# The Ubuntu Forum Community > Ubuntu Official Flavours Support > Networking & Wireless > [ubuntu] Atheros ar928x working...

## a3qp

Hi,

After 10 days of hard work and headaches, I got my Atheros ar928x wireless card working. I hope this thread can help others:

Summary:
- I have an Atheros ar928x wireless card (see below for "lspci" output), and I got it working by doing what Volanin says in post #5 in the thread
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=874097. It worked for me in 32bit and now in amd64.

Long story:
(some people may identify with me or have similar problems).

My new laptop PC is a Sony Vaio SR129E/B, bought 3 weeks ago, in Newegg.
In the specifications of the seller's webpage, and on Sony's webpage, it didn't specify the exact model of the Atheros wireless card.
(official Sony page of the laptop ). The only way to find it was by looking in the "device manager" of
windows vista, right-clicking the card and selecting properties.

When I typed in the terminal:


```
lspci -nn
```

the output for my wireless card was:



```
05:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. Unknown device [168c:002a] (rev 01)
```

and this command:


```

lshw -C Network
```

gave:



```
*-network UNCLAIMED
description: Network controller
product: Atheros Communications Inc.
vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:05:00.0
version: 01
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=0
```

I had installed Ubuntu 8.04, amd64.

I tried using ndiswrapper many times. I used the Windows drivers installed on the Vista partition of my PC; they didn't work. I then tried downloading Windows drivers from:

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/...howtopic=14858
then from: http://birseyindir.org/driver/Athero...r___27005.html
and finally from: http://www.atheros.cz/download.php?atheros=AR928X

None worked, and ndiswrapper spammed dmesg with errors trying to load the Windows driver, athrx.inf.

I downgraded my Ubuntu to 32-bit, hoping that ndiswrapper would work better there, but got the same errors as I had on 64-bit. I also compiled ndiswrapper from source, to no avail.

Finally, with the link that I mentioned in the summary above, I got the card working using the ath9k drivers, which were just released in July 2008 (and should support all Atheros ar9xxx chipests). And as it worked perfectly, I decided to return to my 64-bit version (which I had compromised in the hope of getting the wireless card working), and it also ran smoothly. 

Great!

Special thanks to *pytheas22* for his patience, generosity, since he led me in this process, and never lost hope!

----------


## AggieJAG

I can't get my AR928x wireless card working...

*System*
Sony Vaio FW139E
Atheros AR928x wireless
Intel Core Duo P8400 @ 2.26GHz
3Gb of RAM
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 series graphics

Here's the problem... I don't have access to an hardline ethernet connection, only wireless.  I'm in Rhode Island for training until mid-October and I've searched around and there isn't anywhere to plug in directly in order to d/l dependent packages for madwifi or ndiswrapper, etc.  I've tried to install them, but there's always an error re: a dependent package.

Can anyone suggest a solution where I can figure out which packages i need, download them in Vista and then migrate them over to Ubuntu? 

Thanks in advance!
~AggieJAG

----------


## pytheas22

> Can anyone suggest a solution where I can figure out which packages i need, download them in Vista and then migrate them over to Ubuntu?


You can download individual packages from http://packages.ubuntu.com.  So find the packages for whichever dependencies it says you need and install them manually that way.

I didn't think that the packages for the ath9k driver should have dependencies, though.  How did you try to install the driver?  Did you download one of the Debian packages from the links in this thread?  Are you sure you're using the kernel that those packages were built for (2.6.24-19-generic)?  You may be trying to do something that's more difficult than it needs to be...

----------


## Mgiacchetti

you know guys i'm still having trouble with my ar9280...

