I have a couple of no-name 802.11g PCMCIA/Cardbus cards, which I use in two different laptops, both running Debian Linux (testing). They are marked “WLB2054PCM” on the front, and “Model GL245401-1A1” and “FCC ID: 07J-GL245401-1A1” on the back.
The card is identified by cardctl as:
product info: "Atheros Communications, Inc.", "AR5001-0000-0000", "Wireless LAN Reference Card", "00"
manfid: 0x0271, 0x0012
function: 6 (network)
and by lspci as:
0000:02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)
The Atheros chip-set is supported by the madwifi driver, which is not a part of the standard Linux kernel, but it can be downloaded from http://sourceforge.net/projects/madwifi/. For me it compiled and installed without a hitch.
When the driver is loaded, it gives this output:
PCI: Enabling device 02:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)
ath_pci: cache line size not set; forcing 32
ath0: mac 5.9 phy 4.3 5ghz radio 4.6
ath0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps
ath0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
ath0: 802.11 address: 00:03:2f:1e:33:72
ath0: Atheros 5212: mem=0x20000000, irq=3
As is evident, the card comes up as ath0, not as ethN.
The card is not known to the pcmcia-cs tools, so I had to add it manually to /etc/pcmcia/config-2.4 by adding these two stanzas:
device "atheros"
class "network" module "ath_pci"
card "Atheros WiFi card"
manfid: 0x0271, 0x0012
bind "atheros"
This causes the driver to load automatically when the card is inserted into the laptop.
I had added a stanza for ath0 to /etc/network/interfaces, but the card was still not configured automatically when inserted, even if the driver was loaded. I had hotplug installed on one of the laptops but not on the other, but neither hotplug would ifup the card without some manual intervention. After some research I discovered that if I added the following to /etc/network/interfaces, hotplug would configure it automatically when it was inserted:
mapping hotplug
script grep
map ath0
With all this in place, the card works perfectly. I have still, after well over a month of using it continuously, to experience a problem, a dropped association or a lock-up.
UPDATE 2004-08-06:
I just updated to the latest driver, with no problem whatsoever. The output was:
wlan: 0.8.3.0 (EXPERIMENTAL)
ath_hal: 0.9.11.6
ath_pci: 0.9.3.1 (EXPERIMENTAL)
ath0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps
ath0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
ath0: mac 5.9 phy 4.3 5ghz radio 4.6
ath0: 802.11 address: 00:03:2f:1e:33:72
ath0: Use hw queue 0 for WME_AC_BE traffic
ath0: Use hw queue 1 for WME_AC_BK traffic
ath0: Use hw queue 2 for WME_AC_VI traffic
ath0: Use hw queue 3 for WME_AC_VO traffic
ath0: Atheros 5212: mem=0x20000000, irq=3
19 Responses to “Atheros 802.11g PCMCIA card”
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October 18th, 2004 at 8:26 am
It took me a while to figure out that I needed to install the hotplug package in order for the mapping thing to do its magic.
Your page is the only place where I’ve seen this mentioned — thanks a million for this information!
I took the liberty to add a link from http://madwifiwiki.thewebho…
October 27th, 2004 at 2:01 am
I spent a couple of hours Googling around until I found this page. I am running Debian Testing with kernel 2.4.26-1-686 on an IBM TP-390E trying to load a Linksys WPC55AG and was getting the following key lines in syslog:
cardmgr[XXX]: unsupported card in socket 0
.
.
.
kernel: PCI: No IRQ known for interrupt Pin A of device. Please try using pci-biosirq.
kernel: ath_pci: cannot reserve PCI memory region
kernel: ath_pci: No devices found, drivers not installed.
For some reason I started poking around in my /etc/default/pcmcia script and saw that I had PCIC="i82365" and tried setting it to "yenta_socket". That failed so I searched the Debian packages page and found that the yenta_socket driver is in the kernel-pcmcia-modules-2.4.26-1-686 package which replaces pcmcia-modules-2.4.26-1-686 which I had installed. After installing the kernel PCMCIA modules and editing /etc/defaults/pcmcia to PCIC="yenta_socket" and starting /etc/init.d/pcmcia the modules loaded successfully and the card is powered.
