Atheros WLAN card do not work


Forum: Networking
Topic: Atheros WLAN card do not work
started by: mrmarley

Posted by mrmarley on Jan. 23 2007,21:24
Hi everyone!

After I spend 2 days trying to setup my wlan pcmcia card, I hope you guys in the forum can help me.
First I hope that DSL will detect the card automatically, but that did not work.
So I tried to get it to work through madwifi(no wifi0 is created, the wlanconfig said: "No such device") and ndiswrapper, that did not work, too.
So you are my last hope :D
My Hardware:
IBM Thinkpad 380z
300 mbz, 64 mb RAM
and an Atheros Wlan Card plugged into the pc card slot.

The Info of the PCMCIA Tool say:
PRODID_1="Atheros Communication, Inc."
PRODID_2="AR5001-0000-0000"
PRODID_3="Wireless LAN Reference Card"
PRODID_4="00"
MANFID=0271,0012
FUNCID=6

Windows XP accept the Card and work like a charm(with the driver installed).

Thank you for help ;)

Posted by Onyarian on Jan. 23 2007,22:11
My Atheros pcmcia works perfect.

It works with madwifi-ng embeded in DSL 3.2, you don't need ndiswrapper. It's recognice as ath0 (no wifi0).

type:
iwconfig
you see:   eth0     no wireless extensions
                 lo          no wireless extensions
                 ath0      IEEE 802.11g    ESSID:""
                               etc...

type:
sudo ifconfig ath0 up
iwlist ath0 scan       (this gives you information of the access point)
sudo iwconfig ath0 essid "blablabla"    (type the essid of the access point)

now the next depends if you connect with or without DHCP
I make it without DHCP:
sudo ifconfig ath0 <my IP adress>  netmask <netmask> up
sudo route add default gw <my gateway address>

now the next depends if you connect with WEP encryption
sudo iwconfig ath0 key <wep key in hex>           or
sudo iwconfig ath0 key <"s:ASCII string of key">

and that's all for my conection, it works perfectly.

To connect after a boot, I have nade a file .sh with all this instructions and with an icon on desktop. So when I want to connect I click on this icon and RUN.

OK?

Posted by mrmarley on Jan. 23 2007,22:30
Hi!
First thank you for the very fast reply!
When i type "iwconfig" in the console only the loopback device is detected
"lo     no wireless extensiones"
thats why i mess around with ndiswrapper and the madwifi thing as  uci.

Posted by roberts on Jan. 23 2007,23:56
mrmarley, what version of DSL are run running?
madwifi was upgraded in v3.2. Please try v3.2

Posted by mrmarley on Jan. 24 2007,20:48
Hi again!
I use dsl-3.2 but the card is not usable.
I type iwconfig and only
"lo      no wireless extensiones" appears...
But in the PCMCIA tool the card is present, so what can i do?

Posted by roberts on Jan. 24 2007,21:06
Is your card seen? What does PCMCIA tool show? Use ident tab.
Is this an old lappy that does not support cardbus? Or an irq conflict? Need more information.

Posted by mrmarley on Jan. 24 2007,23:22
the ident tab shows:
Code Sample

Socket 0:
no product info available
Socket 1:
product info:"Atheros Communication, Inc.", "AR5001-0000-0000","Wireless LAN Reference Card","00"
manfid: 0x0271, 0x0012
function: 6 (network)

i have tried both sockets

more infos to the lappy: < http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:380Z >

thank you again for spending your time

Posted by Onyarian on Jan. 25 2007,16:24
Your ident tab output is exactly the same lake me
Posted by roberts on Jan. 25 2007,16:42
Onyarian, thanks for letting us know.

