Wifi Atheros on FC6 (Dell Precision M70)

japega · 03-21-2007, 02:17 AM

Hi There I have a few of problems traying to configure my wifi Atheros.

Fisrt I have buy by separated my Atheros wifi card and trying to configure on my Fedora Core 6 distribution.

I have install the madwifi driver by rpm's archives. I have download this files:

madwifi-0.9.3-34.fc6.at.i386.rpm
madwifi-hal-kmdl-2.6.20-1.2925.fc6-0.9.3-34.fc6.at.i686.rpm
madwifi-kmdl-2.6.20-1.2925.fc6-0.9.3-34.fc6.at.i686.rpm

and get installed by this command:

# rpm -ivh madwifi*.rpm

and I dont have problems with this, but I can't see my wifi card on the network hardware to configure it. Searching I found that I need to create an archive: /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ath0 and I create it whit this info:

DEVICE=ath0
ONBOOT=yes
TYPE=Wireless
MODE=Managed
EESID=mi_eesid
CHANNEL=1
RATE=auto
TXPOWER=auto
BOOTPROTO=static
IPADDR=
BROADCAST=
NETMASK=
NETWORK=

After reboot my system I can see the card in the network hardware, but I can't get it up.

I found that I have to do some command like: ifconfig, iwconfig, modprobe, lspci, and others, but all of that send me the same message: command not found.

Please, I need your help.

Thanks.

P.D. Sorry about my english, is not my natural language.

shane25119 · 03-21-2007, 09:30 PM

Perhaps you should use your distro's package search function for those commands to install them. Alternatively you could try ndiswrapper- which will also require those commands, I installed an Atheros card using ndiswrapper- no problems at all.

petespin27 · 03-21-2007, 09:48 PM

Quote:

ifconfig, iwconfig, modprobe, lspci, and others,

Fedora, for some reason, requires the full path to these commands by default, and they are located in /sbin. As an example:

Code:

/sbin/ifconfig

will tell you the state of your network devices.

By what you have described, it seems that the drivers are installed correctly. This is assuming that you are using the 2.6.20-1.2695.i686 kernel, if you are using a different kernel version, you need the madwifi-kmdl and madwifi-hal-kmdl to match.

I would suggest using NetworkManager to manage your card. It is very easy to use and is very helpful when you are on the road with the laptop.

Install it via yum, if it isn't installed already. You can start it by issuing the command:

Code:

/etc/init.d/NetworkManager start

Then run the command

Code:

nm-applet --sm-disable

Click on the Icon in the system tray and you should see a list of wireless networks available.

If all is well, have NetworkManager checked in the Services under System-->Administration.

I hope this helps

japega · 03-21-2007, 11:13 PM

Hi there, thanks for the help, but doesn't work yet.

When I run the NetworkManager it found my eth0 conection, but don't find the wireless. If I go to the System - Administration - Network menú I see the wifi device, but when I try to put it up I have an error message:

Do not get active the ath0 device!
/sbin/ifup configuration of ath0 not found,
Use: ifup <device name>

Any help? please...

Thanks.

shane25119 · 03-22-2007, 02:13 PM

ifup is a command that will bring the interface up... I would recommend trying ifup ath0 (run this as root/su) and then giving it a go... if I recall correctly a previous poster said you would need to use the full path of that command ie /sbin/ifup ath0

petespin27 · 03-22-2007, 03:23 PM

what does /sbin/ifconfig show?

Also what does /sbin/lsmod|grep ath_pci show?

japega · 03-22-2007, 10:10 PM

When I do:

# /sbin/ifup ath0
/sbin/ifup: configuration of ath0 not found.
Usoe: ifup <device_name>

when:

# /sbin/ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:14:22:E0:18:AF
inet addr:193.168.1.68 Bcast:193.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::214:22ff:fee0:18af/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:1875 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1902 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:963317 (940.7 KiB) TX bytes:354509 (346.2 KiB)
Interrupt:16

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:1720 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1720 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:2345430 (2.2 MiB) TX bytes:2345430 (2.2 MiB)

and when:

# /sbin/lsmod|grep ath_pci
#

when I put the last command it shows nothing...

I think I don't have the configuration of the wifi, but I don't know how to build it. I have de driver installed, but I don't know what's next.

greetings

shane25119 · 03-22-2007, 11:48 PM

That tells me that ath0 is not configured at this time... I have little experience with madwifi- mine is almost exclusively with ndiswrapper.

japega · 03-23-2007, 10:38 AM

Some one can help me to configure the ath0 interface???

