Re: [Madwifi-users] Problems with D-Link DWA-556 and Debian Etch, ath0 not getting created

[Bob D <muc...@ya...>]

From: Dallas Clement <dal...@gm...>
To: mad...@li...
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 9:46:07 AM
Subject: Re: [Madwifi-users] Problems with D-Link DWA-556 and Debian Etch, ath0 not getting created

Hi Pavel,

Thank you for the pointers.   I'm pretty sure that I have the correct
source package installed on my system.  In fact, it is the only source
package on my Debian installation ISO.   Debian seems to have their
own naming scheme for the various different packages associated with a
particular kernel version.  After investigating things further, I
determined that the problem is with the madwifi makefile and the
method of calculating the variable "KERNELRELEASE".  The algorithm
doesn't quite work for the Debian source package because it does not
have any of the files that it looks for to determine the version.  I
simply set it like this from the command line:

export KERNELRELEASE=$(uname -r)

and everything built and installed just fine and in the correct place
as far as Debian is concerned, which on my system was:

/lib/modules/linux-2.6.18-6-amd64

After installing to the right place, iwconfig worked as expected and I
was able to configure and bring up the ath0 interface.

Hopefully this will help any other Debian users who may have
experienced the same difficulty.

Regards,
Dallas

ubuntu names kernel releases the same way:

 l /lib/modules/*/madwifi
/lib/modules/2.6.17-10-generic/madwifi:
.           ath_rate_sample.ko  wlan.ko           wlan_tkip.ko
..          wlan_acl.ko         wlan_scan_ap.ko   wlan_wep.ko
ath_pci.ko  wlan_ccmp.ko        wlan_scan_sta.ko  wlan_xauth.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.17-11-generic/madwifi:
.           ath_rate_sample.ko  wlan.ko           wlan_tkip.ko
..          wlan_acl.ko         wlan_scan_ap.ko   wlan_wep.ko
ath_pci.ko  wlan_ccmp.ko        wlan_scan_sta.ko  wlan_xauth.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.20-16-generic/madwifi:
.           ath_rate_amrr.ko    wlan_acl.ko   wlan_scan_ap.ko   wlan_wep.ko
..          ath_rate_onoe.ko    wlan_ccmp.ko  wlan_scan_sta.ko  wlan_xauth.ko
ath_pci.ko  ath_rate_sample.ko  wlan.ko       wlan_tkip.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic/madwifi:
.                 ath_rate_minstrel.ko  wlan_ccmp.ko      wlan_tkip.ko
..                ath_rate_onoe.ko      wlan.ko           wlan_wep.ko
ath_pci.ko        ath_rate_sample.ko    wlan_scan_ap.ko   wlan_xauth.ko
ath_rate_amrr.ko  wlan_acl.ko           wlan_scan_sta.ko

...but the problem with debian seems to be in the way developers modify kernel source. Here's ubuntu's kernel source Makefile grep:

for a in $(l /usr/src/lin*/Makefile) ; do grep ELRELEASE $a ; done
# Read KERNELRELEASE from .kernelrelease (if it exists)
KERNELRELEASE = $(shell cat .kernelrelease 2> /dev/null)
export    VERSION PATCHLEVEL SUBLEVEL KERNELRELEASE KERNELVERSION \
MODLIB    = $(INSTALL_MOD_PATH)/lib/modules/$(KERNELRELEASE)
# The KERNELRELEASE is stored in a file named .kernelrelease
# variable CONFIG_LOCALVERSION and append them to KERNELRELEASE.
# KERNELRELEASE can change from a few different places, meaning version.h
    if [ `echo -n "$(KERNELRELEASE)" | wc -c ` -gt $(uts_len) ]; then \
      echo '"$(KERNELRELEASE)" exceeds $(uts_len) characters' >&2; \
    (echo \#define UTS_RELEASE \"$(KERNELRELEASE)\"; \
    if [ -r System.map -a -x $(DEPMOD) ]; then $(DEPMOD) -ae -F System.map $(depmod_opts) $(KERNELRELEASE); fi
quiet_cmd_depmod = DEPMOD  $(KERNELRELEASE)
              $(KERNELRELEASE);                       \
    $(if $(wildcard .kernelrelease), $(Q)echo $(KERNELRELEASE), \
# Read KERNELRELEASE from .kernelrelease (if it exists)

...and of course...

 for a in $(l /boot/config-*) ; do grep _KMOD $a ; done
CONFIG_KMOD=y
CONFIG_KMOD=y
CONFIG_KMOD=y
CONFIG_KMOD=y

[etc]