# ar928x and ath9k

## lucapost

I have dell xps 1340 with this wifi card:

```
06:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [168c:002a] (rev 01)
```

I have serious problem with kernel driver and signal stability. At 3m from access point I get only 20-30% of signal quality. At 8m no access point is available.

Can I fix my problem?

```
#> emerge --info

Portage 2.1.7.16 (default/linux/amd64/10.0/no-multilib, gcc-4.3.4, glibc-2.10.1-r1, 2.6.32-gentoo-r3 x86_64)

=================================================================

System uname: Linux-2.6.32-gentoo-r3-x86_64-Intel-R-_Core-TM-2_Duo_CPU_T6500_@_2.10GHz-with-gentoo-2.0.1

Timestamp of tree: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:45:01 +0000

app-shells/bash:     4.0_p35

dev-java/java-config: 2.1.9-r2

dev-lang/python:     2.6.4

sys-apps/baselayout: 2.0.1

sys-apps/openrc:     0.6.0-r1

sys-apps/sandbox:    1.6-r2

sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.63-r1

sys-devel/automake:  1.9.6-r2, 1.10.2

sys-devel/binutils:  2.18-r3

sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.1

sys-devel/libtool:   2.2.6b

virtual/os-headers:  2.6.27-r2

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64"

ACCEPT_LICENSE="*"

CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"

CFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe"

CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"

CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/X11/xkb"

CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo /etc/texmf/language.dat.d /etc/texmf/language.def.d /etc/texmf/updmap.d /etc/texmf/web2c /etc/udev/rules.d"

CXXFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe"

DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"

FEATURES="assume-digests buildpkg collision-protect distlocks fixpackages metadata-transfer news parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/gentoo"

LANG="en_US.UTF-8"

LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1"

PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"

PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"

PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages"

PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"

PORTDIR="/usr/portage"

PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage"

SYNC="rsync://rsync.europe.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"

USE="X acl alsa amd64 berkdb bzip2 cli cracklib crypt cups cxx dbus dell dri fortran gdbm gpm hal iconv ipv6 jpeg ldap mmx modules mudflap nls nptl nptlonly nsplugin opengl openmp pam pcre perl png pppd pulseaudio python readline reflection session spl sqlite sse sse2 ssl sysfs tcpd tiff unicode xorg zlib" ALSA_CARDS="hda-intel" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard evdev synaptics mouse" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby18" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="nv nvidia" 

Unset:  CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, FFLAGS, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, LINGUAS, MAKEOPTS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS
```

----------

## bjlockie

You may find better help at http://ath5k.org

Instead, you might want to try the madwifi module driver from Atheros.

----------

## kukibl

Module ath5k concerns only AR5* wifi cards, you should use ath9k.

I have same wifi card and I'm using ath9k from 2.6.27.x kernel. At first I had problems with weak signal and casual instabilities, but it got dramatically improved in 2.6.29.x. However, when I switched to 2.6.31 gentoo-sources headaches began - weak signal again and constant connection breakage. For the sake of experiment I switched to zen-sources (2.6.32-zen6) and now it works better than ever. I see you are already using 2.6.32, so it quite strange that you still have problems. Maybe you should try to install and configure madwifi-ng from portage.

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## d_logan

for what it's worth, I've tried at least 5 distros on my eeepc 1000he, which has an AR928X wireless card in it.   I've also tried several kernel versions.  I've tried using the built-in kernel driver, and I've tried the module.  I was not pleased with any of the results.  Wireless signal strength was poor and the connection often dropped.  Very annoying.

I am pleased, however, to announce my AR928X is working awesome right now.  I removed ath9k and loaded the ndiswrapper driver.

Simply emerge ndiswrapper, download the WinXP 32-bit driver from the Atheros website, extract the zip, install with ndiswrapper -i netathw.inf.  Then check that it installed properly (ndiswrapper -l).  If it did, modprobe ndiswrapper and if you're using NetworkManager restart it.

My signal strength is much improved and it never drops anymore.

----------

## lucapost

Uhm...downgrade to 2.6.27 is a possibility...now I testing it!

For ndiswrapper, is there anybody that have experience with amd64?

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## d_logan

 *lucapost wrote:*   

> Uhm...downgrade to 2.6.27 is a possibility...now I testing it!
> 
> For ndiswrapper, is there anybody that have experience with amd64?

 

I have not tried it personally, but there is a 64 bit driver as well: http://www.atheros.cz/download.php?atheros=AR928X&system=1

----------

## lucapost

ndiswrapper works, but signal is always not sufficient for me.

for downgrade to 2.6.27, now I have a little problem with ata/sata support, but this is another...

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## kukibl

 *lucapost wrote:*   

> Uhm...downgrade to 2.6.27 is a possibility...now I testing it!

 

Why are you downgrading to 2.6.27?  :Confused:   Maybe I expressed confusing in my first post - I started using ath9k with 2.6.27 kernel, but performance and stability improvements came with 2.6.29.x kernels and later (except 2.6.31.x for now). In your case I would experiment with kernel config, maybe even tried 2.6.32 vanilla or zen before checking ndiswrapper.

----------