Thanks.

knockout_artist · 03-23-2007, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by japega

Some one can help me to configure the ath0 interface???

Thanks.

use this command
#setup
u will see a window select networking option there and then add values like ip address or dhcp.

japega · 03-23-2007, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knockout_artist

use this command
#setup
u will see a window select networking option there and then add values like ip address or dhcp.

Thanks for your help, but that doesn't work. The system not recognize the Atheros WiFi card.

When I do # setup I put the dhcp configuration to my network, but it only functions for the eth0 interface.

I need to configure the ath0 interface.

Thanks

japega · 03-23-2007, 04:58 PM

Hi! I think that the driver is not correctly installed or something is worng with the madwifi software on my Fedora, so I tryed to uninstall the driver and install it again and this happens.

I uninstall the driver madwifi that I had install before, the files:

madwifi-0.9.3-34.fc6.at.i386.rpm
madwifi-hal-kmdl-2.6.20-1.2925.fc6-0.9.3-34.fc6.at.i686.rpm
madwifi-kmdl-2.6.20-1.2925.fc6-0.9.3-34.fc6.at.i686.rpm

and this time I try to install the driver but with the rpm's of livna, that archives are:

madwifi-devel-0.9.3-1.lvn6.i386.rpm
madwifi-0.9.3-1.lvn6.i386.rpm
kmod-madwifi-0.9.3-1.2.6.20_1.2925.fc6.i686.rpm

When I try to do this the system try to download the package: kernel-2.6.20-1.2925.fc6

but when done and trying to install the driver I get this message:

Quote:

[('package kernel-2.6.20-1.2925.fc6 is already installed', (2, None, 0L)), ('file /boot/System.map-2.6.20-1.2925.fc6 from install of kernel-2.6.20-1.2925.fc6 conflicts with file from package kernel-2.6.20-1.2925.fc6', (7, '/boot/System.map-2.6.20-1.2925.fc6', 0L)), ('file /boot/config-2.6.20-1.2925.fc6 from install of kernel-2.6.20-1.2925.fc6 conflicts with file from package kernel-2.6.20-1.2925.fc6', (7, '/boot/config-2.6.20-1.2925.fc6', 0L)), ('file /boot/symvers-2.6.20-1.2925.fc6.gz from install of kernel-2.6.20-1.2925.fc6 conflicts with file from package kernel-2.6.20-1.2925.fc6', (7, '/boot/symvers-2.6.20-1.2925.fc6.gz', 0L)), ('file /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-1.2925.fc6 from install of kernel-2.6.20-1.2925.fc6 conflicts with file from package kernel-2.6.20-1.2925.fc6', (7, '/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-1.2925.fc6', 0L))]

and the driver it doesn't get installed... if I try to install the other files I get no problems.

Any ideas?

Greetings...

petespin27 · 03-24-2007, 07:12 PM

try loading the ath_pci kernel module. If /sbin/lsmod|grep ath_pci shows nothing, the driver isn't loaded, thus the device cannot be configured.

try: /sbin/modprobe ath_pci

japega · 03-25-2007, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by petespin27

try loading the ath_pci kernel module. If /sbin/lsmod|grep ath_pci shows nothing, the driver isn't loaded, thus the device cannot be configured.

try: /sbin/modprobe ath_pci

Hi... I have tryed that and this is the result:

Code:

# /sbin/modprobe ath_pci
WARNING: Error inserting ath_hal (/lib/modules/2.6.20-1.2925.fc6/updates/net/ath_hal.ko): Invalid module format
WARNING: Error inserting wlan (/lib/modules/2.6.20-1.2925.fc6/updates/net/wlan.ko): Invalid module format
FATAL: Error inserting ath_pci (/lib/modules/2.6.20-1.2925.fc6/updates/net/ath_pci.ko): Invalid module format

After this, I have to install the first driver of madwifi.

PTrenholme · 03-25-2007, 10:19 AM

Try running system-config-network. Select your card, then "Edit," and just do a very basic "Wireless" configuration. Be sure to turn off the "Activate device when computer starts" option.

That should create the basic network stuff so NetworkManager can find the device.

Then click in the nm-applet. (In the upper right screen area if you're running GNOME. If you use KDE, you need to install the knetworkmanager and run it to get the equivalent functions.)

Hopefully, that will get it all working for you.