[SOLVED] Network issue - Atheros drivers

rafdre · 2013-09-21 13:02:56

Hi
I am new to ArchLinux. Before I have used: RedHat, Fedora, Ubuntu, SLES and for quite long time OpenSuse (I still love it and have on other machine).
I decided to try ArchLinux on my laptop because I think OpenSuse is too heavy in some cases. I think its time for me to try a little bit more than box distro like openSUSE.

I have successfully installed ArchLinux on my machine with dual boot with Suse (thats why I do not need GRUB).
Now I have issue with my network. I already know that AR* Family does not work out of box, so I am trying to add it.
The issue I have is this:
since I do not have network, I have booted from CD and used 'arch-chroot /mnt'. Everything fine so far. I can add packages with pacman. I added 'make' and gcc'.
Now I try to 'make' from package AR81Family-linux-v1-10.1.14.tar.
When I execute 'make' I see error:

Linux kernel source not found

I have executed pacman -Qi linux and see there version 3.11.1-1.
I already installed linux-headers, but this not solve my issue. What package do I need?

I am not sure about "AR81Family-linux-v1-10.1.14". I know the WIKI mentioned another package , but I know "AR81Family-linux-v1-10.1.14" worked fine with SLES 11 SP1.

I have two questions:
what package is missing for kernel source?
what package do you advise me to install considering the kernel 3.11 and Laptop: ASUS G51J.

regards
Rafal

Last edited by rafdre (2013-09-26 05:11:39)

Xabre · 2013-09-21 13:07:27

You need linux-headers package.

rafdre · 2013-09-21 13:10:56

Xabre wrote:

You need linux-headers package.

as I said : I already installed linux-headers, but this not solve my issue.

packman -Ss linux headers
tells me: installed

Last edited by rafdre (2013-09-21 13:11:55)

rafdre · 2013-09-21 13:14:05

I have rebooted the system and now tried again. I see different message:

Linux kernel source not configured - missing version.h

graysky · 2013-09-21 13:29:53

Install the base-devel package set to your chroot. Also, is there a package in the AUr for your drivers? It is highly discouraged to build by hand on Arch. Use PKGBUILD files so pacman and makepkg can manage your builds.

rafdre · 2013-09-21 13:47:00

which one?
pacman -S base-devel
tells me: There are 25 members in group base-devel
and then I have a list with:
autoconf
automake
...etc

Regarding network driver:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ne … ros_AR8161

I compiled the driver and added module on SLES SP1 so I think I can be able to do the same on ArchLinux
Above I provided wrong information. I have used : AR81Family-Linux-v1.0.1.9.tar
I think the version is important, because it depends on the kernel version.

Xabre · 2013-09-21 13:49:44

Whole group

pacman -S base-devel

enter for all

rafdre · 2013-09-21 13:53:06

I have decided to choose "all".
when I try 'make' as 'chroot' then I always get:
Linux kernel source not found
...so i always reboot PC and use installed system (the one without network).
there 'make' still gives me:
Linux kernel source not configured - missing version.h

Last edited by rafdre (2013-09-21 13:53:19)

graysky · 2013-09-21 14:06:18

rafdre wrote:

I compiled the driver and added module on SLES SP1 so I think I can be able to do the same on ArchLinux
Above I provided wrong information. I have used : AR81Family-Linux-v1.0.1.9.tar

What kernel version does SLES use?
What is the upstream URL to these drivers? It could be that the package you are attempting to compile is not for the 3.11.x kernel series...

EDIT: Yep.[1]
EDIT2: Looks like alphaniner has a NIC with these drivers.[2] Perhaps you can PM him/her to find out how it's working.
EDIT3: This wiki page suggests these drivers are working out-of-the-box.[3]

1. https://www.suse.com/releasenotes/x86_6 … ernelTools
2. https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 6#p1290646
3. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Acer_Aspire_8920G

Last edited by graysky (2013-09-21 14:27:53)

rafdre · 2013-09-22 10:57:25

Hello,
I think there is an issue with the network drivers due to the new kernel.

On this page https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel … 013/03/28/
The latest file I have found is exactly the one described here:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ne … ros_AR8161

But with the file "compat-drivers-2013-03-28-5-u.tar.bz2" I get errors when I use the procedure described on the WIKI page.

After "make "I get error:
/root/compat-drivers-2013-03-28-5-u/include/linux/compat-3.10.h:93:6: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type info->skip_vt_switch = true;

I have found something here: http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.backports/374
but have not yet tried anything and I am not sure if this is relevant for me.