Signal is horrible, jumps around constantly, cant surf the web without waiting like dialup..




```
  *-network               
       description: Wireless interface
       product: Atheros Communications Inc.
       vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
       logical name: wmaster0
       version: 01
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix bus_master cap_list logical ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath9k latency=0 module=ath9k multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn
```



```
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. Device [168c:002a] (rev 01)
```



```
ping 192.168.1.1 -c 25

PING 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
From 192.168.1.109 icmp_seq=1 Destination Host Unreachable
From 192.168.1.109 icmp_seq=2 Destination Host Unreachable
From 192.168.1.109 icmp_seq=3 Destination Host Unreachable
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=8.21 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=0.871 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=11 ttl=64 time=0.865 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=14 ttl=64 time=0.872 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=16 ttl=64 time=0.833 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=18 ttl=64 time=0.868 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=21 ttl=64 time=0.851 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=22 ttl=64 time=0.856 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=25 ttl=64 time=2.11 ms

--- 192.168.1.1 ping statistics ---
25 packets transmitted, 9 received, +3 errors, 64% packet loss, time 24029ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.833/1.816/8.219/2.297 ms, pipe 3
```



```
wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"TopTobo"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: --its there i just edited it here--
          Bit Rate=1 Mb/s   Tx-Power=27 dBm   
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2352 B   
          Encryption key:-----------   Security mode:open
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=90/100  Signal level:-37 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0
```



```
 uname -a
Linux ubuntu 2.6.27-3-generic #1 SMP Wed Sep 10 16:02:00 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
```

----------


## pytheas22

Mgiacchetti,

I'm not sure what's wrong, but here are a few things to check:

1. your bit rate is set to the lowest possible value.  Does it make any difference if you type:


```
sudo iwconfig wlan0 rate 54M
```

2. which mode is your router operating in (b, g, n)?  There may be issues with n mode, and switching back to g might help.

3. does it make a difference if you turn off encryption on your router?

4. if you post the output here of the command:


```
dmesg | grep -e ath -e wlan
```

there may be some useful information that would help to track down the source of the problem.

It seems to think that your signal strength is great (90%), so that's not the issue, but there is a huge amount of packet loss.  This card definitely works in other operating systems, right?  How did you install the ath9k driver?  If you compiled from svn source, it's possible that you just happened to get a buggy build, and that reinstalling would help.  Also, if possible, you may want to try connecting to a different wireless network, as the problem could be your wireless router.

----------


## AlexH76

Many thanks for fixing the driver. I'm on an Asus x71a and (as final step) had to follow instructions in this thread to get wlan activated.

----------


## natts

Hi!
I have sony vaio sr with the same card and i'm runing opensuse linux 11.1. 
The problem is at first, suspend was not working at all. It's kinda normal, using s2ram -f -p -m solved the problem, but after my laptop wakes up, no wireless networks are found. 
rcnetwork restart doesn't do the trick, so wifi trigger doesn't. 

Didn't try to modprobe -r and modprobe again the driver. I will inform u, if i'll get any success. 
The driver is ath9k. So... howto solve? anyone?

----------


## pytheas22

> Didn't try to modprobe -r and modprobe again the driver. I will inform u, if i'll get any success.
> The driver is ath9k. So... howto solve? anyone?


Removing and reinserting ath9k with modprobe would probably fix the problem.  You could write a script to do that automatically whenever the computer wakes back up, but I don't know how to do that in SUSE.  I'm sure you could figure it out without too much work, however.

----------


## rawloz

Try changing your encryption to AES it just worked for me...300Mbps sweet

----------


## hwfa

> You can download individual packages from http://packages.ubuntu.com.  So find the packages for whichever dependencies it says you need and install them manually that way.
> 
> <snip>


Errm. The link takes me to a completely blank page ????

----------


## pytheas22

> I'm going to do the upgrade but I'm just wondering if I'll have to install the same things as I just did for Koala again??? Guess I'll find out and write again if it doesn't work...


If you upgrade over the Internet, you shouldn't have to reinstall everything, because all of your current applications and settings will be preserved; they'll just be replaced with more recent versions where relevant.

If you have issues upgrading, you could instead install Ubuntu 10.04 from scratch, and then obviously you'd need to reinstall/reconfigure everything again to your liking.  But I assume that's not what you're planning on doing.

As a word of advice: if you're going to upgrade over the Internet, wait a few days after the new release comes out to do it; otherwise you can run into issues because Ubuntu's servers get bogged down by everyone else trying to upgrade, and it can take days to get the files you need.

