Atheros WLAN

English Network/Internet
1

Hello, I have some trouble to get my Atheros WLAN recognized by the system.(Opensuse 11.1)

Af first, hwinfo --wlan remains empty

hwinfo --network gives me this information:

26: PCI 200.0: 0280 Network controller
[Created at pci.318]
UDI: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_168c_2b
Unique ID: B35A.YOgHHBQ2is7
Parent ID: qTvu.8Makl3iDVc3
SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:02:00.0
SysFS BusID: 0000:02:00.0
Hardware Class: network
Model: “Atheros Network controller”
Vendor: pci 0x168c “Atheros Communications Inc.”
Device: pci 0x002b
SubVendor: pci 0x1a3b
SubDevice: pci 0x1089
Revision: 0x01
Memory Range: 0xfeaf0000-0xfeafffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
IRQ: 5 (no events)
Module Alias: “pci:v0000168Cd0000002Bsv00001A3Bsd00001089bc02sc80i00”
Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
Attached to: #17 (PCI bridge)

168c:002b should be supported by the ath9k kernel module

Now I’m trying to get this working.

modprobe -v mac80211

modprobe -v ath9k

dmesg | grep ath9k

ath9k: 0.1
#lsmod | grep ath9k
ath9k 328216 0
mac80211 241360 1 ath9k

iwconfig

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

(eth0 is correctly attached to the ethernet adaptor in this laptop)

Iwconfig doesn’t find the Atheros chip though the module is loaded. What can I do now?

2

Hi,
I’ve just looked at my OpenSuSE 11.1 box, and seems the shipping kernel ath9k driver doesnt support your card - from:
/usr/src/linux-2.6.27.29-0.1/drivers/net/wireless/ath9k/ath9k.h

#define ATHEROS_VENDOR_ID       0x168c

#define AR5416_DEVID_PCI        0x0023
#define AR5416_DEVID_PCIE       0x0024
#define AR9160_DEVID_PCI        0x0027
#define AR9280_DEVID_PCI        0x0029
#define AR9280_DEVID_PCIE       0x002a

#define AR5416_AR9100_DEVID     0x000b

while with kernel 2.6.31 I can find your 2b device:
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-2.6.31.y.git;a=blob_plain;f=drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/hw.h;hb=74fca6a42863ffacaf7ba6f1936a9f228950f657

so seems you have to update your ath9k kernel driver - either via updating to kernel 2.6.31, or via compiling the ath9k driver self for your running kernel.
Anyway with my card ath9k loads automatically, but only to cause total freezes - so I had to blacklist. I found another thread here:
Bug 12110 – ath9k causes computer to hang after long data transmissions
which states that all ath9k drivers before kernel 2.6.30 are buggy, and tend to freeze - so be happy that it doesnt load for you :slight_smile:

HTH, Gün.