Lost usb wifi device

[Gregory Sharp <gregsharp.geo@yahoo.com>]

Hi all,

My usb wifi connection has been working for two years, and it just stopped and can't figure out why.  This is on Debian testing.  Help!

0) The hardware works (tested on Windows 10)

1) The device is detected (output from lsusb)

/:  Bus 03.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 480M
    ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
    /sys/bus/usb/devices/usb3  /dev/bus/usb/003/001
    |__ Port 3: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=ath9k_htc, 480M
        ID 0cf3:9271 Qualcomm Atheros Communications AR9271 802.11n
        /sys/bus/usb/devices/3-3  /dev/bus/usb/003/002

2)  Kernel module is loaded (output from lsmod)

usbcore               315392  6 ath9k_htc,xhci_hcd,usbhid,usb_storage,xhci_pci,uas

3) Network device is *not* created (output from ip link)

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: enp30s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 30:9c:23:9f:b4:d8 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
4: virbr0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 52:54:00:e4:f1:2d brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
5: virbr0-nic: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast master virbr0 state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 52:54:00:e4:f1:2d brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Other outputs (journalctl -xe, systemctl status wpa_supplicant@wlx00c0ca82ea52) seem consistent with the device is not present.

Suggestions for how to proceed are warmly welcomed.  Thank you.

Greg Sharp
gregsharp@geocities.com