Atheros AR5BXB63

[BLooDMaN]

Greetings!

I've latest Atheros wi-fi chipset: AR5BXB63
Tried to install mad wi-fi and ndiswrapper but wireless is still unavailable.
I had older version of Atheros wi-fi chipset on previous laptop and there were same problems too, but I found snapshot on this forum and that helped me.

Does anyone have clear step-by-step instruction how to set up AR5BXB63 on Fedora 9?
If not I can buy Intel WRL 54MBPS ADAPTER MINI-PCIE/WM3945AGM2WB. Is it supported "out of box"?

Thanks a lot!

[bbfuller]

Hello BLooDMaN

Firstly, the Intel 3945 is supported out of the box in Fedora, it's one of the easier cards to get working. Though there is one variant that requires an addition to one of the configuration files.

Mixing madwifi and ndiswrapper is a bit dangerous, you should settle on one or the other.

However there is a further complication in that Fedora has the newest 'ath5k' driver installed as default and unless you have blacklisted that madwifi and ndiswrapper may not be getting a look in. The ath5k driver is very new and a lot of people revert to madwifi rather than use it.

If you want to pursue the atheros route post back and include the output of:

/sbin/lspci

for your card. I've not seen that particular designation before and would like to see if we can get any more details.

[scottro]

It means you have the infamous AR5007EG card. (That designation is in a sticker on the bottom of the machine with some Acer models.)

http://home.nyc.rr.com/computertaijutsu/rhwireless.html#5007

If you have Fedora 9, it should work with enabling the livna-testing repo and installing that version of Madwifi--that is, the livna-testing version of MadWifi.

[BLooDMaN]

Hm-m-m... nice!
I didn't boot Fedora for about month and now without any updates I see using /sbin/lspci:
Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)


ifconfig gives wlan0 interface, it's up and broadcasting, but I cannot connect to wireless.
Iwlist scan gives no result.

[disjointed]

Have you installed madwifi from livna-testing? There is ath5k driver in kernel and it actually loads and displays interface, but can not do anything useful :) The madwifi driver (ath_pci module) is what you need for that device (it happens I own the same card and it works).

[BLooDMaN]

Have you installed madwifi from livna-testing? There is ath5k driver in kernel and it actually loads and displays interface, but can not do anything useful :) The madwifi driver (ath_pci module) is what you need for that device (it happens I own the same card and it works).

Is livna-testing different repository from livna?
If you can tell me step-by-step what to do it would be great!
P.S.: have removed ndiswrapper and installed madwifi.

[JN4OldSchool]

Have you installed madwifi from livna-testing? There is ath5k driver in kernel and it actually loads and displays interface, but can not do anything useful :) The madwifi driver (ath_pci module) is what you need for that device (it happens I own the same card and it works).

I can confirm this works!

I just updated to the 86 kernel and could NOT rebuild the atheros madwifi driver scottro provides instructions for on his site, which, BTW, I have been happily using since I got this laptop. Well, ok, I knew the yum madwifi driver now worked and just havent gotten around to switching. Be nice to not have to rebuild this thing all the time. So I uninstalled the one and yum installed the other and just spent the last hour between kernels trying to get anything to work! Boy, did Fedora get an earfull! I was just to the breaking point (ie, laptop smashing into LCD TV) when I stumbled on this post as I was cooling down. Livna TESTING? OK, what the heck. Hey, works great!!!

Now, if this new kernel fixed the problem with other wireless devices, namely Belkin USB ver. 4000 I have on 4 other computers...

[disjointed]

BlooDMaN, use 'yum --enablerepo=livna-testing install madwifi'. Or, alternatively, you can open file /etc/yum.repos.d/livna-testing.repo and change 'enabled=0' to 'enabled=1' and then 'yum install madwifi'.

And if you already have madwifi installed, use 'update' instead of 'install' in previous commands.

[scottro]

The livna-testing will work with F9. I haven't gotten livna-devel working with Rawhide, though.
Jn4, have you seen the updated guide. There are some patches that are now necessary, though they should be in the latest Sam Leffler snapshots.

Were your errors something like

mnt/Temp1/MiscLinux/apps/wireless/atheros/madwifi/net80211/ieee80211_wireless.c:1835: error: passing argument 1 of 'iwe_stream_add_event' from incompatible pointer type

With that iwe_stream? It's been fixed.
At any rate, as long as livna-testing keeps working, it becomes a moot point.