*akikumar*: sounds good.  Also note cquilliam's comment above (post #110) which makes a very useful point about how to compile compat-wireless from source without running into errors, in case you decide to go that route instead.

----------


## CapnGimp

HP G60-519WM laptop with the atheros 9285 wifi, I have Ubuntu STudio 10.4 B installed. lspci -nn identifies it but I still have no wireless. Ran all the updates and still nada. searching the forums/web now...

----------


## pytheas22

> HP G60-519WM laptop with the atheros 9285 wifi, I have Ubuntu STudio 10.4 B installed. lspci -nn identifies it but I still have no wireless. Ran all the updates and still nada. searching the forums/web now...


What is the PCI ID given by "lspci -nn"?

----------


## CapnGimp

Solved it... First off and the CAUSE of my heartache is that Studio doesn't install Gnome Network Manager.... so no way of utilizing wifi until I installed it. Once that was in, I pulled the cat5 rebooted(force of habit lol) and went to SYSTEM>PREFERENCES>NETWORK CONNECTIONS >which did not exist before, obviously< and input my SSID n info and it works. The system recognized it but there was no way to configure it(no gui/app) and I'm not a command line guru.   
 Anywho thanks for having a look...



 lspci -nn
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub [8086:2a40] (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a42] (rev 09)
00:02.1 Display controller [0380]: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a43] (rev 09)
00:1a.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 [8086:2937] (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 [8086:2938] (rev 03)
00:1a.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 [8086:2939] (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 [8086:293c] (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller [8086:293e] (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 [8086:2940] (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 2 [8086:2942] (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:2934] (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:2935] (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:2936] (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 [8086:293a] (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [8086:2448] (rev 93)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation ICH9M LPC Interface Controller [8086:2919] (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation ICH9M/M-E SATA AHCI Controller [8086:2929] (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller [8086:2930] (rev 03)
00:1f.6 Signal processing controller [1180]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) Thermal Subsystem [8086:2932] (rev 03)
01:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller [10ec:8136] (rev 02)
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [168c:002b] (rev 01)
john@LINUX7ubuntu:~$

----------


## akikumar

Well ! I checked from live cd WI FI is working out of the box, But i am facing a problem.......My computer has following partition

1. System recovery 10  gb
2. Downloads and Documents 10 GB
3. INstallatons 26 GB
4, WIndows  225 GB
5.system  1 MB


6. Free unallocated drive 100 GB

When i try to install ubuntu , i get only three drives

1 MB
200 some thingGB
200 some thing GB

I dont know what to do last time! I erased my system recovery drive whole windows got crashed....How can i specify Free unallocated drive to Ubuntu ..

Thanks

AKi

----------


## akikumar

I tried it again! My windows is showing from left to right  all r NTFS excpet unallocated

System 199 Mb 
Window 225.29 Gb
Installation 97.66 Gb
Document 25.44 Gb
Unallocated space 97.66 Gb
Recovery 19.43 Gb
Hp tools 104 Mb

I am trying to install UBUNTU on unallocated space, but after putting cd when i choose manual partition i am getting this
                     size                used
/dev/sda1       1Mb             
/dev/sda2        208 Mb               33360 Mb    
/dev/sda3        241900 Mb          3221

/dev/sda4        257996               3221



So what should i do ! 

Aki

----------


## chenxiaolong

Well, I don't know how you have 5 partitions as an MBR partition table (what most people use) can only handle 4, which is why Ubuntu isn't detecting all of them. You can open Gparted on the LiveCD (System - Administration - Gparted) to see what exactly Ubuntu detects.

----------


## CapnGimp

You can only have 4 PRIMARY partitions on a single physical drive... How many physical drives do you have? If you have more than ONE physical drive, then look up in the top right section of gparted or whatever partition manager u r using and there is a drop down menu where you choose WHICH physical disk the program is displaying the partitions of. Then choose whic h one u want.

Still not sure of the setup u have, but I am assuming you already have 4 primary partitions so you are presented with erasing one to do the install.

