WiFi not working on Samsung Galaxy S3: "WifiStateMachine( 2240): Failed to load driver"

Question

Problem description:

I have a WLAN problem with my Samsung Galaxy S3 (GT-I930). I cannot activate WiFi. Logcat shows me that the driver could not be loaded (detailed WiFi logging has been activated via the developer options):

D/WifiService( 2240): setWifiEnabled: true pid=3142, uid=1000<br>
E/WifiService( 2240): Invoking mWifiStateMachine.setWifiEnabled<br>
E/WifiStateMachine( 2240):  InitialState !CMD_START_SUPPLICANT 0 0<br>
E/WifiStateMachine( 2240): Failed to load driver

The netcfg command does not list any wlan0 interface:

lo       UP     127.0.0.1/8   0x00000049 00:00:00:00:00:00
sit0     DOWN     0.0.0.0/0   0x00000080 00:00:00:00:00:00
ip6tnl0  DOWN       0.0.0/0   0x00000080 00:00:00:00:00:00
rmnet0   DOWN       0.0.0/0   0x00001090 00:00:00:00:00:00
rmnet1   DOWN       0.0.0/0   0x00001090 00:00:00:00:00:00
rmnet2   DOWN       0.0.0/0   0x00001090 00:00:00:00:00:00

In the WLAN advanced settings, there is no MAC address available.

The WiFistatus that can be reached via the **#*#*4636#*#*** service code on the phone number pad lists the following information:

Wi-Fi state: Disabled
Network state:
Supplicant state: UNINITIALIZED
RSSI: -127
BSSID:
SSID:
Hidden SSID: false
IPaddr: 0.0.0.0
MAC addr:
Network ID: -1
Link speed: -1 Mbps
Scan results:

Android version:

The phone is rooted, ClockworkMod Recovery (CWM) is installed. I tried different custom ROMs (see next point "history"). The current Android version is 5.0.2 (ROM: Liquid Smooth Lollipop, Kernel-Version: 3.0.31-CM-gdd7ad6a)

History

At first, I rooted my phone and flashed Cyanogenmod 10.2 cm-10.2.0-i9300 (Stable Version, Android 4.3)). Everything worked fine (including WiFi) and I was pleased with the smoothness and beauty of the Cyanogenmod.

Out of curiosity, I tried a Cyanogenmod cm-11-20150614-NIGHTLY-i9300 (Android 4.4) and faced the problem the first time. After returning from airplane mode, the WiFi was broken. I assumed the nightly build to be still buggy and reflashed the Cyanogenmod 10.2. However, I was not able to get the WiFi back.

After that, I returned to a stock ROM but no luck. The WiFi was still dead.

I started to consider that it might be a hardware issue and got a new WLAN antenna as well as a new WLAN-speaker-thingy. I changed the parts and tried again with Cyanogenmod 10.2. Guess what, the WiFi was working again. But unfortunately not very long. I am not quite sure but I assume the WiFi went away again after returning from airplane mode.

Well, I then tried two other custom ROMs: SlimKat 4.4. Slim-i9300-4.4.4.build.9.0-OFFICIAL-8312 and Liquid Smooth Lollipop (5.0.2) which is still on the phone.

On Liquid Smooth, I was able to get the WiFi back a couple of times (meaning I could see local networks in range and even connect to one of them) but never really long and in the end, it died again forever.

I am really confused about the question: Is it a software or a hardware issue? I sent the WLAN speaker module back to the merchant and tried another one but was not able to revive the WLAN since then.

Other things I tried

I tried some WLAN fixer apps (without success):

• Wifi Fixer
• Blade Wifi Fix
• FXR WiFi fix and rescue 1.5.0

I tried some useless stuff with the wpa_supplicant.conf file that I have read about in another forum.

In addition to that, I also did googling and I think I got through the whole first page of search results for a lot of search terms.

Logcats

I pasted the detailed logcats in Pastebin:

• Liquid Smooth boot on the day WLAN was working for a short period of time: https://pastebin.com/dT9Ucbs5
• Liquid Smooth successful WLAN activating (search for "banana" that is the SSID I connected with): https://pastebin.com/yQsgkQiV
• Liquid Smooth boot and failed WLAN activation (freshest log): https://pastebin.com/ikDr9vJi
• The dmesg output: https://pastebin.com/0caXAPAd. There is a message: "failed to power up DHD generic adapter"

I would really appreciate any kind of help or advice. What can I still try? What could be the cause of the problem? Anything I have overlooked?

Answer 1

After looking at your dmesg, if I am understanding it right, your WiFi device is identified as mmc2 and an external card

<6>[   18.525295] c1 mmc2: card inserted.
<4>[   18.525962] c1 wifi_platform_set_power = 1
<4>[   18.525970] c1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<4>[   18.525978] c1 brcm_wlan_power Enter: power on
<6>[   18.525983] c1 111brcm_wlan_power Enter: power on
<4>[   18.525988] c1 gpio_table = [2]
 
<7>[   18.526198] c1 WLAN: GPIO_WLAN_EN = 1
<4>[   18.730036] c1 wifi_platform_bus_enumerate device present 1
<4>[   18.730044] c1 gpio_table = [6] 

And is cycling on and off because it is having the wrong/excessive voltage being pumped into it.

<6>[   16.407671] c1 mmc2: card inserted.
<3>[   16.635241] c0 mmc2: cmd 52 command index error error
<3>[   16.636109] c0 mmc2: cmd 52 command index error error
<3>[   16.641166] c0 mmc2: cmd 8 command crc error
<3>[   16.641729] c0 mmc2: cmd 5 command end bit error
<3>[   16.642015] c0 mmc2: cmd 5 command end bit error
<4>[   16.642068] c0 mmc2: host doesn't support card's voltages
<3>[   16.642080] c0 mmc2: error -22 whilst initialising SDIO card
<3>[   16.643112] c0 mmc2: cmd 55 command end bit error

With new hardware, you require a new kernel build with correct device support compiled into the kernel. Whether or not this "cycling" is damaging your new hardware I can't be sure. It wasn't really clear in your question but I am assuming these were internal changes to your phone's hardware? You will likely need to get the specifics of that new hardware and find the driver/kernel-source/support and port it into your current source and compile a new build, modules, and all.

Basically, any room you flash on this "new" device is likely going to fail in the WiFi department, and flashing even back to stock via the/an official firmware release is not likely to fix it.

Answer 2

Renaming the data\misc\wifi\wap_supplication.conf file has fixed the problem for some people.

The Android system by default will recreate the wap_supplication.conf file after renaming or removing it. In my case, either way, it did work but for a short amount of time. Finally, I just relapsed the wireless adapter, so it's likely a hardware problem.