Ubuntu 9.04 / WiFi
 

I've tried several distro's over the past couple of days before settling on Ubuntu, but I've never got my WiFi working (it was fine under Windows, but I'm determined not to go back). Now that I've installed Ubuntu 9.04, my machine finally owns up to having a wireless device and I think the problem is now down to my being a total Linux noob...

Output from lspci -v | less

08:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 04)
Subsystem: Atheros Communications Inc. Device 3067
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
Memory at fa000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: ath5k_pci
Kernel modules: ath_pci, ath5k

Output from iwconfig

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=20 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

If I click on the NetworkManager applet it tells me that wired network "auto eth01" is active, but there are no wireless networks (I've tried adding a wireless network manually, but it just makes up some IP 10.x.x.x address and fails to connect to anything)

NB I did find a note on the ubuntu.org forum about 9.04 shipping with an alternate driver for Atheros devices, but if I activate that, then NetworkManager no longer mentions wireless networks at all.

I'm sure I'm missing the point somewhere along the line, but I just can't get my system to detect any access points (most neighbours have them), so any advice would be gratefully received.

====
Mike
====

try using wicd instead of network-manager:
This will automatically uninstall network-manager in jaunty. I've just done a fresh install of jaunty on my laptop, and had similar issue, though not same hardware as you. If this doesn't work for you, just issue:
and you will be back where you started.

Newbie to Wifi
 

1) to get wicd, what repository does one point to?

2) Initial use of Network Manager worked great under 9.04. Saw all the local wifi networks in my neighborhood. I was able to connect to my local network and my neighbors. After several reboots I no longer see any wifi networks including my own home network. Any thoughts?

I have dual booted my OC with Ubuntu 2.6. Now to go to Windows I have to go through GRUB. Bootable Windows CD's do not work. How can I solve this problem

Boot off CD
 

usually one goes into the BIOS and changes the boot order. In your case boot from CD first and if there is not bootable CD, the system will then boot off the HD to your GRUB prompt.

Thanks for the response, irishbitte - didn't sort it, but I appreciate the effort. I'll try the ndis wrapper in the short term and come back to it when I've learnt a bit about Linux.

====
Mike
====

Boot off CD
 

Thanks juillar,
I am now able to open Windows CD's. But Grub has dissappeared and i cant start Ubuntu.

I had one hell of a time getting wifi drivers to work under Hardy with my AR5007 card. Following the suggestions of 'Nicedude' I was able to get it work after much effort. I used one of the earlier madwifi drivers with wicd.

When I upgraded to Intrepid, these drivers no longer worked, but I had success with the 'compatibility' drivers I found on madberry.org. You may want to try those. The wifi card identified itself as something else and the website has a test set you can run to see if the drivers are likely to work for you.

I was also pleasantly surpised to see that the wifi worked out of the box with Jaunty, but unfortunately this doesn't work for everyone. I attributed this to the concept that restricted drivers for the AR507 card.

Hi Hryajan,
Asking a new question in the middle of an existing thread that is unrelated to what you want to know is called "hijacking". It is not a good thing to do because the questions and answers get mixed up which makes things difficult for all.

Please do not hijack threads. Create a new thread to ask your question.
Thanks for your cooperation.
cheers,
jdk

No probs mikeybitz, will you post back here with your solution, it may help someone else to solve their problem.

Thought I'd found the answer....
 

Found what I hoped would be the answer on the following link:

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/new-madwif...nk-branch.html

Decided, as I'd got nowhere with Linux as yet, to install fresh from scratch and try the instructions out. So I've followed the instructions up to step 3, issued the "make" command, and I've noticed in among the output, about a dozen warning messages. There are two types:

and

(obviously, the detail varies between messages)

Is this a problem? Or should I be able to carry on through the rest of the instructions?

mikeybitz, it says at the bottom of the page you linked to that you need to make sure not to have: Have you followed the linked steps?

Life's too short <g>
 

Well ... I gave up. I've spent hours following instructions - often conflicting - and got nowhere. I got myself a USB WiFi adapter from Amazon. Within 30 seconds of the parcel arriving, I was on the 'net using WiFi. For me, the moral of the story is "Avoid Atheros". My next laptop will not have one of their adapters.

(If anybody is interested, the adapter that I bought was EDiMAX RALink RT2501USB - highly recommended ... IT.JUST.WORKS)