# Atheros not working / ath0 not available (updated)

## IndianZ

Hi all

I use a thinkpad x61s with a cisco wireless card Atheros AR5001X+ and gentoo-sources 2.6.31-gentoo-r6. If I insert the card, it loads the kernel modules - but there's no ath0 interface generated.

Module                  Size  Used by

ath_pci               178520  0 

wlan                  149908  1 ath_pci

ath_hal               315744  1 ath_pci

dmesg shows the following messages:

pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: pccard: CardBus card inserted into slot 0

pci 0000:06:00.0: reg 10 32bit mmio: [0x000000-0x00ffff]

ath5k 0000:06:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)

ath5k 0000:06:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16

ath5k 0000:06:00.0: registered as 'phy2'

ath5k phy2: POST Failed !!!

ath5k 0000:06:00.0: PCI INT A disabled

ath5k: probe of 0000:06:00.0 failed with error -11

ath_pci 0000:06:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16

MadWifi: unable to attach hardware: 'Hardware self-test failed' (HAL status 14)

ath_pci 0000:06:00.0: PCI INT A disabled

Before I tried also with the madwifi-ng drivers, but no luck as well:

MadWifi: unable to attach hardware: 'Hardware self-test failed' (HAL status 14)

Any idea what the problem is here? I don't get it, and research online did not get usable results...

Thanks in advance...

Update:

If I get it right, the problem is Busmaster- instead of Busmaster+, but how to set this?

lspci -vv

06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. Atheros AR5001X+ Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)

	Subsystem: AIRONET Wireless Communications Device cb21

	Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-

	Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR+ INTx-

	Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16

	Region 0: Memory at c0000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]

	Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2

		Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)

		Status: D0 NoSoftRst- PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=2 PME-

	Kernel modules: ath_pci, ath5k

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## Gusar

You have both ath5k and madwifi drivers installed and they probably clash. I'd recommend uninstalling madwifi and using the in-kernel ath5k driver. And note that ath5k names your card 'wlan0' instead of 'ath0'.

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## d2_racing

You should blank this file and reboot :

```

# echo "" > /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules 

```

Reboot your box and post this :

```

# ifconfig -a

# cat /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules 

```

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## IndianZ

Madwifi-ng is not installed:

# emerge -s madwifi-ng

Searching...    

[ Results for search key : madwifi-ng ]

[ Applications found : 2 ]

*  net-wireless/madwifi-ng

      Latest version available: 0.9.4.4100.20090929

      Latest version installed: [ Not Installed ]

      Size of files: 3,450 kB

      Homepage:      http://www.madwifi-project.org/

      Description:   Next Generation driver for Atheros based IEEE 802.11a/b/g wireless LAN cards

      License:       atheros-hal || ( BSD GPL-2 )

here is the ifconfig -a output:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1d:72:84:eb:18  

          inet addr:192.168.0.33  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          inet6 addr: fe80::21d:72ff:fe84:eb18/64 Scope:Link

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:628 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:1095 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:100 

          RX bytes:225654 (220.3 KiB)  TX bytes:122922 (120.0 KiB)

          Memory:f8200000-f8220000 

eth1      Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-1D-72-FF-84-EB-18-FF-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00  

          BROADCAST 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:1000 

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

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  

          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host

          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

          RX packets:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 

          RX bytes:200 (200.0 B)  TX bytes:200 (200.0 B)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1f:3b:25:d0:39  

          BROADCAST 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:1000 

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

wmaster0  Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-1F-3B-25-D0-39-74-68-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00  

          [NO FLAGS]  MTU:0  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:1000 

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

as well as the content of /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules after emptying /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules and reboot:

# cat /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules 

# Firewire device )

SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:1d:72:ff:84:eb:18:ff", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="24", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth1"

# PCI device 0x8086:0x4230 (iwlagn)

SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:1f:3b:25:d0:39", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="wlan*", NAME="wlan0"

# PCI device 0x8086:0x1049 (e1000e)

SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:1d:72:84:eb:18", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth0"

wlan0 is the internal intel wifi:

Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN [Kedron] Network Connection (rev 61)

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## Gusar

Well, madwifi-ng installed or not, you have madwifi modules, and they get loaded, as does the in-kernel ath5k driver. That can't be good. Check manually for madwifi modules in /lib/modules and delete/move them, but I have no idea exactly which modules those are, at least ath_pci is one of them. Or maybe it's enough to just blacklist ath_pci.

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## d2_racing

Hi, right now, I'm not sure if udev can handle 2 wireless card at the same time.

So, can you disable your wireless intel card inside your bios and reboot and post this :

Blank your file : /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules  and then reboot again

Post this :

```

# ifconfig -a

# iwconfig

# dmesg | grep -i ath

# cat /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules 

# lsmod

# lspci -kvm

```

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## IndianZ

Thanks everybody for help up to here! After enourmous troubles with this issue -> it finally looks like a hardware problem:

- hardware killswitch did not disable it

- bios disabling of device did not disable it

- not compiling into kernel disabled it

so I opend the notebook and saw obviously the problem:

one of the killswitch "legs" is broken and was laying over the enabling 2 lines.

I'm not able to remove the device, as I don't own such a thin screwdriver yet (where I can put so much force to open them), but will update this thread if needed after this...

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## d2_racing

Ok, then.

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