ath9k in centos 5.5

bradvan · 06-08-2010, 02:40 PM

I just installed CentOS 5.5 and I am trying to get a D-Link DWA-556 wireless NIC to work with it. The release notes state that the ath9k driver for Atheros 802.11n wireless LAN adapters has been enabled (http://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/5.....html#id475110). When I do a lspci I don't see the device listed. Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks!

business_kid · 06-10-2010, 08:27 AM

Some other commands most with their own man pages
ifconfig - tells you about network interfaces
lsmod |grep ath9k - should check module is loaded
system-config-network - set up the thing
iwconfig - adjusts for wireless devices
lshal |grep info\.product shows you everything in the box under every conceivable heading. Here's my broadcom 4312

info.product = 'USB Wireless Interface' (string)
info.product = 'USB Wireless Interface' (string)
info.product = 'Bluetooth Host Controller Interface' (string)
and later
info.product = 'BCM4312 802.11a/b/g' (string)
info.product = 'WLAN Interface' (string)

Now take any term there, e.g. 802.11 and try

lshal |grep -C10 802\.11
and you will see stuff about your wireless card.

bradvan · 06-11-2010, 04:18 AM

I'll give lshal a try. I think my first problem is that the system isn't seeing the NIC. I was doing an lspci and could only see the two on-board Ethernet devices. I tried moving it to a different slot (it is a PCIEx1 device and I had it in a PCIEx16 slot), but that didn't seem to make a difference.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll give it a shot tonight after work.

business_kid · 06-12-2010, 02:52 AM

If it's not seeing the nic it's usually a module problem. I have seen interrupt issues, and of course, hardware issues.

bradvan · 06-14-2010, 06:11 AM

I've made some progress. After running kudzu -p, the system was finally able to see the nic. I can run iwlist wlan0 scan and it is seeing the network. I'm just trying to get the wpa_supplicant set up properly. The documentation on wireless.kernel.org talks about enabling mac80211, but I'm not really following their instructions. I'm going to look at it closer this afternoon.

Thanks!

business_kid · 06-15-2010, 03:01 AM

Favourite mistake with wpa_supplicant is not to use wpa_passphrase
man wpa_passphrase

bradvan · 06-15-2010, 07:05 PM

I thought wpa_passphrase just encrypted the phrase in the conf file so that it wasn't directly visible. I was going to do that after I got it working. I know I'm close. The system sees the nic. The ath9k and mac80211 kernel modules are loaded:

Code:

lsmod | grep ath9k
Module    Size  Used by
ath9k    299893   0
mac80211 183617   1 ath9k
ath       43585   1 ath9k
cfg80211 191113   3 ath9k,mac80211,ath

In /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0 I have:

Code:

DEVICE=wlan0
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
HWADDR=00:26:5a:e8:f8:db
TYPE=Wireless
USERCTL=no
ESSID="my SSID"
MODE=Master  (I think I need to change this to Managed)
SECURITYMODE=off
RATE=54Mb/s

My router has channel set to auto and I am using WPA2. Do I need to just select a channel in ifcfg-wlan0?

In my /etc/sysconfig/wpa_supplicant file I have:

Code:

INTERFACES="-i wlan0"
DRIVERS="-D wext"
OTHER_ARGS="-w -K -d -u -f /var/log/wpa_supplicant.log"

My /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf has:

Code:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=root

network={
   ssid="My ssid"
   key_mgmt=WPA_PSK
   psk="mypassword"
   pairwise=TKIP CCMP
   group=TKIP CCMP
   scan_ssid=1
}

I'm not sure the scan_ssid should be set to 1. I have my ssid invisible.

I'm pretty sure it is talking to the router, just not receiving an ip address. I'll do some more research and check out the wpa_passphrase.

Thanks!

bradvan · 06-15-2010, 08:10 PM

OK, a little more progress. I secured the pass phrase with wpa_passphrase. I see in my router log that

Code:

SSID: Wireless system with MAC address 00265AE8F8DB associated
SSID: Wireless system with MAC address 00265AE8F8DB secured and linked

and in my wireless clients page, I see this MAC with an assigned ip address. I'm just not getting my centos system to grab the ip address.

business_kid · 06-16-2010, 02:52 AM

Well if
iwconfig wlan0 shows you are associated (like this one)

Quote:

Mode:Managed Frequency:2.417 GHz Access Point: 00:22:B0:90:0B:4B

Just start dhclient or dhcpcd with wlan0 as the interface

bradvan · 06-16-2010, 06:18 AM

Yes, it might be my dhcp setup. After I saw that the router gave an ip address, I made a reservation for it and then went back to my CentOS computer and statically set up the ip address. It works. I'll take a look tonight and see if I can't figure out why dhcp wasn't working.

Thanks!

business_kid · 06-17-2010, 03:21 AM

If the router gave an ip address you are in. DHCP has connected you.

Next ping some website, and ping some server you know the ip of. 208.67.222.222 is opendns.org and answers
If you can ping the IP but nit the website, you have a problem with resolv.conf being overwritten, or not set.

bradvan · 06-17-2010, 05:02 AM

The router assigned an ip address, but the centos system never picked it up. I think I'll have to snoop the packets to try and figure out where it is going wrong. I statically assigned the ip address the router gave and I can get to the Internet alright. I just can't get it to work dynamically. Not a big deal, I reserved the ip on the router.

Let's call this one closed. I got the wireless connection to work. You've been a big help. I appreciate it!

Thanks!