[JN4OldSchool]

The livna-testing will work with F9. I haven't gotten livna-devel working with Rawhide, though.
Jn4, have you seen the updated guide. There are some patches that are now necessary, though they should be in the latest Sam Leffler snapshots.

Were your errors something like

mnt/Temp1/MiscLinux/apps/wireless/atheros/madwifi/net80211/ieee80211_wireless.c:1835: error: passing argument 1 of 'iwe_stream_add_event' from incompatible pointer type

With that iwe_stream? It's been fixed.
At any rate, as long as livna-testing keeps working, it becomes a moot point.

That explains it. No, I did not catch the patches. At any rate, the Livna testing works fine...for now. :(

[scottro]

I guess F9 has updated its kernel to the point where it requires them. I forget where they started to become necessary.


If, for whatever reason, livna stops keeping pace with it--I'm actually a bit surprised that they include it since it has a binary blob--the latest snapshot (found in a link from the ticket on MadWifi) will fix it.

EDIT. I see he's added an even newer snapshot, made yesterday. I haven't tried it yet.

[JN4OldSchool]

I guess F9 has updated its kernel to the point where it requires them. I forget where they started to become necessary.


If, for whatever reason, livna stops keeping pace with it--I'm actually a bit surprised that they include it since it has a binary blob--the latest snapshot (found in a link from the ticket on MadWifi) will fix it.

EDIT. I see he's added an even newer snapshot, made yesterday. I haven't tried it yet.

I got your site bookmarked just in case. :) I want to thank you from all us Atheros guys, it has been a life-saver. You have much other great info throughout your site, you should advertise the link.

Sometimes I think it would be easier to just attach one of those garden hose reels to the back of this laptop and just play out the cat5e where ever I go...

[scottro]

I just tested the latest update---patches are no longer necessary for either Fedora or Ubuntu Intrepid--it was tricky for awhile, you had to patch it one way for one and a different way for the other. Time to update the article again.


Thank you for the kind words. Actually, the CentOS people liked it so much, a slightly changed version got on their wiki.

I should add that for newcomers, it's ALWAYS best to use a repo's rpm when available. At present, I think Fedora and Mandriva and SuSE are the only ones that make a package available, though I could certainly be wrong about that.

[BLooDMaN]

After blacklisting ath5k and installing madwifi wlan0 interface had disappeared.

Kernel is 2.6.25.10-86.fc9.i686
Madwifi: madwifi-0.9.4-4.r3698.lvn9.i386

May be easiest way is to remove Fedora and install it from beginning.

[bbfuller]

Hello BLooDMaN

You wouldn't expect a wlan0 interface with atheros.

That usually turns up as 'ath0'

/sbin/iwconfig

in a terminal should tell you if you have one.

[BLooDMaN]

Hello BLooDMaN

You wouldn't expect a wlan0 interface with atheros.

That usually turns up as 'ath0'

/sbin/iwconfig

in a terminal should tell you if you have one.

ath0 is not available too.

[disjointed]

Hello BLooDMaN
You wouldn't expect a wlan0 interface with atheros.
That usually turns up as 'ath0'
.
Not quite true. For me it appears as wlan0 because of this (no idea, how it happened, though :) ):

udev: renamed network interface ath0 to wlan0

[BLooDMaN]

Yarrrr!

I've installed yumex and checked there "livna testing". Immediately it found madwifi update, I installed it and now I have wireless network!!!
Strange, cause I've already installed madwifi driver yesterday but so on I'm very happy now =)

Thanks to all of you!!!

[scottro]

@Disjointed, are you running F8? That sees it as wlan0.

@bloodman, my guess is that if you had livna-testing in your repos already, perhaps it wasn't enabled.
Glad that it works for you now.

[disjointed]

@Scottro, nope, F9 it is. Not an upgrade from F8, I've installed it from scratch. But I've used ndiswrapper before madwifi updated, which had wlan0 interface. That's may be the reason :)

[BLooDMaN]

Hi there!

I have problem again. Today updated kernel to 2.6.25.11 and wireless disappeared again.
Loaded old version - everything is fine. What could be reason?
I have to install madwifi driver again from Livna testing?

[disjointed]

No go. This livna's version of driver wouldn't compile with new kernel. Wait for the fix...