Thread: [Madwifi-users] Problems with using the madwifi driver
Status: Beta
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From: Sujit P. <suj...@co...> - 2005-04-25 05:52:21
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Hi all, I have been trying to get the internal Atheros PCI card on my Toshiba Satellite laptop to work with Fedora Core 2. I am able to install this without problems, but it is unable to see any wireless access points when I run iwlist ath0 scan. It is very possible that I am doing something wrong somewhere, since I am not familiar with wireless setup on linux. So basically, any tips on how to make this work would be very much appreciated. Here are the relevant versions of the environment: kernel: linux 2.6.10-1.771_FC2. wireless-extensions: wireless-tools-26-4 (this shows up in the error messages as a warning that wireless-extensions are version 17 instead of the preferred 16). wpa_supplicant-0.3.8: to work with WEP. Running lspci gives me this: 02:02.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01) The extract from dmesg | grep ath on startup is shown here: ath_hal: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel. ath_hal: 0.9.14.9 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413) ath_rate_onoe: 1.0 ath_pci: 0.9.4.12 (EXPERIMENTAL) divert: allocating divert_blk for ath0 ath0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps ath0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps ath0: mac 5.6 phy 4.1 radio 1.7 ath0: 802.11 address: 00:90:96:70:e5:d8 ath0: Use hw queue 0 for WME_AC_BE traffic ath0: Use hw queue 1 for WME_AC_BK traffic ath0: Use hw queue 2 for WME_AC_VI traffic ath0: Use hw queue 3 for WME_AC_VO traffic ath0: Atheros 5212: mem=0xe0200000, irq=11 divert: freeing divert_blk for ath0 ath_pci: driver unloaded ath_rate_onoe: unloaded ath_hal: driver unloaded ath_hal: 0.9.14.9 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413) ath_rate_onoe: 1.0 ath_pci: 0.9.4.12 (EXPERIMENTAL) divert: allocating divert_blk for ath0 ath0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps ath0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps ath0: mac 5.6 phy 4.1 radio 1.7 ath0: 802.11 address: 00:90:96:70:e5:d8 ath0: Use hw queue 0 for WME_AC_BE traffic ath0: Use hw queue 1 for WME_AC_BK traffic ath0: Use hw queue 2 for WME_AC_VI traffic ath0: Use hw queue 3 for WME_AC_VO traffic ath0: Atheros 5212: mem=0xe0200000, irq=11 divert: freeing divert_blk for ath0 ath_pci: driver unloaded ath_rate_onoe: unloaded ath_hal: driver unloaded ath_hal: 0.9.14.9 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413) ath_rate_onoe: 1.0 ath_pci: 0.9.4.12 (EXPERIMENTAL) divert: allocating divert_blk for ath0 ath0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps ath0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps ath0: mac 5.6 phy 4.1 radio 1.7 ath0: 802.11 address: 00:90:96:70:e5:d8 ath0: Use hw queue 0 for WME_AC_BE traffic ath0: Use hw queue 1 for WME_AC_BK traffic ath0: Use hw queue 2 for WME_AC_VI traffic ath0: Use hw queue 3 for WME_AC_VO traffic ath0: Atheros 5212: mem=0xe0200000, irq=11 ath0: no IPv6 routers present So I compiled the driver code from the current CVS (sometime late last week, Wednesday or Thursday I think) using the KERNELRELEASE environment set, make, make install, modprobe ath_pci. Then I set up /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ath0: IPV6INIT=no ONBOOT=yes USERCTL=yes PEERDNS=yes GATEWAY= TYPE=Wireless DEVICE=ath0 HWADDR=00:90:96:70:E5:D8 BOOTPROTO=dhcp NETMASK= DHCP_HOSTNAME= IPADDR= DOMAIN= ESSID=AIR4556 CHANNEL=6 MODE=Managed RATE=11M and tried: ifup ath0 which says: Getting IP information for ath0...failed. Which seems to be the first problem. When I do the same thing to get the wired interface eth0 up, I dont have this problem. Someone told me that he uses the following commands to connect (although he uses a different driver), so I tried this: ifconfig ath0 up dhclient ath0 This does not give me any errors or failures, and I can see ath0 with ifconfig and iwconfig, as seen here: [root@cyclone HomeWireless]# ifconfig ath0 ath0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:90:96:70:E5:D8 inet6 addr: fe80::290:96ff:fe70:e5d8/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:0 errors:1 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:1 TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:199 RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b) Interrupt:11 