Linux Wireless Woes

731 Views 13 Replies 7 Participants Last post by chemicalfan, Mar 23, 2009

IEATFISH

Discussion Starter · Mar 17, 2009

Well, it seems that wireless is the one thing that always comes and bites me in the bum. I just installed PCLinuxOS on my laptop and the wireless isn't even recognized. The output of iwconfig and ifconfig are missing any mention of a wireless interface.

lspci -v however gives me:

Quote:

06:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
Subsystem: Askey Computer Corp. Device 7141
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
Memory at f0100000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [50] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit- Queue=0/0
Enable-
Capabilities: [60] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [90] MSI-X: Enable- Mask- TabSize=1
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting <?>
Capabilities: [140] Virtual Channel <?>
Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00

So it sees the card and all, but is doesn't show up where I need it. Also, the PCLinuxOS control center wizard for setting up a network doesn't see it either. Any ideas? I have madwifi installed. That yusually solves it on other distros.

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invisiblek

· #2 · Mar 17, 2009

honestly pclinuxos was nothing but a pain in the butt for me. personally id recommend ubuntu, it's hardware wizard should automatically configure your atheros card

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IEATFISH

Discussion Starter · #3 · Mar 17, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by invisiblek

honestly pclinuxos was nothing but a pain in the butt for me. personally id recommend ubuntu, it's hardware wizard should automatically configure your atheros card

I've used Ubuntu on this laptop as well and it just never did it for me. I think PCLinuxOS has a much cleaner interface. And compiz is running wonderfully on my ATI card as well. Always a plus.

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DigitalSonata

· #4 · Mar 17, 2009

try

Code:

Code:

lsmod | grep -i ath && lsmod | grep -i madwifi

to see if any modules for it are loaded.

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chemicalfan

· #5 · Mar 17, 2009

Madwifi is what you need for Atheros wireless adaptors (there are instructions on the madwifi site)

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IEATFISH

Discussion Starter · #6 · Mar 17, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by chemicalfan

Madwifi is what you need for Atheros wireless adaptors (there are instructions on the madwifi site)

Yeah, I have them installed. Appears they may not be loading though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DigitalSonata

try
Code:

Code:

lsmod | grep -i ath && lsmod | grep -i madwifi

to see if any modules for it are loaded.

That doesn't give me anything. It just goes to the next command line. I would assume that is a no then. Do I need to start the madwifi module somehow?

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thiussat

· #7 · Mar 17, 2009

You could try :

Code:

Code:

modprobe madwifi

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IEATFISH

Discussion Starter · #8 · Mar 17, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by thiussat

You could try :

Code:

Code:

modprobe madwifi

It returns:

Code:

Code:

FATAL: Module madwifi not found

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chemicalfan

· #9 · Mar 17, 2009

It's probably
Code:

Code:

sudo rmmod ath5k
sudo modprobe ath_pci

Reboot, then see how that goes. You may need to manually add ath5k to the blacklist (not sure how that's done in PCLinuxOS)

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HardwaterH4ck3r

· #10 · Mar 17, 2009

u try ndiswrapper?

Even though it's a little esoteric, I always try ndiswrapper when i have a wireless problem and it has worked about 2/3 of the time.

Worth a shot eh?

Download the windows2k version of the driver first and foremost and put it somewhere you will remember it.

navigate there in console: For this demonstration, it's on your desktop:

Code:

Code:

cd /home/[user]/Desktop
mkdir WiFi
mv [filename] WiFi/
cd WiFi/
unzip [filename]
rm *.zip
cd ..
ndiswrapper -i [pathname of the new INF file you just unzipped]
ndiswrapper -l
modprobe ndiswrapper 
dmesg | grep ndis *this will tell you if it is working right*

Now check iwconfig to see if it worked....

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