 Now here is how I do mine...A primary partion for windows, then the rest of the drive in EXTENDED partion, with logical drives sized to fit other partitions for windows docs, pics and mp3. The remaining logical partitions are unformated, so that
there are 3 possible primaries remaining.  my linux distros can then pick or me manually partition for Linux....this is what has worked for me as I always leave windows alone except for about twice a year reload it. I change linux distros as I want. 

 A total fresh install u can install windows first...I give xp 20gb, win7 40gb and the rest of the drives are logical on an extended partition...75gb each til I fill the drive...software drives for each windows, a doc drive shared between them, a mp3/picture drive and that gets win covered. If u do manual from here, it is EASY to shrink/resize the extended partition and install ubuntu or whatever linuxes u want. Holler if u need any help.

----------


## akikumar

ok this is third time i crashed my windows ! fr ubuntu lol ! So trying it again installing windows again from scratch ....so 
Windows will have C drive and a recovery drive and another drive of HP tools also some system of 199 mb 

Can you give me step wise instructions this time ......Plz i am screwed crashing windows so many times although i have taken all my data as a back up but it waste lot of time help help help

Also if i keep one drive unallocated wont it will be recog while installing ubuntu i want to install ubuntu in that drive

----------


## pytheas22

There are good instructions on partitioning here that should help you.

Also, if you don't want to partition, you could use wubi instead.

----------


## akikumar

Well ! I read all that But still i need help !

I have Four Primary partitions ! I reformatted my lap top 

C 446 GB
SYSTEM 199MB
RECOVERY 19.43 GB
HP TOOLS 103 MB 


Now I dont want to crash my lap top again ! For installing Linux i need to make one more primary partition But i done some googling and found that I cant may the last three partitions extended drive ..........I have HP DV 4 PAVALLION

----------


## akikumar

So ! What i learned from the documentation is i can choose C and make a extended partition out of it aand can install linux in that partition ! I will attempt it hope it will work
Thanks

----------


## akikumar

After much much much googling i came to know no body has given solution feed back.........So i am left with 4 primary partition and I dont know how i can install linux.......i deleted recovery partition last time my whole lap top crashed .....Hp tools which is 4th partition I dont have courage to delete it unless some one tell me to do it ......

Problem : 4 primary Partitions ! system , C, Recovery, HP tools ..Where to install linux

From live cd here what i c


/dev/sda1 ntfs system 199 MB  
/dev/sda2 ntfs 446 GB used 30 free 420Gb
/dev/sda3 ntfs Recovery 20 GB free 3 gb
/dev/sda4 fat32 HP tools





Now what should i do ! from here /dev/sda2 is my C drive with window OS in it......


Thanks

----------


## akikumar

I finally decided to put a live cd again ! and shrink C and make some free space that is unalloctable in it ! now i am getting following in the table

/dev/sda1 ntfs
/dev/sda2 ntfs
unusable
/dev/sda3 ntfs
/dev/sda4 Fat32 

When i try selecting the unusable part for linux then i get following error

No root system is defined plz ccorrect this from the partiioning menu 

tHERE IS NO option of install in free space too

----------


## akikumar

Success Success....Finally ubuntu is on my lap top !

People with HP DV 4 here is what u need to do ! Put a live cd in !Go go System > admin > gparted delete your HP tools partition now we have three partition ! Go to C drive free some space from it create unallocated drive and boot it again and u will get a option of installing it in free space ......and done


But i have a question ! when i selected free space manually i get message no root is define why i am getting this

Thanks Every one !

And people on ubuntu try try n try u will get what u wan finally

----------


## isterios

Does anyone have news for the ar928x?

I still have the same problems a lot of people met (disconnections after transfer of big files, weak signal, deauthenticating after boot etc)

I tried almost everything I read on forums, except drivers recompilation.

It's quite irritating nothing's going better months after months for this driver...

----------


## akikumar

Use Ubuntu 10.04 Beta 2 ! Its perfect ! No disconnections ......WI fi works out of the box !
I am having ar9285....


Thanks

AKshay

----------


## pytheas22

> Use Ubuntu 10.04 Beta 2 ! Its perfect ! No disconnections ......WI fi works out of the box !


