Easy MadWifi (Atheros WLAN) installation script

[libby-martian]

ok I tried this and it seemed to install with no odd errors (including the subversion) and it still doesn't work. is there anything else I need to do to get it to pick up the signal? the wifi led is still off and going to edit wireless networks shows no networks (big shock I'm sure). sorry but I'm not only new to laptops, I'm still quite new to linux

btw thanks for posting this

[Kajaste]

I'm sorry to hear that. Too bad I'm not a MadWifi guru and my only Atheros WLAN chip is in the MacBook.

Some things you might want to check are:
* dmesg (the command) output (especially the last lines)
* lspci (the command) output (to see exactly what chip you have)
* compatibility list at http://madwifi.org/wiki/Compatibility

The network tools don't usually work instantly, there is a slight delay of about 10 - 60 seconds after the script is done.

It might be useful to google around ubuntu and linux sites with the name and model of your wlan chip.

[libby-martian]

I did and found a different driver but I'm not sure how to actually install it, especially after installing something else. sorry for the stupid questions but how do I uninstall the madwifi and then install the other one?

[Kajaste]

I did and found a different driver but I'm not sure how to actually install it, especially after installing something else. sorry for the stupid questions but how do I uninstall the madwifi and then install the other one?

I guess you might have to sudo modprobe -r ath_pci and add ath_pci to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist before installing another driver. It might be that it's not even necessary to remove MadWifi in any way.
Read the other driver's documentation to find out how to install it.

[quanumphaze]

I don't know about you but I found that when I toggled the wireless slide switch it did nothing (with the old driver). Next boot the wireless would not be detected and none of the modules were loaded.

Toggle the switch and reboot. The light should turn on at boot and it might work.

[libby-martian]

toggling the switch does nothing for hte wireless but it does work for the bluetooth. same with fn/f5. have rebooted several times and thaht doesn't help either. *sigh* gonna have to keep fussing with it

[quanumphaze]

Oh noes!!!

Kernel update. Time to recompile it.

libby-martian, the kernel update will disable the madwifi driver. Try to enable the old one instead since you will have to recompile the svn one again.
I have no idea what I'm talking about since I'm still technicaly a n00b.

Although I hear that the ndiswrapper with the Windows Atheros driver lets you use the switch very well. Try that if you have no usable alternative.

[libby-martian]

thanks for the help everyone. I've not had much time this week to mess with things but I will tomorrow or friday, and I'll let you know what works if it works or whatever the results are

[libby-martian]

btw here are the last lines of dmesg (holy cow there are a lot of other lines!)

[ 115.014859] domain 0: span 03
[ 115.014861] groups: 01 02
[ 115.014865] CPU1 attaching sched-domain:
[ 115.014867] domain 0: span 03
[ 115.014868] groups: 02 01
[ 120.861711] usb 2-1: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
[ 121.099815] usb 2-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 121.236528] usbcore: registered new interface driver hiddev
[ 121.251705] input: Microsoft Microsoft 3-Button Mouse with IntelliEye(TM) as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.1/usb2/2-1/2-1:1.0/input/input12
[ 121.285455] input,hidraw0: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [Microsoft Microsoft 3-Button Mouse with IntelliEye(TM)] on usb-0000:00:1a.1-1
[ 121.285682] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
[ 121.285810] /build/buildd/linux-2.6.24/drivers/hid/usbhid/hid-core.c: v2.6:USB HID core driver
[ 381.713010] e1000: eth0: e1000_watchdog: NIC Link is Down
[ 1454.561217] e1000: eth0: e1000_watchdog: NIC Link is Up 100 Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: RX/TX
[ 1454.561228] e1000: eth0: e1000_watchdog: 10/100 speed: disabling TSO
[ 1454.566081] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
[ 1463.223214] eth0: no IPv6 routers present
[ 1613.785650] e1000: eth0: e1000_watchdog: NIC Link is Down
[ 1614.239109] e1000: eth0: e1000_watchdog: NIC Link is Up 100 Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: RX/TX
[ 1614.239119] e1000: eth0: e1000_watchdog: 10/100 speed: disabling TSO
[ 1614.243978] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
[ 1617.515657] eth0: no IPv6 routers present

[libby-martian]

and oh hey look I found this:

rio1/input/input9
[ 29.304968] iwl3945: Radio Frequency Kill Switch is On:
[ 29.304970] Kill switch must be turned off for wireless networking to work.
[ 29.313185] iwl3945: WARNING: Requesting MAC access during RFKILL wakes upNIC
[ 29.323252] iwl3945: WARNING: Requesting MAC access during RFKILL wakes upNIC
[ 29.343251] iwl3945: WARNING: Requesting MAC access during RFKILL wakes upNIC
[ 29.370642] iwl3945: WARNING: Requesting MAC access during RFKILL wakes upNIC

how do you disable the kill switch? and is this the actual problem here?