Atheros AR5212 Madwifi HowTo

[elvis]

I purchased myself a Netgear WG511T network card based on the recommendation of this page:

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/Hard...ssNetworkCards

Which incorrectly states it works "out of the box" with Hoary. It does no such thing.

lspci gives me:

0000:06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)

Long story short, Hoary ships with ath_hal 0.9.12.14, which is too old. Hopefully this mini-guide will help others upgrade and get wireless working.

If your wireless isn't working, at a console type "dmesg | less". Scroll around and search for the string starting with "ath_hal". If you see something like:

ath_hal: 0.9.12.14 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212) HAL status 13

The "HAL Status 13" bit means your card is not supported by the current drivers, and you need to upgrade.

The laptop I was working on was quite old, and had no onboard LAN. So this guide assumes nothing more than the Hoary install CD, and the following files:

1) GNU sharutils - needed for uudecode for the madwifi driver install:
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/sharutils/REL-...-4.3.80.tar.gz

2) The latest madwifi snapshot:
http://madwifi.otaku42.de/madwifi-cvs-current.tar.gz

I downloaded these on a internet-capable PC, and copied them to my laptop via USB pendrive and "sneakernet".

To build, we need the GNU C Compiler, gcc. At a prompt (represented by "#") I type:

# sudo su
# apt-get update
# apt-get install make gcc g++

You'll need the Hoary cdrom inserted for the above, and most of the following.

Purists will probably tell me "sudo su" is naughty, but with no web access anyway, it isn't much of a security risk.

You may recieve warnings here that packages cannot be verified. It's safe to ignore these for now.

Madwifi compiles against your currently installed kernel. For this, we also need kernel headers. The command

# uname -r

tells me the kernel I have installed. For me, that's "2.6.10-5-386". Now to grab the correct headers:

# apt-get install linux-headers-2.6.10-5-386

APT also installs linux-headers-2.6.10. Note this, because we need to fix a problem this causes later.

So now I untar my two files I downloaded

# tar xvzf sharutils-4.3.80.tar.gz
# tar xvzf madwifi-cvs-current.tar.gz

First, I build sharutils, which installs the "uudecode" program I need for madwifi

# cd sharutils-4.3.80
# ./configure
# make
# make install
# cd ..

Once done, I build madwifi. Madwifi incorrectly detects my kernel as "2.6.10" and not "2.6.10-5-386" and will build against the wrong headers. To fix this, we need to export some variables. Again, change these to match your installed kernel (found via the 'uname -r' command).

# cd madwifi
# export KERNELPATH=/usr/src/linux-2.6.10-5-386
# export KERNELRELEASE=2.6.10-5-386
# make
# make install

The new madwifi drivers should now be built and installed. At this stage, I ejected the Haory CDROM and rebooted my machine.

After reboot, dmesg now says:

wlan: 0.8.4.5 (EXPERIMENTAL)
ath_hal: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel.
ath_hal: 0.9.14.9 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413)

Notice the jump to ath_hal 0.9.14.9 from the old 0.9.12.14.

Now I can click System -> Administration -> Networking and my wireless network card appears as "ath0" which I can configure as normal with all my usual ESSID, WEP and IP information.

I'm assuming the next test release of Ubuntu will include the updated Madwifi drivers, but I hope in the short term this helps a few people getting theirs up and running. I see these forums are littered with folks failing to get their wireless working, which is frustrating especially after you've purchased hardware based on an official hardware compatability list, which is supposedly the clever thing to do.

[jaykay]

Here is a simple and easy way to get the Netgear Wg511T card up and running in easy steps. In 5 minutes you will be up and running.

1. start up a root console

2.type: iwconfig ( this will give you your card info and network /wireless info)

3. type: iwconfig ath0 channel 6 ( substitute channel 6 for whichever channel your router is transmitting on)

4. Type: iwlist scan ( this may take a minute, this will give you your routers wireless settings.)

5. Type: iwconfig ath0 essid xxxxxx ( replace xxxxxx with your routers essid)

6. Type: iwconfig ath0 ap xx xx xx xx xx xx( this is the six double digit mac address required and is listed in your iwlist scan message as above.)

7. Type: iwconfig ath0 key XXXXXXXXXX ( replace XXXXXXXX with your own hex wep key )

8. type: dhclient ( this gets your dhcp sorted ) you should now be up and running.

All of the information you need is right on the screen, although you will need to make a note of your wep key from your routers settings, as the output above may list it only as a ******** output .

Hope this helps some one.

I have testd this on various linux systems and it appears to work fine including live CDs.

