Arch Linux

flintmecha

Member

Registered: 2008-07-27

Posts: 41

[SOLVED] Wireless Setup - can't be more confusing!

I'm trying to install Arch on my new Thinkpad T400. I have no ethernet available.

I am running the CD and I am logged in as root@archlive. Here is the result of lspci | grep -i net:

[root@archlive ~]# lspci | grep -i net
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Unknown device 10f5 (rev 03)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5006EG 802.11 b/g Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)

Following the Wiki's Beginner's Guide, under the heading "Wireless Quickstart (If you need wireless connectivity during the installation process)"
-Here is hwdetect --show-net:

[root@archlive ~]# hwdetect --show-net
NET    : mac80211 ath5k ath_hal ath_pci wlan cfg80211

The next step, according to the guide, is lsmod | grep <name_of_module>, but I don't know which module to choose, so I do lsmod | grep ath:

[root@archlive ~]# lsmod | grep ath
ath_pci            184364 0
wlan               238064 1 ath_pci
ath_hal            231136 1 ath_pci
ath5k               92292 0
mac80211           130316 1 ath5k

-I don't really know what to make of this, but I assume it means those modules were loaded with udev.

Here's where I get really stuck:
The next step is to do iwconfig:

[root@archlive ~]# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions

Why is lo the only thing that is being listed? It doesn't make any sense.

Can somebody help me figure out what I'm doing wrong, and what I should be doing? Following the Wiki guide isn't getting me anywhere.

finferflu

Forum Fellow

From: Manchester, UK

Registered: 2007-06-21

Posts: 1,899

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless Setup - can't be more confusing!

Does ifconfig show any other interface aside lo?

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flintmecha

Member

Registered: 2008-07-27

Posts: 41

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless Setup - can't be more confusing!

Does ifconfig show any other interface aside lo?

Nope.

schuay

Package Maintainer (PM)

From: Austria

Registered: 2008-08-19

Posts: 564

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless Setup - can't be more confusing!

check the output of "ifconfig -a"
if your wireless is listed there, do "ifconfig <iface name> up"
then follow the rest of the steps (iwconfig, etc...)

fwojciec

Member

Registered: 2007-05-20

Posts: 1,411

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless Setup - can't be more confusing!

You have to use either the ath5k driver or the madwifi driver -- if both are loaded neither will work.  So, basically, if you want to use madwifi blacklist ath5k in rc.conf; if you want to use the ath5k driver uninstall madwifi.

flintmecha

Member

Registered: 2008-07-27

Posts: 41

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless Setup - can't be more confusing!

Doing "ifconfig -a" still only shows lo

I blacklisted ath5k and it still won't work.

Here's my rc.conf:

#
# /etc/rc.conf - Main Configuration for Arch Linux
#

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# LOCALIZATION
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# LOCALE: available languages can be listed with the 'locale -a' command
# HARDWARECLOCK: set to "UTC" or "localtime"
# USEDIRECTISA: use direct I/O requests instead of /dev/rtc for hwclock
# TIMEZONE: timezones are found in /usr/share/zoneinfo
# KEYMAP: keymaps are found in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps
# CONSOLEFONT: found in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts (only needed for non-US)
# CONSOLEMAP: found in /usr/share/kbd/consoletrans
# USECOLOR: use ANSI color sequences in startup messages
#
LOCALE="en_US.utf8"
HARDWARECLOCK="localtime"
USEDIRECTISA="no"
TIMEZONE="US Eastern"
KEYMAP="us"
CONSOLEFONT=
CONSOLEMAP=
USECOLOR="yes"

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# HARDWARE
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# MOD_AUTOLOAD: Allow autoloading of modules at boot and when needed
# MOD_BLACKLIST: Prevent udev from loading these modules
# MODULES: Modules to load at boot-up. Prefix with a ! to blacklist.
#
# NOTE: Use of 'MOD_BLACKLIST' is deprecated. Please use ! in the MODULES array.
#
MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes"
#MOD_BLACKLIST=() #deprecated
MODULES=(!ath5k ath_hal ath_pci wlan snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm-oss snd-hwdep snd-page-alloc snd-pcm snd-timer snd snd-hda-intel soundcore)

# Scan for LVM volume groups at startup, required if you use LVM
USELVM="no"

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# NETWORKING
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# HOSTNAME: Hostname of machine. Should also be put in /etc/hosts
#
HOSTNAME="arch"

# Use 'ifconfig -a' or 'ls /sys/class/net/' to see all available interfaces.
#
# Interfaces to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each interface then list in INTERFACES
#   - prefix an entry in INTERFACES with a ! to disable it
#   - no hyphens in your interface names - Bash doesn't like it
# 
# DHCP:     Set your interface to "dhcp" (eth0="dhcp")
# Wireless: See network profiles below
#
eth0="eth0 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255"
INTERFACES=(eth0)

