[ubuntu] HOWTO: Atheros 242x on Acer 5315 with Ubuntu Hardy Heron

[ubuntista]

First create some temporary directory like:

mkdir ~/tmp
cd ~/tmp

Download madwifi hal driver:

wget http://snapshots.madwifi.org/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-current.tar.gz

... and extract it:

tar zxvf http://snapshots.madwifi.org/madwifi...current.tar.gz

Go into source directory:

cd madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3861-20080903/

... and run:

make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe ath_pci

Enjoy!

[gabsik]

Great! It works on my acer aspire 5520 with 05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01),good !

[hontalan]

worked perfect.

i had to do this first though:
sudo apt-get install build-essential


...and shouldnt tar zxvf http://snapshots.madwifi.org/madwifi...current.tar.gz be just without the http? thats how i did it anyway....

[Freakshowpb]

i got this to work for about a week

now it crapped out on me (the drivers are still there its just the card doesnt pick anything up anymore or wont turn on)

[waldoian]

Because I searched for well over a month on how to do just this, I'll add some updates.

This also works for the Dell Vostro A860 (and probably A840) so hopefully this thread will popup for those searching for something other than Acer.

The URLs in the HOWTO are dead, dead, dead. Bad admins for the madwifi project, bad, bad admins It appears they've done some major cleanup and organization on their site(s), but they've left a ton of dead URLs around that don't redirect to the proper places or even at least a page explaining what the heck is going on.

Updated HOWTO:

mkdir ~/tmp
cd ~/tmp

Download madwifi hal driver. I used the one dated 30-Jan-2009 and it worked great. Go here to get a current version URL (as they appear to have gotten rid of the "current" build)
http://snapshots.madwifi-project.org...-hal-0.10.5.6/, then (using the 30-Jan-2009 file as an example:

wget http://snapshots.madwifi-project.org/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3938-20090130.tar.gz

... and extract it:

tar zxvf madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3938-20090130.tar.gz

Go into source directory:

cd madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3938-20090130/

... and run:

make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe ath_pci

sudo modprobe ath_pci didn't seem to do anything for me on the Vostro A860, I had to actually reboot the computer for the wireless to work. Good news is that the wireless is automatically working on any reboot and you don't have do anything special as I've seen on other HOWTOs.