[Solution]Atheros AR242x - Suse11 - pae kernel

[bbqau]

After literally hours of sifting through google results, suse forums and wiki, trying various madwifi approaches from ndiswrapper to various versions of the driver i finally sought a solution for my madwifi drivers and atheros AR242x.

It was relatively simple and i am posting it for those who might still be having issues.

Firstly quoting

You will need to install madwifi hal (>0.10.5.6, check with modinfo ath_hal), and then blacklist ath5k. Reboot, and it should work.

Firstly open Yast2 and search for madwifi in installed packages - remove any installed kernel modules. You can leave the madwifi tools installed but remove kernel modules.

Connect your pc to an ethernet source. Not usb, but ethernet. Don't know why but its what i did so it might help.

blacklist ath5k
Now to do this, you will firstly need to blacklist ath5k open terminal and do this as root.

echo "blacklist ath5k" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

madwifi download
Download the latest snapshot from madwifi Download From Here

Note : I downloaded the following version - latest version

madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3861-20080903.tar.gz	03-Sep-2008 02:44 	4.2M

Extract this to your desktop and a folder will appear title madwifi-hal-*version*

open terminal and do the following - note you will need the necessary make installed to compile and install

cd madwifi-hal-*version*
su
<enter pass>
make
make install
modprobe ath_pci
modprobe ath_hal

Now reboot and your wifi should be working. At least it was for me

As i said none of the other guides worked for me, the only extra thing i did which was from another guide was.

Originally Posted by SuseWiki

Create (or open) a file named config in the /etc/pm/config.d directory

Add the following line:
SUSPEND_MODULES="ath_pci"

I am happy i got it all working and hope this helps others who had the frustrations i did

[converted]

I just wanted to add a few things for others that may find this thread and be kinda nooby as I am.

I'm a SUSE noob, and only what I'd call an "advanced noob" with linux in general.

Having said that, I've been happily using my AR242x with Ubuntu for the past few months using a procedure nearly identical to yours.

Today and last night I spent countless hours trying various suggestions on these forums, including the "official" AR242x page that is linked here someplace.

Your procedure was one of the first I found, but I discarded it nearly immediately because I couldn't seem to compile madwifi. Eventually I came back to it, and it does work for me just as you wrote, with these tips to add for others:

First I found I couldn't do make.

From make not found openSuse 11 default install - openSUSE Forums I found I needed to first do:

sudo zypper in -t pattern devel_basis devel_C_C++
sudo zypper in kernel-source

I still couldn't successfully make, but the error changed.

So then, while combing through many of the different methods suggested here on the forums, I spotted a post where it was mentioned that the kernel-syms package may also be required. (though it came up in a different context)

That post here: Madwifi-kmp issues With 11.0 - Page 3 - openSUSE Forums

After installing that, I was able to do make, and then of course make install.

After finishing out your directions, I rebooted, and my AR242x (AR5007) is working fine.

I'm not that surprised that this is still a problem, but I am surprised to see the plethora of suggested methods posted here and elsewhere. I'm sure many of them work, but only the method posted above in this thread worked for me.

I hope these additional details can help someone out.

FWIW, all this on an HP DV9910US laptop, and I am *NOT* using the PAE kernel.

[converted]

And oh yeah:

THANKS SO MUCH for posting this!!

[bbqau]

Absolutely no worries at all for supplying the information. Glad it helped you

[converted]

Just to clarify based on a comment in another thread.

If you get an error that looks like this:

make
Makefile.inc:91: *** KERNELCONF: /lib/modules/2.6.25.18-0.2-pae/build/.config does not exist..  Stop.

It's because you need to install kernel-syms. So to follow the instructions in the OP of this thread, you need to do the following first:

sudo zypper in -t pattern devel_basis devel_C_C++
sudo zypper in kernel-source
sudo zypper in kernel-syms

[bbqau]

Yea if you get any errors during make search the forums for a solution as more than likely you need to install some other package that is required

[INAPPROPRIATE_USERNAME]

Good advice - I wish this had been posted when I was trying to get mine to work!

Prerequisites:

kernel-source
kernel-syms
make

(just open YaST & check you have all the above installed before following the first post)

Another quick note, if you have installed madwifi via rpm before arriving here, you'll need to get rid of it before the install will work. There are scripts provided to do this, just cd to madwifi-hal[version]/scripts and run:

./madwifi-unload
./find-madwifi-modules.sh -r

to unload & remove active madwifi modules before installing.

[mainshell]

Thanks to bbqau I now have wifi.

Using this link:- http://snapshots.madwifi-project.org...0081105.tar.gz

I followed the post of 28 Sept 2008. It worked first time!

Many previous attempts using the suse recommended Yast method of installing madwifi (and also trying Ndiswrapper) were unsuccessful.

I have OpenSUSE 11.0 default kernel on Toshiba Equium A200-15I with AR5007EG WLAN PCI express and AR2425 chipset, device id = 168c:001c. Good luck to other wifi seekers!

[am577]

Can I ask if you successfully used WAP or WEP encryption ? I have had mine working fine with no encryption, but not with WAP enabled. I think I have seen somewhere that this is a known limitation with Madwifi.
I'm not happy to use it unencrypted for long...

[converted]

I'm using WPA with no problems. I have clients on my network which don't support WPA2, so I haven't tried that. FWIW I'm using 20080903, but I wouldn't expect a regression if you are using the same version as mainshell notes.