Installing ethernet card driver
 

Hi guys,

I would have thought this would be a very straightforward and basic operation, but it appears otherwise from the searches I've made. Is the procedure generally the same regardless of the hardware concerned or does it vary accordingly? And does it invariably involve compiling a source file with a compiler that's compatible with the kernel?

THanks

Plug it in. Boot. The chances are that it will be recognised and the appropriate module loaded.

What is the card you are trying to install?
What is your distro?
What have you tried so far?

what NIC card are u using?

I've never had trouble with any conventional Ethernet (AKA wired) card.

Please put your distro in your profile--and include other relevant info (eg hardware) when you post,

Apologies, all, I've now entered a profile.

This is what the interogation of my notebook says about networks:

00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 191 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter (rev 02)
Subsystem: Fujitsu Siemens Computer GmbH: Unknown device 1125
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 4
Memory at d4407000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128]
I/O ports at 1080 [size=128]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

[....]

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc.: Unknown device 001c (rev 01)
Subsystem: Atheros Communications, Inc.: Unknown device 3067
Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 9
Memory at d4100000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [50] Message Signalled Interrupts: 64bit- Queue=0/0 Enable-
Capabilities: [60] #10 [0011]
Capabilities: [90] #11 [0000]


Now I'm assuming it's the Atheros card that's in-built and I have downloaded a driver that reportedly is compatible with all 3 variants of it. What now?

CC.

A good start :)
What "interrogation"?
That output is not telling you anything about "networks", it is telling you about what hardware you have installed (but that is still useful information..)

What command gave you that output?

Please do not assume anything: Find out, confirm, then post here.

You have downloaded "a driver". WTF?
How are we supposed to know what "driver" you have "downloaded"?
What did you do with it once you had "downloaded" it?
Did you install it?

Which "driver" did you download? Linux uses modules, not "drivers".

Your question was "Installing ethernet card driver" so we are assuming (because you have not provided any details) that you are trying to install a PCI Ethernet (wired) card. If this is not the case, please explain exactly what it is you are trying to do.

See my post at #2, and answer the questions.

Grrrrrr :(

this one: /sbin/lspci -v
If you know of a better one for displaying a list of hardware devices, please share it.

I was under the impression that "driver" and "module" mean one and the same; that a person refers to "modules" as opposed to "drivers" in Linux simply because it's a naming convention. Is that not the case? I'll call them "modules" in future if that's the accepted convention here.

I downloaded it from the author's website to the desktop on my Windows PC, from there I unzipped it to a usb memory stick ready to transfer to the Linux machine. I have not installed it as I don't know how to. It's obviously not as simple as just copying it over to a directory like C:\win32\drivers as with Windows. Hence my original question.

I think there's some misuderstanding here. I'm not trying to *physically* install a network card. It's already integrated into the motherboard of this notebook. I simply need to get it working, which obviuously requires some kind of software interface by whatever name, to enable the kernel to talk to it.

Here's the relevant spec from the user guide:

Networking

Networking: Network adapter

Wireless LAN Supported: Yes

Data Link Protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g

Compliant Standards: IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g

So again, how do I go about getting wireless lan capability activated?

THanks,

CC.

No, this is good for hardware, and lspci -vvv is even better! (But I misunderstood your post, and thought that you were looking at output for "network"). No matter.

Well, they do & they don't ;)
When people talk about "drivers" as in "I have a driver downloaded", the assumption (dangerous things those) is that it's a windows driver that'll then need special handling by linux (eg by using ndiswrapper or similar)
If it is a native linux module, perhaps best to call it that.

There was misunderstanding, but we are clearing it up fast :) especially now you are explaining your situation and problem better ;)

So, now to your problem: you have on-board [SiS] 191 Gigabit Ethernet (which is wired), that you do not wish to use.
It seems you do want a wireless connection, via your Atheros Communications, Inc.: Unknown device 001c
You are running Fedora 8.

The fact that lspci reports your Atheros is "unknown", doesn't look good, but is maybe fixable. I googled for a while and there was a developer message saying "we don't support this chip yet" dated 2007/11/23 [ http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-w.../msg08178.html ] :( Maybe it is supported now. Perhaps by madwifi

Unfortunately you haven't told us exactly what it is you have downloaded "from the author's website", or even given us a link to it, so we need more information on this before we can go any further.

In future, as a general rule, when buying laptops for linux, choose from those with NVIDIA graphics chipsets, and INTEL wireless chipsets, because then they "just work" (TM) :)

Ps A bit more searching and it looks like you'll need ndiswrapper. Please see here http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/j...3/id,list_c-f/
and search for 001c on that page.

