Ok, I have a HP G60-237NR Notebook laptop with an Atheros AR5009 802.11a/g/n WiFi Adapter card built in. I am running Slackware 12.2, and all works great except for the WiFi. Slackware will recognize and enable my WiFi card, but will not let me connect. I have read different articles which suggest I may have a missing driver, but I don't know which one to look for. I have even been to the website for Atheros, but could find no information there.

I have used a LiveCD version of Knoppix, and it finds wireless networks with ease.

I believe you need the ath9k Driver which is included with kernel 2.6.27 and higher..

or you can git the driver or install compat-wireless, for older kernels..

Slackware 12.2 has the 2.6.27.7 kernel, so that should be OK. Try reininstalling the kernel-firmware package.

As much as I know about Linux, I'm ashamed to say there's even more I don't know. What or in what installation group is the kernel-firmware package?

I don't think firmware is the issue. but I'm not finding any Slackware guides for the ath9k

I would start with installing wireless-tools then loading the driver module..
modprobe ath9k


No need to be ashamed.. the more I learn about Linux the more I realize how much is still out there that I don't know.. so we are ultimately in the same boat.

Ok, I did the modprobe ath9k, and now I see it getting a signal. My problem might now be FireFox. When I try to connect with FireFox, I keep seeing "Unknown Host" no matter where I try to go. Please forgive me, but what setting should I check?

While I'm waiting for help here, I'm going to check the Mozilla website as well. Hopefully I get Slackware fully functional soon. I'm trying to migrate away from Windows Vista.

OK so you have wireless signal,

Does the system recognize your wireless card properly ?
iwconfig

Did you get an IP address from DHCP ?
ifconfig -a

Did you get DNS info from DHCP ?
cat /etc/resolv.conf

I don't know how everyone does the inset box thingy to show the information they needed to give, so I'll do my best. First was the iwconfig command. It picks up my wlan0 for my home wireless router. My only concern is the Access Point hex doesn't exactly match the MAC Address hex on the underside of the router. Is that a problem?

Second, ifconfig -a lists an "inet addr:192.168.1.66" for my wlan0. Is that what you were looking for?

Third, cat /etc/resolv.conf returned this:
search domain_not_set.invalid
nameserver 192.168.1.1
nameserver 68.238.0.12

I have screenshots of all three commands if it would be helpful for me to upload them. Hopefully, though, I have provided the information you were looking for.

You may also want to try wicd in the '/extra/wicd/' directory.

I don't know what combination of advice finally got me working properly, so I want to thank you all. Oh, and this message is being typed in FireFox on my brand new Slackware 12.2 distro running KDE 3.5. Thanks to you all!