# Routes to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each route then list in ROUTES
#   - prefix an entry in ROUTES with a ! to disable it
#
gateway="default gw 192.168.0.1"
ROUTES=(!gateway)
 
# Enable these network profiles at boot-up.  These are only useful
# if you happen to need multiple network configurations (ie, laptop users)
#   - set to 'menu' to present a menu during boot-up (dialog package required)
#   - prefix an entry with a ! to disable it
#
# Network profiles are found in /etc/network.d
#
# This now requires the netcfg package
#
#NETWORKS=(main)

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# DAEMONS
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Daemons to start at boot-up (in this order)
#   - prefix a daemon with a ! to disable it
#   - prefix a daemon with a @ to start it up in the background
#
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network netfs crond)

fwojciec

Member

Registered: 2007-05-20

Posts: 1,411

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless Setup - can't be more confusing!

See if the module is still loaded (lspci | grep ath5k).  It is possible that the ramdisk still loads the module even though you had blacklisted it.  The solution is to regenerate kernel images (mkinitcpio -p kernel26) and reboot afterwards.

Last edited by fwojciec (2008-11-15 17:17:14)

flintmecha

Member

Registered: 2008-07-27

Posts: 41

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless Setup - can't be more confusing!

lspci | grep ath5k doesn't show any output.

fwojciec

Member

Registered: 2007-05-20

Posts: 1,411

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless Setup - can't be more confusing!

Can you get it to work using the ath5k driver rather than madwifi?

flintmecha

Member

Registered: 2008-07-27

Posts: 41

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless Setup - can't be more confusing!

No dice.

I really don't know what to do at this point, other than maybe trying to redo the CD install again. I just don't understand how, unless the Wiki is missing important details in important places, I can be having this trouble by following those steps.

Is there anything I need to change to my rc.conf file? Like for example the interfaces section?

Last edited by flintmecha (2008-11-15 18:07:35)

fwojciec

Member

Registered: 2007-05-20

Posts: 1,411

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless Setup - can't be more confusing!

I think the problem might be the wifi card you have on your system.  I did a quick search of the forums for AR5006EG and a whole lot of threads about wireless problems came up.  Maybe you'll have to use ndiswrapper + windows driver...  Reinstalling, most likely, is not going to change anything.  I'd suggest researching the issue on the forums and googling about it -- maybe you'll find some solution that way.

flintmecha

Member

Registered: 2008-07-27

Posts: 41

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless Setup - can't be more confusing!

Okay! I finally got it to work!! I absolutely MUST share this solution, because I believe there will be more people with this trouble.

I first decided to go with a Windows driver and ndiswrapper. So I headed to the Atheros site and grabbed the most recent Windows XP 32-bit driver from this page: http://www.atheros.cz/download.php?athe … G&system=1 (most recent as of this post is version 7.6.0.239 dated 04.07.2008)

I managed to install it with ndiswrapper by doing

ndiswrapper -i netathw.inf

and no problems seemed to occur.

HOWEVER!! My wireless interface still wasn't showing up. After more searching, I came across this post in another thread: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 73#p311273

I read over ralvez's steps many times and could not figure out why it worked for him and not me. But then I noticed his post date, almost a year ago.

I then went back to the Atheros page and scrolled down to find a previos version of the driver. I don't think it's the exact same one he used, but I ended up with version 5.3.0.56 dated 25.06.2007. I tried this with ndiswrapper and BINGO. I finally have wireless internet with Arch. I don't know exactly when the Atheros drivers on that page "stopped" working with ndiswrapper, but apparently that latest version is useless. So to anybody else having the same problem: I suggest tryng an older version of the Windows Atheros driver with ndiswrapper.

schuay

Package Maintainer (PM)

From: Austria

Registered: 2008-08-19

Posts: 564

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless Setup - can't be more confusing!

great good to hear you got it working

linko

Member

From: Mississippi

Registered: 2008-12-06

Posts: 16

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless Setup - can't be more confusing!

I've got an Atheros AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01) in a Thinkpad X61, and I had the same problem.  No ouput from iwconfig other than lo and eth0.

I edited the /etc/rc.conf file, and put a bang in front of ath5k (!ath5k), and rebooted, and everything was fine then.

Misfit138

Misfit Emeritus

From: USA

Registered: 2006-11-27

Posts: 4,189

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless Setup - can't be more confusing!

I've got an Atheros AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01) in a Thinkpad X61, and I had the same problem.  No ouput from iwconfig other than lo and eth0.

I edited the /etc/rc.conf file, and put a bang in front of ath5k (!ath5k), and rebooted, and everything was fine then.

::Thumbup::

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Chance

Member

Registered: 2008-12-05

Posts: 99

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless Setup - can't be more confusing!

flintmecha: Can you elaborate on the steps you took to get wireless working? I don't get how you can download a file from a website using a fresh install of arch linux.