Can't get wireless to work on Atheros card

breaksand30 · 2011-03-15 19:11:28

So I just went though all the trouble of wiping my entire Hard Drive to install arch. I've ran it on a virtual box before and it worked fine but on my actual laptop(Compaq Presario CQ60), it doesn't work. I've primarily used Ubuntu before but I prefer arch. Now I've tried editing

/etc/rc.conf

But no luck. I've tried DHCP, static etc. Thing is I'm not good at networking at all so I don't even know the difference between those. Anyway I don't have iwconfig for some reason and I chose to install it but it isn't there. When I run

lspci | grep -i net

I get two things. The second is my WiFi card(I think).
It says it's an Atheros AR5001. I've been googling for hours but no luck at all. Also, my router has a security key on it. Ubuntu says its WPA & WPA2 Personal but I have no idea how to set that up from the command line in Arch.

Sorry for any stupid questions. Thanks in advance.

EDIT:
Output of lspci -v (Network section)

01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 02)
    Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 360b
    Physical Slot: 0
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 42
    I/O ports at 3000 [size=256]
    Memory at d0410000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=4K]
    Memory at d0400000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=64K]
    Expansion ROM at d0420000 [disabled] [size=128K]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: r8169
    Kernel modules: r8169

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
    Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 137a
    Physical Slot: 1
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
    Memory at d2600000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: ath5k
    Kernel modules: ath5k

Last edited by breaksand30 (2011-03-15 19:25:41)

Inxsible · 2011-03-15 19:16:08

Have you installed the correct drivers for you wireless card? Try to install wicd and see if it works. You don't necessarily have to use the command line if you are not comfortable with it.

breaksand30 · 2011-03-15 19:17:03

Inxsible wrote:

Have you installed the correct drivers for you wireless card? Try to install wicd and see if it works. You don't necessarily have to use the command line if you are not comfortable with it.

Could you perhaps explain a bit? I'm sorry but I'm a bit of a noob at Arch. How can I install a driver?

Inxsible · 2011-03-15 19:29:46

When in doubt, please make use of our excellent wiki

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wireless_Setup

It seems that ath5k and ath9k are included in the kernel, so you don't have to install them. Look specifically for Atheros card -- ath5k and or ath9k drivers depending on what exact card you have and follow the tutorials.

breaksand30 · 2011-03-15 19:32:40

Inxsible wrote:

When in doubt, please make use of our excellent wiki
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wireless_Setup
It seems that ath5k and ath9k are included in the kernel, so you don't have to install them. Look specifically for Atheros card -- ath5k and or ath9k drivers depending on what exact card you have and follow the tutorials.

Yes I've been reading it. I've been looking into ath5k section and it gives me something like:

 MODULES=(
 ...
 !ath_hal !ath_pci !ath_rate_amrr !ath_rate_onoe !ath_rate_sample !wlan !wlan_acl !wlan_ccmp !wlan_scan_ap !wlan_scan_sta !wlan_tkip !wlan_wep !wlan_xauth
 ...
 )

I have no idea what this means though.

tomk · 2011-03-15 20:10:35

You don't have ath_hal, ath_pci, etc unless you specifically installed the madwifi package, and given yourstated uncertainty about all this, I'm assuming you didn't install that package. So you don't need to blacklist them as suggested in that wiki excerpt.

My standard advice re wireless is to follow Section 2.1.1 "Manual setup" on that wiki page, but if the command line is too much for you right now, try wicd as already suggested.

Dastingo · 2011-03-15 22:29:04

I have an Atheros AR5001 card, you only need to install wireless_tools and wpa_supplicant for it to work.

follow the wpa_supplicant wiki and it will help you configure your network.

At least you will need these commands to connect to WPA:

mv /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf.original

That command will rename the wpa_supplicant.conf file so we can work in a clean file.

Then add the following lines to /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf using a text editor like nano:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=network
update_config=1

you need to add your user to the network group (or whatever group you put in that file)

gpasswd -a <username> network

Now you need to enter your network information to the wpa_supplicant.conf file, this is done with this command:

wpa_passphrase "mywireless" "secretpassphrase" >> /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

Change "mywireless" to your network name and "secretpassphrase to the network password.