Glad to hear you've got it sorted out  :Smile: 




> Does anyone have news for the ar928x?
> 
> I still have the same problems a lot of people met (disconnections after transfer of big files, weak signal, deauthenticating after boot etc)
> 
> I tried almost everything I read on forums, except drivers recompilation.
> 
> It's quite irritating nothing's going better months after months for this driver...


Have you installed the linux-backports-modules-jaunty package?  You could also see if things work better in Ubuntu 10.04 (using the beta, or waiting for the stable release in a couple weeks).

----------


## akikumar

I was a Mac user a year back! then moved to windows finally to Ubuntu ! And just want to tell Its supereb ! Its more or less like Mac ! I love it ! Ubuntu 10.04 is working like a Knife in hot butter  .... :Smile:  :Guitar: .....Again ! Try following steps if ur not sucessful move to 10.04

1. Try installing compact wireless
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download
2. if its not working try linux backport jaunty package
http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?ke...modules-jaunty
3. fail again try madfi
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/madwifi

Now ! if u fail in all three process install 10.04 beta  :Smile:  it will work perfectly....I am sure

Thanks Every one

AKshay

----------


## isterios

> Have you installed the linux-backports-modules-jaunty package?  You could also see if things work better in Ubuntu 10.04 (using the beta, or waiting for the stable release in a couple weeks).


I am using Karmic, but yes I installed linux-backports-modules-wireless-karmic-generic:
Package: linux-backports-modules-wireless-karmic-generic
New: yes
State: installed
Automatically installed: no
Version: 2.6.31.20.33

and:
linux-backports-modules-karmic
linux-backports-modules-karmic-generic





It didn't change anything for me  :Sad:

----------


## akikumar

update it to stable release now

----------


## isterios

Finally I found the solution for my case:

in summary, I tried everything I read without sucess (backports, blacklisting of ath9k, compat drivers, bluetooth desactivation etc.)

My symptoms were regular disconnections, blank connections (said connected but not) and sometimes difficulties to reconnect.

My solution is just to force the speed on my router in 802.11N (I was before in G/N). No more problems since.

It seems that the driver for this card manages very badly the G speed.

----------


## ubudyr

When I started working as a programmer I spent my a day with an Ampex terminal on a UNIX System III computer. A lot has happened since then so I must admit I am a bit lost with Ubuntu. So it's really great with this forum and all the information you can get.

As a lot other people contributing in this thread I also spent a lot of time getting the Atheros AR92X Wi-Fi to work. I have an Acer Aspire 7730Z and installing Ubuntu really went smoothly. Unfortunately the Wi-Fi was unstable. The connection toggled on and off and kept prompting for the password.

I tried several solutions I found but none of them worked. Then I saw the suggestion in this thread to simply remove and insert the module. And it works! You just have to do:

Alt-F2 and enter "gksudo xterm" to get a terminal.



```
modprobe -r ath9k
modprobe ath9k
```

So I put the attached script in /etc/init.d and created a symbolic link:



```
ln -s /etc/init.d/atheros.sh /etc/rc2.d/S99atheros
```

and now the wifi is rock steady.

----------


## Captain Easypants

> My solution is just to force the speed on my router in 802.11N (I was before in G/N). No more problems since.
> 
> It seems that the driver for this card manages very badly the G speed.


I know it's been a while but did you do this on the router itself or did you find a way to do this on the card? Because I have devices on my network which are only 802.11G so I can't force the router into n only mode.
I've had a quick look and I can't find any way to force the chip itself into n only mode

----------


## pytheas22

> I know it's been a while but did you do this on the router itself or did you find a way to do this on the card? Because I have devices on my network which are only 802.11G so I can't force the router into n only mode.
> I've had a quick look and I can't find any way to force the chip itself into n only mode


In principle you should be able to force 11n with the iwconfig command:


```
sudo iwconfig wlan0 modu 11n
```

But this doesn't always work in practice.  For more information check on the "modu[lation]" section of the iwconfig manpage.

