Atheros/madwifi support

[atsol]

Hello, I try to install madwifi in order to support my wireless Atheros card. But compilation fails.
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[root@diotimos madwifi-0.9.4]# make
./kernelversion.c:13:30: fatal error: linux/utsrelease.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.
Makefile.inc:81: *** Cannot detect kernel version - please check compiler and KERNELPATH. Stop.
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It seems it is a distribution issue. Kernel devel is installed.

Kernel module ath_pci does not seem to be available in the repos.

Can someone help?

[djennings]

You need to install the kernel headers. Install the packages
kernel-desktop-latest and kernel-desktop-devel-latest

However I am surprised you need to compile anything. Mageia is very good at supporting most wifi "out of the box" and isn't madwifi now superceded by the ath5k driver?

Have you tried running through the add a connection GUI in the network section of Mageia Control Centre. So long as you have got a full set of online repositories defined and are currently connected to the internet via a wired Ethernet, then it will download and install proprietary drivers automatically.

EDIT: Sorry I notice you already have the kernel-devel installed. In which case the make file of the madwifi driver must be looking in the wrong place for them.

[doktor5000]

FWIW, could you also please post the output of:

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lspcidrake -v | grep NETWORK

[atsol]

You are correct. ath5k supports the card and it is properly recognized:
# lspcidrake -v | grep NETWORK
ath5k : Atheros Communications Inc.|Atheros AR5001X+ Wireless Network Adapter [NETWORK_ETHERNET] (vendor:168c device:0013 subv:185f subd:1012) (rev: 01)


However, I tried to use the old ath_pci because it seems that ath5k does not support rfkill (or it does through another parameter?). The laptop does not have a switch to turn on wireless. So my card stays always turned off:

# iwconfig
wlan0 ............. Tx-Power=off

How do I turn on the transmit? ath_pci supported "rfkill=0" which did the trick. What can I do now?

[doktor5000]

Seems you're not connected to any WLAN. Could you please post the full output of iwconfig?
And what is the output of

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rfkill list

[atsol]

[root@diotimos atsol]# rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes
[root@diotimos atsol]# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11abg ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=off
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off

[root@diotimos atsol]#

[doktor5000]

[root@diotimos atsol]# rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes

So you see, rfkill says your WLAN is hard blocked. Try

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rfkill unblock 0

and then post again

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rfkill list

output

[atsol]

Yeah... I have tried these in the past with no luck:

[root@diotimos ~]# rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes
[root@diotimos ~]# rfkill unblock 0
[root@diotimos ~]# rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes
[root@diotimos ~]#

[doktor5000]

Could you try if something like that works:

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rmmod -f ath5k
rfkill unblock all
modprobe ath5k

An other solution for newer kernels would be this:

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rmmod -f ath5k
modprobe ath5k nohwcrypt=1

And then try again.
BTW: Are you absolutely sure, there is no switch/key combination to toggle wireless on your computer?
Could you please post the exact model so maybe we could take a look?

[doktor5000]

If ath5k is removed then rfkill finds no device to unblock. The second solution you provided does not help (does nothing).

My case is indeed kind of special. The laptop is a Toshiba P10-792. These laptops do not have wireless by default and do not have a wireless switch (other than the keyboard Fn-F8 which does nothing). The laptop has a free internal mini pci slot and the wireless was optional. So I bought such a wireless card kit and installed it myself. As long as I could compile ath_pci, the rfkill option at load time always did the trick. By the way, Windows were never able to use the card because I found no way to pass an rfkill option. But of course I do not care about Windows, I practically never use them.

Some time ago I could no longer compile ath_pci. I "discovered" ath5k but had no rfkill option. The rfkill program does not help, so I am at dead end.

The minipci atheros card is supposed to be a good quality card. Not a cheap one.

I copy bellow the results of dmesg | grep ath
Maybe I should talk to ath5k developers if I can find them... Maybe someone knows who develops this module? Because since the code from ath_pci worked I can not imagine that it is difficult to include a patch to ath5k...

thank you for any help you can provide. dmesg follows.

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# dmesg | grep ath
ath5k 0000:02:02.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
ath5k 0000:02:02.0: registered as 'phy0'
ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x0
ath: EEPROM indicates default country code should be used
ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x3a
ath: Country alpha2 being used: US
ath: Regpair used: 0x3a
ath5k phy0: Atheros AR5213A chip found (MAC: 0x59, PHY: 0x43)
ath5k phy0: RF5112B multiband radio found (0x36)
ath5k 0000:02:02.0: PCI INT A disabled


lspci output:

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02:02.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. Atheros AR5001X+ Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)


lspcidrake output:

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ath5k           : Atheros Communications Inc.|Atheros AR5001X+ Wireless Network Adapter [NETWORK_ETHERNET] (rev: 01)

[atsol]

I forgot : Toshiba *Satellite* P10-792

[doktor5000]

Well, then you need to open up a bugreport at: https://bugs.mageia.org/enter_bug.cgi?p ... mat=guided
But it would be of help if you contact the upstream ath5k developers and ask them about this rfkill issue.
It seems to me the problem is that the card is waiting to be activated from ath5k driver, but it does not.
This action seems to have been performed earlier by madwifi driver.

I'll take at shot at compiling madwifi, so you have an alternate solution to use your wireless until this is sorted out.
But seems this 0.9.4 release you're using is nearly three years old, you sure this works with current kernels?

[atsol]

Well, then you need to open up a bugreport at: https://bugs.mageia.org/enter_bug.cgi?p ... mat=guided
But it would be of help if you contact the upstream ath5k developers and ask them about this rfkill issue.

I will do both. How do I find ath5k developers?

I'll take at shot at compiling madwifi, so you have an alternate solution to use your wireless until this is sorted out.
But seems this 0.9.4 release you're using is nearly three years old, you sure this works with current kernels?

Thank you very much. I do not want to give you trouble. I am not sure it can be compiled with recent kernels. If it is not almost straightforward for you do not spend your time for me. Help me to find the ath5k developers and convince them to have a look

[doktor5000]

Well, then you need to open up a bugreport at: https://bugs.mageia.org/enter_bug.cgi?p ... mat=guided
But it would be of help if you contact the upstream ath5k developers and ask them about this rfkill issue.

I will do both. How do I find ath5k developers?

Here is their mailing list, where you can contact them directly:
https://lists.ath5k.org/mailman/listinfo/ath5k-devel

You can also find additional information and infos on already reported bugs here: http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/ath5k
You should search through the opened bugs against ath5k first to see if your problem was already reported.

If you need help in reporting or anything else just ask here.