Memory:dee20000-dee30000 [root@cyclone HomeWireless]# iwconfig ath0 Warning: Driver for device ath0 has been compiled with version 17 of Wireless Extension, while this program is using version 16. Some things may be broken... ath0 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:"AIR4556" Nickname:"cyclone.cnet.cnwk" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.422GHz Access Point: FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF Bit Rate=11Mb/s Tx-Power:50 dBm Sensitivity=0/3 Retry:off RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Encryption key:off Power Management:off Link Quality:0/94 Signal level:-95 dBm Noise level:-95 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0 When I try to do dhclient, it cannot see the access point at 192.168.0.4 which is sitting less than 2 feet away... [root@cyclone HomeWireless]# dhclient ath0 Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.1rc14 Copyright 2004 Internet Systems Consortium. All rights reserved. For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/products/DHCP sit0: unknown hardware address type 776 sit0: unknown hardware address type 776 Listening on LPF/ath0/00:90:96:70:e5:d8 Sending on LPF/ath0/00:90:96:70:e5:d8 Sending on Socket/fallback DHCPDISCOVER on ath0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 6 DHCPDISCOVER on ath0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11 DHCPDISCOVER on ath0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12 DHCPDISCOVER on ath0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8 DHCPDISCOVER on ath0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12 DHCPDISCOVER on ath0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12 No DHCPOFFERS received. No working leases in persistent database - sleeping. and when I try to scan the neighborhood for open access points, including my own: [root@cyclone HomeWireless]# iwlist ath0 scan ath0 No scan results I know that the access point itself is functional, since I got my wife's WinXP Home laptop with a Netgear wireless card to see it and work fine with it. Just to add some more info, not sure if it will help, but here is the network topology. I have a cable modem connected to a VoIP gateway, which is connected to a Netgear 4 port router. Our 2 laptops each use a dedicated ethernet connection off the router (ports 2 and 3). Port 1 is connected to a Belkin WAP, which is my AP for the network. The network uses the 192.168.0.* scheme. The router and the WAP are on the same subnet, both provide addresses via dhcp. My wife's laptop is WinXP Home whereas mine is a linux FC2. I use my laptop at home and at work, so I have separate resolv.conf (actually setup separate network profiles recently) for each setup. Another thing I noticed is that the internal ethernet card seems to use the same IRQ 11 as the Atheros card. 02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10) So it looks like ath0 and eth0 cannot coexist, using one deactivates the other (see dmesg below, where it unloads ath0 in favor of eth0). ieee1394: Initialized config rom entry `ip1394' ath_hal: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel. ath_hal: 0.9.14.9 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413) wlan: 0.8.4.5 (EXPERIMENTAL) ath_rate_onoe: 1.0 ath_pci: 0.9.4.12 (EXPERIMENTAL) ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKG] enabled at IRQ 11 PCI: setting IRQ 11 as level-triggered ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:02:02.0[A] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11 divert: allocating divert_blk for ath0 ath0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps ath0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps ath0: mac 5.6 phy 4.1 radio 1.7 ath0: 802.11 address: 00:90:96:70:e5:d8 ath0: Use hw queue 0 for WME_AC_BE traffic ath0: Use hw queue 1 for WME_AC_BK traffic ath0: Use hw queue 2 for WME_AC_VI traffic ath0: Use hw queue 3 for WME_AC_VO traffic ath0: Atheros 5212: mem=0xe0200000, irq=11 8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.27 ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKF] enabled at IRQ 11 ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:02:01.0[A] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11 divert: allocating divert_blk for eth0 eth0: RealTek RTL8139 at 0x3000, 00:02:3f:96:39:2a, IRQ 11 eth0: Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8101' divert: freeing divert_blk for ath0 ath_pci: driver unloaded ath_rate_onoe: unloaded wlan: driver unloaded ath_hal: driver unloaded divert: freeing divert_blk for eth0 Not sure if I missed any info that may be useful, let me know if there is and I will very happily supply it. Any information that would help me solve the problem and/or point me in a direction towards the solution would be very appreciated. Thanks in advance, Sujit |
