
sudo cp -r ath10k-firmware/QCA9377 /lib/firmware/ath10k/
sudo cp /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0/firmware-5.bin_WLAN.TF.1.0-00267-1 /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0/firmware-5.bin

which seems to run fine, but when I reboot - there is still no wifi detected.

Is this a bug in the new distro, or must I do something else?

Thanks

Cecil

I ran dmesg |grep ath - got nothing found

I ran lsmod |grep ath - got nothing found

I tried to load with sudo modprobe ath10k_pci

got the message:

modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'ath10k_pci': Required key not available

I tried the modprobe -r ath10k_pci just in case, but it did not find it to remove it.

---

OK - I removed the mess that I had made by trying to install a ath10k_pci driver:

sudo make uninstall (in the backports.... directory)

I then re-booted - lsmod found the drivers now installed:

ath10k_pci             45056  0
ath10k_core           311296  1 ath10k_pci
ath                    32768  1 ath10k_core
mac80211              737280  1 ath10k_core
cfg80211              565248  3 ath,mac80211,ath10k_core

dmesg|grep ath found a whole lot of info on the firmware I should need. Would you please translate :-)

[   13.180269] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: pci irq msi interrupts 1 irq_mode 0 reset_mode 0
[   13.433624] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/cal-pci-0000:03:00.0.bin failed with error -2
[   13.433643] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0/firmware-5.bin failed with error -2
[   13.433646] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: could not fetch firmware file 'ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0/firmware-5.bin': -2
[   13.433657] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0/firmware-4.bin failed with error -2
[   13.433660] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: could not fetch firmware file 'ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0/firmware-4.bin': -2
[   13.433668] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0/firmware-3.bin failed with error -2
[   13.433670] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: could not fetch firmware file 'ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0/firmware-3.bin': -2
[   13.433680] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0/firmware-2.bin failed with error -2
[   13.433682] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: could not fetch firmware file 'ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0/firmware-2.bin': -2
[   13.433690] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0/firmware.bin failed with error -2
[   13.433692] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: could not fetch firmware (-2)
[   13.433695] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: could not fetch firmware files (-2)
[   13.433699] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: could not probe fw (-2)

Thanks

AHA - I think it is fixed.

I see that that the distro did not have QCA9377 drivers.

I then messed things up big time by trying to compile my own. Once that mess was undone, then by copying the QCA9377 drivers to /lib/firmware... the system now finds the correct driver and Walllaaaa!

Thanks to chilli555 - the problem is solved!

Answer 1

This error, upon loading the driver, shows the result of a faulty make and sudo make install:

sudo modprobe ath10k_pci modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'ath10k_pci': Required key not available 

Let's uninstall the driver you built from backports. It is not needed as it already exists in Ubuntu 16.04:

cd ~/backports-4.4.2-1
sudo make uninstall

Reboot and check to see if the default driver is loaded:

lsmod | grep ath

If so, the message log should show us what firmware is required, if not the firmware you already installed. Check:

dmesg | grep ath

If, in fact, firmware is missing, I will edit this answer to explain how to install it.