Very poor wireless transfer speeds using ath5k_pci driver on ASUS 1000HA on Ubuntu 9.04 - using AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter [168c:001c] (rev 01)

Hi,

Please try installing Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Netbook Remix (UNR) and then follow these Atheros installation instructions:

http://blog.hyperandy.com/2008/11/01/atheros-ar242x-ubuntu-810-ibex/

The procedure worked for forumuser 'Camilo' on that same URL.

Hope it works for you as well,

Regards,

Mark

Thanks for the response Mark. That looks very similar to the procedure I
went through to get it to recognise the wireless in the first place,
however I'll do it again and see if it makes a difference.

Regards
Kevin

Mark Rijckenberg wrote:
> Your question #73108 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/73108
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Mark Rijckenberg proposed the following answer:
> Hi,
>
> Please try installing Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Netbook Remix (UNR) and then
> follow these Atheros installation instructions:
>
> http://blog.hyperandy.com/2008/11/01/atheros-ar242x-ubuntu-810-ibex/
>
> The procedure worked for forumuser 'Camilo' on that same URL.
>
> Hope it works for you as well,
>
> Regards,
>
> Mark
>
>

before tweaking any settings have you simply tried restarting your wireless router....every 8-10 days i have to restart mine becuase for some reason it starts acting up....if you havent done that, i would really suggest doing it.

Thanks for that suggestion, I hadn't thought of the router as being the problem. I tried restarting it and it came back up at 24Mb/s but within five minutes had dropped to 1Mb/s again so I'm going to a McDonalds in the morning to see what it picks up on their wireless.

Hi Hashdonkey,

Can you please send us the output of the following command?

sudo lshw -C network; cat /etc/lsb-release; sudo iwlist scanning; lspci -nn; lsusb; uname -a; dmesg | grep ound; iwconfig

Regards,

Mark

Here it is :

 *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: L1e Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
       vendor: Attansic Technology Corp.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: b0
       serial: 00:24:8c:4d:65:a0
       capacity: 100MB/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=ATL1E driverversion=1.0.0.7-NAPI firmware=L1e latency=0 link=no module=atl1e multicast=yes port=twisted pair
  *-network
       description: Wireless interface
       product: AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter
       vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       logical name: wmaster0
       version: 01
       serial: 00:22:43:73:00:e0
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix bus_master cap_list logical ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath5k_pci ip=192.168.15.101 latency=0 module=ath5k multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg
  *-network DISABLED
       description: Ethernet interface
       physical id: 1
       logical name: pan0
       serial: d6:eb:dd:c5:06:0e
       capabilities: ethernet physical
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=bridge driverversion=2.3 firmware=N/A link=yes multicast=yes
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=9.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=jaunty
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 9.04"
bash: sudi: command not found
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Memory Controller Hub [8086:27ac] (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27ae] (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller [0380]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27a6] (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller [8086:27d8] (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 [8086:27d0] (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 [8086:27d2] (rev 02)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 4 [8086:27d6] (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:27c8] (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:27c9] (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:27ca] (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 [8086:27cb] (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller [8086:27cc] (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [8086:2448] (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge [8086:27b9] (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller [8086:27c4] (rev 02)
01:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter [168c:001c] (rev 01)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Attansic Technology Corp. L1e Gigabit Ethernet Adapter [1969:1026] (rev b0)
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 04f2:b071 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd
Linux netbook 2.6.28-11-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 17 01:57:59 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux
[ 0.000000] AMI BIOS detected: BIOS may corrupt low RAM, working it around.
[ 0.000000] found SMP MP-table at [c00ff780] 000ff780
[ 0.667161] ACPI: No dock devices found.
[ 0.720150] pnp: PnP ACPI: found 13 devices
[ 1.771465] pcieport-driver 0000:00:1c.0: found MSI capability
[ 1.771755] pcieport-driver 0000:00:1c.1: found MSI capability
[ 1.772032] pcieport-driver 0000:00:1c.3: found MSI capability
[ 2.489868] isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
[ 3.156238] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 3.156941] hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 3.157479] hub 3-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 3.158027] hub 4-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 3.158560] hub 5-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 3.216827] device-mapper: multipath round-robin: version 1.0.0 loaded
[ 3.222131] BIOS EDD facility v0.16 2004-Jun-25, 0 devices found
[ 13.168716] iTCO_wdt: Found a ICH7-M or ICH7-U TCO device (Version=2, TCOBASE=0x0860)
[ 13.235011] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device CNF7129 (04f2:b071)
[ 13.385699] ath5k phy0: Atheros AR2425 chip found (MAC: 0xe2, PHY: 0x70)
[ 13.914446] lp: driver loaded but no devices found
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"linksys"
          Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:16:B6:06:D0:E0
          Bit Rate=1 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm
          Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=81/100 Signal level:-52 dBm Noise level=-104 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

