# Unsupported driver 'madwifi'. (SOLVED)

## hahanoob

I recently updated my system/kernel on my IBM T40 and now I can no longer bring my wireless network up. I'm using wpa_supplicant and madwifi (same as I was before)

```

/etc/init.d/net.ath0 start

 * Starting ath0

 *   Starting wpa_supplicant on ath0 ...

Unsupported driver 'madwifi'.  

```

Here are the contents of /etc/conf.d/net (again, hasn't changed since it last worked)

```

config_eth0=("dhcp")

config_ath0=("dhcp")

modules=("wpa_supplicant")

wpa_supplicant_ath0="-Dmadwifi"

wpa_timeout_ath0=60

```

Last edited by hahanoob on Sun Dec 18, 2005 12:57 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## UberLord

Check to see if your new wpa_supplicant sports a madwifi USE flag.

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## hahanoob

 *UberLord wrote:*   

> Check to see if your new wpa_supplicant sports a madwifi USE flag.

 

Doesn't seem it :/

```

[ebuild   R   ] net-wireless/wpa_supplicant-0.4.7  -gsm -qt +readline +ssl 0 kB

```

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## UberLord

That version does not work with madwifi.

I use 0.4.5 and madwifi-driver-0.1_pre20050420-r1 as they're the only working combination in portage for me atm.

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## hahanoob

 *UberLord wrote:*   

> That version does not work with madwifi.
> 
> I use 0.4.5 and madwifi-driver-0.1_pre20050420-r1 as they're the only working combination in portage for me atm.

 

That did it! Thanks.

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## tam

```
>net-wireless/wpa_supplicant-0.4.5
```

 in /etc/portage/package.mask prevents from accidentally emerging a newer, incompatible version

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## drumz

I finally got bit by this (was doing the gcc update on my laptop which took a week  :Sad:  ).

I understand the masking bit to keep the older version so everything is happy happy.

My question is:  What are we supposed to migrate to for the Atheros chipsets now?  Wpa_supplicant and madwifi worked great for a long time.  Is there something else that's going to replace this combination that we should be using instead?

TIA!

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## kernelhacker

 *drumz wrote:*   

> 
> 
> My question is:  What are we supposed to migrate to for the Atheros chipsets now?  Wpa_supplicant and madwifi worked great for a long time.  Is there something else that's going to replace this combination that we should be using instead?
> 
> TIA!

 

Hi drumz,

I just emerged madwifi-tools-0.1401.20060117, madwifi-driver-0.1401.20060117 and wpa_supplicant-0.5.0-r1 as madwifi support came back in the newest ebuild of wpa_supplicant. Everything seems to work as good or bad as before. My only problem still is that my connection drops after some minutes to hours and can only be restarted by reloading the ath_pci module.

```
        if use madwifi; then

                einfo "This package now compiles against the headers installed by"

                einfo "net-wireless/madwifi-driver. You should remerge ${PN} after"

                einfo "upgrading net-wireless/madwifi-driver."

                einfo

        fi

```

hth,

Stefan

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## drumz

kernelhacker:

thanks for posting.  You are correct, the updated wpa_supplicant now supports madwifi-drivers again and it's working for me as well.

Thanks!

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## N-S

I can't use madwifi-tools-0.1401.20060117 and madwifi-driver-0.1401.20060117 at all, since they cause kernelpanics.

I know I'm not the only one, but I have no clue why it fails.

It installs and loads fine, but when I run udevstart, according to instructions, it kills my system.

Only downgrading to 20050420 helps.

I don't use wpa at all since my card is too old.

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## PaulBredbury

 *N-S wrote:*   

> I can't use madwifi-tools-0.1401.20060117 and madwifi-driver-0.1401.20060117 at all, since they cause kernelpanics.

 

Try adding this to package.use

```
net-wireless/madwifi-driver  onoe
```

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## N-S

ohh, so onoe should work better than amrr?

With 20050420 I'm using amrr.

Ok, I also got a tip about not using 4k stacks in my kernel.

Since there was a new kernel out yesterday I might as well try that too.

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## bigfoot-

 *N-S wrote:*   

> ohh, so onoe should work better than amrr?

 

"Better" as in "won't reproducibly panic your kernel". With +amrr, madwifi-driver instantly crashes my kernel when trying to run wpa_supplicant.

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