Many thanks for the tips, which I've snipped.

I actually have NO idea whatsoever what the SIS 191 Gb Ethernet card is, what it does or is capable of. As you have gathered, I'm primarily concerned with getting wi-fi access on the move via public hotspots, which is why I "assumed" - sorry, won't do that again - that it was the Atheros device, as opposed to the SIS 191 one, which I needed a driver/module for.

Well it's odd that you should mention Madwifi, because it is they who have written the software which I believe will interface the hardware to the OS. They claim it NOW functions fine on ALL variants of these Atheros wireless cards. Here's what it says in the Readme file. Perhaps you can tell me how to proceed from here as it's all Greek to me...

Readme contents:-

MADWIFI: Multimode Atheros Driver for WiFi on Linux (VAP branch)
================================================================

* Copyright (c) 2002-2005 Sam Leffler. All rights reserved.

Read the file COPYRIGHT for the complete copyright.


WARNING: THIS IS A BETA DISTRIBUTION. THIS SOFTWARE HAS KNOWN PROBLEMS
WARNING: AND LIMITATIONS THAT WILL BE CORRECTED BEFORE A PRODUCTION
WARNING: RELEASE. DON'T BLAME US IF THE SOFTWARE EATS YOUR SYSTEM,
WARNING: DESTROYS YOUR DISK OR MAKES YOUR CORN-FLAKES SOGGY.
WARNING: USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!


Introduction
------------

This software contains a Linux kernel driver for Atheros-based Wireless
LAN devices. The driver supports station, AP, ad-hoc, and monitor modes
of operation. The Atheros driver depends on a device-independent
implementation of the 802.11 protocols that originated in the BSD
community (NetBSD in particular).

The driver functions as a normal network device and uses the Wireless
Extensions API. As such normal Linux tools can and should be used with
it. Where the wireless extensions are lacking private ioctls have been
added.

There is only one driver included here; it supports PCI, MiniPCI and
Cardbus devices - USB devices are currently not supported by this
driver! The driver can be built as a module or linked directly into the
kernel. Note however that the net80211 layer is device-independent;
there is no reason it cannot be used with any 802.11 device (in fact
this is the case on BSD systems).

This software is broken into multiple modules. The Atheros-specific
device support is found in the ath_pci module; it should be loaded when
an Atheros wireless device is recognized. The ath_pci module requires
an additional device specific module, ath_hal, which is described more
below. In addition the driver requires the wlan module which contains
the 802.11 state machine, protocol support, and other device-independent
support needed by any 802.11 device. This code is derived from work
that first appeared in NetBSD and then FreeBSD. The wlan module may
also force the loading of additional modules for crypto support
(wlan_wep, wlan_tkip, wlan_ccmp, etc.), for MAC-based ACL support
(wlan_acl), and for 802.1x authenticator support (wlan_auth,
wlan_radius). The latter modules are only used when operating as an AP.
The crypto modules are loaded when keys of that type are created.

The ath_hal module contains the Atheros Hardware Access Layer (HAL).
This code manages much of the chip-specific operation of the driver.
The HAL is provided in a binary-only form in order to comply with FCC
regulations. In particular, a radio transmitter can only be operated at
power levels and on frequency channels for which it is approved. The
FCC requires that a software-defined radio cannot be configured by the
user to operate outside the approved power levels and frequency
channels. This makes it difficult to open-source code that enforces
limits on the power levels, frequency channels and other parameters of
the radio transmitter. See
http://ftp.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Engineeri...1/fcc01264.pdf
for the specific FCC regulation. Because the module is provided in a
binary-only form it is marked "Proprietary"; this means when you load it
you will see messages that your system is now "tainted".

A detailed discussion of the pros and cons of this design can be found
at http://madwifi.org/wiki/HAL

If you wish to use this driver on a platform for which an ath_hal module
is not already provided please contact the author. Note that this is
only necessary for new _architectures_; the HAL is not tied to any
specific version of Linux - in fact the identical HAL binary code is
used unchanged with other operating systems.


Atheros Hardware
----------------

There are currently three "programming generations" of Atheros 802.11
wireless devices (some of these have multiple hardware implementations
but otherwise appear identical to users):

5210 supports 11a only
5211 supports both 11a and 11b
5212 supports 11a, 11b, and 11g

These parts have been incorporated in a variety of retail products
including Cardbus cards from D-Link, Linksys, Netgear, Orinoco, Proxim,
and 3Com; and mini-pci cards from some of these same vendors. In
addition, many laptop vendors use Atheros mini-pci cards for their
built-in wireless support.

