ath5k driver on Jaunty Alpha1

My initial suspicion is that madwifi attempts to initialize the RF MAC, fails, and leaves the HW in a state that the ath5k driver cannot recover from when next it is loaded. The proposed solution is to remove madwifi from Jaunty LRM and make it a DKMS package.

>My initial suspicion is that madwifi attempts to initialize the RF MAC, fails, and leaves the HW in a state that the ath5k driver cannot recover from when next it is loaded.

Tim, from what I can see, ath5k is not on the machine by default and attempting to install linux-backports-modules-jaunty-generic complains that it depends on "linux-backports-modules-2.6.28-4-generic" which is not available.

modprobe also complains that ath5k is not installed

# modprobe ath5k
FATAL: Module ath5k not found.

>The proposed solution is to remove madwifi from Jaunty LRM and make it a DKMS package.

I did not install madwifi on the machine and it does not come with ubuntu as far as I know. I attempted to download madwifi from universe repository and got the following error:

# apt-get install madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3698
Package madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3698 is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3698 has no installation candidate

I will test compiling http://snapshots.madwifi-project.org/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3879-20081204.tar.gz myself.

I tested compiling and installing http://snapshots.madwifi-project.org/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3879-20081204.tar.gz

Ubuntu is still not able to detect the Atheros wireless controller.

The ath5k driver seems to be disabled in the kernel build config:

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/git?p=ubuntu/ubuntu-jaunty.git;a=blob;f=debian/config/i386/config;h=c819517dd0d166b406a38bcc7c4620b5bac2e7ce;hb=HEAD#l157
http://kernel.ubuntu.com/git?p=ubuntu/ubuntu-jaunty.git;a=blob;f=debian/config/amd64/config;h=a9a9f2c646bf8b3b351c72005d36c260084daf6f;hb=HEAD#l140

Indeed, ath5k is not currently shipped in Jaunty kernels. For the moment, a workaround is to build wireless-compat from:

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download

which is what I do every time the jaunty kernel is updated (I'm running on a Samsung NC-10, which needs the Jaunty kernel for sound support).

Some assurance that ath5k will be in jaunty would be nice...

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/git?p=ubuntu/ubuntu-jaunty.git;a=commit;h=6c881c0b9ad95d8c32d0d61a60edbc641f0a7484

This bug was fixed in the package linux - 2.6.28-4.7

---------------
linux (2.6.28-4.7) jaunty; urgency=low

  [ Tim Gardner ]

  * Enable CONFIG_ATH5K=m for i386/amd64
    - LP: #306719
  * Build all i386/amd64 AGP/DRM components as modules.
    - LP: #312721
  * git commands are now installed outside the default $PATH
    Use 'git CMD' instead of 'git-CMD'.
  * Build in most PATA/SATA drivers. This should allow most i386/amd64 systems to boot
    without an initramfs, though some support work is still required in initramfs-tools
    and grub.
    - LP: #311730

 -- Tim Gardner <email address hidden> Fri, 02 Jan 2009 07:33:09 -0700

I have upgraded to linux-headers-2.6.28-4-generic linux (2.6.28-4.8) to find that ath5k did not work properly.

When booting the computer without the splash screen, I can clearly see "ath5k phy0:failed to wake up mac chip"

Once in gnome, network manager does not show any wireless cards. Running "sudo modprobe ath5k" does not activate any features, but does not give an error either.

Fix worked for me. Thanks!

$ dmesg|grep ath5k
[ 14.466127] ath5k_pci 0000:07:00.0: PCI INT A -> Link[Z012] -> GSI 23 (level, low) -> IRQ 23
[ 14.466141] ath5k_pci 0000:07:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 14.466219] ath5k_pci 0000:07:00.0: registered as 'phy0'
[ 14.646611] ath5k phy0: Atheros AR2425 chip found (MAC: 0xe2, PHY: 0x70)

I get the following out of dmesg.

