New kernels wipe out old kernels' working wifi

[dhimes]

This is rather remarkable. I was loving f9 with 2.6.25.11-97.fc9.x86_64 and 2.6.25.14-108.*
For the first time I had wifi, video driver, sound, etc. etc. ... what I always knew Linux could be. Then the 2.6.26.3 kernel came out, and I could run everything but wifi on it (I have the atheros situation going on here...). Eventually, I tried akmod because the kmod hadn't appeared in the Livna repo. It wouldn't build. (I also used the akmod for nvidia, and it works fine). So I kept using the 25.14 kernel. No sweat.

Next, the 26.5-45 came out. After installing, none of the wifi worked on ANY kernel. (short story: ) I uninstalled the akmod and went back to the regular drivers. No joy. Uninstalled all madwifi, uninstalled the 26.5 kernel, reinstalled kernel then madwifi, and nothing. Uninstalled both the 26.3 and the 26.5 kernels to try to recover my previous state. I can't reinstall the madwifi now without reinstalling the 26.5 kernels! The latest kernel really wiped out my wifi! It's hard to believe.

I was hoping I would be able to post a fix here, but I don't have it yet. I now have to get back to work, unfortunately.

[rambo3543]

I just completely remove and then recompile madwifi when the kernel updates, works every time

[dhimes]

Rambo3543,

I was going to try to learn how to do that tomorrow. Wish me luck!

[stoat]

Originally Posted by dhimes

The latest kernel really wiped out my wifi! It's hard to believe.

Hello dhimes,

Yes, it's hard to believe at first. But it is very well known and common (try kmod-madwifi site:fedoraforum.org in Google and see what I mean). Anyway, your situation reminded me of a similar thread regarding kmod-ndiswrapper recently. In that thread, Psycho updated the kernel of a new installation and found that the livna kmod-ndiswrapper packages for it were delayed. Attempts to yum install kmod-ndiswrapper for the older (initially installed) kernel failed because yum was insisting on installing the next most recent kmod packages for a kernel that Psycho did not have. Failed dependencies resulted (you have to see it to understand).

I don't have an atheros-based card nor use madwifi. But from studying old threads it all seems very similar to the kmod-ndiswrapper situation. I imagine that the kmod-madwifi package for the kernel brings along another kmod-madwifi package and a madwifi package (similar to what kmod-ndiswrapper does). Examples for that lastest kernel that are now in the livna download server...

kmod-madwifi-2.6.26.5-45.fc9.x86_64-0.9.4-50.r3771.lvn9.x86_64.rpm
kmod-madwifi-0.9.4-50.r3771.lvn9.x86_64.rpm
madwifi-0.9.4-10.r3771.lvn9.x86_64.rpm

Did you notice something such as that when trying to install? I could be wrong about all of this, but...

First, I would try updating the kmod-madwifi packages for the newest kernel again since they are all available now. The date on the files is very recent, and maybe they appeared since you started this thread.

Or second, if you still want to go back to the previous kernel that worked, then read Pyscho's thread about how he/she did it with kmod-ndiswrapper. Psycho was able to install the kmod-ndiswrapper packages for the old kernel without those missing dependency errors by using the allowdowngrade plugin for yum. Maybe you will see something regarding the yum install command with the --allow-downgrade command option for yum that relates directly to your kmod-madwifi situation. Or maybe not. Just trying to help.

Lastly, if you ever do get this fixed, you should give strong consideration to excluding the kernel from routine periodic updates. I do. For this very reason. Every now and then (when I feel lucky), I will allow the kernel to update while remaining prepared to get rid of it if it breaks things. I used to not worry about this because for years new kernels never hurt me, but recently all that's changed. To exclude the kernel from yum updates, add this line to /etc/yum.conf: exclude=kernel*. To allow the kernel to update, "comment out" the line (with the # character).

[dhimes]

Thanks Stoat,
That's how I search the forums (fori?), as the internal search is clunky and yahoo (which I usually use the most) finds otherly-formatted pages (print format, etc.). I must have missed the stuff where one kernel install disabled a different kernel's wifi.

You are right about there being a meta-package which automagically tells yum what packages to fetch for the particular kernel. I took your advice and re-installed the new kernel and madwifi, but no joy (the new madwifi, it says, was built on 1 Oct. as it turns out).

I tried compiling the module directly, but received an error (madwifi ticket # 2022 http://madwifi.org/ticket/2022)
The ticket is "closed", which I think means a solution has been found (apparently a "patch"). I need to do more research on how to apply it.

I will next try psycho's thread to try to get madwifi to work with the previous kernel.

Thanks again for your help. If nothing else, the process is educational!

[rambo3543]

Here, read my instructions in the middle:

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showth...29#post1091529

[dhimes]

Rambo3543,

Those instruction for recompiling left me with the same error as before: a bunch of call to some ieee80211 functions have too few arguments. Dang. I tried stoat's instructions on an earlier post (with psycho) and was able to load the old driver, but still no connection. The network manager isn't seeing the card.

For anyone else following,

yum install yum-allowdowngrade

Then

yum --allow-downgrade install kmod-madwifi-2.6.25.14-108.fc9.x86_64-0.9.4-39.lvn9.x86_64 kmod-madwifi-0.9.4-39.lvn9.x86_64 madwifi-0.9.4-1.lvn9.x86_64

Note that there are three things to be installed on that line. Installing only the first will install stuff you don't want (like the new kernel!!) for dependencies.

Of course, it didn't connect the wifi for me....

[rambo3543]

Have you blacklisted ath5k? That MUST be blacklisted before the other driver will work, to do that add the following line

 blacklist ath5k

to the following file:

 /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

[dhimes]

ok-- got it. I followed the recommendation here (I believe it's scottro's page) and got the latest snapshot from here. This snapshot apparently included the patch for ticket 2022--although why the madwifi page hasn't updated the download since that time is a mystery to me.

Thank you both (and scottro and jn4oldschool) for your help! Hopefully, this page can help someone else.

Now, if I can just get my monitor back to where it was in 25.14-108...

-- reply to Ramo3543 post-- I think we posted at the same time....
yes, the blacklisting never went away since the first time madwifi was configured. I kept looking to see that it was still ok, and it was.