For an up-to-date list of cards based on Atheros parts visit:
http://customerproducts.atheros.com/customerproducts

A list of products that have been reported to be supported by MadWifi
can be found here:
http://madwifi.org/wiki/Compatibility

In general, if a device is identified as ``11a only'', it is almost
certain to contain an Atheros 5210 part in it. Most retail a+b products
use the 5211. Many a+b+g combo products use the 5212 though other
vendors have started to offer dual-band support. When in doubt, check
the PCI vendor ID with a tool like lspci, the Atheros vendor ID is
0x168c; e.g.

00:13.0 Ethernet controller: Unknown device 168c:0012 (rev 01)

but beware that some vendors use alternate vendor IDs (e.g 3Com, IBM).
The file hal/ah_devid.h has a list of known PCI IDs.


Building the driver
-------------------

The procedure to build the driver is described in the file INSTALL.


Using the driver
----------------

The driver should support any Atheros-based Cardbus or PCI device. This
version of the driver is managed and controlled by the usual Linux tools
(ifconfig, iwconfig, iwpriv) plus the wlanconfig tool, which is included
with the driver in the tools directory and gets installed on your system
with make install.

First, run "modprobe ath_pci" or the equivalent using "insmod". When
the driver is successfully loaded it creates two devices, named "wifi0"
and "ath0". The output from iwconfig should look like this:

lo no wireless extensions.

wifi0 no wireless extensions.

ath0 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Channel:0 Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:0 kb/s Tx-Power:50 dBm Sensitivity=0/3
Retry:off RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=0/94 Signal level=-95 dBm Noise level=-95 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0


This driver uses wifi%d only as a placeholder for the physical device,
and will create one wifi device for each wireless NIC in the system.
These wifi devices will reject ifconfig and iwconfig commands. The wifi
interface indicates the existence of a physical MadWifi device, but it
is not of any functional interest other than as the starting point for
VAP creation via wlanconfig (see Virtual AP section below).

By default, an ath%d Managed mode interface is also created. This
device is a "virtual ap" (VAP) of the wifi%d physical device, and is
configurable by the standard networking tools - ifconfig, iwconfig,
iwpriv.

The autocreation function can be manipulated to create any one of the
other supported device types automatically by using the autocreate=mode
option when the ath_pci module is first loaded. The following example
will cause ath%d to be in Master mode:

modprobe ath_pci autocreate=ap

Autocreation can be disabled:

modprobe ath_pci autocreate=none

Please see the following link for more information:
http://madwifi.org/wiki/UserDocs/autocreate


Virtual APs (VAPs) and wlanconfig
---------------------------------

An interesting feature of MadWifi is Virtual AP (VAP) mode, which allows
the operation of multiple concurrent (virtual) access points, and
concurrent interfaces running in both AP and station mode. To
manipulate VAP's, MadWifi comes with a tool called wlanconfig which is
used to create and destroy VAPS with various different modes.

The following examples assume that the "autocreate=none" option has been
parsed to the module at load time. This allows fine control over
management of VAP's, as the creation of a Managed mode station should be
delayed until all other required VAP's are first created, as only one
sta mode VAP can exist per physical device.

To create an access point, use:

wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode ap

To create an access point and a station, use:

wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode ap
wlanconfig ath1 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode sta nosbeacon

To create APs that share a single MAC address, use the -bssid flag when
creating the VAPs:

wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode ap -bssid
wlanconfig ath1 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode ap -bssid

Finally, to destroy a VAP, issue the command:

wlanconfig ath0 destroy

For more information about Virtual AP's, please refer to the users-guide
document distributed with the MadWifi source code.

For more information about wlanconfig, see its manpage, it is installed
when you run "make install".


Operating Mode
--------------

If you have a multi-mode card, use one of the following commands to lock
the operating mode to one of 11a, 11b, or 11g:

iwpriv ath0 mode 1 lock operation to 11a only
iwpriv ath0 mode 2 lock operation to 11b only
iwpriv ath0 mode 3 lock operation to 11g only
iwpriv ath0 mode 0 autoselect from 11a/b/g (default)


Debugging
---------

There are some debugging mechanisms for the curious/masochistic:

sysctl -w dev.ath.debug=0xXXX enable console msgs from the driver
sysctl -w net.wlan0.debug=0xYYY enable console msgs from the wlan module

The values specified for 0XXX and 0xYYY are bit masks that enable
debugging in various parts of each module. For the wlan module these
values are found in the file net80211/ieee80211_var.h (search for MSG_).
For the ath driver look in ath/if_ath.c (search for ATH_DEBUG). Beware
that enabling some debugging msgs can affect the operation of the
software by slowing it down too much.

