Atheros wireless: Device not yet supported

[rangarajan]

Based on the sticky about wireless setup in this forum, I found my PCI wireless card is detected:

00:0a.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5416 802.11abgn Wireless PCI Adapter (rev 01)

00:0a.0 0280: 168c:0023 (rev 01)

The dmesg output though says that this device is not yet supported:

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:0a.0[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
ath5k_pci 0000:00:0a.0: registered as 'phy0'
ath5k phy0: Device not yet supported.
ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:00:0a.0 disabled


Please advise. This card is the only access to internet on this desktop machine. Thanks.

[snakedriver]

Originally Posted by rangarajan

Based on the sticky about wireless setup in this forum, I found my PCI wireless card is detected:

00:0a.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5416 802.11abgn Wireless PCI Adapter (rev 01)

00:0a.0 0280: 168c:0023 (rev 01)

The dmesg output though says that this device is not yet supported:

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:0a.0[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
ath5k_pci 0000:00:0a.0: registered as 'phy0'
ath5k phy0: Device not yet supported.
ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:00:0a.0 disabled


Please advise. This card is the only access to internet on this desktop machine. Thanks.

Do "lspci -v" in a terminal as root

post the part that IDs your chipset.

[lwfinger]

snakedriver wrote:
> rangarajan;1851775 Wrote:
>> Based on the sticky about wireless setup in this forum, I found my PCI
>> wireless card is detected:
>>
>> 00:0a.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5416
>> 802.11abgn Wireless PCI Adapter (rev 01)
>>
>> 00:0a.0 0280: 168c:0023 (rev 01)
>>
>> The dmesg output though says that this device is not yet supported:
>>
>> ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:0a.0[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
>> ath5k_pci 0000:00:0a.0: registered as 'phy0'
>> ath5k phy0: Device not yet supported.
>> ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:00:0a.0 disabled
>>
>>
>> Please advise. This card is the only access to internet on this
>> desktop machine. Thanks.
>
> Do "lspci -v" in a terminal as root
>
> post the part that IDs your chipset.

That was already done!! It is an AR54116 with vendor ID of 168c and a PCI ID of
0023 (rev 1).

[lwfinger]

Larry Finger wrote:
> snakedriver wrote:
>> rangarajan;1851775 Wrote:
>>> Based on the sticky about wireless setup in this forum, I found my PCI
>>> wireless card is detected:
>>> 00:0a.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5416
>>> 802.11abgn Wireless PCI Adapter (rev 01)
>>>
>>> 00:0a.0 0280: 168c:0023 (rev 01)
>>>
>>> The dmesg output though says that this device is not yet supported:
>>>
>>> ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:0a.0[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
>>> ath5k_pci 0000:00:0a.0: registered as 'phy0'
>>> ath5k phy0: Device not yet supported.
>>> ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:00:0a.0 disabled
>>>
>>>
>>> Please advise. This card is the only access to internet on this
>>> desktop machine. Thanks.
>>
>> Do "lspci -v" in a terminal as root
>>
>> post the part that IDs your chipset.
>
> That was already done!! It is an AR54116 with vendor ID of 168c and a
> PCI ID of 0023 (rev 1).

According to the source code, that chip is supported by the ath5k driver. The ID
was added to the kernel in August 2007, and that driver is part of
2.6.25.11-0.1-default. I don't know if it needs firmware, or not.

After you boot the system, does ath5k show up in the list from the /bin/lsmod
command? If not, have you tried anything with ndiswrapper on this system that
might interfere with loading the driver? Does ndiswrapper show up in the
/bin/lsmod output?

If neither ath5k nor ndiswrapper show up in the module list, what happens when
you issue the command 'sudo /sbin/modprobe -v ath5k'? Next check the output of
the dmesg command to find entries related to the ath5k.

Larry

[cookdav]

Originally Posted by rangarajan

Please advise. This card is the only access to internet on this desktop machine. Thanks.

I assume that you just mean that the router is too far away to run a cable?
[Never heard of a desktop machine that had ONLY wireless.]

[But, that was just me, talking to myself.]

Near as I can tell, Novell goofed up pre-installing 'ath5k', instead of 'ath_pci'
(aka the original madwifi driver). [I ran into a similar issue with my AR2413.]

Next driver to try is that...madwifi (aka 'ath_pci'):
Atheros madwifi - openSUSE

If that doesn't cut it, then try 'ndiswrapper' (aka the windows-driver):
Ndiswrapper - openSUSE

[It would be redundant to add my own personal opinion that OS 11.0 was
released with release-timetable as a more important criteria than having
a good handle on wireless-support, so I won't say that. ]

[lwfinger]

cookdav wrote:
> Near as I can tell, Novell goofed up pre-installing 'ath5k', instead of
> 'ath_pci'
> (aka the original madwifi driver). [I ran into a similar issue with my
> AR2413.]
>
> Next driver to try is that...madwifi:
> 'Atheros madwifi - openSUSE' (http://en.opensuse.org/Atheros_madwifi)

According to my informant on the linux-wireless mailing list, support for the
AR5416 was added _TODAY_ in the form of the new ath9k driver. That one will not
be available until kernel 2.6.27, which is now under development. For openSUSE,
that means 11.2!

The MAD wifi repository is the way to go, but you need the latest SVN
repository, not 0.9.4.

If you will PM me with the kernel version you are using, and your E-mail
address, I can generate the necessary module and E-mail it to you. Otherwise you
will need to implement ndiswrapper.

Larry

[rangarajan]

Thanks for the offer, Larry.

I was able to get the wireless to work at last. Here's what I did:

1. download the latest SVN snapshot madwifi as of this morning - Aug. 6, 2008.

2. compile and install (make and make install)

3. blacklist the current ath5k module in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

4. reboot the machine

5. dmesg showed that the device was detected.

6. Configured the wireless network using Yast ( I had to change the module from ath5k to ath_pci that is provided by the madwifi). The default module still looks at the ath5k.

Now, the internet is working on this desktop.

I just have one issue - I may be nitpicking here but I am not getting anywhere near the Wireless-N speeds on this interface. I know I get about 216-243 Mbps on the "other" OS. I get less than 54 Mbps in Suse 11.0. Any suggestions on that? Thanks again.

[lwfinger]

rangarajan wrote:
> I just have one issue - I may be nitpicking here but I am not getting
> anywhere near the Wireless-N speeds on this interface. I know I get
> about 216-243 Mbps on the "other" OS. I get less than 54 Mbps in Suse
> 11.0. Any suggestions on that? Thanks again.

I don't know for sure, but I doubt that the madwifi driver is a full N
implementation. You will likely need the ath9k driver (in 2.6.27) for that. The
ath9k driver was written by Atheros.

Larry