# ath9k ignored [RESOLVED]

## marinheiro

I have a first generation macbook that I've been using the madwifi driver on. It's never been that good (tends to drop out) and when I messed up a lot of things  recently resolving blockers while doing an emerge world update and broke the wifi setup,  I saw that the ath9k module was supposed to be ok and decided to try that. But I can't get it to work.

uname -a:

```

Linux dogbert 2.6.30-gentoo-r6 #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Oct 13 00:07:37 BST 2009 i686 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T7200 @ 2.00GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

```

lsmod gives:

```
ath9k                 312692  0 

mac80211              142568  1 ath9k

cfg80211               60636  2 ath9k,mac80211
```

/etc/conf.d/net has:

```
modules=( "wpa_supplicant" )

wpa_supplicant_eth0="-Dipw"

wpa_supplicant_ath0="-Dwext"

wpa_timeout_ath0=60

config_ath0=( "dhcp" )

dhcp_ath0="nontp nonis"

```

(eth0 works fine)

Starting the ath0 interface fails:

```
dogbert graham # /etc/init.d/net.ath0 start

 * Caching service dependencies ...                                       [ ok ]

 * Starting ath0

 *   Bringing up ath0

 *     dhcp

 *       network interface ath0 does not exist

 *       Please verify hardware or kernel module (driver)                 [ !! ]

```

Calling wpa_supplicant directly fails:

```
dogbert graham # wpa_supplicant  -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -i ath0 -D wext

ioctl[SIOCGIFFLAGS]: No such device

Could not get interface 'ath0' flags

ioctl[SIOCSIWPMKSA]: No such device

ioctl[SIOCSIWMODE]: No such device

Could not configure driver to use managed mode

ioctl[SIOCGIWRANGE]: No such device

ioctl[SIOCGIFINDEX]: No such device

ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: No such device

ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODE]: No such device

ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: No such device

ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODE]: No such device

ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: No such device

ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODE]: No such device

ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: No such device

ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODE]: No such device

Failed to disable WPA in the driver.

ioctl[SIOCSIWAP]: No such device

ioctl[SIOCGIFFLAGS]: No such device

```

I guess I'm missing any understanding of how the 'magic' connection of the net.ath0 symlink, the wpa_supplicant paramet 'wext' and the existence of the kernel ath9k module is supposed to work  :Sad: 

Any suggestions?

Thanks

GrahamLast edited by marinheiro on Wed Oct 14, 2009 5:37 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## Jaglover

 *Quote:*   

> network interface ath0 does not exist 

 

Why does it not exist. When module is loaded udev should create a node in /dev, this isn't happening. Or, maybe the device node is created, but is not ath0.

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## d2_racing

Hi, after a fresh reboot, can you post this :

```

# ifconfig -a

# iwconfig

# lspci -kvm

# dmesg | grep -i ath

```

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## xaviermiller

Hello,

I can be wrong, but ath9k creates a wlan0 device, not ath0.

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## d2_racing

I think that you are right, it's wlan0.

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## marinheiro

Thanks Xavier, you're right. That fixed it. I didn't realize the module names were hardcoded.

Graham

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## xaviermiller

There are the default names for those drivers. Some prefer eth, some other ath

You can change them with udev.

----------