mrmarley, this might mean an irq conflict. Take a look at

dmesg | grep -i irq

Also might try booting with the option pci=assign_busses

Posted by mrmarley on Jan. 25 2007,19:03
hmmm, thats the output with and without the option"pci=assign_busses"
Code Sample

dsl@box:~$ dmesg | grep -i irq
<4>PCI: ACPI tables contain no PCI IRQ routing entries
<6>PCI: Using IRQ router PIIX/ICH [8086/7110] at 00:06.0
<6>PIIX4: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
<4>ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
<6>PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:06.2
<6>usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x8000, IRQ 11
<6>PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:02.0
<6>PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:03.0
<6>PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:02.1
<6>Yenta ISA IRQ mask 0x06b8, PCI irq 11
<6>Yenta ISA IRQ mask 0x06b8, PCI irq 11
<6>Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI ISAPNP enabled
<6>ttyS00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A

Posted by roberts on Jan. 25 2007,19:12
My Atheros is using irq4.
If you are not using serial ports, is it possible to go into BIOS and not assign or reserve it.

Posted by mrmarley on Jan. 25 2007,20:32
Maybe this helps....
Code Sample
dsl@box:~$ cardctl config
Socket 0:
 Vcc 3.3V  Vpp1 3.3V  Vpp2 3.3V
 interface type is "cardbus"
 irq 11 [exclusive] [level]
 function 0:
Socket 1:
 not configured

Code Sample

dsl@box:~$ lspci
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (AGP disabled) (rev 02)
0000:00:02.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1250 (rev 02)
0000:00:02.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1250 (rev 02)
0000:00:03.0 VGA compatible controller: Neomagic Corporation NM2200 [MagicGraph 256AV] (rev 20)
0000:00:06.0 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
0000:00:06.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
0000:00:06.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
0000:00:06.3 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)
0000:01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Illegal Vendor ID: Unknown device 0013 (rev 01)

but why is the card detected as "Illegal Vendor ID: Unknown device 0013 (rev 01) ?

Posted by mrmarley on Jan. 25 2007,20:45
http://prism54.org/punbb/viewtopic.php?pid=2335
maybe thats the solution, a thinkpad is involved there too and the guy solved it...but for a prism54 card. Seems that I got to find the file were I can change that for the atheros...

Posted by roberts on Jan. 25 2007,20:51
My Atheros works great. Mine is shown exactly the same way. Unknown device 0013 (Rev 01)

If you do a lspci -vv and look for irq
Mine shows Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 4

Many times plugging more modern hardware (wireless pcmcia)  in older laptops will result in irq conflict. irq 3 and irq 4 are usually for serial ports.

Or it could be a thinkpad issue.



Posted by mrmarley on Jan. 25 2007,21:31
ahh now i got it...
the usb controller and the atheros  pcmcia card got the same IRQ. And the BIOS for the Thinkpads can not assign IRQs...
hmm, maybe there another way.
I keep trying.

Posted by mrmarley on Jan. 25 2007,22:29
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Installing_Slackware_10.1_on_a_PC110#PCMCIA_configuration
that IS the Solution (hope so). I could prevent the pcmcia card form taking IRQ 11.
But in the Frugal Install I don't know how to change this file...

Posted by ottershaw on Feb. 07 2007,20:22
Hello All,

DSL v 3.2 is Damn Near Perfect !  If I can just get this one little issue solved, I'll swear off WINBLOZE forever.

My problem is similar to mrmarley's above.  It involves not being able to access a WPA enabled AP.  The important difference is that in my case the card is recognized as interface ath0.  

The D-Link WNA-2330 (wireless a,b,g) on my Thinkpad 600e works perfectly under Knoppix 5.1.1 using either the wext or madwifi drivers.

wpa_supplicant -iath0 -Dwext -c/path/to/wpa_supplicant.conf
pump -iath0

The commands above work great in Knoppix, but bork big-time in DSL3.2.

ERROR message reads in part:

wpa_driver_wext_set_wpa
ioctl[SIOCSIWAUTH]Operation not supported
Failed to enable WPA in the driver  

There seem to be some difference(s) in the wpa_supplicant on DSL 3.2.  (-ng ?)

