Madwifi driver... no interface ath0

scayetan · 03-26-2013, 07:08 AM

Hi All,

I’m currently facing an issue to get ath0 up and ready to be used.

I have a laptop using the debian 5 with a kernel 2.6.26-2-686

I have downloaded linux header/src for this kernel.

I have followed the madwifi starting guide to get the driver source and tools packages, I have build the drivers and ath_pci.ko and ath_hal.ko are both built.

I have used the command “modprob ath_pci” to load the driver (and also using the insmod command for ath_hal an ath_pci).

But I still not see the interface ath0 using the iwconfig or “ifconfig –a” tools.

I have checked using “lspci” that an Atheros card is listed and it’s the case.  Netwrok Controller: Atheros Communication Inc. Device 002a

Any idea?

Seb

Randicus Draco Albus · 03-26-2013, 07:15 AM

I cannot help with the WIFI, because I do not use wireless, so know nothing about configuring it. But

Quote:

I have a laptop using the debian 5

Is that correct? The current Debian 6 is two years old and about to be replaced with 7.

scayetan · 03-26-2013, 09:02 AM

Madwifi is replaced after debian 5 by ath5k driver which is not what I need.

EDDY1 · 03-26-2013, 04:56 PM

Post the output of lspci.

Need more info on this 1

Quote:

Netwrok Controller: Atheros Communication Inc. Device 002a

Also as Ran stated you are using an outdated version of Debian, I'm not sure if changing /etc/apt/sources.list to old stable will enable repos, but changing all of the Lenny to squeeze & upgrading at the present time will get you going, with a little work.

cynwulf · 03-27-2013, 04:39 AM

That is the output of his lspci.

There is no support in the 2.6.26 kernel.

This is the same device from 2.6.32 kernel lspci:

Code:

PCI: 168C:002A Atheros Communications Inc. AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express)

It's not supported by madwifi or ath5k anyway (which is probably why it's not working), it's an ath9k device in fact.

http://wiki.debian.org/ath9k?highlight=002A

To get this working correctly you will need the 2.6.32 lenny backports kernel.

Ensure you are tracking the debian archive in your sources.list and add the backports archive repo as well.

You should then be able to install a 2.6.32 kernel and it should just work.

If you plan to use networkmanager you should also get that from backports as the version in lenny was rubbish...

Of course ideally you should be upgrading to squeeze as lenny is an unsupported release.