----------


## punx2400

Mine's not working either on my Asus G72GX.  However, I'm not using Ubuntu.  I'm using windows 7....  any idea how to fix the problem with windows?

----------


## chenxiaolong

Hmmm...if it doesn't work under Windows, it's probably either a driver problem or faulty hardware. Try downloading the wireless driver from ASUS's website here: 



```
http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?m=G72GX
```

If that doesn't work, I'd call ASUS and see if they can fix it (if your warranty hasn't expired).

Of course you can also download the Ubuntu Live CD too to test the wireless, since the Atheros cards work perfectly fine under Linux now...  :Smile:

----------


## cckspe

Oh Boy another noob, sorry!
I'm having similar problems with my PBell easynote, windows reports the network card as an AR5B93. I cannot log onto my BTHomeHub2 even with the security settings removed completely BUT I can log on to my BTFon/Openzone and get full access to the net, this is running from my hub. Tried loading ndiswrapper but to no avail and have loaded Mint (Ubuntu) but same result. Any ideas.

----------


## pytheas22

*cckspe*: first of all, are you sure your BTHomeHub2 is not configured to filter MAC addresses?  If that's not the problem, I would try changing the wireless channel and/or mode on the router--e.g., if the router is currently in 11b/11g mixed mode, try only 11g, or vice-versa.  Sometimes changes like this can help in situations where you can connect to one router but not another.

You should also look at your dmesg output after trying to connect (just type "dmesg" in a terminal).  It may provide information on what's not working.  If you don't know how to interpret the output you can post it here.

----------


## cckspe

ok m8 thanks for the pointers I'll go have a nosy just now and see whats what.

----------


## omelette

Am I correct in thinking that Ndiswrapper does NOT work for this chipset?

I've just installed Ndiswrapper, downloaded the M$ driver but can't get it to work - although it installs ok, rebooting or modprobing ndiswrapper doesn't even find the wireless hardware.  I've had some success with Ndiswrapper with another Atheros card sos I'm  pretty sure I'm doing things right...

----------


## omelette

A little progress.  Most people seem to be sourcing their M$ driver from this site - http://www.atheros.cz/.  The thing is that although you are presented with an extensive selection (multiple OS's etc) in reality there is just one download for this driver -* and it's a Vista/System7 driver, which is not NDiswrapper-compatible, it will only work with XP-drivers!*

Luckily I had a system disk from a mini-pc which contained the driver and I've uploaded it in case someone wants to try it;

http://ubuntuone.com/2drDSaucgcVc78ZYfAITTH

Now the Ndiswrapper-installed driver is instantly picked up by the kernel.  But that's as good as it gets.  Trying to set up a ad-hoc network, it resolutely refuses to create any sort of network connection, just scanning & scanning - it even does the same when set to "share to other computers" which requires no connection to be completed, which is maddening.  Trying to assign it a client-role & connect to another pc also fails.  Also, disabling encryption has no effect...

I'm sure if there is a hell, it's networked by Linux/ad-hoc wireless boxes!  :Twisted Evil:  Linux's wireless sucks generally, but the ad-hoc support is really shambolic and doesn't even appear to be tested in many cases. For instance, running the latest Hiren 14.1 rescue-cd and in Linux-LiveCD-mode, the latest & greatest WiCD cannot be used to join a ad-hoc network, complaining about a bad-password. And the reason seems clear - it flashes up text saying "WPA" when it tries to connect! Something that the developers would have immediately caught had they ever tried it!  What sucks is that ad-hoc networking works perfectly if you choose to boot in XP_LiveCD-mode... Also, on Mageia, the latest KDE's Network-Manager is practically useless with ad-hoc, being relegated to no more than a glorified applet as you can only connect to 'system-created' networks & which it cannot edit in any way. Create a connection through it and it refuses to connect with it...

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## pytheas22

*omelette*: ndiswrapper can be fickle.  You might have better luck if you use a different version of the Windows driver--e.g., try the Windows 2000 driver, or version 1.0 of the driver instead of 2.0.

