[HTC Sensation] tjobbins:
No WiFi - wlan0 device can't be found. "dhdsdio_probe_attach: si_attach failed!".

Hi all,

I have a UK Sensation XE that I've had for 18 months. My WiFi has not worked for many months, maybe a year. I am pretty sure the problem first started on GB, because I remember doing an OTA update to stock ICS and hoping it would fix the problem and it didn't.

I just started trying to seriously fix the problem a few days ago. Since then, I have researched on here and Google for hours and hours, and tried every suggestion I could find. I have done lots of diagnostics.

What I've discovered is that the WiFi driver does load, but it reports in dmesg that it can't find the device. Therefore it does not create wlan0. Therefore wpa_supplicant cannot load.

Everything else on the phone works OK - 2G/3G, Bluetooth, USB, etc. Just WiFi is broken.

I am wondering if maybe my WiFi hardware is bust. But then again, I do see the same symptoms on other posts - like this one and this one. The first of those two posts reported it worked for him when he went back to Stock 2.2, suggesting there was some software cause.

dmesg shows the following (I've edited a bit in the middle so to not make this message too long - full dmesg output is in attached txt) :

gannet_setup
gannet initialized OK
[WLAN] ## wifi_probe
[WLAN][WRN] wifi_set_power = 1
pyramid_wifi_power: 1
EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p22): re-mounted. Opts: user_xattr,barrier=0,data=ordered
[WLAN] wifi_set_carddetect = 1
pyramid_wifi_set_carddetect: 1
mmc2: Slot status change detected (0 -> 1)
[WLAN] Dongle Host Driver, version 5.90.125.120
mmc2: queuing unknown CIS tuple 0x91 (3 bytes)
mmc2: new high speed SDIO card at address 0001
[WLAN] alloc static buf at cf9c0000!
tun: Universal TUN/TAP device driver, 1.6
tun: (C) 1999-2004 Max Krasnyansky <maxk@qualcomm.com>
EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p22): re-mounted. Opts: user_xattr,barrier=0,data=ordered
mmc2: CMD53: Data timeout
mmc2: SDCC PWR is ON
mmc2: SDCC clks are ON, MCLK rate=48000000
mmc2: SDCC irq is enabled
===== SDCC-CORE: Register Dumps @base=0xd08a6000 =====
.. cut a bunch of Reg= values ..
mmc2: PIO mode
mmc2: xfer_size=4, data_xfered=0, xfer_remain=4
mmc2: got_dataend=0, prog_enable=0, wait_for_auto_prog_done=0, got_auto_prog_done=0
[COLOR="Red"][WLAN][WRN] dhdsdio_probe_attach: si_attach failed!
[WLAN][WRN] dhdsdio_probe: dhdsdio_probe_attach failed
[WLAN][WRN] dhd_module_init: wifi_fail_retry is true
[WLAN] ## wifi_remove
[WLAN][WRN] wifi_set_power = 0
pyramid_wifi_power: 0
[WLAN] wifi_set_carddetect = 0
pyramid_wifi_set_carddetect: 0
mmc2: Slot status change detected (1 -> 0)
mmc2: card 0001 removed
[WLAN] ## wifi_remove leave
[WLAN] module init fail, try again!
[/COLOR]pyramid_wifi_power: 1
pyramid_wifi_set_carddetect: 1
mmc2: Slot status change detected (0 -> 1)
[WLAN] Dongle Host Driver, version 5.90.125.120

I have attached a longer section of dmesg output, starting at boot and going a bit past the last reference to WLAN. The above dmesg snippet starts on line 760 of the attached dmesg txt file. I attached the fuller log in case the dmesg output shows some other error, not tagged WLAN, that I don't recognise as being a problem.

The bcmdhd.ko module is loaded OK:

# lsmod
tun 14813 0 - Live 0xbf091000
bcmdhd 483764 0 - Live 0xbf005000
kineto_gan 4230 0 - Live 0xbf000000

In logcat, there are various errors from wpa_supplicant and other, which all basically just indicate that it can't find wlan0. Here's a small sample:

E/wpa_supplicant( 5847): Could not read interface wlan0 flags: No such device
E/wpa_supplicant( 5847): nl80211: Could not set interface 'wlan0' UP
E/wpa_supplicant( 5847): wlan0: Failed to initialize driver interface

This is confirmed from shell:

# ip link ls wlan0
ip: can't find device 'wlan0'

The problem started on stock, I think stock GB. I do not know of any trigger for it happening.

Around that time I was playing around with rooting for the first time, and I tried Revolution S-OFF which I recall changed my HBOOT from 1.19 to 1.17 or something. But that's as far as I got at the time, I just ran Revolution S-Off, I remember it changed my HBOOT version on phone startup, and then I never tried anything more with flashing/rooting.

I do not know if the Wifi problem started at the same time I tried that hboot change. I cannot remember exactly when the WiFi broke, I don't know if anything triggered it.

All I am pretty sure of is that the problem started on stock GB, and then it was not resolved when I OTA updated to stock ICS (the stock ICS upgrade then changed my hboot to 1.29).

So I know the problem existed on Stock ICS. I think it happened also on stock GB. Then this is what I have also tried recently, in the last week, since I first started flashing/rooting/customising my phone:

Full phone wipe - used 4Ext to do complete wipe of all partitions, before installing new ROMs

Tried with a) no SD card at all, b) two different SD cards, c) did a complete format of one SD card

Tried without sim-card, also tried WiFix to set country code - doubt this has anything to do with it though as there's not even a wlan0 device.

Stock 3.33 FW, and then XDA-Dev 3.32 FW and XDA-Dev 3.33 FW

Stock HTC ICS release as per OTA update

Android Revolution HD 7.1 ROM 4.0.3 ICS

Elegancia ROM 3.70 ROM 4.0.4 ICS

Stock, Faux, Sebastian and Bricked kernels

Originally HTCDev locked, and now unlocked

Originally S-On, and now S-Off (Hboot 1.27)

Flashing boot.img separately with fastboot flash boot boot.img

Flashing ROM with 4Ext SmartFlash (even though I had S-OFF) - and then turning it off again and re-flashing.

Deleting wpa_supplicant.conf (not that this should work as issue is before supplicant. I've put the conf back now.)

So right now my phone is:

HTCDev unlock

S-Off, HBoot 1.27 (I used Juopunutbear-off with the 'wire trick')

4Ext Flash Recovery

Elegancia Rom 3.70 with Bricked kernel

I have searched so much and tried so many things, so I would be super grateful for any help at all. Maybe it's just a HW fault, but I have seen other people with the same symptoms of dmesg reporting it can't find the device, and some of those people did have the issues caused by SW problems, so I am hoping there is still some chance it's resolvable.

Thanks in advance!