Check /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf to see the changes, it should look something like this:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=network
update_config=1
network={
    ssid=<your network name>
    #psk=<your network password>
    psk=<a long line of letters and numbers>
}

If it looks like that then you are on the right track

Now you need to connect to the network with this command:

wpa_supplicant -B -Dwext -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

That command will connect you to the access-point of your router.

Wait for 5-10 seconds then run this command:

dhcpcd wlan0

That command will obtain an IP-adress for you and now you should be connected to the network.

Edit: Oops, Just noticed I wrote the entire manual configuration from the wiki here. , oh well, doesn't matter.

Last edited by Dastingo (2011-03-15 22:40:54)

breaksand30 · 2011-03-16 18:44:33

Dastingo wrote:

I have an Atheros AR5001 card, you only need to install wireless_tools and wpa_supplicant for it to work.
follow the wpa_supplicant wiki and it will help you configure your network.
At least you will need these commands to connect to WPA:
mv /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf.original
That command will rename the wpa_supplicant.conf file so we can work in a clean file.
Then add the following lines to /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf using a text editor like nano:
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=network
update_config=1
you need to add your user to the network group (or whatever group you put in that file)
gpasswd -a <username> network
Now you need to enter your network information to the wpa_supplicant.conf file, this is done with this command:
wpa_passphrase "mywireless" "secretpassphrase" >> /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
Change "mywireless" to your network name and "secretpassphrase to the network password.
Check /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf to see the changes, it should look something like this:
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=network
update_config=1
network={
    ssid=<your network name>
    #psk=<your network password>
    psk=<a long line of letters and numbers>
}
If it looks like that then you are on the right track
Now you need to connect to the network with this command:
wpa_supplicant -B -Dwext -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf 
That command will connect you to the access-point of your router.
Wait for 5-10 seconds then run this command:
dhcpcd wlan0
That command will obtain an IP-adress for you and now you should be connected to the network.
Edit: Oops, Just noticed I wrote the entire manual configuration from the wiki here. , oh well, doesn't matter.

After having no success with that I decided to try using wicd. No luck. My router has quite a lot of security.

The security type is WPA2
The SSID is supposed to be NETGEAR-24-G but wicd sets it as <hidden> considering my router is hidden.

jwhendy · 2011-03-18 01:24:48

@breaksand30:

My router has quite a lot of security.

Go easy on yourself. You said you were pretty new... use an ethernet cable, log into your router, and turn off security for 30min while you troubleshoot. At least get this to work with no security:

$ ping www.google.com

before you start diagnosing potential issues with the right security protocol in your connection. That's my advice, at least. When troubleshooting, always try to reduce the number of variables you're working with.

Without security, you should be able to do this:

$ ifconfig wlan0 up
$ iwconfig wlan0 essid type-your-network-name-here
$ dhcpcd wlan0
$ ping www.google.com

If you don't have iwconfig, run

$ sudo pacman -S wireless_tools

and try the above again.

Perhaps your questions is specifically about connecting to WPA and non-secured is fine. If so, I misread you! I'm thinking you're having trouble in general and also mentioning as a side note that you have security enabled. I'd just stick to making sure you have proper control when using a non-secured router and go from there.

phoneymonkey · 2011-03-19 14:43:23

Dastingo wrote:

I have an Atheros AR5001 card, you only need to install wireless_tools and wpa_supplicant for it to work.
follow the wpa_supplicant wiki and it will help you configure your network.
...
<sic>

That guide helped me fix the wireless configuration on my Acer Aspire One (model ZG5), Thanks!

Arch Linux

#1 2011-03-15 19:11:28

Can't get wireless to work on Atheros card

#2 2011-03-15 19:16:08

Re: Can't get wireless to work on Atheros card

#3 2011-03-15 19:17:03

Re: Can't get wireless to work on Atheros card

#4 2011-03-15 19:29:46

Re: Can't get wireless to work on Atheros card

#5 2011-03-15 19:32:40

Re: Can't get wireless to work on Atheros card

#6 2011-03-15 20:10:35

Re: Can't get wireless to work on Atheros card

#7 2011-03-15 22:29:04

Re: Can't get wireless to work on Atheros card

#8 2011-03-16 18:44:33

Re: Can't get wireless to work on Atheros card

#9 2011-03-18 01:24:48

Re: Can't get wireless to work on Atheros card

#10 2011-03-19 14:43:23

Re: Can't get wireless to work on Atheros card

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