# wifi stopped working after kernel upgrade [RESOLVED]

## plut0

I have been using my ath5k wireless card as an access point for some time now.  Just yesterday I upgraded my kernel 2.6.28-hardened-r6 to kernel-2.6.36-hardened-r6 and now it is broke.

Apparently madwifi no longer works for ath5k and you are forced to use nl80211 under the newer kernel.  For whatever reason the driver is throwing errors attempting to bring the NIC online.

I can add a virtual device without error:

```
# iw dev wlan0 interface add ath0 type __ap

# iwconfig ath0

ath0      IEEE 802.11bg  Mode:Master  Tx-Power=off   

          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off

          Power Management:off
```

When start hostapd I get the following errors:

```
# /etc/init.d/hostapd start

 * Starting ath0

RTNETLINK answers: Unknown error 132

RTNETLINK answers: Unknown error 132

RTNETLINK answers: Unknown error 132

 *   Configuring wireless network for ath0

Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :

    SET failed on device ath0 ; Operation not supported.

Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1A) :

    SET failed on device ath0 ; Operation not supported.

 *   ath0 does not support setting ESSID to "gentoo"

 *   Failed to configure wireless for ath0

 * ERROR:  cannot start hostapd as net.ath0 could not start
```

/etc/hostapd/hostapd.cfg:

```
interface=ath0

driver=nl80211

logger_syslog=-1

logger_syslog_level=2

logger_stdout=-1

logger_stdout_level=1

dump_file=/tmp/hostapd0.dump

ctrl_interface=/var/run/hostapd

ctrl_interface_group=0

ignore_broadcast_ssid=1

ssid=gentoo

hw_mode=g

macaddr_acl=1

accept_mac_file=/etc/hostapd/hostapd.accept

auth_algs=1

wpa=0

```

/etc/conf.d/net

```
mode_ath0=( "master" )

config_ath0=( "192.168.2.1/24" )

essid_ath0=( "gentoo" )
```

Last edited by plut0 on Wed Jan 12, 2011 3:45 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## plut0

I fixed this, I had to start the interface as ad-hoc and let hostapd set it as a master.  I also had to run rfkill to unblock the wireless.

/etc/conf.d/net:

```
config_ath0=( "192.168.2.1/24" )

mode_ath0=( "ad-hoc" )

essid_ath0=( "gentoo" )

preup() {

  if [[ ${IFACE} == "ath0" ]]; then

    iw dev wlan0 interface add ${IFACE} type __ap

    rfkill unblock all

  fi

}

postdown() {

  if [[ ${IFACE} == "ath0" ]]; then

    iw dev ${IFACE} del

    iw dev mon.${IFACE} del

  fi

}
```

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