Please note with regard to editing the pcmcia-cs scripts as shown above:
At the bottom of the /etc/pcmcia/config-2.4 script there is a line that sources ./*.conf for local drivers. So I created atheros.conf and added the new stanzas there. By the way, my cardmgr complained about the colon following manfid so my line looks like this:
manfid 0×0271, 0×0012
I have pcmcia-cs 3.2.5-8 installed.
I hope this helps others that are getting the same error. Apparently, only the kernel PCMCIA modules will allow this card’s IRQ to be seen when using the yenta_socket.o driver.
October 27th, 2004 at 2:05 am
BTW, lspci shows this card as:
0000:81:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)
and if it is in slot 1 the hex ID is 0000:82:00.0
December 23rd, 2004 at 6:09 am
I have a D-Link DWL-AG660 that has an Atheros based chipset. I use it on my IBM Thinkpad 600E laptop. I compiled and installed madwifi. The install goes fine, and the card has 2 indicators on it: link and activity. The Link light comes on and stays on (usually in windows it blinks with the activity). I do an ifconfig ath0 and it outputs:
/qoute
ath0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0D:88:A2:3C:D9
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:199
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:11 Memory:d2c40000-d2c50000
/qoute
and reading the dmesg output:] [] [] [] []] [] [] [] [] []] [] [] [] [] []
/qoute
ath_pci: cache line size not set; forcing 4
ath0: 11a rates: 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
ath0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps
ath0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
ath0: turbo rates: 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
ath0: 802.11 address: 00:0d:88:a2:3c:d9
ath0: Atheros 5212: mem=0×12c00000, irq=11
/qoute
It looks fine, now if I go to do anything with the card I get a seg fault. 2 Examples here:
setting the channel with iwconfig using the command "iwconfig ath0 channel 4"
now looking at the dmesg output again:
/qoute
Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000000
printing eip:
00000000
*pde = 00000000
Oops: 0000
CPU: 0
EIP: 0010:[<00000000>] Tainted: P
EFLAGS: 00210292
eax: c3603da4 ebx: d0c86000 ecx: c3603d82 edx: d2bf4094
esi: c3603ebc edi: c3603da4 ebp: d0c86000 esp: c3603d50
ds: 0018 es: 0018 ss: 0018
Process iwconfig (pid: 1587, stackpage=c3603000)
Stack: d2bec182 d0c86000 c3603da4 c3603d80 c3603d82 c3603ebc c3603d82 c0139be8
00000301 d1eac310 c0139c0f c3603ea8 00140000 00140014 00140014 00140014
00140014 000f0021 0021000f 00000021 00140000 00000000 00000000 00000000
Call Trace: [
[
[
Code: Bad EIP value.
/qoute
same thing happens if I try to bring the card up in ifconfig, or if I try to set an address and netmask
February 12th, 2005 at 11:35 am
These are the commands that work for me to manually enable the card with WEP128. This was the easiest way to get it working even if it isnt hotpluggable. I put it into my network config startup scripts. You obviously need dhcp-isc and madwifi installed and ya need to use your own key and essid
ifconfig ath0 up
iwconfig ath0 mode managed
iwconfig ath0 nick "Netgear"
iwconfig ath0 channel 9
iwconfig ath0 key hexvalofkeywithout0x
iwconfig ath0 essid "your ssid"
dhclient
May 25th, 2005 at 6:28 am
Nice post…. Keep on blogging…
July 3rd, 2005 at 10:27 pm
Current system:
- Linux skipper 2.6.12rackit (Debian unstable)
Tested on kernel 2.6.12 with built in pcmcia modules - Worked like a charm!!
Tested with:
* Dlink DWL-G650 (w3)
* TopCom wifi card
Did following steps:
1) grabbed kernel 2.6.12
=> make xconfig
a) made sure hotplug was cheched
b) added pcmcia/cardbus support
c) added wireless drivers
d) add rest - it’s selfexplaining…
=> compiled and booted up in kernel 2.6.12
2) Fetched Madwifi (from CVS)
a) did a make
b) then a make install
3) Checked pcmcia loaded the card correct
a) lspci -v (look for ethernet Atheros)
4) Loaded madwifi module
a) modprobe ath_pci
b) Chekc dmesg for info
5) loaded up wifi card
a) ifconfig ath0 up
Thats that, it’s running….
