Atheros AR9285 wireless card: kernel panic

kikinovak · 10-07-2014, 04:58 AM

Hi,

I just installed Slackware64 14.1 on a Packard Bell netbook. Everything works fine so far: wired networking, video card, sound, etc. But when I enable rc.networkmanager and restart the PC, I get a kernel panic, apparently due to the athXX kernel module, as far as I understand.

Here's the exact chipset of the card:

Code:

[root@slackbox:~] # lspci | grep -i network
02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)

I don't know if this is due to faulty hardware, or if it is just badly supported.

Any suggestions?

ReaperX7 · 10-07-2014, 10:37 PM

Try upgrading to a newer kernel first. Chances are the kernel module included with 14.1 by default isn't the best. If it faults with 3.16.4 or 3.17, then chances are it's possible the hardware has a fault such as the MiniPCI controller or the PCIe bus it's attached to.

qweasd · 10-07-2014, 11:59 PM

I have exactly the same card on 14.1x64, and it's purring here with 3.10.48. I don't remember if I ever ran it with stock kernel. All around, this is gotta be the most stable wireless card I ever used with Linux.