I have lost absolutely too many hours (days, if not months) trying and trying and trying to get the wireless card to work on my Fujitsu Siemens laptop Amilo Li2727 under Linux.
In Windows Vista (preinstalled on the computer) I first have to press Fn+F1 to get up a window where I can click the radio button “On” and save the setting with the “OK” button to close the window and turn the wireless on. This lights up the orange LED at the front to indicate that the wireless is on. There is no traffic LED so the orange LED is lit with no flashing what so ever. After that Windows connects to my preconfigured wireless network (WPA-PSK) and accesses my network printers (connected to the router), other computers (wirelessly connected to the same router) and Internet without any problem. When I close the lid Windows falls asleep and the orange LED turns off automatically. When I later open the lid Windows wakes up and the orange LED is turned back on automatically and I am all connected again as if nothing had happened.
In Linux I have tried nearly EVERYTING written about this chipset (Atheros AR5007EG). I have tried different distributions (Kubuntu, Ubuntu, OpenSuse…) and there follow-me descriptions but so far nothing has been able to get the wireless going due to numerous error messages and commands not working etc., etc. This is my last trial for a very long time with this computer because I am so hopelessly sick and tired of all this, and today it didn’t get any better when I tried to install my network printer Xerox Phaser 6110 in Linux with only error messages and crup. If this post can’t help me getting the wireless going I am forced to go back using Windows Vista (or probably downgrade to XP) which would be a pity since I have used Linux since Mandrake 8.1 (2002(?)). I prefer to stick with OpenSUSE and KDE but if nothing works I have to return to bumpy ol’ Windows. (Gee, why is it so hard getting decent working systems???). I was hoping that 11.2 would have solved the problem but again I was disappointed because the instructions didn’t work for me. I must be doing some extremely stupid things to my system or I am just a grumpy user who expects things to work too much.
I will give you all the information I can, to help you solve my problem - just ask me. But pleeeeease help me because I feel I can’t spend more and more hours with this same old problem (I have tried since I bought it august 2008(?)).
why is it so hard getting decent working systems
It may have something to do with the manufacturer of your computer - I doubt they gave even the slightest consideration to Linux when they chose how to build.
Aha, So I need to downgrade to OpenSUSE 11.1 now?!? I suppose I need to reformat the hard drive and make a new installation. That’s a shame, but I should have learned by now NOT to put so much time and effort in chosing packages at the time of installation - my own fault of believing too much in new systems to work :(.
Or might I have such a luck there is there a way of saving a list of the chosen packages to make it easier to reinstall them after next new installation?
By the way… I did install 11.1 before but couldn’t get the wireless to work so I changed back to Kubuntu to give that another shot without any success. Unless… there has been a lot of updates in 11.1 by now so the AR5007EG (in my computer) works “out of the box” at present date.
Before I go ahead re-installing 11.1 to try the “out of the box” principle I would prefer a recommended solution for 11.2. I won’t re-install during this week at least.
Thanks, caf4926! I really appreciate your quick reply.
Successful in the way that “everything” worked (not the wireless though), but all programs installed, screen, mousepad, dvd-burner, usb-ports and so on.
The ndiswrapper was my second drawback today which made me post this thread. I came to the point where I needed the Windows driver. The instructions were written for using the Windows menus so I wanted to print the page where it told me how to snatch it from the Windows installation. When after probably 2 hours of fiddeling around with settings, CDs and shyt, my Xerox network printer still didn’t even print a test page I gave up.
I remember trying ndiswrapper in some previous attempts though, but with which distro or how I can not remember after all these trials. I never got it working but it might have been that I recieved some error messages during installation of some packages (or something - informative information, aye?).
Am I to understand that you recommend ndiswrapper? Do you know if and how I can steal the driver from Windows from within OpenSUSE?
This chipset should work fine with the madwifi drivers. The rpm for 11.2 can be found in this repo -> Wireless Drivers
Just add it to your repo list in YAST. Install the madwifi package from this repo and it should drag in all it needs. After this is done configure your card to use this driver, ath_pci, instead of the ath5k driver it probable is using now.
I am currenly at work but will reply when i’m at home and behind my Opensuse box
Support has NOT been dropped for your Atheros device. In fact, there has been
a lot of effort placed in improving those drivers.
The problem with your device is most likely in the operation of the radio on/off
mechanism. Between the kernel that comes with 11.1 and the one with 11.2, the
wireless group implemented the RFKILL mechanism, which is needed so that the
radios can be turned off in situations where radio operation is illegal or unsafe.
If your laptop had a physical on/off switch that generates a key event, your
system would have worked. On the other hand, the operation of many of the Fn+FX
keys depends on something called the Windows Management Interface (wmi). That
“Windows” stands for the abomination that comes out of Redmond. The wmi
interface for most major brands has been developed, and there is a piece of code
in the kernel that will generate a module named fujitsu-laptop. I have no idea
if it will fix your problem as I don’t have that brand; however, that module is
not part of a standard distributed kernel, thus we cannot even test that hypothesis.
What can you do? Unfortunately, you will have to generate your own kernel from
source. Before you flee back to Window$, I want you to know that it is not brain
surgery, nor rocket science. You will need to obtain a set of sources and
install the necessary tools for compilation. If you tell me that this is what
you want to do, I will outline the necessary steps.
It is too bad that you struggled with this problem for 18 months before posting
here. These fora are really good sources of knowledge.
From all the threads and How-to’s I read I tried installing acerhk which would be the solution for both the software kill switch and the orange LED, but that failed as well. At some point I also found a GUI-program that would make it easier to access the switch. The program worked but I couldn’t see that it actually did something to my wireless card.