A more comfortable way to manipulate the debug settings is to make use
of athdebug and 80211debug tools. Call them with the parameter "-h" to
learn how they are used, or refer to the appropriate man pages.

In addition the programs tools/athstats and tools/80211stats can be very
useful in understanding what is going on. In particular, something like

athstats 1

will give a running display of the most interesting statistics sampled
every 1 second. Running athstats without any options will display a
summary of all non-zero statistics from the time the driver was loaded.
By default the ath0 device is used; to override this use the -i option.

A wiki page describes common MadWifi debugging methods here:
http://madwifi.org/wiki/DevDocs/AthDebug


Security/Crypto Support
-----------------------

All Atheros devices implement fixed/shared key WEP in hardware. Newer
Atheros hardware is capable of much more (e.g. AES, TKIP and Michael).
When hardware support is not available for a cipher the net80211 layer
will automatically do the work in software.

WPA/802.11i station operation (aka supplicant) is supported using Jouni
Malinen's wpa_supplicant program. This can be obtained from:

http://hostap.epitest.fi/wpa_supplicant/

wpa_supplicant also supports a wide range of 802.1x EAP methods, either
together with WPA/WPA2 or without; consult the wpa_supplicant
documentation for an up to date list.

MadWifi supports the use of the Wireless Extensions ioctl's equal to or
greater than WE18 (linux 2.6.15). When using wpa_supplicant with a
recent linux kernel, it is preferred to use the 'wext' driver backend,
rather than the private MadWifi ioctl's. This means that '-D wext'
option should be used with wpa_supplicant when the linux kernel version
is 2.6.15 or above.

NOTE: the in-kernel authenticator is being replaced; to use it you need
to follow the directions in net80211/Makefile.

When operating as an AP, you can use fixed/shared key ciphers and/or
802.1x authentication. The authentication mode is specified using
iwpriv:

iwpriv ath0 authmode 1 # open authentication
iwpriv ath0 authmode 2 # shared key authentication
iwpriv ath0 authmode 3 # 802.1x authentication

To use the 802.1x authenticator you must install and configure the
hostapd program from the same place you got wpa_supplicant from.
Consult the hostapd documentation for further information.


Live Monitoring and Writing Raw 802.11 Packets
----------------------------------------------

The driver can be used in a live "monitor" mode, by creating a monitor
VAP and sending packets to it. All packets sent to a monitor mode VAP
will bypass any state machine.

To create a monitor VAP, use:

wlanconfig ath1 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode monitor
ifconfig ath1 up

Finally, you can choose to receive packets on ath1 in several different
packet formats:

echo '801' > /proc/sys/net/ath1/dev_type # only 802.11 headers
echo '802' > /proc/sys/net/ath1/dev_type # prism2 headers
echo '803' > /proc/sys/net/ath1/dev_type # radiotap headers
echo '804' > /proc/sys/net/ath1/dev_type # atheros descriptors


Known Problems
--------------

[All these problems are to be fixed in future revisions.]

1. Ad-hoc mode is broken; symptoms are intermittent operation.

Other issues might be mentioned in our ticket tracker:
http://madwifi.org/report/1


Getting Support
---------------

User support is provided via the madwifi-users mailing list, which can
be reached at:

madwifi-users@lists.sourceforge.net

Contact this mailing list if you need help in getting your installation
up and running. We suggest that you subscribe to the list before
sending your request (see below).

We also offer an IRC channel that might be a better help in urgent
cases. Learn more about the different ways to get support by visiting:

http://madwifi.org/wiki/Support

When sending a support request or problem report be sure to include the
version of the driver and the part identification the driver prints to
the console when the module is loaded. For example:

ath_hal: 0.8.2.0
wlan: 0.7.0.0
ath_pci: 0.8.2.0
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:13.0
ath0: 11a rates: 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
ath0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps
ath0: 802.11 address: 00:05:5d:6f:99:5f
ath0: Atheros 5211: mem=0xfebf0000, irq=11

This says the HAL module is version 0.8.2, the wlan module is version
0.7, the driver is version 0.8.2 and the hardware uses an Atheros 5211
chip (which supports 11a and 11b modes).

We will try to respond in a timely manner but understand this software
is provided as-is, without any promise of support.


Feedback and Contributions
--------------------------

Reports about reproducible bugs, feature requests and patches should be
submitted in the form of a trouble ticket:

http://madwifi.org/newticket

Fixes and enhancements are encouraged.

