New kernel, no wireless card detected
 

Hello folks.

I recently performed an update to kernel 2.6.27-8-generic. I had the madwifi kit installed and had the wireless setup running. Here's what i found when following the instructions to get wireless working with the new kernel.

NO WIRELESS ENABLED CARD FOUND
iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

pan0 no wireless extensions.

MY WIRELESS CARD
02:02.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. Atheros AR5001X+ Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)

GOT MADWIFI INSTALLED - APPARENTLY
sudo apt-cache search madwifi
hostapd - user space IEEE 802.11 AP and IEEE 802.1X/WPA/WPA2/EAP Authenticator
madwifi-tools - tools for the Multiband Atheros Driver for WiFi

After some more googling, i found out that i should be blacklisting ath_hal and ath_pci in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist. I did and rebooted. Also i found out that in /etc/modprobe.d/madwifi, ath5k was being blacklisted. So, i commented out the line by adding a # sign at the beggining of the file. After this, i rebooted the machine, but i still get no wireless extensions when typing iwconfig at the terminal.

What am i missing here?

Do you need any other information to give a better diagnosis?

What manual should i follow?

You need to recompile MadWifi - use version 0.10.x; I've got a very similar setup here, and the module needs to be recompiled every time I update my kernel. No big deal - documentation on MadWifi is excellent, just do what they tell you to. Everything you need can be found on the MadWifi website.

I'd also de-install the generic MadWifi package for your distribution in order to avoid conflicts (blacklisting it is also a way, but the other one's safer).

M.

Hi, i started to perform 'make' with the downloaded madwifi and got the following error:

Checking requirements... ok.
Checking kernel configuration... ok.
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.27-10-generic/build SUBDIRS=/home/pun1sher/hda3/Installers/madwifi-0.9.4 modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.27-10-generic'
CC [M] /home/pun1sher/hda3/Installers/madwifi-0.9.4/net80211/ieee80211_power.o
/home/pun1sher/hda3/Installers/madwifi-0.9.4/net80211/ieee80211_power.c: In function 'ieee80211_pwrsave':
/home/pun1sher/hda3/Installers/madwifi-0.9.4/net80211/ieee80211_power.c:240: error: implicit declaration of function '__skb_append'
make[3]: *** [/home/pun1sher/hda3/Installers/madwifi-0.9.4/net80211/ieee80211_power.o] Error 1
make[2]: *** [/home/pun1sher/hda3/Installers/madwifi-0.9.4/net80211] Error 2
make[1]: *** [_module_/home/pun1sher/hda3/Installers/madwifi-0.9.4] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.27-10-generic'
make: *** [modules] Error 2

Any ideas? I verified all the requirements and they look fine.

I de-installed the modules i had on, with dpkg -P so i would have a clean install. Also, i ran the couple of scripts as the madwifi manual specified and they ran fine, up until the make step where i got those errors

After several attempts, i got the iwconfig command to display something, have a look:

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

ath0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"linksys"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

pan0 no wireless extensions.

I re-copied the file i had working with the previous kernel, but i can't get wireless yet.

At least we've done some improvement here.

The old compile won't work. But it appears (to me) that you're using MadWifi 0.9.x instead of 0.10.x (the beta branch). I had to use the latter to get my chipset to work...

Use
orbefore compiling just to make sure everything's cleaned out (dpkg -P is good, but if you compiled before, you might still have stuff lying around).

M.

I went to source-forge and to the madwifi site, didn't see the 10.x version. I went to releases inside madwifi and didn't find the 0.10.x version. Where did you get it from? I'll keep looking. By the way, i now have kernel 2.6.27-10-generic. Did an upgrade there.

Thanks so much. I'll be sure to keep you posted for you help has been excellent!!!

You're right, there's some digging around needed from the SourceForge site - look here and grab the latest tarball (it's the one on the bottom of the list):

http://snapshots.madwifi-project.org...-hal-0.10.5.6/

M.

Well, got some good news, i got the madwifi 10, latest version compiled. Followed the following steps:

1. ifconfig ath0 down
ifconfig wifi0 down

2. ./madwifi-unload
./find-madwifi-modules.sh $(uname -r)

3. make

4. sudo make install clean

5. sudo modprobe ath_pci

Got the following output from iwconfig

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

ath0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"linksys"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

pan0 no wireless extensions.

Not exactly what i should be getting: according to the manual, i should have a wifi instead of a wmaster0. And of course, wireless is still not working. I know the config file /etc/network/interfaces works because i had it running before.

What's missing?

Your wifi card is visible as ath0; now you need to configure that device. I've reread the thread, it should even have worked before. You'll need to know the exact settings of your router to go on...

M.

Yeah, well, the /etc/network/interfaces file is the same i had working with previous kernels. Should something change?

Thanks for your help. I'll focus on getting the settings right from now on.

Moonmind.

I have tried to get this thing running, but i just ran out of manuals to read and actually some guessing too. I re-created my /etc/network/interfaces file, here's what i got so far. It turned out to be the exact same file that i made when i had to setup my file initially with the other kernel.

