atheros wifi help in laptop

miesnerd · 2008-07-25 02:00:15

I dont know why this always gets messed up, but I'll post some output so someone wiser than I can make sense of this.

bash-3.2# iwconfig ath_hal
ath_hal No such device

bash-3.2# lsmod | grep ath
ath_pci 194744 0
wlan 260384 1 ath_pci
ath_hal 258304 1 ath_pci
ath5k 100996 0
mac80211 146444 1 ath5k

lspci | grep Atheros
05:02.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212/AR5213 Multiprotocol MAC/baseband processor (rev 01)

bash-3.2# modprobe -r ath_pci
bash-3.2# modprobe ath_pci
bash-3.2# dmesg | tail
eth0: no IPv6 routers present
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
sky2 eth0: Link is down.
sky2 eth0: Link is up at 100 Mbps, full duplex, flow control rx
ath_pci: driver unloaded
wlan: driver unloaded
ath_hal: driver unloaded
ath_hal: 0.9.30.13 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, AR5416, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413, RF5413, RF2133)
wlan: trunk
ath_pci: trunk

let me know if anything else needs to be posted so I can get this fixed.
Thanks.

tomk · 2008-07-25 07:22:50

You've got a conflict with the new ath5k driver, which is the replacement for madwifi. You can remove madwifi altogether and use ath5k, or you can blacklist ath5k if you want to stick with madwifi.

btw - the argument for iwconfig is the interface name i,e, ath0 or wlan0, not ath_hal.

For future reference - a quick search of the forum would have brought up various other threads on this topic.

miesnerd · 2008-07-25 07:46:07

Thanks.
I did search, but I wasnt confident I knew what the right think to do was. Sorry about the needless thread.
I had actually read on a different thread about ath_hal and thus, tried that.
So just pacman -R madwifi will do it?

miesnerd · 2008-07-25 08:16:54

And I just did that and my wifi's still not working
Output:

[miesnerd@myhost ~]$ lsmod | grep ath
ath5k 100996 0
mac80211 146444 1 ath5k
[miesnerd@myhost ~]$ dmesg | tail
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:05.0[A] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
[drm] Initialized radeon 1.28.0 20060524 on minor 0
[drm] Setting GART location based on new memory map
[drm] Loading R300 Microcode
[drm] writeback test succeeded in 1 usecs
sky2 eth0: Link is up at 100 Mbps, full duplex, flow control rx
wifi-radar[4185]: segfault at 0 ip 7f1d84e1eb29 sp 7fff90694380 error 4 in libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0.1200.11[7f1d84bb4000+3bd000]
NET: Registered protocol family 10
lo: Disabled Privacy Extensions
eth0: no IPv6 routers present
[miesnerd@myhost ~]$ lspci | grep Atheros
05:02.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212/AR5213 Multiprotocol MAC/baseband processor (rev 01)
[miesnerd@myhost ~]$

i also edited the modules section of /etc/rc.conf looks like this:

MODULES=(sky2 ath5k !ath_hal !wlan ac97_bus snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm-oss
snd-page-alloc snd-pcm snd-timer snd snd-ac97-codec snd-atiixp-modem snd-atiixp soundcore)

The only editing I have done was putting the ! in front of ath_hal and wlan. I tried it both with and without the exclamation mark in front of ath_hal, sicne I didnt kow fi that was needed to make the card work (you'd think hal would be needed).

Thanks for your help in advance.

Miesnerd

tomk · 2008-07-25 08:28:10

If you've removed the madwifi package, ath_hal no longer exists on your system. Your wifi-radar is segfaulting, so if you're relying on that, you have a problem - try another wifi conf tool, and remember that the ath5k interface is called wlan0, not ath0 as with madwifi.

miesnerd · 2008-07-25 15:45:18

Its clear to me that I dont know what im doing on this one. I dont care which driver I use, but if someone can give me detailed instructions, I'd be thrilled. I come from the land of 'buntu, where I'd never even have to type nano to get this to work. I didnt even know those were two conflicting drivers, and I dont know which one is more stable.

kdrumm · 2008-07-25 22:01:15

I think I had same problem more or less. I edited /etc/rc.conf and blacklisted ath5k and deleted it from the modules line.
then it used ath-pci and showed up as ath0 when i iwconfig.
worked for me, your mileage might vary
KD

Last edited by kdrumm (2008-07-25 22:06:19)

lonecat · 2008-07-26 01:12:17

What worked with me is getting the latest madwifi svn version, compiling and installing...then i lastly had the damn ath0 interface up xD good luck!
(you could also check on their webpage if your chipset is supported)

Last edited by lonecat (2008-07-26 01:13:30)

miesnerd · 2008-07-26 10:49:52

well I thought I'd post an update as Im always annoyed when i dont see threads be completed.

Thanks kdrumm, your method worked. I had to reinstall madwifi and do modprobe ath_hal and ath_pci both.
using lsmod | grep ath helped me check that all my wireless things were in order, and then, it just magically worked.

I'll post some more output in hopes that it helps someone else:

[miesnerd@myhost ~]$ lsmod | grep ath
ath_hal 258304 0
[miesnerd@myhost ~]$ su
Password:
bash-3.2# dhcpcd eth0
bash-3.2# modprobe ath_pci
bash-3.2# lsmod | grep ath
ath_rate_sample 15744 1
ath_pci 194744 0
wlan 260384 4 wlan_scan_sta,ath_rate_sample,ath_pci
ath_hal 258304 3 ath_rate_sample,ath_pci
bash-3.2# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wifi0 no wireless extensions.

ath0 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:"" Nickname:""
Mode:Managed Channel:0 Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:0 kb/s Tx-Power:0 dBm Sensitivity=1/1
Retry:off RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=0/70 Signal level=0 dBm Noise level=0 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

bash-3.2# ifconfig ath0 up

miesnerd · 2008-07-26 20:27:48

ok nevermind, that didnt work. I went to panera bread (where ive never had a problem connecting instantly) and kwifimanager acted like it connected, but no data was transferred. What gives? What am I missing?

kdrumm · 2008-07-28 00:22:35

I'm not familiar with kmanager. I use wicd you might try that.
Just follow the wiki
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wicd

tofu · 2008-07-28 02:31:22

Right - with wicd, sometimes when I connect - it seems like it connected but I can't do anything.

If so, try using "dhcpcd ath0" from the command line - while connecting. Works for me. YMMV

Arch Linux

#1 2008-07-25 02:00:15

atheros wifi help in laptop

#2 2008-07-25 07:22:50

Re: atheros wifi help in laptop

#3 2008-07-25 07:46:07

Re: atheros wifi help in laptop

#4 2008-07-25 08:16:54

Re: atheros wifi help in laptop

#5 2008-07-25 08:28:10

Re: atheros wifi help in laptop

#6 2008-07-25 15:45:18

Re: atheros wifi help in laptop

#7 2008-07-25 22:01:15

Re: atheros wifi help in laptop

#8 2008-07-26 01:12:17

Re: atheros wifi help in laptop

#9 2008-07-26 10:49:52

Re: atheros wifi help in laptop

#10 2008-07-26 20:27:48

Re: atheros wifi help in laptop

#11 2008-07-28 00:22:35

Re: atheros wifi help in laptop

#12 2008-07-28 02:31:22

Re: atheros wifi help in laptop

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