Hi, long story short, a friend nuked his hard disk and didnt have a copy of windows, and since I have been hailing linux for years now as the second coming of Jesus, he is interested in checking it out, specifically OpenSUSE.
I installed 11.4 on it, and aside from an nVIDIA quirk (fixed) I have this weird wireless issue.
Simply put, the computer sees that there is a card, but I cannot get it to assign a device to it, nor can NetworkManager enable it when the icon is right clicked (the entry under Enable Networking). After a while of googling I noticed that under old revisions of OpenSUSE, the ath5k module was quirky and the resolution was to revert to ath_pci. Unfortunately I get this when attempting to load that module:
Perhaps a missing rpm is the fix? I am fond of SUSE as a whole, but being more or less addicted to RHEL/Fedora I am much more competent there with these things without some help here and there. And to those that may need it, here are my dmesg and lspci snippets:
ate-compaq:/home/nathan/Desktop # dmesg | grep ath
7.410795] ath5k 0000:07:00.0: PCI INT A -> Link[Z012] -> GSI 23 (level, low) -> IRQ 23
7.410809] ath5k 0000:07:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
7.410889] ath5k 0000:07:00.0: registered as 'phy0'
7.972761] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x64
7.972765] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a direct regpair map
7.972770] ath: Country alpha2 being used: 00
7.972772] ath: Regpair used: 0x64
8.140316] Registered led device: ath5k-phy0::rx
8.140349] Registered led device: ath5k-phy0::tx
8.140358] ath5k phy0: Atheros AR2425 chip found (MAC: 0xe2, PHY: 0x70)
623.841192] ath5k 0000:07:00.0: PCI INT A disabled
nate-compaq:/home/nathan/Desktop #
On 03/18/2011 02:06 PM, schotty wrote:
> Perhaps a missing rpm is the fix? I am fond of SUSE as a whole, but
> being more or less addicted to RHEL/Fedora I am much more competent
> there with these things without some help here and there. And to those
> that may need it, here are my dmesg and lspci snippets:
your snippets prove you are on the right track…Atheros AR2425 is a
key piece of the deal…
thanks for being willing to help a friend with FOSS…especially to
even step out of RH/Fedora to do it!
so please take this in way i intend (quickest way for you to get from
here to happiness):
hop over to the wireless sub forum (URL below), and work through the
three “stickies” at the top of that forum…i expect you will soon
find the path (that the openSUSE devs cleverly hid from Fedora buffs)
to smiles (i can’t help you, but there are some over there who
can–especailly if Larry Finger talks to you, listen closely…he knows!
–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[NNTP posted w/openSUSE 11.3, KDE4.5.5, Thunderbird3.1.8, nVidia
173.14.28 3D, Athlon 64 3000+]
“It is far easier to read, understand and follow the instructions than
to undo the problems caused by not.” DD 23 Jan 11
On 03/18/2011 08:06 AM, schotty wrote:
>
> Hi, long story short, a friend nuked his hard disk and didnt have a copy
> of windows, and since I have been hailing linux for years now as the
> second coming of Jesus, he is interested in checking it out,
> specifically OpenSUSE.
>
> I installed 11.4 on it, and aside from an nVIDIA quirk (fixed) I have
> this weird wireless issue.
>
> Simply put, the computer sees that there is a card, but I cannot get it
> to assign a device to it, nor can NetworkManager enable it when the icon
> is right clicked (the entry under Enable Networking). After a while of
> googling I noticed that under old revisions of OpenSUSE, the ath5k
> module was quirky and the resolution was to revert to ath_pci.
> Unfortunately I get this when attempting to load that module:
>
> Code:
> --------------------
>
> nate-compaq:/home/nathan/Desktop # modprobe -v ath_pci
> FATAL: Module ath_pci not found.
> nate-compaq:/home/nathan/Desktop #
There is no driver by that name.
> Perhaps a missing rpm is the fix? I am fond of SUSE as a whole, but
> being more or less addicted to RHEL/Fedora I am much more competent
> there with these things without some help here and there. And to those
> that may need it, here are my dmesg and lspci snippets:
Perhaps. See below.
> ate-compaq:/home/nathan/Desktop # dmesg | grep ath
> 7.410795] ath5k 0000:07:00.0: PCI INT A -> Link[Z012] -> GSI 23 (level, low) -> IRQ 23
> 7.410809] ath5k 0000:07:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
> 7.410889] ath5k 0000:07:00.0: registered as ‘phy0’
> 7.972761] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x64
> 7.972765] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a direct regpair map
> 7.972770] ath: Country alpha2 being used: 00
> 7.972772] ath: Regpair used: 0x64
> 8.140316] Registered led device: ath5k-phy0::rx
> 8.140349] Registered led device: ath5k-phy0::tx
> 8.140358] ath5k phy0: Atheros AR2425 chip found (MAC: 0xe2, PHY: 0x70)
> 623.841192] ath5k 0000:07:00.0: PCI INT A disabled
> nate-compaq:/home/nathan/Desktop #
The driver seems to have given up at this point, but it doesn’t say why.
