# atheros wifi on thinkpad - no working [SOLVED]

## icantux

Hello all,

I'm in a bit of a quandry here. I'm writing this in windows wifi since it's the only working connection I have now because of a problem I'm having with gentoo wifi.  (my phone line is down so no dsl; my neighbor dropped his encryption and let me mooch his wifi till the phone line gets fixed). So I'm going to keep this short not to use up his bandwidth

sigh....   :Crying or Very sad: 

These are the steps I've taken so far to get the wifi working - first time I do this for gentoo:

- I have a Thinkpad T42 with an IBM a/b/g which lspci identifies this as being an Atheros AR5212 chipset wifi card. 

- So I emerged madwifi-drivers, madwifi-tools and wireless-tools (I just want to get this to work right now!). 

- I created a symbolic link to make ath0 (# ln -s /etc/conf.d/net.lo /etc/conf.d/net.ath0).

- put ath0 in default runlevel (rc-update)

- rebooted

- entered " # ifconfig ath0 up " turn on wifi (not really sure it's on, cuz the LED doesn't go on)

- entered " # iwlist scan " to list ap's - I get an error (scanning not possible ???)

- entered " # iwlist ap " and got a mac address (not sure who's it is - there are 5 wifi around me), so at least I know the wifi card seems to be on.

That last part has me really confused (although the whole process is rather confusing... hee hee). Oddly enough, I had ubuntu on this same laptop (no physical changes at all!!) and wifi not only worked like a charm but the atheros card was scanning very well and gave me a list of ap's by ssid names when I invoked "iwlist scan".

I'm obviously not configuring something right here but it's not possible that my card all of a sudden can't scan after the switch to gentoo. 

Can anyone offer me help on this?

(keep in mind that I only have windows to access the net so if I need to download (emerge) something it'll have to be an e-build).

EDIT: 

more info on my system (from what I remember):

gentoo kernel: 2.6.15-r1

just managed to emerge madwifi and wireless tools and drivers before my phone line went out (today), so version is  - I'm not sure...   :Confused: 

baselayout is 1.11-r9 or r12 (can't remember)

if more info is needed I'll have to boot into gentoo and copy any info on a usb stick and then back to windows and here again...Last edited by icantux on Sun Mar 19, 2006 8:06 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## r.stiltskin

If you just enter

# ifconfig

does it list ath0?

If you enter

# iwlist ath0 scan

does it list any ap's?

If the answer to both of those is yes, have you tried all 3 of these commands:

# iwconfig ath0 essid any

# ifconfig ath0 up

# dhcpcd ath0

in that order?

----------

## icantux

hmm...

1) # ifconfig

yes it lists ath0 (as well as eth0 and lo ... sry about that - should have mentioned that in my original post)

2) # iwlist ath0 scan

I get a message saying scanning is not possible (strange! I'll double check to make sure and get full output)

3)

# ifconfig ath0 up - seems to work    :Confused: 

# dhpcd ath0 - haven't tried this

# iwconfig ath0 essid any - (I hope you mean replacing "essid" with an ssid). Haven't tried this either.

I'll write down these commands, boot into gentoo and try them out in the order you suggest. This may take a little while, but I'll get the full output of each and paste here. (have to boot back into gentoo and then back into windows to use networking and to post anything here!).

Could all this be a bug (?) of sorts I've been reading about - people experiencing strange results with madwifi recently.

----------

## wrc1944

After emerging dhcpcd, madwifi-driver, madwifi-tools,  and wireless-tools, doing  the following works for me.

iwconfig ath0

dhcpcd ath0

I usually place these two lines in /etc/conf.d/local.start, just to be sure, and have my connection start at boot.

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## r.stiltskin

 *Quote:*   

> # iwconfig ath0 essid any - (I hope you mean replacing "essid" with an ssid). Haven't tried this either

 No, I meant literally "iwconfig ath0 essid any", but I think simply "iwconfig ath0" will give you the same result.

If you run "ifconfig ath0 up" and after that, "iwlist ath0 scanning" gives this output:

ath0 Interface doesn't support scanning

then I think ath0 is NOT up.  Post the output of "ifconfig"; also post the output of "lsmod" (to see if all the necessary drivers are loaded).

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## icantux

Great, well, one good piece of news. My phone line's fixed so at least I have internet access once again using gentoo. Now to the wifi.

