HOWTO: Get wireless working in Hardy with Atheros 5418

[jerick70]

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to post what worked for me to get my Lenovo Thinkpad T60 working with WPA/WPA2 wireless and Hardy. This information seems to be scattered all over the place so I thought I would compile it into a howto guide. I will walk you through downloading and configuring the lastest Madwifi trunk, and WICD. I used the r3616 of the Madwifi svn. I'm not sure if a newer svn will work. I prefer the WICD interface to Network Managers. YMMV if tried with Network Manager. I also haven't tried this in KDE. If there is anyone that wants to contribute to this or has a better way of doing this please give us your 2 cents. Here are the steps:

Install prerequisites to download and build Madwifi

1) Install kernel headers, subversion and build-essential. Open you favorite terminal program and enter the following code:

sudo aptitude install linux-headers-`uname -r` subversion build-essential

Download and install latest Madwifi svn.

2) Make directory to download latest svn into and download svn.

mkdir madwifi 
cd madwifi
svn checkout http://svn.madwifi.org/madwifi/trunk #This will take a while.

3)Remove Madwifi drivers installed by Hardy

sudo ifconfig ath0 down
sudo ifconfig wifi0 down
#Repeat these 2 ifconfig lines for every MadWifi device you have
cd trunk/scripts
sudo ./madwifi-unload
sudo sh ./find-madwifi-modules.sh $(uname -r)
cd ..

4) Install Madwifi

make
sudo make install

5) Load Madwifi module and set module to start at boot

sudo modprobe ath_pci
sudo gedit /etc/modules

*the modules file only supports one device per line*
Enter ath_pci on the last line of the file and save.

6) Add WICD repository to Software Sources.

Go to System -> Administration -> Software Sources
Click on "Third-party Software" tab
Click add.
Add this for the "APT line" - deb http://apt.wicd.net hardy extras
Click "Add Source"
Click "Close"
Click "Reload" #Be sure to reload or the next step will not work

7) Install WICD. #This will remove Network Manager.

sudo aptitude install wicd

8) Load WICD gui at login

Go to System -> Preferences -> Sessions
Under the "Startup Programs" tab click "Add"
Under name type "WICD" #without quotes
Under command type "/opt/wicd/tray.py" #without quotes
Click ok
Load WICD without restarting ATL-F2 put this in the box /opt/wicd/tray.py and click run.

9) Let's see if your new install is working

lspci -nn | grep Network
you should get this 03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5418 802.11abgn Wireless PCI Express Adapter [168c:0024] (rev 01) 

sudo lshw -C network | grep driver | sed 's/ /\n/g' | grep driver=
you should get this 
driver=e1000
driver=ath_pci

sudo lsmod | grep ath_pci
you should get this 
ath_pci               241856  0 
wlan                  255008  5 wlan_tkip,wlan_scan_sta,ath_rate_sample,ath_pci
ath_hal               281216  3 ath_rate_sample,ath_pci

10) Connect to WPA/WPA2 access point

sudo gedit /opt/wicd/encryption/templates/wpa

Change this line psk=$_PSK to this line psk=$_KEY
Go into the WICD Manager click on preferences and make sure that wext is the "WPA Supplicant Driver" and that ath0 is your "Wireless Interface".
Check "Automatically Reconnect on Connection Loss"
Click OK.
Now click "Refresh" at the top and you should see your AP's name and all of the other APs close to your location. If your AP has a hidden SSID you will need to add the AP's name to WICD. Just Click on the down arrow at the top of the WICD Manager next to "Network" and choose "Hidden Network" and follow the next directions. You will need to add the PSK and any other settings necessary to connect to your particular AP. Just click on the name of your AP and then Advanced and you can put all your settings in.

You should be set to go now. ENJOY!!!!

Jerick70

[danbar]

What do I need to change if I need to connect to my wireless router Edimax (WirelessG Braodband Router) ?

[danbar]

What do I need to change (in the above instructions) to connect to a wireless router edimax ?

[jerick70]

What do I need to change (in the above instructions) to connect to a wireless router edimax ?

Hi danbar,

I don't have experience with Edimax routers. I would be happy to help though. I need a little more info from you though. Are you receiving any errors while preforming the steps in the guide? What model Edimax router do you have? How is the router setup? What wireless card are you using?

Jerick70

[danbar]

Thanks Jerick for answering. I'm not receiving any errors. It's reacting as if the router does not exist.

I went inside the settings of the router but couldn't get find information as to what model it is. Maybe I missed something?

Secondly how would I know (through hardy) what network card do I have?

[jerick70]

Thanks Jerick for answering. I'm not receiving any errors. It's reacting as if the router does not exist.

I went inside the settings of the router but couldn't get find information as to what model it is. Maybe I missed something?

Secondly how would I know (through hardy) what network card do I have?

You can probably look on the bottom of your router to find the model number.

I don't think you can see which card you have in Linux. What output did you get with this code?

lspci -nn | grep Network
sudo lshw -C network | grep driver | sed 's/ /\n/g' | grep driver=
sudo lsmod | grep ath_pci

Jerick70

[danbar]

thanks for your time!

The number written underneath the router is: 6114WG 4CE1000011

In the terminal the message that I found was: driver=b43-pci-bridge
driver=tg3

As I was looking for the b43cutter-011 in my harddisk I found it next to Documents, music, pictures etc....Maybe it's in the wrong place? Maybe I need to change the path?

Thanks again.

[jerick70]

thanks for your time!

The number written underneath the router is: 6114WG 4CE1000011

In the terminal the message that I found was: driver=b43-pci-bridge
driver=tg3

As I was looking for the b43cutter-011 in my harddisk I found it next to Documents, music, pictures etc....Maybe it's in the wrong place? Maybe I need to change the path?

Thanks again.

Hi danbar,

Your welcome. You have a Broadcom 4318 wireless chipset. The drivers in this guide will not work with your wireless chipset. They are for Atheros wireless based cards. Here is a thread that will help: Broadcom BCM4318 The rest of the thread with the WICD install instructions should work. Good luck in getting your wireless to work.

Jerick70

[speed01]

Hmm...I have a 5418 in a T60. I followed your instructions and everything seemed to go OK except 1) the ...grep driver= gives me both e1000 and ath_pci;
2) ifconfig shows both ath0 and wifi0. wifi0 shows traffic but ath0 does not;
3) I can connect, but wicd reports "connected at 15%" when the signal is very strong; and
4) I can't ping my router.
The card works properly with windows.

[jerick70]

Hmm...I have a 5418 in a T60. I followed your instructions and everything seemed to go OK except 1) the ...grep driver= gives me both e1000 and ath_pci;
2) ifconfig shows both ath0 and wifi0. wifi0 shows traffic but ath0 does not;
3) I can connect, but wicd reports "connected at 15%" when the signal is very strong; and
4) I can't ping my router.
The card works properly with windows.

Hi speed01,

I am sorry to hear that you are having issues. I have changed the guide to include the report of the e1000 driver when running the grep driver= command. Just to let you know the e1000 driver is the wrong driver for the T60 Intel NIC. You can find how to install the correct drivers here: http://whocares.de/2008/04/20/make-i...4-hardy-heron/

A couple of questions. What wireless router do you have? What version of the Madwifi drivers are you using? Can you get to the internet when connected to your wireless router(I am guessing you can't)?

Jeff