$ dmesg|grep ath5k
[ 41.746702] ath5k_pci 0000:01:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[ 41.746731] ath5k_pci 0000:01:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
[ 41.746760] ath5k_pci 0000:01:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 41.747092] ath5k_pci 0000:01:00.0: registered as 'phy0'
[ 41.757149] ath5k phy0: failed to wakeup the MAC Chip
[ 41.757284] ath5k_pci 0000:01:00.0: PCI INT A disabled
[ 41.868075] ath5k_pci: probe of 0000:01:00.0 failed with error -5

@David Bensimon
I had the same problem, including the "failed to wakeup the MAC Chip" message.

 I discovered that I had the proprietary Atheros driver enabled in Hardware Drivers. I saw from the log that its ath_pci was starting before ath5k. When I disabled the proprietary driver in System->Hardware Drivers and rebooted, (or when I blacklisted ath_pci and ath_hal in a new file in /etc/modprobe.d), ath_pci didn't start and ath5k gave no error and, indeed, worked.

Have you tried that?

@David:
I should have mentioned to be complete that a reboot is necessary after disabling the proprietary driver.

@John:
Thank you very much for your help. I deactivated the Atheros driver using jockey. After rebooting ath5k was used without errors and wireless works fine.

Is there a reason the Atheros driver is detected/recommended if it doesn't work? Should a new bug be created against jockey?

@David:
I'm glad you were successful.

I think I see your point, but in his first post above Tim Gardner said the proposed solution is to move the traditional (ath_pci) driver from linux-restricted-modules (managed by Jockey). I'm reading between the lines, but I assume that
means people won't be tempted to install the proprietary driver unless the new ath5k driver isn't working well for them. I assume that a new version of the ath_pci, such as the one in Tim's ppa, would make it into the new arrangement, and would work for more people than the current ath_pci. The version in Tim's ppa works for my hardware. so that outcome would give me two handy choices.

I wish I knew more.
Good luck.

I tried Alpha 2 today 15th Jan - it still doesn't work and restricted-modules are installed

sudo modprobe ath5k does nothing, i.e. shows no errors or anything at all, so assumed it worked, ifconfig/iwconfig show nothing.

This problem is as far back as Hardy and Intrepid from bug 182489, and enabling ath_pci as default returns to the problem I, and many other users has in bug 287244.

I don't really think this is Fix Released...its not a fixed problem even in the daily ISO's.

Is there a workaround at the moment without recompiling kernel and modules?

Forget the above!
It works fine 0 just have to disable the Atheros one that shows in Hardware Drivers and reboot. Would still be nice if this other one wasn't automatically setup, and maybe have a wifi detection script that checks if it's working, and if not give the **option** to install the other, as with the ATI and NVidia drivers - in Intrepid it popped a box up asking if you wanted to intsll the proprietary drivers.
Just a thought :)

It works now.
I installed the backports-modules like I did with intrepid and it didn't work,
but after disabling the driver from (Administration->Hardware Drivers), It works now.

Hi Everyone

I'm not to sure what exactly what to do here, initially on installing alpha 4 atheros driver was available in the hardware drivers section, but I noticed that even if its not loaded it says the driver has just been deactivated if I try to activate...

After a few updates I have installed the linux-backports and linux-restricted...

zeus@Kimera:~$ uname -a
Linux Kimera 2.6.28-8-generic #23-Ubuntu SMP Wed Feb 18 03:23:10 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

zeus@Kimera:~$ dmesg | grep ath5k
[ 11.720878] ath5k 0000:02:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
[ 11.720901] ath5k 0000:02:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 11.721016] ath5k 0000:02:00.0: registered as 'phy0'
[ 13.807251] ath5k phy0: Atheros AR2425 chip found (MAC: 0xe2, PHY: 0x70)
[ 29.505301] ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2412MHz)
[ 29.505322] ath5k phy0: can't reset hardware (-11)
[ 29.861973] ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2412MHz)
[ 29.861983] ath5k phy0: can't reset hardware (-11)

The network manager applet initially would connec= and show wifi networks, wifi worked on my unsecured work wifi with web page based login. But at home with wep 64 it would connect but not pass any traffic, after updating now network-manager doesn't even show wireless networks available.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Jason.

Sorry per my previous post it seems like everything is working now...

Weird

I have the same problem as Zeus, but I think it is filed under a separate bug report already. It is an intermittent problem, that is fixed by restarting the computer. It will eventually reoccur. I am using an AR242x chip in a MSI VR321 laptop.