madwifi non-functional after kernel rebuild, reinstall, SW 12.1

original_jamingrit · 07-08-2008, 04:42 PM

UPDATE: SOLVED

I think the problem was that I was missing one option to enable something important for the udev hotplug support junk. I'm not sure, because I just started enabling suspicious sections, and now it works. :-P

Hopefully, this thread will be helpful to someone else.

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hi all,
I've come into a problem with the madwifi driver and I've exhausted all ideas in my noobie mind.

The backstory: A week ago, I was a happy slackware user on my toshiba satellite mx40 laptop. Everything was working, and I was able to install and use madwifi as instructed by http://madwifi.org/wiki/UserDocs/Distro/Slackware. I was using the smp kernel and my disk io was pretty ugly; I needed to recompile the kernel (one of those problems involving the hda -> sda labels). After some optimizations, I've configured the kernel to my liking; except that now I'm unable to get the madwifi drivers to work. It installs and appears to be working, but it does not detect or connect to any Access Points. The only error I can get happens when I try to scan using

Code:

 # iwspy ath0 scan
Interface ath0 doesn't support IP addresses
ath0      Interface doesn't support IP addresses
No valid addresses found : exiting...

also;

Code:

 # ifconfig ath0
ath0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:11:f5:6c:3a:f8
          BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

Code:

 # iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

bond0     no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

tunl0     no wireless extensions.

wifi0     no wireless extensions.

ath0      IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:""  Nickname:"roland"
          Mode:Managed  Channel:0  Access Point: Invalid
          Bit Rate:0 kb/s   Tx-Power:16 dBm   Sensitivity=1/1
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=0/70  Signal level=0 dBm  Noise level=0 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

Code:

 # lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
mac80211              100876  0
wlan_scan_sta           9728  1
ath_rate_sample        10624  1
ath_pci                80288  0
wlan                  166220  4 wlan_scan_sta,ath_rate_sample,ath_pci
ath_hal               189264  3 ath_rate_sample,ath_pci
snd_seq_dummy           2564  0
snd_seq_oss            24724  0
snd_seq_midi_event      5248  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                37404  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device          5772  3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss            32544  0
snd_mixer_oss          12416  1 snd_pcm_oss
ipv6                  189500  10
snd_intel8x0           25244  3
i2c_i801                7184  0
sr_mod                 12580  1
snd_ac97_codec         86948  1 snd_intel8x0
ac97_bus                1664  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm                57352  4 snd_pcm_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer              15492  3 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd                    37268  13 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,
snd_mixer_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
rng_core                3588  0
snd_page_alloc          7048  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
sg                     23200  0

Code:

 # lspci | grep Ethernet
06:01.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ 
(rev 10)
06:02.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5212/AR5213 Multiprotocol 
MAC/baseband processor (rev 01)

I've enabled and disabled certain kernel options according to the madwifi website, and have tried rebuilding my kernel many times, all with the same result. My eth0 interface does work, so I know that it's a wireless problem and not just network. I've included all the neccessary crypto in the kernel (and as modules on previous attempts). I've tried both packages on alien bob's site shown here: http://www.slackware.com/~alien/slac...madwifi/build/ .

I feel like I've done everything, and I don't know what to try next. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Bruce Hill · 07-08-2008, 06:02 PM

Welcome to LQ!

The madwifi driver is kernel version specific. Did you rebuild it for your present kernel version?

If not, try using Alien Bob's madwifi.SlackBuild and related packages, then use upgradepkg to
upgrade from your present madwifi.

You did use a SlackBuild script to make your madwifi package didn't you?

Just fyi:

Code:

root@peter:~# iwspy ath0 scan
Arp failed for scan on ath0... (6)
Try to ping the address before setting it.
No valid addresses found : exiting...
root@peter:~# iwlist ath0 scan
ath0      Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: <munged>
                    ESSID:"philemon"
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.457 GHz (Channel 10)
                    Quality=20/70  Signal level=-75 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=100
                    IE: WPA Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
          Cell 02 - Address: <munged>
                    ESSID:"TP-LINK"
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                    Quality=8/70  Signal level=-87 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=100
                    Extra:ath_ie=dd0900037f01010008ff7f

original_jamingrit · 07-08-2008, 07:19 PM

Hey Bruce, thanks for the reply.

Yes, I've been using Alien Bob's build scripts. I tried both the 0.9.4 tarball and the build script that worked before, as well as the current-trunk package and buildscript on his site. I tried rebuilding for each kernel, using removepkg for old madwifi packages each time, even though it's probably not necessary.

Also, tried your other suggestion:

Code:

 # iwlist ath0 scan
ath0      Interface doesn't support scanning : Network is down

I suspect this is a kernel thing. I configured my current kernel from scratch, so I might try making a copy of the smp .config file and deselecting the extra stuff instead.

original_jamingrit · 07-09-2008, 02:16 PM

update;
After several more kernel builds, still no luck. I tried using a Livecd to make sure my wireless wasn't just broken; the hardware does in fact work. I checked the lsmod on the LiveCD and made sure all of the appropriate modules were built and loaded on my slackware kernel. I'm not still sure if this is a kernel problem, but I'm open to any suggestions that anyone has...

original_jamingrit · 07-12-2008, 07:20 PM

ba-dum da-BUMP.

Haven't tried anything new yet, but I'll do some reading and try to figure out if I'm just installing my new kernel incorrectly. This is the first time I've succesfully rebuilt a optimized kernel on this machine, so there may be something I missed.

----------------

UPDATE: SOLVED, READ OP

tyronenguyen · 08-08-2008, 09:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by original_jamingrit

ba-dum da-BUMP.

Haven't tried anything new yet, but I'll do some reading and try to figure out if I'm just installing my new kernel incorrectly. This is the first time I've succesfully rebuilt a optimized kernel on this machine, so there may be something I missed.

----------------

UPDATE: SOLVED, READ OP

Thanks for a hint in the right direction. Can you give more information about your fix?

original_jamingrit · 08-10-2008, 08:33 PM

To be perfectly honest, I forget what it was exactly, but I think it the PCI-ISA bridge that was missing its driver. Like I'd said before, I've never succesfully compiled a kernel for this machine before, so most of it was hit and miss. I'm sure I enabled a few things I didn't need to in the process.

Are you unable to use wireless, or is it something else that you're missing?