I have read most of the postings on the site related to the wpa_supplicant issue and have tried most of the suggestions. The ndiswrapper method also failed to enable wpa on the card.  FWIW ndiswrapper doesn't work in KNOPPIX 5.1.1 with this card.

Please let me know if more info will help.

Hardware:
IBM Thinkpad 600e
400 mhz, 384 mb RAM
Atheros Wlan Card plugged into the pc card slot.
(changing slots does not help)

Output of the PCMCIA Tool:
PRODID_1="Atheros Communication, Inc."
PRODID_2="AR5001-0000-0000"
PRODID_3="Wireless LAN Reference Card"
PRODID_4="00"
MANFID=0271,0012
FUNCID=6

Cheers,

Gordon Ottershaw
Pittsburgh, PA

Posted by Onyarian on Feb. 08 2007,19:11
I have the same problem.
It works perfect with WEP, but i can't make it to work with WPA (wpa_supplicant).
this card is configurated with madwifi.

D-Link DWL-G650 cardbus, Compaq armada 1700, DSL 3.2,  96ram.

Thanks

Posted by jimmit on Feb. 12 2007,04:07
ottershaw/onyarian,

I'm using a DLINK DWL-AG650 to connect to a WPA access point using the ndiswrapper and wpa_supplicant.  madwifi wasn't working with wpa_supplicant for me and I actually had to unload madwifi to get it working.

Posted by Onyarian on Feb. 12 2007,15:47
jimmit,

thanks for your information

perhaps I wait to the next release (DSL3.3?) and try it then, and try with ndiswrapper if it then not work.

Posted by john.martzouco on Dec. 08 2007,11:33
Having same issue... ath0 works fine with WEP... can't figure out how to hook up WPA.

Do I need to rmmod any or all of the ath_ modules and then use ndiswrapper?

Posted by john.martzouco on Dec. 08 2007,17:32
Okay, following fightie's first post from < this thread >, I've removed the ath modules in this order:

Code Sample
rmmod ath_pci
rmmod ath_rate_sample
rmmod ath_hal


Then I installed ndiswrapper (only needs to be done once):

Code Sample
ndiswrapper -i <file>.inf


Then I probed ndiswrapper (might need to do every boot):

Code Sample
modprobe ndiswrapper


Then I checked status (not necessary for functionality):

Code Sample
iwconfig
dmesg


Then I got WPA running, using this < trimmed down configuration file (dots replaced by my settings) >:

Code Sample
network={
 ssid="...."
 psk="...."
}


The startup command for WPA:

Code Sample
wpa_supplicant -B dd -c <wpa_settings.conf> -i wlan0 -D ndiswrapper


Then I ran the GUI netcardconfig from the DSL Control Panel and assigned static IP... gateway and DNS servers came in automatically.  When I hit Apply and had the "reset next time" option ticked, the utility created /opt/wlan0.sh for me.

Finally, I added all of this to my /opt/bootlocal.sh as follows, using the wlan0.sh created for me:

Code Sample
# dynex cardbus wpa
rmmod ath_pci
rmmod ath_rate_sample
rmmod ath_hal
modprobe ndiswrapper
wpa_supplicant -B dd -c /home/dsl/config/wifi/wpa_supplicant_short.conf -i wlan0 -D ndiswrapper
/home/dsl/config/wifi/wlan0.sh &


Is there a boot code to disable the ath_ modeules from loading up?

Is there an advantage to leaving the ampersand after the execution of wlan0.sh?

Posted by curaga on Dec. 09 2007,12:24
If you add the modules to the blacklist file in /etc, they won't be loaded.. Don't remember the name of that file though, might be something like blacklist.modprobe

The advantage is that boot can continue while your wlan gets settings in the background, ie faster boot.

Posted by john.martzouco on Dec. 09 2007,15:24
Does anyone know what the name of the blacklist file is please?

Thanks

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