Atheros Problem (again)

Forum: Networking
Topic: Atheros Problem (again)
started by: CecilC

Posted by CecilC on Aug. 19 2005,04:47

Hi all,

I'm new to DSL. Lots of searching hasn't yet produced a solution but it seems like it should be easy, a duh moment.

I've got a old laptop (Compaq 1590), and a wirelss card, a Proximn/Orinico Gold. DSL 1.4 knows the card is there (dmesg and lspci show that). The modprobe ath_pci at boot loads the module with no more than the normal complaints and ath0 is created.

Except it doesn't work when I try bring it up. "cardctl info" says there is no card it knows about in the slot. lspci knows all about it. It works in Puppy Linux so I know the card is good and madwifi supports it. Sure enough there was a hint in one of the log files about a missing "hal" (if memory serves and it may not).

It may be a red herring but when Puppy Linux configures the card there are log messages about hardware queues and those don't show up on the DSL logs.

Any advice?

Posted by ke4nt1 on Aug. 19 2005,06:27

My Orinoco Gold card works out-of-the-box..
Are you on a dhcp network?

I can usually run lwconfig from the DSLPanel,
enter in my channel, essid, and wep key
( in the format AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF:GG:H:II:JJ:KK:LL:MM )
and it connects to my wireless router no problem.

Once connected, make sure to backup the myiwconfig.sh file in /opt,
and add the line 'myiwconfig.sh to your /opt/bootlocal file,
for the next time you reboot your system..
It's automatic from there with every reboot.

and mine shows up as eth0, not ath0

Let us know

73
ke4nt

Posted by CecilC on Aug. 19 2005,20:32

I don't think I'm going to get if/iwconfig to work if 'cardctl' won't see the card. lspci sees an Atheros AR5211 after booting. ifconfig -a sees an ath0 with the mac address and IRQ, etc. ifconfig ath0 or pump -i ath0 returns a short error and dmesg shows
ath0: unable to reset , hal status 3
for each attempt to configure it by hand.

In puppy linux the modprobe ath_pci is in the rc.local (mine) and is the last thing done. In DSL, the modprobe or insmod is happening much sooner in the boot up. I think that might be a clue.

Thanks.

Posted by CecilC on Aug. 20 2005,02:46

Following up my own post,

I'm guessing that the madwifi module in DSL 1.4 isn't current enough for my card. More than a quess. I'm working on compiling the latest madwifi on DSL (hard drive install) for DSL. I've got the gcc.dsl installed and gnu-util.dsl and the kernel-source.dsl and the madwifi driver source. make burps up errors suggesting maybe the kernel source isn't there.

Posted by ke4nt1 on Aug. 20 2005,02:54

Perhaps a different version of the Orinoco Gold?

Many posts here about success with a true Orinoco Gold..

There is a kernelsource.dsl in the system area of the repository.
That should help you in your quest.

73
ke4nt

Posted by CecilC on Aug. 20 2005,06:37

It's a new card but who knows how new ;^) AR2511 Rev 8.

I let my Fedora Core 2 box compile the madwifi driver to so see what a full linux distribution will do with the makefiles. Compiled just fine. The kernelsource.dsl is not enough of the source tree, I suspect. Is there a download for the entire DSL 1.4 source (groan).

Thanks.

Posted by CecilC on Aug. 25 2005,03:57

Quoting Inspecter Clousou (sp>), "I have solve-ed" the problem.

I still don't what why DSL 1.4 won't see my card. I suspect a race condition in module loading, hotplug and pcmia modules.

With some advice from "tempestuous" and a whole lot of time, I built a kernel and madwifi modules using just DSL and it works! The kernel and the card! No cross build environment needed. No other host needed except for the multitude of downloads.

Details can be found on my < blog entry. > Warning. It's not for the point and click folks. I probably missed a step in the instructions. YMMV, yada, yada.

Posted by cantormath on Aug. 29 2005,08:41

i am having the same problem with the Atheros AR5004G Wireless Network Adapter #2, DSL can see it, but I can get the damn thing to get on the network, what am I doing wrong?

cantormath

Posted by CecilC on Aug. 29 2005,10:08

Cantormath,

I don't know the details of your card by the numbers and brand words. But start at the beginning. What does "lspci" show?

Is it a PCI card or a PCMCIA/Cardbus card? If the latter, what does 'cardctl info' show for the slot the card is in? What version of DSL are you running? Hdinstall or running from CD? Are they error messages related to the card when you do a 'dmesg'

First we need to know if or how linux sees the card and has the drivers for it. Then we can figure out how to configure it or worry about what you might be doing wrong. There are bugs in DSL and madwifi and certain cards in certain situations.

Although it may be a false lead, who makes the card? how do you know it's a AR5004G. When did you buy the card. Is it 802 a/b/g or some combo? I know less than dirt about wireless, that's why I'm asking the simple questions.

Of course the obvious question. Do you know that the card works with your base station/router/access-point in another OS or Linux variant?