So sweet, and since i last tested madwifi theres no hangup’s in the driver anymore… (had some problems with kismet)
Let’s try finding something…
Installed Kismet, (grap latest with madwifi support)
Edited /etc/kismet/kismet.conf where it says something about source=changeme::
to
source=madwifi_ab,ath0,D-Link
don’t forget to change suid to some user and then load up kismet with root.
Bam, Kismet running and pop, it found a AP in no time (thanks to all the public AP’s *chugs*)
Found the following:
SSID: NETGEAR (no WEP)
CHANNEL: 11
Let’s connect to it then…
iwconfig mode managed
iwconfig channel 11
iwconfig nick "Bogus"
iwconfig essid "NETGEAR"
Check "iwconfig ath0" respons with a line like this:
Access Point: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Where xx is numbers and letters (this means that you have reached the AP’s MAC address.) If the line looks like FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF then you haven’t connected right. Redo the iwconfig steps and perhsps check ifconfig that ath0 is up.
Well now i was connected…
So did a dhclient ath0
Got a ip and checked i could ping the gateway/router…
That’s it… Setup/discover/connect - USE!!
Hope this short guide can help someone else with the hole "wifi" stuff under linux.
(Note, discover senario was fictive)
Questions, or thanks are all welcome
Just mail me and i’ll help ya out.
July 14th, 2005 at 4:33 am
Hi,
I’ve been running linux for almost a year now, so I guess I’m still a newby, but no stranger to hacking till it works. RH9 on the laptop, FC3 on the desktop.
I have the D-Link DWL-G650 HW Rev C2
Running on a StinkPad 600E.
RedHat 9
madwifi (from the CVS downloaded a couple days ago) put everything here:
/lib/modules/2.4.20-31.9custom/net/
Custom kernel, I presume because it is a ThinkPad with working MWave and sound.
Before I tried this card, I had a Xircom ethernet wired adapter that worked like it is supposed to.
Now for my issue:
I can get the card running (I’m typing thru it now) by using a bash script to insmod the drivers manually. I don’t see ath0 in the GUI network config, but it does show with lspci iwconfig, ifconfig, and cardctl just like the above.
I don’t seem to have this file: /etc/network/interfaces
Should I just create it? Is there another file that does the same thing?
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Dr.Mikey(at)weeg.org
September 5th, 2005 at 10:11 pm
I appended a line at the bottom of /etc/modprobe.conf to get it to show up on Fedora Core 4 with the GUI network config.
/etc/modprobe.conf
….
alias ath0 ath_pci
I think /etc/network/interfaces is used in other flavors as thats what I use to configure networking in Debian. You are going to want to look in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts for files that look this: ifcfg-. Eg. ifcfg-eth0 and ifcfg-ath0.
—–
I think I am pretty close too. I just installed the madwifi drivers with FC4 for the D-Link DWL-G510 and when I run
# iwlist ath0 scan
I am able to see the wireless G access point I am trying to connect to but when I try
# ifup wlan0
it fails with
Determining IP information for ath0… failed.
a tail of /var/log/messages gives
No DHCPOFFERS recieved.
here is detailed output of iwlist:
Cell 01 - Address: 00:0C:41:DC:4E:17
ESSID:"linksys"
Mode:Master
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
Quality=32/94 Signal level=-63 dBm Noise level=-95 dBm
Encryption key:on
Bit Rate:1 Mb/s
Bit Rate:2 Mb/s
Bit Rate:5 Mb/s
Bit Rate:6 Mb/s
Bit Rate:9 Mb/s
Bit Rate:11 Mb/s
Bit Rate:12 Mb/s
Bit Rate:18 Mb/s
Bit Rate:24 Mb/s
Bit Rate:36 Mb/s
Bit Rate:48 Mb/s
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s
Extra:bcn_int=100
Here is my config file:
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0
IPV6INIT=no
ONBOOT=no
USERCTL=yes
PEERDNS=yes
TYPE=Wireless
DEVICE=ath0
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
HWADDR=00:11:95:BE:A1:D9
IPADDR=
NETMASK=
GATEWAY=
DOMAIN=
DHCP_HOSTNAME=
ESSID=linksys
CHANNEL=6
MODE=Managed
RATE=54Mb/s
IWPRIV="authmode 2"
the access point is using 64bit WEP encription I used the GUI tools to enter the key and I have also tried adding it as a line in the config file.
