Madwifi Support for Atheros AR5413

[distrotech]

There aren't a lot of details about this card out there, it came standard in the HP Media Center m7760n.

lspci returns 02:03.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5413 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)

I'm running the newest version of madwifi-ng, and have attempted to configure this through both command line and KNetworkManager.

Any help would be appreciated!

[mjf55]

So, my basic questions to you are, what is the exact problem, error msgs, etc. What are you doing, i.e. command line configuration. Do yo have your /etc/resolv.conf configured with your nameserver. Are you getting an IP address back from your router (assuming you have this) or is it a static router. What is your route? Please paste the following information:
ifconfig:
iwconfig:
cat /etc/resolv.conf:
route:

[edgevision]

I'm using Atheros chipsets on both my desktop and my laptop, and I can honestly tell you that I have never had any luck getting those cards to work with KNetworkManager. I believe it is an issue with how it talks to the madwifi drivers. Anyway, to get them running from the get-go on an open wireless network with DHCP, you generally follow these steps:

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# ifconfig ath0 up
# iwlist ath0 scan

Select/copy the MAC address of the network you want to connect to, noting the ESSID and the channel, then..

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# iwconfig ath0 ap <mac_address_here>
# iwconfig ath0 essid <essid_here>
# iwconfig ath0 channel <channel_here>
# dhclient ath0

This should get an IP address (verify with ifconfig ath0.) Then, make sure you have nameserver entries in your /etc/resolv.conf. I use the following, it's a Comcast DNS that works great:

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nameserver 4.2.2.2

Aaand you're done. Try to ping http://www.google.com. Note that you're going to need to use wpa_supplicant if your wireless access point uses WPA. WEP is proven to be insecure, don't use it.

I personally think the best option is to use an open, insecure network with MAC address filtering (if your router supports it.)

[distrotech]

mjf55,

My exact problem is that the Atheros card is not detected at all. I have no ath extensions in my ifconfig or iwconfig, just eth0 and loop. resolv.conf is not configured for the device because the device is not even able to search for a route.

I forgot that I had posted about this back when I ran Ubuntu, and when I did lspci displayed:
01:03.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5006X 802.11abg NIC (rev01)

lspci now displays:
02:03.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5413 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)

Which one is correct?

A relevant error message might be my dmesg output, which is as follows:
[ 56.504887] wifi%d: unable to attach hardware: 'Hardware self-test failed' (HAL status 14)
[ 56.504416] ath_pci: 0.9.4.5 (0.9.3.2)
[ 56.417872] ath_rate_sample: no version for "ether_sprintf" found: kernel tainted.
[ 56.418124] ath_rate_sample: 1.2 (0.9.3.2)
56.156610] ath_hal: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel.
[ 56.157145] ath_hal: 0.9.18.0 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413, RF5413)
[ 56.370207] wlan: 0.8.4.2 (0.9.3.2)

[mjf55]

Distrotech.
First, say away from knetmanger, kwifi.... or any of those. They do not work ( at least for many folks here and myself) and will rot your teeth

For your question of which lspci is correct, the answer is - they both are. 5006X = 5413 As for as the PCI 01.00 or the 02.00; my guess is the different distro's enumerate the pci bus differently, no big deal.

just for comparison, here is my dmesg, lspci on my ThinkPad T42 running 32 bit 3.4e:

02:02.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)


[ 17.784852] ath_pci: switching rfkill capability off
[ 17.784856] ath_pci: ath_pci: switching per-packet transmit power control off
[ 17.787942] ath_rate_sample: 1.2 (0.9.4) (number in () is driver level)
[ 17.788211] Device driver wifi0 lacks bus and class support for being resumed.
[ 17.788240] wifi0: 11a rates: 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
[ 17.788247] wifi0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps
[ 17.788251] wifi0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
[ 17.788261] wifi0: H/W encryption support: WEP AES AES_CCM TKIP
[ 17.788265] wifi0: mac 5.6 phy 4.1 5 GHz radio 1.7 2 GHz radio 2.3
[ 17.788271] wifi0: Use hw queue 1 for WME_AC_BE traffic
[ 17.788273] wifi0: Use hw queue 0 for WME_AC_BK traffic
[ 17.788275] wifi0: Use hw queue 2 for WME_AC_VI traffic
[ 17.788277] wifi0: Use hw queue 3 for WME_AC_VO traffic
[ 17.788280] wifi0: Use hw queue 8 for CAB traffic
[ 17.788282] wifi0: Use hw queue 9 for beacons
[ 17.791395] Device driver ath0 lacks bus and class support for being resumed.
[ 17.791411] wifi0: Atheros 5212: mem=0xc0210000, irq=11

First thing is that your system fails attaching wifi to the hardware ( madwifi uses wifi for things that I do not know )
Second is that my driver is 0.9.4 (32 bit) released 8/28) and yours is 0.9.3.2. Try to

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emerge -u madwifi-ng

for it.

So the AR5413 is an extended range 20dBm of power non-super card ( 54Mbps) known as AR5006X in Atheros land. No comment on this card in madwifi.org There is a AR5006XS mentions and it says it ' works with madwifi-r1352-20051208 '. You may want to try back leveling if the 0.9.4 driver does not help.
Other than that, try help at madwifi.org or the irc channel #madwifi
Good Luck, let us know how it works out.

Madwifi.org mentions live cds that work 'out of the box' with atheros. Some include AR5006X. You may want to try one.
http://madwifi.org/wiki/LiveCDs

[mjf55]

Bad news at madwifi.org. This seems to be a know problem with this chipset (5006X). Here is the latest on it.
http://madwifi.org/ticket/1385
http://madwifi.org/ticket/808
Still open as of this post.