Stiltskin, here are output msgst:

```

# lsmod

Module                  Size  Used by

snd_seq                49168  0

snd_seq_device          9100  1 snd_seq

snd_pcm_oss            47648  0

snd_mixer_oss          17664  1 snd_pcm_oss

parport_pc             37572  0

parport                33864  1 parport_pc

floppy                 57188  0

pcspkr                  3076  0

wlan_scan_sta          13952  1

ath_pci                83236  0

ath_rate_sample       11904  1 ath_pci

wlan                  164444  4 wlan_scan_sta,ath_pci,ath_rate_sample

ath_hal               199888  3 ath_pci,ath_rate_sample

e1000                  96052  0

yenta_socket           26252  0

rsrc_nonstatic         13440  1 yenta_socket

pcmcia_core            40212  2 yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic

snd_intel8x0           31132  1

snd_ac97_codec         83488  1 snd_intel8x0

snd_ac97_bus            3200  1 snd_ac97_codec

snd_pcm                81668  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec

snd_timer              23684  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm

snd                    52068  10 snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer

soundcore              10336  1 snd

snd_page_alloc         11144  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm

i2c_i801                9228  0

i2c_core               20736  1 i2c_i801

intel_agp              22172  1

agpgart                33484  1 intel_agp

rtc                     9620  0

ibm_acpi               26880  0

joydev                 10304  0

dm_mirror              21328  0

dm_mod                 53912  1 dm_mirror

sata_mv                17924  0

ata_piix               10756  0

ahci                   13700  0

sata_qstor             10372  0

sata_vsc                8964  0

sata_uli                8324  0

sata_sis                8836  0

sata_sx4               14468  0

sata_nv                10116  0

sata_via                9476  0

sata_svw                8580  0

sata_sil               10116  0

sata_promise           12292  0

libata                 56204  13 sata_mv,ata_piix,ahci,sata_qstor,sata_vsc,sata_uli,sata_sis,sata_sx4,sata_nv,sata_via,sata_svw,sata_sil,sata_promise

sbp2                   22788  0

ohci1394               32052  0

ieee1394               91704  2 sbp2,ohci1394

sl811_hcd              13056  0

ohci_hcd               19972  0

uhci_hcd               30864  0

usb_storage            67264  0

usbhid                 43872  0

ehci_hcd               29320  0

usbcore               115460  7 sl811_hcd,ohci_hcd,uhci_hcd,usb_storage,usbhid,ehci_hcd

```

seems to me the drivers are indeed loaded: wlan_scan_sta, ath_pci, etc... (although I've got to do something about that "joydev" - what is that? joysitck?   :Shocked:  )

```

# iwconfig ath0

ath0      IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:""

          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.467 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated

          Bit Rate:0 kb/s   Tx-Power:15 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

```

----------

## icantux

Ah wait a sec.. 

I just ran ifconfig and here's the output:

```

# ifconfig

ath0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:05:G7:A7:26:FE

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0

          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:11:26:84:0G:B2

          inet addr:192.168.2.11  Bcast:192.168.2.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:946 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:670 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

          RX bytes:1139096 (1.0 Mb)  TX bytes:75738 (73.9 Kb)

          Base address:0x8000 Memory:c0240000-c0260000

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback

          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

          RX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0

          RX bytes:100 (100.0 b)  TX bytes:100 (100.0 b)

wifi0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:05:G7:A7:26:FE

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:393 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:1021

          TX packets:529 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:199

          RX bytes:42888 (41.8 Kb)  TX bytes:24334 (23.7 Kb)

          Interrupt:11 Memory:f8b00000-f8b10000

```

What's new here is "wifi0" <-- this didn't appear before at all. Seems this is going somewhere.

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## icantux

Finally something's goin right.. running " # iwlist ath0 scan " gave me a list of ssid's and various other info! What's changed? I emerged "wpa_supplicant" and edited /etc/conf.d/net and /etc/conf.d/wireless . I had some content in /etc/conf.d/wireless before while trying to connect on a first attempt yesterday, so I just commented out the entries. 

Then I restarted ath0  by issuing:

```

# /etc/init.d/net.ath0 restart

```

and it complained a bit that ath0 couldn't find any access points and that it failed to configure  wireless for ath0.

Then turned on the wireless radio again typing:

```

# ifconfig ath0 up

```

Once the radio was up I tried to scan using:

```

# iwlist ath0 scan

```

BAM! instant output of a bunch of information on local ap's! sweet!

Thanks you guys for the pointers! Hats off to you!