By the way, I don't know what your situation is, but perhaps you could avoid ad-hoc networking altogether by setting up another Linux computer as an AP station.  One of the nice things about Linux wireless is that most of the native drivers now support AP mode, allowing you essentially to use your computer as a real router, without doing ad-hoc.  Ad-hoc support may not be as solid as you would like (although it sounds like the issues you're having have more to do with the particular clients you're using than the wireless drivers), but Linux does make a quite impressive showing when it comes to advanced wireless features.  I've only very rarely heard of any Windows wireless drivers supporting AP mode, for instance.

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## omelette

@pythes22 - Thanks, your info about AP's had me scurrying off looking it up - I thought there was only 2 options available!  Unfortunately the current Ubuntu 10.04LTS wireless driver does not appear to support 'Master' mode which from my reading of the Ubuntu WIFI docs seems to be a prerequisite.  :Sad: 

I'm doubtful that a Win2k ar928x driver exists, at least it's not listed as being available at the above Atheros-drivers site, and even finding 'newer' XP Atheros-drivers is a chore (above site excepted) which surprised me.

What sticks in my craw regarding Linux & ad-hoc is that it is obvious (to me anyway!) that developers no longer even support this mode now, never mind fix the multiple bugs that exist!  The one recent exception to this rule seems to have been a kernel-bug (2.6.38-8 if memory serves) that effects the client-side of an ad-hoc connection - at least with Fedora, this bug had been identified & removed with 2.6.40. Incidentally the then brand-new Ubuntu 11.04 also suffered from this, and probably still does given Ubuntu's lethargic kernel updates!  This and a buggy Gnome3 was the reason I switched back to my reliable old Ubuntu 10.04LTS.

I've been threatening to get a router for ages, maybe the time has arrived...

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## pytheas22

*omelette*: I've never done master mode on Ubuntu myself, but I think it should work as long as your driver supports it.  But that depends on which particular driver you're using, which in turn depends on your wireless chipset.  With some drivers the support is not yet there.

By the way, have you tried using the ath9k driver (which does support master mode, by the way) to drive your device?  If it's an ar928x chip it should work--although if it's really new perhaps you'll have to compile the driver from source using the latest code rather than Ubuntu's version.

Or, yes, just buy a router--they're quite cheap these days  :Smile:

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## omelette

@Pytheas22 - Some more searching revealed that Master-mode is indeed possible with my chipset, it just that my simplistic 'iwconfig' check wasn't enough - iwconfig can't initialise Master-mode.  So I've made some more progress, when I finally managed to get the AP up and running, all the problems I was experiencing with over the ad-hoc link - long-winded version available here-> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...4#post11305314 - seems to have vanished!

The bad news, getting an AP running proved a bit of a nightmare.  In principle it's fairly simple - just install 'hostapd',  configure hostapd.conf, allow it to auto-start at boot by enabling it in /etc/default/hostapd (the default is 'disabled' which is just plain silly).  Once done, iwconfig list wlan0 as being in Master-mode and the client picks it up as such.  But that's it, it absolutely refuses to complete the connection!  After many hours I finally managed to 'fudge' it by enabling a ad-hoc connection, disabling & re-enabling ath9k then finally restarting hostapd...

Turns out I'm not to first to come across this either and a solution appears elusive.  Someone said the fix was to build the compat-wireless drivers from the latest source, which I did but was no help.  Then I found someone else saying that it's hostapd that's the problem, so I tried & failed at re-building that - my 10.04LTS has too many old core-libraries and I kept getting 'too old a version' failures.  But for the latest Ubuntu's it should be pretty simple to build.

So at least I have the satisfaction of having a more secure wpa2 connection at the moment, even if it's not really viable long-term.

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## pytheas22

*omelette*: sorry to hear AP mode didn't turn out to be as effective in practice as in theory, but kudos to you for going to so much work trying to get it up and running.  It may be that the driver support just isn't really there yet for your chip, unfortunately.  But where would be the fun in Linux if it always worked perfectly?  :Smile:

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## omelette

@pytheas22 - if 'fun' is synonymous with Linux not working perfectly then its one hell of a party we've got going here!  :LOL: 

For what it's worth, I had another go at compiling 'hostapd' and succeeded largely as a result of finding a Wiki-entry on hostapd which listed the error I was getting & the solution - I just needed to install 'libssl-dev'. Didn't help though.  I built both 0.6.10 and 0.7.3 versions successfully but none of them even run properly, each producing different error(s).  In fact the only ones that runs properly (not connecting excepted!) is 0.6.9 - the one in the repository.  So I've had enough of it and will leave it at that.