Regarding the file "AR81Family-linux-v1.0.1.14.tar.gz"
The error message "Linux kernel source not configured - missing autoconf.h" is known and have nothing to do with missing package linux-headers
Check this:

http://www.aligrant.com/?p=news/archive&v=2011-08

I have applied the patch in src directory like this :
patch -p1 < /path/to/AR81Family-linux-v1-1.0.1.14.patch

but now I get an error:
"This driver is not supported on kernel drivers older that 2.4.0"
...so I guess the program cannot recognize that my kernel is newer and stops installation.

regards
Rafal

Gusar · 2013-09-22 11:17:01

rafdre wrote:

I already know that AR* Family does not work out of box

Where does this come from? Because it's the contrary, Atheros chips are extremely well supported, both ethernet and wireless. The alx driver took a while to enter the kernel, but that's an exception.

Your particular NIC is supported by the atl1e driver, you don't need to compile any out-of-kernel drivers. If it doesn't work, explain exactly in what way it doesn't - output of dmesg, error messages from the tools you used to try to configure the network, etc, etc, just follow troubleshooting steps from the wiki.

rafdre · 2013-09-22 12:56:35

ok..I double checked the WIKI. Indeed it says:
"Note: With the 3.10.2-1-ARCH kernel update, the alx ethernet driver module is included in the package."

but in my system when I execute "ifconfig eth0" I see this:
eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found

I have checked "lspci -v" and found there:
Kernel modules ath9k

modprobe ath9k

Looks good ;-)

so I tried to ping any side...and it worked!

ifconfig does not properly, but I read that this is not supported by default (I added net-tools)

sorry for any confusion. ...apparently something worked bad in the beginning (when I check it first time) and the issue was not related to drivers. Afterwords I focused too much on installation instead of checking if network does not work.

karol · 2013-09-22 13:12:06

rafdre wrote:

but in my system when I execute "ifconfig eth0" I see this:
eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found

Maybe it's because http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Softwar … faceNames/

nomorewindows · 2013-09-22 13:25:45

I think if you are intending to recompile the whole kernel, you need to download the current kernel source in its' entirety from kernel.org. If you use abs, this may simplify things.

rafdre · 2013-09-25 18:51:51

karol wrote:

rafdre wrote:
but in my system when I execute "ifconfig eth0" I see this:
eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found
Maybe it's because http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Softwar … faceNames/

Hi,

when I execute:

ls /sys/class/net

then I get this:

enp7s0 lo wlp3s0

when I boot the system then I do not have network connection automatically. After PING I get this error:

ping: unknown host www.google.com

I have it after I execute:

systemctl start dhcpcd.service

I read about this and found another way. First:

dhcpcd -k

and then

dhcpcd

This gives me information like:

enp7s0: offered 192.168.1.2 from 192.168.1.1

...so I executed this:

systemctl enable dhcpcd@enp7s0

...and now I can enjoy network every time I start my laptop ;-)

thanks for everybody for help.
Cheers
Rafal

karol · 2013-09-25 19:07:11

Please remember to mark the thread as solved https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=130309

Arch Linux

#1 2013-09-21 13:02:56

[SOLVED] Network issue - Atheros drivers

#2 2013-09-21 13:07:27

Re: [SOLVED] Network issue - Atheros drivers

#3 2013-09-21 13:10:56

Re: [SOLVED] Network issue - Atheros drivers

#4 2013-09-21 13:14:05

Re: [SOLVED] Network issue - Atheros drivers

#5 2013-09-21 13:29:53

Re: [SOLVED] Network issue - Atheros drivers

#6 2013-09-21 13:47:00

Re: [SOLVED] Network issue - Atheros drivers

#7 2013-09-21 13:49:44

Re: [SOLVED] Network issue - Atheros drivers

#8 2013-09-21 13:53:06

Re: [SOLVED] Network issue - Atheros drivers

#9 2013-09-21 14:06:18

Re: [SOLVED] Network issue - Atheros drivers

#10 2013-09-22 10:57:25

Re: [SOLVED] Network issue - Atheros drivers

#11 2013-09-22 11:17:01

Re: [SOLVED] Network issue - Atheros drivers

#12 2013-09-22 12:56:35

Re: [SOLVED] Network issue - Atheros drivers

#13 2013-09-22 13:12:06

Re: [SOLVED] Network issue - Atheros drivers

#14 2013-09-22 13:25:45

Re: [SOLVED] Network issue - Atheros drivers

#15 2013-09-25 18:51:51

Re: [SOLVED] Network issue - Atheros drivers

#16 2013-09-25 19:07:11

Re: [SOLVED] Network issue - Atheros drivers

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