pan0 no wireless extensions.

Hi,

It seems that the ath5k driver is being used, instead of the ath_pci driver I referred to earilier on.

# Please try this Atheros driver installation procedure:

# First under System/Administration/HardwareDrivers, disable both the Atheros HAL and the Atheros wireless thing and then reboot.

# Then from a terminal type (press enter key after each line)

sudo aptitude update

sudo aptitude install build-essential subversion

cd ~

mkdir madwifi

cd madwifi

svn co https://217.24.1.142/madwifi/branches/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6

cd madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6

make

sudo make install

sudo gedit /etc/modules

# Now add the Atheros kernel module ath_pci to the list of modules to be automatically loaded at boot by adding

ath_pci

# to the end of the /etc/modules file. (Gedit editor automatically opens)

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

# Now add the following 3 lines at the end of the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf file:

blacklist ath5k_pci
blacklist ATL1E
blacklist ath5k

# Now you can reboot and it should work.

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Mark

Hi Mark,

I started the above but in hardware drivers it shows only one - Alternate Atheros "madwifi" driver - and this one is not activated. Should I try activating that first?

Regards
Kevin

Hi guys,

I've spent some more time on it today and this is what happened :

1. I reactivated the Alternate Atheros Madwifi Drivers that I installed previously, and rebooted, after which the 'enable wireless' box disappeared and I couldn't get any wireless at all.

2. I deactivated the Madwifi drivers again and the wireless came back up at 36Mb/s then faded to 1Mb/s in a few minutes.

3. I went to McDonald's and logged into their wireless, it came up at 24Mb/s then faded to 1Mb/s after a few minutes.

4. I came home and started installation of the Atheros driver as per Mark's instructions. First time it got as far as 'cd madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6' then said the folder didn't exist. I rebooted and tried again and it got to 'svn co https://217.24.1.142/madwifi/branches/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6' then said 'path not found'.

At this point I gave up.

Regards
Kevin

Hi,

OK, apparently the link

svn co https://217.24.1.142/madwifi/branches/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6

does NOT work anymore.

Please try this procedure instead:

sudo aptitude update

sudo aptitude install build-essential subversion

cd ~

wget http://snapshots.madwifi-project.org/madwifi-trunk-current.tar.gz

tar xvf madwifi-trunk-current.tar.gz

cd madwifi-trunk-r4031-20090529

make

sudo make install

sudo gedit /etc/modules

# Now add the Atheros kernel module ath_pci to the list of modules to be automatically loaded at boot by adding

ath_pci

# to the end of the /etc/modules file. (Gedit editor automatically opens)

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

# Now add the following 3 lines at the end of the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf file:

blacklist ath5k_pci
blacklist ATL1E
blacklist ath5k

# Now you can reboot and it should work.

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Mark

Hi Mark,

Well that certainly improved things. It's been running now for an hour with the ath_pci driver and it's still showing 36-48Mb/s. I'll keep an eye on it over the next twenty four hours just to make sure, but it looks as though you've solved the problem so many thanks.

Also, do you happen to know of a program I can use on Ubuntu to monitor traffic over the network?

Thanks and regards
Kevin

Hi Hashdonkey,

Happy to see your issue is solved.

Can you please create a separate thread for your new question?

Regards,

Mark

Hi Mark,

I will create a seperate thread for that question, once again many
thanks for your help.

Regards
Kevin

Mark Rijckenberg wrote:
> Your question #73108 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/73108
>
> Mark Rijckenberg posted a new comment:
> Hi Hashdonkey,
>
> Happy to see your issue is solved.
>
> Can you please create a separate thread for your new question?
>
> Regards,
>
> Mark
>
>