From: Peter C. <pc...@ca...> - 2005-04-26 13:34:30
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On Sun, 2005-04-24 at 22:52 -0700, Sujit Pal wrote: > Hi all, > > I have been trying to get the internal Atheros PCI card on my Toshiba > Satellite laptop to work with Fedora Core 2. I am able to install this > without problems, but it is unable to see any wireless access points > when I run iwlist ath0 scan. It is very possible that I am doing > something wrong somewhere, since I am not familiar with wireless setup > on linux. So basically, any tips on how to make this work would be very > much appreciated. Sounds like the radio is turned off. According to http://rfswitch.sourceforge.net/?page=laptop_matrix , the Toshiba's radio on/off is acomplished in Hardware (although I couldn't say for certain). Is there a Fn+F{key} button which would normally turn the radio on/off, or a Bios setting? Alternatively, there may be a switch on the laptop somewhere. Some laptops require ACPI working properly to get the radio on/off switch to work. On my Fujitsu I had to tape over a pin on the internal wireless card to disable the 'disable' feature, as I wasn't able to make it work any other way. Peter Clifton |
From: Sujit P. <suj...@co...> - 2005-04-26 19:29:51
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Hi Peter, Thanks very much for the pointer. The radio was indeed turned off. Although, just for the benefit of other people like me, the radio is turned on by a little switch on the body on the left (when you are facing the laptop). Just to confuse people, Toshiba also has a Fn-F8 with the picture of a little antenna, which I pressed and which produced no trail in /var/log/messages, although it did catch some others and atkbd complained that these keys were not mapped. The switch is kind of hard to find, and if I did not know that it should exist from this review, I would have had a hard time finding it. http://pcworld.about.com/news/Jan222004id114385.htm Apparently Toshiba provides a user manual on the hard disk along with the WinXP OS, but I never got to see it since WinXP lasted approximately 30 minutes after I got it home, before having linux loaded on it :-). They do have a CD though, must take a look at it sometime. Anyway, switching it on produces a little orange light on the side and after that: ifconfig ath0 up dhclient ath0 ran without a hitch, I could iwlist and log in to my work hotspot with no problems (still have to try at home, the files I had enclosed were for my home AP). I looked at your original post about taping over the pin too. Sounds a little rad to me, I probably would not have done it unless it was the absolute last thing I could do to get wifi working. Anyway, thanks a bunch. I feel really happy and dumb at the same time. -sujit On Tue, 2005-04-26 at 06:33, Peter Clifton wrote: > On Sun, 2005-04-24 at 22:52 -0700, Sujit Pal wrote: > > Hi all, > > > > I have been trying to get the internal Atheros PCI card on my Toshiba > > Satellite laptop to work with Fedora Core 2. I am able to install this > > without problems, but it is unable to see any wireless access points > > when I run iwlist ath0 scan. It is very possible that I am doing > > something wrong somewhere, since I am not familiar with wireless setup > > on linux. So basically, any tips on how to make this work would be very > > much appreciated. > > Sounds like the radio is turned off. According to > http://rfswitch.sourceforge.net/?page=laptop_matrix , the Toshiba's > radio on/off is acomplished in Hardware (although I couldn't say for > certain). Is there a Fn+F{key} button which would normally turn the > radio on/off, or a Bios setting? Alternatively, there may be a switch on > the laptop somewhere. > > Some laptops require ACPI working properly to get the radio on/off > switch to work. > > On my Fujitsu I had to tape over a pin on the internal wireless card to > disable the 'disable' feature, as I wasn't able to make it work any > other way. > > Peter Clifton > > |