Please change that last command to 'lspci -nn | grep net". That way we will get
the PCI ID for that ath5k device. Once that is available, it will be easy to see
if that device is supported in the latest kernels. If it is, then you will need
compat-wireless. At the moment, this package does not yet exist in the wireless
repo at http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/driver:/wireless/openSUSE_11.4/.
Took as intended Thanks for the reply nonetheless, as it was useful.
For completeness, I should add the steps that I didn’t do were the iwlist stuff, since I know that lo and eth0 are not wireless devices. But I will say, I love the faqs. Quite nicely done guides on troubleshooting.
On 03/18/2011 09:36 PM, schotty wrote:
>
> lwfinger;2307616 Wrote:
>>
>>
>> Please change that last command to 'lspci -nn | grep net". That way we
>> will get
>> the PCI ID for that ath5k device. Once that is available, it will be
>> easy to see
>> if that device is supported in the latest kernels. If it is, then you
>> will need
>> compat-wireless. At the moment, this package does not yet exist in the
>> wireless
>> repo at ‘Index of /repositories/driver:/wireless/openSUSE_11.4’
>> (http://tinyurl.com/6634m2y).
>
> OK, here is what you have asked for :
>
> Code:
> --------------------
>
> nate-compaq:/home/nathan/Desktop # lspci -nn | grep net
> 00:0a.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: nVidia Corporation MCP77 Ethernet [10de:0760] (rev a2)
> 07:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter [168c:001c] (rev 01)
> nate-compaq:/home/nathan/Desktop #
That device uses the ath5k driver; however, that ID was not added to the kernel
until Dec. 2, 2010. I think that is too new for kernel 2.6.37. Thus you need to
use the compat-wireless code. That backports the latest and greatest in wireless
drivers to earlier kernel.
As there is not yet a precompiled package for openSUSE 11.4, you would need to
build those drivers yourself. If that is something you would consider, report
that fact back and we will give further instructions.
That info would be great. Now, if possible, can I build the rpm in a way so that when an official one from a repo arrives it can easily be updated without any headaches?
On 03/19/2011 09:06 AM, schotty wrote:
>
> lwfinger;2307959 Wrote:
>>
>>
>> As there is not yet a precompiled package for openSUSE 11.4, you would
>> need to
>> build those drivers yourself. If that is something you would consider,
>> report
>> that fact back and we will give further instructions.
>
> That info would be great. Now, if possible, can I build the rpm in a
> way so that when an official one from a repo arrives it can easily be
> updated without any headaches?
The RPM won’t be needed. The compat-wireless build process is finished with a
‘sudo make install’ that places the new drivers in the appropriate part of the
/lib/modules directory tree where the kernel can access them. When the official
package is available, it will replace those files as part of the installation
and it will be seamless to you. Your only cleanup will be to delete the
compat-wireless source files, but you would need to do that anyway.
To setup the compat-wireless build, use YaST => Software Management. Under View,
select Pattern, scroll down to Development, and install Base, C/C++ and Linnux
Kernel Development. The compat-wireless sources are obtained through http://wireless.kernel.org/download/compat-wireless-2.6/compat-wireless-2.6.tar.bz2.
In your case, the Atheros drivers are under heavy development, thus the
bleeding-edge variety is recommended. Unpack the downloaded file with a ‘tar
jxvf <file_name>’ command. Read the explanatory material included to configure
the ath5k driver, and build. More info is available on the linux-wireless wiki
at http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users.
I will look into the kill switch thingie. I recall seeing from googling there is a tool that can let me set that to one state or another. I have also ordered some working OOTB USB WiFi sticks just in case. Mine have all been given away so I can resort to that if all else fails. But since I have read that others have this particular card functioning, I have high hopes that between my skill, and the skill of others that this shall be resolved!
Again, I must thank all who have aided me (especially you lwfinger!)
Thanks for the help here. This did the trick. Now what I don’t know is if this would have worked without using the wireless-compat stuff. Either way, glad to have it up and going for my friend.
That device uses the ath5k driver; however, that ID was not added to the kernel
until Dec. 2, 2010. I think that is too new for kernel 2.6.37. Thus you need to
use the compat-wireless code. That backports the latest and greatest in wireless
drivers to earlier kernel
Thanks for the reply nonetheless, as it was useful.