 :Exclamation:   :Question:   Now.... How the heck do I connect to my own ap? Is there an applet in gnome or some gtk wifi manager? I'll mark this thread [SOLVED] as soon as I can see the whole process culminated in a working wifi connection.

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## r.stiltskin

I'm not sure what significance (if any) there is to your having emerged wpa-supplicant.  I think you are  still using wireless-tools, since you can run iwlist and iwconfig, which are both components of wireless-tools.  You can tell by looking at /etc/conf.d/net and see if you have an entry

modules=( "iwconfig" )

or

modules=( "wpa-supplicant" )

If you're actually using wpa-supplicant I can't advise you as I've never used it.

If you're using wireless-tools (iwconfig, etc), I hope that emerging wpa-supplicant hasn't created a conflict.

Hoping for the best, turn off your wireless router's security (for now) & just try entering

iwconfig ath0 essid nameofyourap

ifconfig ath0 up

dhcpcd ath0

If that get's you online, you can turn on your router's WEP option and add the key to the iwconfig command, i.e.,

iwconfig ath0 essid NAMEOFYOURAP key YOURWEPKEY

----------

## icantux

Brilliant! Thanks for all your help and patience stiltskin! A choice of cold beverage for you and wrc1944.   :Smile: 

I'm up and running wifi - no encryption, mind you, but up and running! I'll still have to experiment with WEP encryption and WPA encryption and find some sort of front-end for gnome (isn't there supposed to a little "wifi" applet in gnome? can't find it). The reason for this not working right from the start could be user related to begin with - perhaps because of a misunderstanding how to activate and properly use wifi from the command line without realizing the little linux quirks in doing so. I seemed to have all the drivers installed properly, but when I hit the "can't scan" issue I assumed something was messed up. Not sure if it was or if that was a linux quirk.

----------------------------------------

At this point I'll mark this thread [SOLVED] and re-iterate all the steps taken for others seeking direction in how to get wifi working. This isn't a how-to by any means, but perhaps a little clarification of the process to get wifi up and running (at least for Atheros based cards like mine).

------------------------------------------

A quick walkthrough

1) emerge madwifi-drivers, madwifi-tools, wireless-tools

2) created a symbolic link in /etc/init.d like so: 

```
 # ln -s /etc/init.d/net.lo /etc/init.d/net.ath0
```

3) made certain my atheros card is listed in networking: 

```
 # ifconfig
```

 This should return eth0, lo and ath0

3a) If "ifconfig" doesn't show ath0 then you should install the module now:

```
# modprobe ath_pci
```

4) (OPTIONAL) added ath0 to default runlevel using: 

```
 # rc-update add net.ath0 default
```

 This is optional, because some may not like the wifi to start with the system. In that case, if wifi is not started with the machine, it would have to be started manually afterwards using the following: 

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

5) now that wifi has a driver base and can work, check to see if it is operational. First bring it "up" (turn the wifi on)

```
 # ifconfig ath0 up
```

 then check if it can scan: 

```
 # iwlist ath0 scan
```

 If there are any broadcasting ap's then something should appear indicating "cell #", ESSID, frequency, encryption, etc..

6) If all works well, now pick an ESSID (ap) by name and hook up with it: 

```
 # iwconfig ath0 essid NETGEAR
```

 (used NETGEAR as an example of a broadcasting ap name, could be anything. I named mine "leprechaun")

7) now get an IP address using DHCP (if the router's any good it will assign an IP for your connection) 

```
 # dhcpcd ath0
```

... BAM.. you're surfing the innernetsLast edited by icantux on Thu Apr 20, 2006 5:19 am; edited 3 times in total

----------

## gmtongar

Hi, everyone.

I followed through what you guys did (also tried madwifi and wpa_supplicant, with no luck). 

Same output as with icantux.

I'm online now, using wireless-tools. In order to make it work, I turned off all security.

But with the security settings back, I'm no longer online.

So, my guess is that /etc/conf.d/net could be the problem. 

Could anyone give me feedback on this, please:

```

modules=("iwconfig")

key_ESSID1="[1] mywepkeyhex [1] enc open"

preferred_apps=("ESSID1")
```

Should preferred_apps="ESSID1" be replaced with SSID name or left as stated?

If anyone could shed some light on this it would be highly appreciated.

thanks. gmtongar

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## icantux

Hmm.. I didn't mess around with the conf files at all, simply because I don't want any hard-coded conf files  - wifi is made to be used on the move .... So! I use this command line instead:

```

# iwconfig ath0 essid nameofssid key hexformatkeyhere

# dhcpcd ath0

```

That got me going and I am able to successfully hook up to my router and get an IP. My router is set up using WEP 128bit encryption.

