wireless Atheros ar5004g card on Toshiba A60 satellite laptop cannot get dhcp lease
 

Hi, I am relatively new to linux but in the time I've spent trying to get this wireless card to work, I find that I will be comfortable with anything you guys might throw at me which might be helpful.

First off, I'm currently using mandrake 10.1 with the 2.6.8.1-12smp kernel. I have successfully compiled and installed one of the latest CVS from madwifi and my wireless device is recognized correctly as ath0.

iwconfig shows all the correct information pertaining to my card, yet with a link quality of 0/100

i created ifcfg-ath0 with this

STARTMODE=hotplug
DEVICE=ath0
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
ONBOOT=yes
WIRELESS=yes
WIRELESS_MODE=Managed
WIRELESS_ESSID=home
#WIRELESS_ENC_KEY=""
MII_NOT_SUPPORTED=no
WIRELESS_IWPRIV="mode 3"

the system boots and tries to receive an ip, but i suppose it times out after about a minute and fails

i do ifdown on eth0 and lo
also ifdown then ifup on ath0 but it times out with trying to get an ip lease

iwpriv ath0 scan yields "no scan results"

i've tried setting a static ip and manually putting in my router's ip and MAC address, but that does not work either

i have tried ndiswrapper with very similar results.

the strange thing is that i have a boot cd with a live linux version on it called INSERT based on Knoppix which i sometimes use for recovering files after windows crashes. it instantly recognizes my card and im on the network in no time. however, im looking to use linux as part of a dual boot with windows XP, not running from a live cd.

ive tried suse 9.2 and slackware 10 with similar results in that i can get madwifi to show the card correctly, but dhcpcd/dhclient do not get me an ip

i appreciate any help with this problem because i've been trying to get this card to work for about a week now, and my search results always yield the same information containing things which i've already tended to.

thanks!

my iwconfig reads as follows for ath0

IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"home" Nickname: "laptop"
Mode: Managed Frequency: 2.462GHz Access Point FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
Bit Rate =54Mb/s Tx-Power: 50dBm Sensitivity: 0/3
Retry: off RTS thr: off Fragment thr: off
Encryption Key: off
Power Management: off
Link Quality: 0/94 Signal level: -95dBm Noise level: -95dBm

if i change the access point value to my router's mac address i get the same readout

as for the WEP key, i turned security on my router off for the time being because i want to be able to connect at all first, then worry about security

my router is set to broadcast as well

any help is appreciated

dhcpcd ath0

Will get you an IP

i tried that and it just times out

thanks anyway though

I have a A70 and am having trouble even getting it (my atheros) to work. I have the ar5004g and its not even recognized. I am running 2.4.29 all the way up to the 2.6.8.11.7 and nothing still when i compile the kernels. you are the first one I have heard to have it working this much. where did you get the driver or what did you use get it up so far.

try dropping you wep first then try to set it up. after you get it to work that way set wep.

same problem same laptop
 

I have the same problem...same laptop toshiba a70....it doesn't recognize the atheros card at all..I've got a separate pcmcia card gonna try that..frustrated trying to get this to work..anybody else have any suggestions..I'm using suse 10.1

I got mine to working. Madwifi http://madwifi.org/ supports atheros chips.