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?
/dev/block/mmcblk0p3 /efs ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,user_xattr,acl,barrier=1,journal_async_commit,data=ordered 0 0
. I got CM 10.2 from here, CM 11 from here. Thx to both of you for your comments.