After upgrading my system to openSUSE 10.3, my wifi card (atheros-based) is no longer able to work. The kernel doesn’t recognize it anymore. In my previous openSUSE 10.1, it works flawlessly run out of the box. [Updated : I just found out that in openSUSE 10.1, I have done the same thing.]
Having been thinkering a while and asking a friend, I ask Uncle Google and I found out that the default openSUSE 10.3 kernel comes without Atheros driver (madwifi) for the kernel. Here is the explanation (from http://en.opensuse.org/Atheros_madwifi) :
“In SUSE Linux the madwifi driver for Atheros wireless cards is not included in
the distribution as its HAL module is only available as binary.”
I downloaded the madwifi kernel package from http://madwifi.org/suse/10.3, but unfortunately my kernel is different with the kernel used by madwifi package. I have to do it the hard-way by compiling the madwifi from source.
Get the latest madwifi driver from www.madwifi.org, after that extract the package. At the time of this blog writing, the latest version is 0.9.3.3 :
$ tar xvjpf madwifi-0.9.3.3.tar.bz2
$ cd madwifi-0.9.3.3/
Build the kernel module :
$ make
Checking requirements… ok.
Checking kernel configuration… ok.
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.22.5-31-default/build SUBDIRS=/home/tedi/madwifi-0.9.3.3 modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.22.5-31-obj/i386/default’
make -C ../../../linux-2.6.22.5-31 O=../linux-2.6.22.5-31-obj/i386/default modules
CC [M] /home/tedi/madwifi-0.9.3.3/ath/if_ath.o
CC [M] /home/tedi/madwifi-0.9.3.3/ath/if_ath_pci.o
LD [M] /home/tedi/madwifi-0.9.3.3/ath/ath_pci.o
CC [M] /home/tedi/madwifi-0.9.3.3/ath_hal/ah_os.o
HOSTCC /home/tedi/madwifi-0.9.3.3/ath_hal/uudecode
UUDECODE /home/tedi/madwifi-0.9.3.3/ath_hal/i386-elf.hal.o
LD [M] /home/tedi/madwifi-0.9.3.3/ath_hal/ath_hal.o
…
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.22.5-31-obj/i386/default’
make -C ./tools all || exit 1
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/tedi/madwifi-0.9.3.3/tools’
gcc -o athstats -g -O2 -Wall -I. -I../hal -I.. -I../ath athstats.c
gcc -o 80211stats -g -O2 -Wall -I. -I../hal -I.. 80211stats.c
gcc -o athkey -g -O2 -Wall -I. -I../hal -I.. athkey.c
gcc -o athchans -g -O2 -Wall -I. -I../hal -I.. athchans.c
gcc -o athctrl -g -O2 -Wall -I. -I../hal -I.. athctrl.c
gcc -o athdebug -g -O2 -Wall -I. -I../hal -I.. athdebug.c
gcc -o 80211debug -g -O2 -Wall -I. -I../hal -I.. 80211debug.c
gcc -o wlanconfig -g -O2 -Wall -I. -I../hal -I.. wlanconfig.c
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/tedi/madwifi-0.9.3.3/tools’
If there is no error, install the kernel module :
# make install
sh scripts/find-madwifi-modules.sh 2.6.22.5-31-default
for i in ./ath ./ath_hal ./ath_rate ./net80211; do \
make -C $i install || exit 1; \
done
…
install -d /usr/local/man/man8
install -m 0644 man/*.8 /usr/local/man/man8
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/tedi/madwifi-0.9.3.3/tools’
After that, I check whether the modules have been installed to my system. Your location may be different, please check your kernel version first :
# ll /lib/modules/2.6.22.5-31-default/net/
total 700
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 212762 2007-11-04 17:04 ath_hal.ko
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 107768 2007-11-04 17:04 ath_pci.ko
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 13571 2007-11-04 17:04 ath_rate_amrr.ko
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 12838 2007-11-04 17:04 ath_rate_onoe.ko
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 18773 2007-11-04 17:04 ath_rate_sample.ko
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 10360 2007-11-04 17:04 wlan_acl.ko
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 13927 2007-11-04 17:04 wlan_ccmp.ko
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 219237 2007-11-04 17:04 wlan.ko
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 11608 2007-11-04 17:04 wlan_scan_ap.ko
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 19503 2007-11-04 17:04 wlan_scan_sta.ko
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 18314 2007-11-04 17:04 wlan_tkip.ko
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 12615 2007-11-04 17:04 wlan_wep.ko
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 7141 2007-11-04 17:04 wlan_xauth.ko
Then I load the atheros module by issuing the following command :
# modprobe ath_pci
If the module loaded successfully, you will see the following output from dmesg :
…
ath_hal: 0.9.18.0 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413, RF5413)
wlan: 0.8.4.2 (0.9.3.3)
ath_pci: 0.9.4.5 (0.9.3.3)
PCI: Enabling device 0000:05:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:05:00.0[A] -> Link [C0C4] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10
ath_rate_sample: 1.2 (0.9.3.3)
wifi0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps
wifi0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
wifi0: turboG rates: 6Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
wifi0: H/W encryption support: WEP AES AES_CCM TKIP
wifi0: mac 7.9 phy 4.5 radio 5.6
wifi0: Use hw queue 1 for WME_AC_BE traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 0 for WME_AC_BK traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 2 for WME_AC_VI traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 3 for WME_AC_VO traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 8 for CAB traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 9 for beacons
wifi0: Atheros 5212: mem=0×44000000, irq=10
Then you can use YaST2 to configure your wireless card
