Newbie Trying To Install Madwifi Driver...

inVINCEable667 · 03-30-2006, 02:53 PM

I really need to get this driver going. I am running the newest version of backtrack. I have an atheros based card (Orinoco 8470-WD b/g) I have the madwifi drivers unzipped/unrared/untarred or whatever you want to call it in the folder usr/src/madwifi-cvs-20051008. I ran the make command and everything seemed to go fine, except I kept recieved "WARNING: Symbol version dump /usr/src/linux-2.6.12.2Module.symvers is missing; modules will have no dependencies and modversions". Then I proceeded to run the "make install" command command. No errors there. Then... I try to open Kismet and it won't let me because it says "It was not possible to find any wireless devices, cannot continue"

My friend told me to see if it was working type "iwconfig" in the shell.

I typed it in and I got things like

lo no wireless extensions

eth0 no wireless extensions

I also got eth1, eth2, eth3, and sit0 with no wireless extensions.

What am I doing wrong ? Thanks for any help.

doralsoral · 03-30-2006, 03:06 PM

did you load the module? try doing modprobe ath0_pci in a terminal and then open your wireless config gui.

inVINCEable667 · 03-30-2006, 04:23 PM

I did "modprobe ath_pci" but not "modprobe ath0_pci"

inVINCEable667 · 03-30-2006, 04:49 PM

When you say in a terminal what exactly does that mean? It means running a shell command from inside the folder where everything is right?

And I ran modprobe ath0_pci in the root and the folder where everything is and still no dice.

Any help is greatly appeciated

doralsoral · 03-30-2006, 05:06 PM

sorry i ment ath_pci. do a lsmod and see if it is actually loaded.

inVINCEable667 · 03-30-2006, 08:10 PM

Could it make a any difference that my card is in a PCI to PCMCIA card slot?

ScottReed · 03-30-2006, 09:20 PM

I have the same card.

Running Slack 10.2
Kernel 2.6.16

The madwifi modules need to be rebuilt everytime you upgrade your kernel to a new(er) version.

Make sure your kernel source area (/usr/src/linux) contains the correct sources for the version of the kernel you are currently running.

Code:

uname -r

That will display the current kernel version.

If you have sources for a different kernel version than what you're currently running then get everything in sync by downloading sources from http://kernel.org

Try the following: (as root for any "make install"):

Code:

cd /usr/src/linux
make mrproper
make clean
make config
* Configure kernel options for your machine. Save/Exit *
make bzImage
make modules
* Don't actually install modules or copy the compiled kernel anywhere *
cd /location of madwifi source
make clean
make
make install

During the "make" of the MadWiFi drivers you should not receive any errors, because the kernel source area will now be populated with the data it needs to succesfully compile the module.

Once done...

Code:

modprobe ath_pci

Someone with some more knowledge can probably explain this in better detail, but I failed at compiling the MadWifi drivers the first time around too. It took me a few reads through the README/INSTALL before I got it right.

Hope this all helps...

inVINCEable667 · 04-01-2006, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottReed

I have the same card.

Running Slack 10.2
Kernel 2.6.16

The madwifi modules need to be rebuilt everytime you upgrade your kernel to a new(er) version.

Make sure your kernel source area (/usr/src/linux) contains the correct sources for the version of the kernel you are currently running.

Code:

uname -r

That will display the current kernel version.

If you have sources for a different kernel version than what you're currently running then get everything in sync by downloading sources from http://kernel.org

Try the following: (as root for any "make install"):

Code:

cd /usr/src/linux
make mrproper
make clean
make config
* Configure kernel options for your machine. Save/Exit *
make bzImage
make modules
* Don't actually install modules or copy the compiled kernel anywhere *
cd /location of madwifi source
make clean
make
make install

During the "make" of the MadWiFi drivers you should not receive any errors, because the kernel source area will now be populated with the data it needs to succesfully compile the module.

Once done...

Code:

modprobe ath_pci

Someone with some more knowledge can probably explain this in better detail, but I failed at compiling the MadWifi drivers the first time around too. It took me a few reads through the README/INSTALL before I got it right.

Hope this all helps...

Thank you very much. Everything went fine until I was in cd/usr/src/madwifi (location where my madwifi files are)

THe "Make clean" command went ok.

However, when I ran "make" I got this response

"Checking if all requirements are met.... FAILED
Please enable wireless extensions.
make: *** [configcheck] Error 1"

And that is all it said. If anyone could help me out quickly with this problem I would greatly apppeciate it.

ScottReed · 04-01-2006, 11:47 AM

You need to read the README/INSTALL files within the MadWiFi package. There are certain flags that need to be set during "make config" for the kernel to enable wireless support.

Like I said earlier, I failed the first time through with the MadWiFi driver compile. The questions I had were quickly answered when I read the INSTALL/README files.

Good luck.

Scott

inVINCEable667 · 04-01-2006, 12:31 PM

Thanks... I will go read the Readme file that is included now...