Also, notice the difference between the wifi and the master names that i get: all manuals say wifi, the extra connection that comes up after the madwifi driver is installed, i get wmaster0. Does this work? Is it ok?

Here's my interfaces file. My router is running with no ssid broadcast and wpa2, with no DHCP and no mac ip blocking.

#auto ath0
#iface ath0 inet static
# address 192.168.10.30
# gateway 192.168.10.1
# dns-nameservers 196.40.31.205
# netmask 255.255.255.0
# wpa-driver wext
# wpa-ssid Sheds
# wpa-ap-scan 2
# wpa-proto RSN
# wpa-pairwise CCMP
# wpa-group CCMP
# wpa-key-mgmt WPA-PSK
# wpa-psk xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The xxx part is just my key, generated by the wpa_passphrase command.

Should i put madwifi instead of wext in the driver section?

Thanks, sorry to be nagging you so often.

Guys, i think the madwifi driver does no support WPA2. I switched my interfaces config file to dhcp, with broadcast of the SSID and switched to WPA, not WPA2.

Am i right? Have a look at my new config file.

auto ath0
iface ath0 inet dhcp
wpa-driver wext
wpa-ssid XXXXXXX
wpa-ap-scan 1
wpa-proto WPA
wpa-pairwise TKIP
wpa-group TKIP
wpa-key-mgmt WPA-PSK
wpa-psk xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

This should be the case - I'm still puzzled about the fact that after compiling, things didn't work out (they sure did so here). Just to make sure, here's what the whole procedure should have been (from MadWifi's source directory):
You can do all that from you main user's account using sudo in front of every command. The trick is to first remove a) the module from the kernel and b) remove the old compilation's results.

After that (if working with Ubuntu and Debian - I'm not sure about the location in other layouts/distributions)), just add "ath_pci" as a single line to /etc/modules. If you have installed "build-essentials" (that's a Debian/Ubuntu metapackage), it should work without issue.

Anyhow, if things don't work: What does
say? If it comes back empty, the module's missing (but from all I read, it should be there). But beware: The presence of "ath_pci" doesn't tell you anything about the version used.

When the kernel got updated, all module packages were, too. That's why you landed with the officially packaged version of MadWifi again, and this one doesn't work (yet).

Referring to your last post: What did work with MadWifi 0.9.x (i.e. WPA2) will work with 0.10.x - if they didn't introduce some serious bug. Maybe it's a good idea to check the latest bug reports, but somehow, I doubt that you'll find anything of that magnitude.

But with the WPA issue, you might be onto something all the same. Did you ever try to switch off encryption totally? If you can connect with a minimum of restrictions specified, you can work from there. Maybe something else got busted (you already tried wpa-subblicant...).

Yes, it is - there are different conventions, and ath is what Atheros wireless stuff shows up as with Debian based systems as far as I can tell. The main thing is to actually have a device defined and configured.

Uhm... is this the exact file? Including the "#" signs? If so, the whole section's commented out and will most probably not be used... But your last post shows similar stuff without the #... Maybe it was the CLI output?

Probably not (at least not as "madwifi"), but do you know how that entry came about? If it was created by some script or tool, leave it at that. The kernel module's name is ath_pci (as stated above).

Just to make sure: Are you able to scan for wireless networks and get a result? You didn't mention that yet. Maybe things are working - just not entirely. I'm all for using the CLI, but did you try to use NetworkManager? It might be instructive to see if there's any response from that. If the module's not recognised or loaded, refer to the installation procedure above.

Also, for the time being, I'd not recommend changing too many settings - since you had it working before, most settings will have been okay... It make reiterating any kind of path to the problem more difficult. At least keep backups of all original versions somewhere - again, I'm pretty sure that there's something odd that's got nothing to do with the kernel and the module alone - if compilation didn't fail.

M.

Thanks for the reply.

Of course, the # signs are put there because to post with the machine i have to use the wired ethernet connection, so i comment the wireless lines. Also, i posted the new interfaces file using different options, and it worked. I read somewhere along the many manuals i stepped across, that madwifi does not support WPA2, is this true?

Anyhow, i got the wireless thing working, only with different options like i've specified in the past post-reply. Who's gonna bother coming into my wireless when just a couple of home laptops are connected. So WPA2 is not that important. Thanks for the help moonmind, i sure have learned a lot during this troubleshooting.

LQ rules!!!

trebek,

Just one follow-up: I think you're right about WPA2 being a problem with MadWifi sometimes; I've dug around a bit and found a lot of similar remarks to that extend, and a lot of technical discussion, too. There's even a bug report on the MadWifi's bug tracking list - with a very helpful remark in the third comment, that's why I provide the URL:

http://madwifi-project.org/ticket/1171

You'll have to scroll down quite a bit to find it.

But the bottomline is: It can be made to work! It's probably all down to conflicting configuration details in various places (that's one of the reasons why I advised not to touch too many config files - sometimes, a well documented edit to such a file will work on one system but actually make things worse on another; it's very important to only apply fixes that are made for one's own system - I had to learn that the hard way, too ;)).

I'm glad you've got things working for now!

M.