If you did install madwifi (I presume that you have an atheros card), madwifi-tools, etc.. then the command sequence should let you know where things are going wrong.

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## gmtongar

Thanks for your reply, icantux (you can   :Wink: ).

I'll try that out. Been running an unsecured AP all day...

gmtongar

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## icantux

The one thing that could be throwing things off is a firewall. If you installed a firewall then blocking port 67 could be the problem. If you didn't install any firewall then you should be fine connecting with regular WEP.

----------

## josephdrivein

Did you manage to make a working /etc/conf.d/wireless ? Or ar you using the script above?

I can configure my card (an atheros based too) by hand, but not wit the wireless file.

If you did, please post it  :Smile: 

----------

## gmtongar

Hi, guys, thanks for your reply...

 *Quote:*   

> The one thing that could be throwing things off is a firewall. If you installed a firewall then blocking port 67 could be the problem. If you didn't install any firewall then you should be fine connecting with regular WEP.

 

I haven't installed a firewall. Connecting with WEP-128 works fine in windows (sigh). There should be a firewall integrated with the router.

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> Did you manage to make a working /etc/conf.d/wireless ? Or ar you using the script above? 
> 
> I can configure my card (an atheros based too) by hand, but not wit the wireless file.
> ...

 

I didn't do this in /etc/conf.d/wireless, read the gentoo guide recommending /etc/conf.d/net. It didn't work. Looks like this:

```

modules=("iwconfig")

key_ESSID1="[1] myhexkey [1] enc open"

```

Didn't work though. Not sure if I'm missing out on something...   :Confused: 

I also did (by hand):

```

# iwconfig ath0 essid myessid key myhexkey

# dhcpcd ath0

****  dhcpcd: already running

****  dhcpcd: if not then delete /var/run/dhcpcd-ath0.pid file

# iwconfig

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wifi0     no wireless extensions.

ath0      IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"myessid"  Nickname:"myessid"

          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated

          Bit Rate:18 Mb/s   Tx-Power:18 dBm   Sensitivity=0/3

          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off

          Encryption key:myhexkey   Security mode:restricted

          Power Management:off

          Link Quality=29/94  Signal level=-66 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm

          Rx invalid nwid:49084  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0

          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

```

But plugging down the wep encryption, I'm online.

----------

## icantux

 *gmtongar wrote:*   

> Hi, guys, thanks for your reply...
> 
> I also did (by hand):
> 
> ```
> ...

 

Ok, well that first part there means that dhcpcd is already running. You can kill the process of dhcpcd and then bring it back up again by typing: 

```
 # dhcpcd -k ath0
```

and follow these commands to the letter:

```

# iwconfig ath0 essid enteryourssid key enteryourhexkey

# ifconfig ath0 up

# dhcpcd ath0

```

Again, I'd suggest you get rid of the script you wrote in the conf files... Get the connection up and running first and then automate the process.

----------

## gmtongar

Meu amigo, Icantux. As stated before, you can. Gracias.

We're up and running. Thanks man. I'm happy.   :Very Happy:  Just look at this smile... It says it all.

Just two more boxes left to install with atheros (should be piece of cake, by now, a bit optimistic, of course) ...

Thanks for your help.

gmtongar

----------

## Parano.ID

Hello!!

I am smashing my head in the table here, cause i would like to get my wireless atheros card to work.

I also have ThinkPad T42 (p) laptop and i was going through all possible howtos and forums and nothin helped me.

Is please someone so kind and tell me how the heck do i et my ath0 listed at all.

If i issue a command: ifconfig

it doesn't list ath0, just lo and eth0 ( without wireless extensions ).

ofcourse i have something in my laptop  :Smile:  i am sure of that and lspci shows that too:

02:02.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)

Please tell me what kernel options or modules or whatever i need for this card to get it work.

I am quite new to gentoo and Linux at all, and i was banging my head arround for 5 days now.

I managed to get everything up and running, all possbile and unpossible things  :Smile: , it is just this last thing - wireless card.

Please Please! Thanx!!!

----------

## icantux

Hi there! 

Scroll up this page and find the walkthrough I posted above (I think it's the 8th post from the top and contains 7 points) - the steps are listed in order from emerging the necessary drivers to making the ath0 show up (all it is really, is creating a symbolic link!) to making your atheros wifi working.  

Hope that helps!  :Smile: 

----------