I’m sorry if I am a bit grumpy, but I would really prefer to use Linux instead of Windows Vista on this computer. After so long time of different hacks and how-to’s without ANY success I am a bit worn out on the SYSTEMS not the people… If you are able to help me I would really appreciate it.
My post from 16:03 was a reply for Akoellh. I thought it would mention that in the posted reply since I clicked “Reply” beside Akoellh’s post…
Anyway… Earlier today I pasted the URL for the repository in YaST and marked madwifi, madwifi-kmp-default, kernel-source-default and some other stuff I read in some how-to. It installed madwifi without any objections (the installation window disappeared with no confirmation - so I hope it installed all the way). After reboot with the network cord unplugged Knetwork-manager showed that Wireless was ticked. Ah, great I thought - Finally!!! - but trying Firefox and Google I understood I did not have Internet connection. Back with the cord again to access the Internet flawlessly.
I then tried to install acerhk, acerhk-kmp-default (something I read some other where to get the software turn-on function) with YaST. I also tried using Fn-F1. At some stage around here I had another look at Knetwork-manager and saw that the Wireless was greyed out, unticked again.
Another reboot without network cord - still greyed out unticked. I haven’t seen it ticked again since then (and not before that either, btw).
I have built new kernels before when I was struggeling with NVidia drivers in Linux a couple of years ago (successful though). But I’m not sure I remember how I did. It might not even have been SuSE, but Mandriva or some other distro. So if that is what I need this is what I will do. Please walk me through the procedure (you never know, there might be more Amilo Li2727’s that wants to get aquainted with OpenSuSE in the english speaking part of the world).
I just can’t help myself… Searching, searching, searching, reading, reading, trying to find out how things work… Too bad I never take the time to learn Linux properly to UNDERSTAND how the things work together and what they really mean or do (and why all these difficult-to-understand command names)…
So for you who understand this better I found this article opensuse - openSuSE Kernel Change that effects Wireless Install ??? (Atheros AR242x will not work) - have a look in the end of the page where there is a step by step guide of how to do things. For me it is nearly understandable BUT what is the issue about slow speed right at the bottom (and has this whole issue been implemented as an automated procedure in OpenSuSE, since it apparently has been known by high-heels since December)?
I moved and renamed the folder ath5k to the Desktop (out of the way for everything), unloaded all modules mentioned in the document above, modprobed according to instructions and checked existens with lsmod bar grep and finally checking ifconfig and iwconfig and there was some information about signal strengths and stuff but both wifi0 and ath0 existed.
Somewhere in this procedure I got a message in the bottom right corner of the screen saying that the adapter was working. I checked KnetworkManager and the wireless was ticked and NOT greyed anymore. I unplugged the network cord tried to connect to my SSID and checked connection with Google - Page not found. Reboot to see if that’s what’s needed and the wireless in KnetworkManager is greyed out again.
I reckoned I was not to use step (5) since I use KnetworkManager for controlling my network connection (according to YaST).
waited a little while and all of a sudden a notifier turns up telling me network is not connected (would it have been enough just rmmod ath5k(?)). Checking the KnetworkManager the wireless box is ticked and not greyed out. Going to YaST hwinfo it tells me:
On 03/09/2010 01:06 PM, Maacus0 wrote:
>
> OK… It seems as if simply just can’t give up…
>
> Now I did the following in the Console:
>
> su
> supersecretpassword
> rmmod ath5k
> rmmod ath-pci
> rmmod ath-hal
> rmmod wlan
>
> waited a little while and all of a sudden a notifier turns up telling
> me network is not connected (would it have been enough just rmmod
> ath5k(?)). Checking the KnetworkManager the wireless box is ticked and
> not greyed out. Going to YaST hwinfo it tells me:
The rmmod ath5k is essential if you want to use ath-pci. Note that wlan0 is not
a module, thus ‘rmmod wlan0’ does not make sense. BTW, you can use ‘sudo
/sbin/modprobe -rv ath5k’ to remove a module. To load one, use -v instead of
-rv. The modprobe command will work from anywhere.
> pci.subsys_product = ‘AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter
> (rev 01)’
> info.product = ‘AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter’
> info.linux.driver = ‘ath_pci’
> pci.product = ‘AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter’
>
> I notice that in rmmod I use minus sign in ath-pci but hwinfo says
> underscore ath_pci. Is that of significance (how do you spell that)?
In module names, the hyphen and underscore are somewhat interchangeable, but not
in many other places.
On 03/09/2010 11:56 AM, Maacus0 wrote:
>
> I just can’t help myself… Searching, searching, searching, reading,
> reading, trying to find out how things work… Too bad I never take the
> time to learn Linux properly to UNDERSTAND how the things work together
> and what they really mean or do (and why all these
> difficult-to-understand command names)…
Unix has been around a long time - those names are from the early days.
> So for you who understand this better I found this article ‘opensuse-
> openSuSE Kernel Change that effects Wireless Install ??? (Atheros AR242x
> will not work)’ (http://www.pubbs.net/opensuse/200912/59370/) - have a
> look in the end of the page where there is a step by step guide of how
> to do things. For me it is nearly understandable BUT what is the issue
> about slow speed right at the bottom (and has this whole issue been
> implemented as an automated procedure in OpenSuSE, since it apparently
> has been known by high-heels since December)?
Note: openSUSE keeps a given kernel release for the entire lifetime of a
release. The kinds of changes from newer kernels that can be propagated to
earlier versions is highly limited. As a result, what was discovered in December
is available in kernel 2.6.33, but not in 2.6.31.
I checked back in the history of console commands and I used rmmod wlan and not rmmod wlan0, the latter gives me error message “module does not exist” but wlan it accepts without hassle.
Thanks, I think you understand what level I’m at. This information makes me understand more.