[Readme ends]

Many thanks for your time and trouble. It's appreciated.
CC.

The SIS 191 is the interface for your wired (Ethernet) connection. But you have chosen not to use this.

There'll be a socket on your laptop that looks a bit like a phone socket, but a bit bigger. You can plug in a CAT5 cable there, and connect it to your router (which will have a similar socket to receive the other end of the cable), and it'll probably work. Always has done in my recent years with linux. But this is a wired connection, which you do not want.

To go back: You want wireless connectivity. That's a diferent matter altogether: You want to be able to use your wireless interface, and that is the Atheros one.

You have posted a huge "readme" file to this forum, but why didn't you just do as I suggested and post a LINK to wherever you have "downloaded a driver" from ?

I do not want to read the "readme" when I cannot see the files it is referring to, which you have "downloaded to windows and unzipped". This tells me nothing. Grrrrr :(

You started off on the wrong foot with this thread, by titling it "Installing ethernet card driver"

- It's not an "Ethernet card", because what you want is wireless. That's not "Ethernet", it's "Wireless".
- You are not "installing" anything, it is (at last we now know) a built-in piece of hardware to your laptop's motherboard.

You might have had a better response if you had titled your thread "Atheros Communications, Inc.: Unknown device 3067" not working.

You really aren't helping us to help you. Maybe CC is an apt moniker ;)

I ask you to think very carefully. Compose your reply offline. Read and re-read it to make sure it answers all the questions posed. Check and double-check. All questions answered? All links supplied? All outputs from commands listed?

Have you read: http://linuxsilo.net//docs/smart-questions_en.html

Then post ;)
We'll all try to help you, but if you do not explain your problem, there are misunderstandings, assumptions (probably incorrectly) made and confusion reigns :(

Details, details, details. Please :)

Hello Tredegar,

I'm sorry for any confusion. As you have noted, my screen name is highly appropriate. I am totally wet-behind-the-ears when it comes to Linux and thought that by the choice of this name, people would make a few more allowances for my ignorance of the subject.

Sorry I didn't post a link to the site, I expected everything you needed to know would be in the Readme file I posted. But having said that, since I don't fully understand the text of it, perhaps that expectation was an *assumption* too far!

As regards to the term "Ethernet Card" I believe I'm entitled to be fully confused by it. The key term, "Ether" is an old-fashioned word for the space through which wireless waves propagate. To me, it was clearly implicit in the term "Ethernet Card" that a piece of hardware could communicate via the 'Ether' - free space in other words. The term is actually very old (as am I) so you may never have encountered it. Nevertheless, it clearly implies, to persons of a certain age that it is purely a WIRELESS connection device!

In view of my very great age, perhaps you would be good enough to summarize, in full, in one paragraph, what details I have yet to provide?

Many thanks indeed for your time and effort.

cc

PS: will guarantee to answer EVERY point if it's within ONE paragraph (memory's not what it was, I'm afraid).

cc.

Easy, one Q:
What "driver" have you downloaded, and where did you download it from [I need a link].

I have been doing some searching.....

Q1] - Most laptops have some sort of switch to turn wireless on & off. Does yours have this? Is your wireless turned on?

My laptop (which doesn't use the atheros chipset) is running kubuntu 6.06 [ http://www.kubuntu.org/download.php#lts ] and already has the ath_pci module that the Atheros chipsets need; available, but not loaded. Yours probably has too. So I doubt you'll need to go to the trouble of compiling it from source.

As root, try:
lsmod | grep ath
Q2] - Is anything listed?
If not, try inserting the module (as root again):
modprobe ath_pci
Once the module has loaded (it loads some others that are needed as well) try (again, as root)
iwlist scan
Q3] - What happens?

Off-topic: I'm old enough to remember when æther was written "correctly" ;)

Okay, sorry for the delay; I had to pop down to Luxemberg today and have only just got home. I'll get to work on your suggestions and hope to post back the results before 11pm UK time.

Many thanks,
CC

Okay, here's some interim results in part:

I'm not sure what you mean by the phrase "as root" - I've taken it to mean I should enter a forward slash before each command, like this:

"/lsmod | grep ath" (without the quotes) is that correct? Response is: "bash: /lsmod: No such file or directory"

I then tried again without the forward slash prefix and got the response: "bash: lsmod: command not found"

And this was the case for all your suggested inputs, I'm sorry to say. Looks like Fedora doesn't recognise them.

YOu mention an on/off switch. Would this be a physical switch on the case somewhere, or a virtual switch in the BIOS or something of that sort?

I'll try to find the link to the site where I downloaded the module....

CC.