# [SOLVED] Using Atheros AR9285 wireless card (Dell Inspiron)

## nwthomas0

Hi all! I am posting a solution to a problem I ran into installing Gentoo.

The Dell Inspiron N5040 uses the Atheros AR9285 wireless card. When I installed Gentoo and ran iwconfig, I got the following:

```
wlan0:     no wireless extensions.
```

This was despite having the appropriate kernel module (ath9k) loaded. The solution I found was to downgrade to an earlier kernel version. I am now using version 3.2.39, and my wireless card works correctly. (This is probably not the most recent working version; it's just the one I picked.) The following is my kernel config:

```
[*] Networking support --->

  [*] Wireless --->

         <M>   cfg80211 - wireless configuration API                      

         [ ]     nl80211 testmode command                                  

         [ ]     enable developer warnings                                

         [ ]     cfg80211 regulatory debugging                            

         [*]     enable powersave by default                              

         [ ]     cfg80211 DebugFS entries                                 

         [*]     cfg80211 wireless extensions compatibility               

         [*]   Wireless extensions sysfs files                            

         < >   Common routines for IEEE802.11 drivers                     

         <M>   Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack (mac80211)            

               Default rate control algorithm (Minstrel)  --->            

         [ ]   Enable mac80211 mesh networking (pre-802.11s) support      

         -*-   Enable LED triggers                                        

         [ ]   Export mac80211 internals in DebugFS                       

         [ ]   Select mac80211 debugging features  --->  

Device drivers --->

  [*] Network device support --->

    [*] Wireless LAN --->

      <M> Atheros Wireless Cards --->

         [ ]   Atheros wireless debugging                                 

        < >   Atheros 5xxx wireless cards support                        

         [ ]   Atheros 5xxx PCI bus support                               

         <M>   Atheros 802.11n wireless cards support                     

         [*]     Atheros ath9k PCI/PCIe bus support                       

         [*]     Atheros ath9k AHB bus support                            

         [ ]     Atheros ath9k debugging                                  

         [*]     Atheros ath9k rate control                               

         <M>   Atheros HTC based wireless cards support              

         [ ]     Atheros ath9k_htc debugging                              

         < >   Linux Community AR9170 802.11n USB support  
```

My /etc/conf.d/modules reads:

```

modules="cfg80211 mac80211 ath9k snd_hda_intel"

```

----------

