ASUS A7K -- WIFI HELL

[euthorus]

To preface everything that is to follow I have tried Ubuntu 8.04, Mint 4 and 5, Mandriva Live, Sebayon 3.5 and finally OpenSuse 11. I have yet to get the audio to work but I was able to get the Wifi to work half-assed on compiled madwifi drivers in Mint.

On to suse - here is what my lspci shows:

00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 Host Bridge
00:02.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (PCI Express Graphics Port 0)
00:04.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Device 7914
00:05.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (PCI Express Port 1)
00:06.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (PCI Express Port 2)
00:07.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (PCI Express Port 3)
00:12.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 Non-Raid-5 SATA
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI0)
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI1)
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI2)
00:13.3 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI3)
00:13.4 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI4)
00:13.5 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB Controller (EHCI)
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 14)
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 IDE
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 PCI to LPC Bridge
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M76 [Radeon Mobility HD 2600 Series]
01:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc RV630/M76 audio device [Radeon HD 2600 Series]
05:00.0 SATA controller: JMicron Technologies, Inc. JMicron 20360/20363 AHCI Controller (rev 02)
07:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)
08:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 05)
08:01.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)
08:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12)
08:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 12)
08:02.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8110SC/8169SC Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)



My built-in wifi card is in fact an Atheros 5007EG chipset. I tried using my Windows athXXX.inf file with a freshly installed ndiswrapper to no avail. As in modprobing it works without any erros but pulling the WIFI NIC in Yast asks if I want to modprobe the ndiswrapper..and still shows the AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (Not connected)
BusID : 0000:07:00.0 interface as Not configured and wont let me do anything with it. I attempted to create my own interface and assign ndiswrapper as the module for it and it successfully knocked out my wired nic upon completion

I tried madwifi both through the 1-click install and by compiling my own for my kernel. Everything goes without a glitch I modprobe ath_pci and get squat. I tried the same thing of adding my own wireless interface and assigning madwifi to it without any luck.

No matter what I do I end up with

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

pan0 no wireless extensions.

What am I doing wrong ? What am I missing ? Anyone ? I am getting ready to give up on this **** laptop and use it with the cursed Vista it came with.

[deltaflyer44]

try the madwifi drivers from here Index of /repositories/home:/schmolle1980 some people have reported better success with them

Andy

[euthorus]

Ok got my madwifi-kmp-default-r3725+AR5007EG_2.6.25.16_0.1-2.6.x86_64.rpm Should I install it directly as rpm package or ..?

[deltaflyer44]

you can install with zypper or YaST, the choice is yours

Andy

[euthorus]

Woohoo ! Thanks man - closer than I have ever been. I now have ath0 interface but...even though ath5k is blacklisted it showed it as the module chosen by Yast... I changed it to madwifi and still get only:

lo no wireless extensions.

wifi0 no wireless extensions.

ath0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"" Nickname:""
Mode:Managed Channel:0 Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:1 Mb/s Tx-Power:17 dBm Sensitivity=1/1
Retry:off RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=0/70 Signal level=-96 dBm Noise level=-96 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:13 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

eth0 no wireless extensions.

pan0 no wireless extensions.

Cant scan for networks...

[deltaflyer44]

change to traditional ifup, see if that works,if not, try changing the channel on your wireless router

Andy

[euthorus]

My noob level is very high How do I change to standard ifup exactly ?

[deltaflyer44]

it's under the global options in YaST- network devices - network settings

Andy

[frosch62]

We have the same wireless card, and mine is working fabulously. I can't explain the ifup stuff (as I didn't ever need to learn it), but here is perhaps a simpler method. I would try removing the other modules or doing a fresh install first; just make sure there's a kmp package on the build site (linked below) and you should be able to follow these instructions. Good luck!

Suse and Atheros wireless - openSUSE Forums

Originally Posted by frosch62

I understand how frustrating this can be. I can try and elaborate on what deltaflyer44 already mentioned, as I installed it only this morning on a fresh 11.0 install with KDE4:

You need the kernel modules package in conjunction with madwifi to get this card working.

Install madwifi from the OSS repository (I installed version 0.9.3.99-118.1 just this morning), which, if not already enabled, can be added in Yast in "Software Repositories."

Note: If not already installed (those installed will be shown in the list), choose the OSS repository from the community repositories, or add the following as a URL:

Index of /distribution/11.0/repo/oss

Once the madwifi package is installed, fetch the "madwifi-kmp" from the build service at this address:

Software.openSUSE.org

In order to download the correct kmp package (i.e. default, pae, etc) run the following command in the terminal to determine which kernel you are running:

uname -a

I am assuming for the sake of this guide that you're running the default kernel and that you have already updated it through Yast to the 2.6.25-16 version as I did this morning. My output on a 64-bit machine of 'uname -a' looks like this:

2.6.25.16-0.1-default #1 SMP 2008-08-21 00:34:25 +0200 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

At the build service site, I would choose the matching madwifi-kmp-default package corresponding to my kernel, 2.6.25.16... I recommend using the "one-click install" feature to the right, as this chooses for you the appropriate package (or at least should). My AR242 used the "trunk+3717..." version from the repository deltaflyer44 listed:

Index of /repositories/home:/schmolle1980

Once you install the kmp package, restart your computer. Open Yast > Network Devices > Network Settings, and configure your wireless card with the information from the network you wish to connect to. Under the hardware tab, be sure to select the "ath_pci" module instead of the "ath5k." I would actually blacklist the latter by adding it to your /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist file with root permissions and your preferable text editor.
I also prefer to select "Autoconnect" at the end of the network configuration--to see if the settings have actually been applied, though this isn't absolutely necessary, and may not be your wish. Apply the settings, then:

Restart, and voila!

Hope this helps. This is the one thing I wish worked out of the box

Have a lot of fun

[euthorus]

hmm...going to try again. Do you by chance have the same sound card as me ?