Getting AR242x, Jaunty, madwifi to connect

[dochawk]

Another computer, another round with oddball wireless . . .

This time, it's a Toshiba Satellite L305D-S5940, with Dual Athlon -64, and (according to lspci) an Atheros AAR242x 802.11abg Wireless.

I installed wicd.

I've compiled madwifi .10.5.6 by downloading, making, and installing by sudo.

I've add ath_pci to /etc/modules, and lsmod shows that it's loading.

I've rebooted (several times, actually).

wicd finds no wireless networks.

I replaced it with networkmanager-kde-kde3, which at least sees the networks, but doesn't connect.

Given past history and the path of least resistance, I've put wicd back in (I have it running on two other satellites here, one of which is Atherose (I got the sourcecode fromit), and this one which is Intel).

Under preferences of wicd, I've used the default wext and madwifi as the WPA supplicant driver, but neither even sees a network.

Given that knetworkmanager saw the networks, I must be missing somthing simple here . . .

hawk

[lmilano]

Re: Getting AR242x, Jaunty, madwifi to connect

Many of the atheros are now supported out of the box in jaunty. Did you try that before compiling it? If this is an upgrade, make sure the ath*k modules are not blacklisted in /etc/modprobe.d/

[dochawk]

Re: Getting AR242x, Jaunty, madwifi to connect

Yeah, I tried out of the box, actually expecting it to work.

/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-ath_pci.conf contains

blacklist ath_pci

(and nothing else but comments).

Do I need to delete this? (But wouldn't it be overriden by /etc/modules? lsmod shows that ath_pci is loading.)

And there's still the peculiar behavior that knetworkmanager sees the network (though it doesn't connect), while wicd sees no networks.

thanks

hawk

[lmilano]

Re: Getting AR242x, Jaunty, madwifi to connect

I would definitely try commenting it out, and undoing the manual install you made, if you can. I can't promise it will fix your issue, but it fixed mine on my eeepc (and I found about this because other people proposed the same workaround). I am not sure whether or not it gets overridden, I do remember a very frustrating set of experiments until I found out about this ...

[dochawk]

Re: Getting AR242x, Jaunty, madwifi to connect

no luck.

I did a make uninstall, make clean, commented it out, make, make install, reboot.

Still "no wireless networks detetected (and the machine is right next to this machine which is using the wireless connection).



thanks

hawk

[vinnywright]

Re: Getting AR242x, Jaunty, madwifi to connect

I had a similer experiance with a linksys wirless card.

01:0d.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5008 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
vinny@Kubuntu:~$

and had NO luck with the ath5k,ath9k or ath_pci..........I had to load the XP drivers with ndiswrapper.................I think the ath9k would let me see networks but could not conect.

with ndiswrapper it's ben fine.................but I dont use wep or the sutch eather.

VINNY

[lmilano]

Re: Getting AR242x, Jaunty, madwifi to connect

The fix seems simple (if you can install stuff with an ethernet card or from the cd). Try installing linux-backports-modules-jaunty

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...er/+bug/354548

[dochawk]

Re: Getting AR242x, Jaunty, madwifi to connect

That fix was for a 5000 series, though, not a 2400.

I've tried everything so far except ndis, which I guess I'll try today--but boy is it painful compared to the FreeBSD parallel version, whose name I forget.

hawk

[assettt]

Re: Getting AR242x, Jaunty, madwifi to connect

I had a similar problem since upgrading from 8.10 to 9.04. My wireless card (Phillips snn 6500) with the atheros chip wasn't being activated and neither knetworkmanager nor wicd could find any networks. Later I realised the proprietory hardware drivers were being activated but not in use, but after I deactivated them, then reactivated I was soon able to connect to my network. I'm yet to work out how to make the proprietory drivers activated by default and in use after a reboot/start.

[vinnywright]

Re: Getting AR242x, Jaunty, madwifi to connect

That fix was for a 5000 series, though, not a 2400.

I've tried everything so far except ndis, which I guess I'll try today--but boy is it painful compared to the FreeBSD parallel version, whose name I forget.

hawk

if doing the ndiswrapper thing pleas do ALL the comands not just -i and modprobe as some have done in the past ;

vinny@Kubuntu:~$ ndiswrapper
install/manage Windows drivers for ndiswrapper

usage: ndiswrapper OPTION
-i inffile install driver described by 'inffile'
-a devid driver use installed 'driver' for 'devid' (dangerous)
-r driver remove 'driver'
-l list installed drivers
-m write configuration for modprobe
-ma write module alias configuration for all devices
-mi write module install configuration for all devices
-v report version information

where 'devid' is either PCIID or USBID of the form XXXX:XXXX,
as reported by 'lspci -n' or 'lsusb' for the card

the m,ma, and mi options are nesesarey...............but from your post's I gess you know that :P

modprobe ndiswrapper

should actavate it after your done

VINNY