KEY="0000000000"
Either way I cannot establish an IP address for this card;
#ifup ath0
always fails. I’ve read through lots of logs. Most people say they are really happy with these drivers and they just work. I know I am so close any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
September 6th, 2005 at 8:36 am
Solved! Just needed the correct WEP key. Heh. BTW the GUI tools in FC4 put the keys in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/
keys-ath0
Good luck with your wireless cards!
DLink DWL-G510 ver. B works with FC4, yeah!
October 10th, 2005 at 2:54 pm
Would anyone know where I could find a driver which would work with a 3Com pcmcia model 3CRPAG175 card ?
October 29th, 2005 at 5:39 am
I have a DWL-G650 revision B with Wireless Tools v27 and Extension v17 on a 2.6.10 kernel.
I’ve followed the directions here. I’m getting wifi0 by default, not ath0. When I try to use iwconfig (ie. iwconfig wifi0 mode managed) I get an "Invalid argument" error. Doesn’t matter what I try to do with iwconfig I get similar errors. iwlist wifi0 scan tells me the interface doesn’t support scanning.
The device shows up correctly in lspci, and I do have a wifi0 device.
/var/lib/pcmcia/stab tells me that Socket 0 is empty. On the other hand, cardctl info is telling me that there is an Atheros AR5001-0000-0000 with manfid 0271,0012.
I’m a little confused. Can anyone offer any suggestions?
November 12th, 2005 at 5:22 pm
Could anyone with THIS ->
"DLink DWL-G510 ver.B"
configured in Ad-hoc mode or AP kindly dump here the output of:
$ iwconfig ath0
$ ifconfig ath0
Please, badly needed, save my hairs
January 6th, 2006 at 5:48 pm
Rich,
You should be able to run wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode sta. This will create an alias for you and make the computer available for wireless.
March 2nd, 2006 at 9:09 am
Hey, I’ve just upgraded my madwifi driver using Gentoo’s emerge tool (emerge -va madwifi-driver) and the Master and Monitor modes don’t work anymore. It worked a few minutes ago flawlessly.
The old package was net-wireless/madwifi-driver-0.1_pre20050420 it worked.
The new package is net-wireless/madwifi-driver-0.1420.20060201 and I can’t set the mode to Master or Monitor.
When I use iwconfig to set the mode I now get the following error:
vez ~ # iwconfig ath0 mode master
Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :
SET failed on device ath0 ; Invalid argument.
Using iwpriv, I can successfully list the ioctl calls supported by the card.
The command iwlist gives an error when I try to scan:
vez ~ # iwlist ath0 scan
ath0 Interface doesn’t support scanning : Invalid argument
The interface ath0 exists and is listed with ‘iwconfig’.
I tried Chris’ tip to run wlanconfig, but it doesn’t make a difference.
What could be the problem? Does the new driver have known problems?
March 2nd, 2006 at 9:46 am
Should have taken a look over the Gentoo forums first.
wlanconfig must be used now to set the proper mode with the newer madwifi driver. Works like a charm.
If anyone else run into this post looking for an answer, please refer to:
http://forums.gentoo.org/vi…
http://forums.gentoo.org/vi…
March 25th, 2006 at 9:47 am
I have a DWL-G650 cardbus card, and have discovered (after long hours of trying) thet wpa_supplicant works only if I set it to scan by itself, rather than let the driver do the scanning (ap_scan=1).
June 16th, 2006 at 7:00 am
Got the AirLink 101 model AWLC4030 working nicely with WPA-PSK and TPIK encryption.
This is a cardbus card 3v
I used make-kpkg in debian to compile modules from the madwifi project.
It all went togeather VERY easilly and nicely.
To automate WPA-PSK I setup a config file as /etc/wpa.conf and added wpa_supplicant to /etc/ntwork/interfaces as a pre-up script.
June 16th, 2006 at 7:01 am
oh yeah, I had to specify -D madwifi -c /etc/wpa.conf -i ath0 in network/interfaces