[SOLVED] Ubuntu 8.04 does not recognise Atheros Wireless

bondij · 01-31-2012, 07:10 AM

Hi

I have retro desktop hardware that supports only Ubuntu 8.04, and am trying to install a wireless card. The packaging reads TP-Link TL-WN350GD. I was led to believe it would work out of the box, but not so.

Knoppix 6.0.1 shows that the card works and connects to my wireless network without effort. My problem seems to be with Ubuntu.

If I may, please see the output of my commands:

Quote:

root@gizmo:/home/markhc# lsmod
Module Size Used by
ath_pci 99232 0
wlan 206832 1 ath_pci
ath_hal 191568 1 ath_pci
reiserfs 235264 1
rfcomm 39444 2
l2cap 23300 13 rfcomm
bluetooth 57092 4 rfcomm,l2cap
ppdev 9348 0
ipv6 255876 18
speedstep_lib 5380 0
cpufreq_ondemand 8084 0
cpufreq_stats 5124 0
freq_table 4484 2 cpufreq_ondemand,cpufreq_stats
cpufreq_userspace 4120 0
cpufreq_powersave 1792 0
cpufreq_conservative 7200 0
container 4736 0
sbs 14216 0
sbshc 6784 1 sbs
video 18960 0
output 3712 1 video
dock 10124 0
battery 13316 0
af_packet 21764 2
iptable_filter 2944 0
ip_tables 13000 1 iptable_filter
x_tables 14852 1 ip_tables
ac 6020 0
lp 11332 0
parport_pc 35108 1
parport 35912 3 ppdev,lp,parport_pc
usb_storage 73152 1
evdev 11776 3
rtc 13212 0
usbhid 30976 0
pcspkr 3072 0
hid 36480 1 usbhid
libusual 19872 1 usb_storage
i2c_core 23696 0
button 8336 0
sis_agp 9220 1
agpgart 33456 1 sis_agp
shpchp 33428 0
pci_hotplug 29728 1 shpchp
ext3 133128 2
jbd 43028 1 ext3
mbcache 8192 1 ext3
sg 36256 0
sd_mod 29584 7
sr_mod 16804 0
cdrom 36512 1 sr_mod
pata_acpi 7424 0
sata_sis 8836 3
floppy 58116 0
ehci_hcd 36748 0
ohci_hcd 25488 0
ata_generic 7428 0
pata_sis 14340 1 sata_sis
sis900 23040 0
mii 5504 1 sis900
usbcore 144108 6 usb_storage,usbhid,libusual,ehci_hcd,ohci_hcd
libata 160112 4 pata_acpi,sata_sis,ata_generic,pata_sis
scsi_mod 151308 5 usb_storage,sg,sd_mod,sr_mod,libata
thermal 15772 0
processor 28336 1 thermal
fan 4740 0
fbcon 41888 0
tileblit 2688 1 fbcon
font 8576 1 fbcon
bitblit 5888 1 fbcon
softcursor 2176 1 bitblit
fuse 48404 3

Quote:

root@gizmo:/home/markhc# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 661FX/M661FX/M661MX Host (rev 11)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS AGP Port (virtual PCI-to-PCI bridge)
00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS964 [MuTIOL Media IO] (rev 36)
00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE] (rev 01)
00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] AC'97 Sound Controller (rev a0)
00:03.0 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.1 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.2 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.3 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 2.0 Controller
00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet (rev 90)
00:05.0 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SATA (rev 01)
00:09.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. Unknown device 001d (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5200] (rev a1)

Quote:

root@gizmo:/home/markhc# lshw -C network
*-network:0
description: Ethernet interface
product: SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet
vendor: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]
physical id: 4
bus info: pci@0000:00:04.0
logical name: eth0
version: 90
serial: 00:13:d4:15:83:af
size: 100MB/s
capacity: 100MB/s
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=sis900 driverversion=v1.08.10 Apr. 2 2006 duplex=full ip=192.168.1.100 latency=64 link=yes maxlatency=11 mingnt=52 module=sis900 multicast=yes port=MII speed=100MB/s
*-network:1 UNCLAIMED
description: Ethernet controller
product: Atheros Communications Inc.
vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
physical id: 9
bus info: pci@0000:00:09.0
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm cap_list
configuration: latency=168 maxlatency=28 mingnt=10

Quote:

root@gizmo:/home/markhc# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

As I say, Knoppix sees the card and loads the driver, connects to my wireless network without a whimper. Can anyone here suggest my solution?

Thanks in advance

Mark

snowpine · 01-31-2012, 10:53 AM

Since Ubuntu 8.04 is end-of-life, obsolete, and unsupported... and Knoppix works perfectly... (do you see where I'm going with this?)

camorri · 01-31-2012, 12:42 PM

The card is supported according to this link -->http://linux-wless.passys.nl/query_c...hipset=Atheros

8.04 is old, and probably ath5k was not part of that distro. So, your choices are, select a newer distro, or get the source and compile the driver. You can look in synaptics to see if there is a package for atheros cards, however I don't hole much hope out for that.

If you have never compiled anything, you need to tools installed and the kernel header package that matches your current kernel. The headers should be in synaptics.

bondij · 02-01-2012, 12:19 AM

Thanks to snowpine and camorri for your input.

As I mentioned, my hardware is somewhat retro. Previous attempts to upgrade to a newer version of Ubuntu have failed. The Knoppix I referred to is a live distro version which I merely used to verify the functionality of the card.

I will mark this thread as solved and upgrade my hardware.

cascade9 · 02-02-2012, 01:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bondij

As I mentioned, my hardware is somewhat retro. Previous attempts to upgrade to a newer version of Ubuntu have failed. The Knoppix I referred to is a live distro version which I merely used to verify the functionality of the card.

I will mark this thread as solved and upgrade my hardware.

Your hardware should work with newer versions of ubuntu. Though you might not have enough RAM to run newer versions of ubuntu, one of the other variants (xubuntu, lubuntu, bodhi) should work if you want to keep using ubuntu. Also, you could try doing a clean install, not an upgrade.

k3lt01 · 02-02-2012, 02:22 AM

Your hardware must be extremely retro if it cannot run 10.04 or even 10.10. My old Acer laptop can run 11.10 with as little as 256MB RAM. You will have to install with an alternate install disc and remove ureadahead immediately after install but you should still have a usable system with 256MB RAM. Just don't expect it to run Firefox and LibreOffice and multiple other applications at the same time.

Nonetheless 10.04 has the driver you require, it is part of the 2.6.32 kernel. If you have difficulty with 10.04 try Debian 6 (Squeeze) which is the current stable and it has this kernel. Squeeze is much more resource friendly (meaning it doesn't hog the system like Ubuntu does) so you would probably have a good few years with your current hardware if you go this way. You could also enable backports, on Ubuntu 10.04 and also Debian 6, which will enable a later kernel (2.6.38 I think from memory in Debian and 3.0.1 in Ubuntu) to be installed.