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## omelette

Just thought I'd post a little update regarding my experience with AP-networking connections - its been a whole month now! - just in case some long-suffering ad-hoc users happen to google across my problem.

It turns out that the Linux ad-hoc implementation is even more crappy than I had assumed.  Since I've been using AP's, another networking bug that I had thought was unrelated to ad-hoc has completely vanished, namely the ad-hoc network share just disconnecting, mainly when data-throughput was high.  To give you an idea of how bad this was, while downloading a 800meg torrent, it disconnected 6 times!  Until I figured out how to restart the ad-hoc connection manually, I had actually been reduced to restarting the computer each time this happened, which made the whole thing barely usable.  This nightmare has completely vanished with AP-connections!

It's actually pretty simple to implement too, the only niggle being that the server-side of things needs to be started manually when the computer (re)starts,  but once everything is setup, this just involves a single *"sudo service hostapd restart"* command.  Very important though, even though you are now using AP/WPA2 connections, you must setup and run a 'dummy' ad-hoc connection as well - otherwise, the client-side fails to connect!  And if you are nervous about the obvious security considerations of an open-but-unused ad-hoc connection, you can safely disable/delete it once the AP connection is running, but as I mentioned, if you reset the computer, it will be needed again.  Personally, I just set up a 128bit-key ad-hoc connection and leave it running, as another one of ad-hoc's numerous bugs seems to be that it will only connect with the 40bit key - so even if someone still had the password, they still couldn't connect with it!

In conclusion, imo AP rocks and anyone still using ad-hoc should switch immediately!

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## pytheas22

omelette: so you finally got hostap working?  Did you use the version in the repositories?

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## omelette

Hi pytheas22.  Yes, I am using the version in the repositories.  As I mentioned, I managed to compile 2 more-recent versions of hostapd, which included the latest,  but for some reason, neither work properly or not at all - at least with Ubuntu 10.04LTS.

And like I said, it may not be ideal as it stands but it's an order of magnitude better than ad-hoc.  :Smile:

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## omelette

This is just for the random Googlers who are searching for XP drivers for this chipset still.  I spent an insane amount of time on this chipset & WEP networks, before finding some sanity with AP networks, and finally doing the really sane thing and buying a router!  Anyway, like an itch that just won't go away, I started playing with NDiswrapper again today, after finding a new (to me!) driver website that looked promising - and ho & behold, all the problems vanished!  It was all a case of finding the right driver!!!  Although with a router & WPA, NDiswrapper isn't needed as the Linux driver seems to work perfectly. Much better in fact - NDiswrapper only seems to cater for 54Mb/s b/g networks, whereas the Linux driver works great with the much faster 11n as well.  :Smile: 

It also gave me courage to have another go with a different NIC that has nearly driven me to distraction over the years - a Dlink DWL-G520 - this is one that the Linux developers just didn't put much effort into imo, so NDiswrapper is essential.  And rather than just hope the driver matched the chipset, I made sure this time by removing the cards shielding (just a couple of screws) and eye-balling the chip - turned out to be a 5212 - something I should have done years ago! This driver worked first time as well which amazed & delighted me.  :Smile: 

*The driver-site in question is -* www.nodevice.com

and in case it ever vanishes, below are links to the 2 'worked-for-me' drivers.
*Atheros AR5212* - http://ubuntuone.com/2oW8EC3yzyo3b38xY15DDH
*Atheros AR928X* - http://ubuntuone.com/3BZVN476Qv0FMK5RcZLds6

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## TBABill

For anyone previously struggling with their AR928* adapter, my 9287 absolutely flies with NO configuration necessary in 12.04. I had to tweak it in prior versions but it seems fixed now.

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