One thing to note if you are using a knoppix system step 8 above will not work but you can replace it with the following command

step 8: type: pump -i ath0

Good Luck

Jaykay

[IcemanV9]

UPDATED: I realized (uname -r) confused many newbies. So, I changed it to reflect a correct syntax - `uname -r`; so that you can copy and paste.

Your info does help me to resolve the problem with my new cardbus adapter, D-Link DWL-G650.

Here's what I did:

wget http://otaku42.de/madwifi/madwifi-cvs-current.tar.gz
sudo apt-get install build-essential (only if you don't have it)
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` (again, only if you don't have it)
sudo apt-get install sharutils

tar xvzf madwifi-cvs-current.tar.gz
cd madwifi
KERNELPATH=/usr/src/linux-headers-`uname -r`; export KERNELPATH
KERNELRELEASE=`uname -r`; export KERNELRELEASE
sudo make
sudo make install

sudo mv /lib/modules/2.6.10-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath_rate/onoe/ath_rate_onoe.ko /lib/modules/2.6.10-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath_rate/onoe/ath_rate_onoe.ko.orig
sudo mv /lib/modules/2.6.10-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath_hal/ath_hal.ko /lib/modules/2.6.10-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath_hal/ath_hal.ko.orig
sudo mv /lib/modules/2.6.10-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath_pci.ko /lib/modules/2.6.10-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath_pci.ko.orig

sudo cp /lib/modules/2.6.10-5-686/net/ath_rate_onoe.ko /lib/modules/2.6.10-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath_rate/onoe/ath_rate_onoe.ko
sudo cp /lib/modules/2.6.10-5-686/net/ath_hal.ko /lib/modules/2.6.10-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath_hal/ath_hal.ko
sudo cp /lib/modules/2.6.10-5-686/net/ath_pci.ko /lib/modules/2.6.10-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath_pci.ko

reboot (leave your cardbus in the slot)

when boot up, it will recongize the cardbus adapter (without an error message)!

To TEST ath0, I just used some commands from jaykay's instruction. AND, it works great.

[rlklee]

When following the instructions given by Elvis, I get this repeated error on the "make" command for madwifi:


#make
Checking if all requirements are met,,, ok.
mkdir -p ./symbols
for i in ./ath_hal ath_rate/onoe ./net80211 ./ath; do \
(cd $i; make) | | exit 1; \
done
make[1]: Entering directory '/home/rlklee/Desktop/madwifi/ath_hal'
make -C /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.10-5-386 SUBDIRS=/home/rlklee/Desktop/madwifi/ath_hal MODVERDIR=/home/rlklee/Desktop/madwifi/ath_hal../symbols modules
make[2]: Entering directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.10-5-386'
Building modules, stage 2
MODPOST
Warning: could not find /home/rlklee/Desktop/madwifi/ath_hal/.hal.o.cmd for /home/rlklee/Desktop/madwifi/ath_hal/hal.o


It then continues to reiterate in this same warning pattern till the end... I'm new to the game, any help would be greatly appreciated.

[elvis]

Originally Posted by rlklee When following the instructions given by Elvis, I get this repeated error on the "make" command for madwifi

It looks like the build part is OK, but the scripts inside the madwifi source is giving you issues.

Perhaps try getting either a newer or older CVS snapshot and trying again. Maybe the snapshot you have has something broken in it?

[rlklee]

Fixed the problem:

Everyone following Elvis' instructions (which are tip-top) should make sure to uninstall the linux-restricted madwifi package (using synaptic; just seach for linux-restricted, it should be the only one to pop up). All should be well.

Cheers,

[DagaZ]

Using the guide of IcemanV9 I got my Netgear WG311T up and running in no-time. My bridged firewall works great!

[doans]

Originally Posted by DagaZ Using the guide of IcemanV9 I got my Netgear WG311T up and running in no-time. My bridged firewall works great!

Yes, I also got my WG311T up and running using IcemanV9 post in no time. FYI The first post did not work for me.

[elvis]

Originally Posted by doans Yes, I also got my WG311T up and running using IcemanV9 post in no time. FYI The first post did not work for me.

It looks like my post is specific to people using the "-386" kernels. People using "-686" kernels need to follow IcemanV9's instructions instead.

Again, "uname -r" will tell you which kernel you have installed.

[doans]

Originally Posted by elvis It looks like my post is specific to people using the "-386" kernels. People using "-686" kernels need to follow IcemanV9's instructions instead. Again, "uname -r" will tell you which kernel you have installed.

FYI I am using the k7 kernel version. Just had to change all entries from -686 to -k7. Other than that no problems.