Asus Eeepc 701, how to get it functional with Toofish kernel + Wifi

MoonSwan · 2009-04-26 07:32:18

I have read the mammoth 40+ page thread about the Asus Eeepc 70x model. I've perused all threads I can find on this forum regarding this little pc. I have also read the wiki pages about installing to this mini pc and those pages are very confusing, convoluted & somewhat contradictary.

In short all I can do so far is to install Arch to my memory card, boot the asus eeepc, and get the stock kernel to run just fine. At that point I have a normal Lan connection available but no wifi. Installing the Madwifi drivers from the standard repos seems to be a no-no move, and its suggested you use the Madwifi-Svn drivers instead. You are also told you can use Toofishes kernel and, if you do, to use the PKGBUILD + drivers on Ighea's page (linked to on the wiki, as well as an ancient-ish post he made in the 40 page thread I read earlier). This is where I get confused.

So my questions become thus:

1) Are the madwifi-svn drivers even recommended anymore? If they are see (2) please, and if not, what is recommended??

2) With Toofishes kernel installed, how do I get my wifi to work properly exactly? I saw the link to Igheas page where there is a PKGBUILD and config file for the kernel itself. I don't understand what it is you're supposed to do with these nor how they relate exactly to getting the wifi to function properly. A step by step here would be appreciated if possible.

In case I ever do need to run the stock kernel or find it works better for my needs I'll ask here too about wifi as the issues with it may be relevant to my first 2 questions. If the stuff below isn't relevant then sorry, I'll deal with it in another thread.

I can get the stock kernel to run with the normal madwifi drivers but according to the wiki some people have issues if the "ath5k" module is in their array in rc.conf, some say it needs to be there to work. I've tried both and neither is correct for me as wifi doesn't work properly either way. However, if I boot without "ath5k" in my array, then modprobe it & manually connect to my AP using dhcpcd, it works fine. If this is related to my previous question can someone please explain whats going on here?

Last edited by MoonSwan (2009-04-26 07:38:02)

gazj · 2009-04-26 09:30:35

Wifi does work out of the box with the standard kernel now, the wiki is a little dated. Just look up using netcfg (the arch wifi tool) in the wiki, setup your network as shown, you should be fine.

Once you get your network working, I would still recccomend using toofishes kernel as it is optimized for the eee processor still one step at a time

If you get really stuck you can find me on the msn protocol.

Last edited by gazj (2009-04-26 09:32:07)

MoonSwan · 2009-04-26 21:36:02

Thanks Gazj, I did get it to sort of work with the stock kernel but I'll give it another go later. I'll re-post when I've either successfully solved this or my head hurts from the banging its doing against a wall.

{Edit} I know how to use netcfg but then, and I'm sorry if I sound like a moron here, which modules (If any?) do I need to have loaded, or are these drivers built-in to the kernel as part of it? I'll mess with this on my own until you or someone else answers and with luck answer my own question.

Last edited by MoonSwan (2009-04-26 22:01:13)

gazj · 2009-04-28 21:49:35

Sorry to take so long, working away at the moment. It's is not built in with toofishes kernel, in the modules line rc.conf add ath5k. My loaded modules on my eee 701

gary@Holly ~ $ lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
ipv6                  197936  8 
ath5k                 114428  0 
mac80211              111336  1 ath5k
cfg80211               29204  2 ath5k,mac80211

and my rc.conf

MOD_AUTOLOAD="no"
#MOD_BLACKLIST=() #deprecated
MODULES=(ath5k)

Last edited by gazj (2009-04-28 21:51:38)

Arch Linux

#1 2009-04-26 07:32:18

Asus Eeepc 701, how to get it functional with Toofish kernel + Wifi

#2 2009-04-26 09:30:35

Re: Asus Eeepc 701, how to get it functional with Toofish kernel + Wifi

#3 2009-04-26 21:36:02

Re: Asus Eeepc 701, how to get it functional with Toofish kernel + Wifi

#4 2009-04-28 21:49:35

Re: Asus Eeepc 701, how to get it functional with Toofish kernel + Wifi

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