UNCLAIMED AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter -> wireless drivers not installed for Atheros chipset on Compaq Presario C700 laptop in Ubuntu 8.04.3 LTS

Can you have the device attatched and run:

lsusb; sudo lshw -C network

What is printed on the pretty plastic casing is of no interest to us. We need to know the wireless chip inside.

The casing seems pretty utilitarian to me, but perhaps I just haven't modified it yet. There's a thought. However, it was all the data I had available at the time; was just trying give what information I could. :)

Okay, well, ran the command, and here's the results:

bbanzai@little-sparky:~$ lsusb; sudo ishw -C network
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 050d:705a Belkin Components
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
[sudo] password for bbanzai:
sudo: ishw: command not found

That's all I've got.

Oh, wait. not I, but L. My eyes are getting worse; need better glasses.

bbanzai@little-sparky:~$ lsusb; sudo lshw -C network
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 050d:705a Belkin Components
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
  *-network UNCLAIMED
       description: Ethernet controller
       product: AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter
       vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: 01
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 1
       bus info: pci@0000:02:01.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 10
       serial: 00:1b:38:ff:2f:e3
       size: 100MB/s
       capacity: 100MB/s
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=8139too driverversion=0.9.28 duplex=full ip=192.168.1.103 latency=64 link=yes maxlatency=64 mingnt=32 module=8139too multicast=yes port=MII speed=100MB/s
  *-network DISABLED
       description: Wireless interface
       physical id: 1
       logical name: wlan0
       serial: 00:22:75:fd:a3:b8
       capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11g

That seems much better.

Hi,

Seems you have a wireless Atheros chip in your pc. So no need to use a wireless USB adapter.

Please follow this procedure to install the madwifi drivers for your Atheros wireless chipset:

Step 1: Open Terminal from "Applications->Accessories->
Terminal"

Step 2: Run the following commands (copy-paste each line into the Terminal, press <enter> after each line)

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-r4099-20090929

make

sudo make install

gksudo gedit /etc/modules

# In the gedit editor, scroll down and 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)

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

# In the gedit editor, scroll down and 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

I am not yet convinced that your Atheros wireless adapter is broken. Please first try the procedure I just gave you.

See, where were you the first time I had the Atheros question, Mark? :P

I've been working your steps, and the only snags were:

1) In the /etc/modules list, ath_pci is already listed. 3 times, actually. So since it was already there, I just moved forward.

2) in the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf file, there was nothing to scroll down; just a blank file. So I just posted the lines you suggested and moved forward.

I am about to reboot. If I haven't come back and posted the results by the time you read this, then wish me luck.

Sadly, even after performing those commands and making the necessary adjustments, my wicd still cannot perceive any of the several wireless networks in the area, so my laptop is still cable-bound.

So that didn't work, such as it is. I'm willing to try whatever; if there's another option to get my built-in Aetheros chips working, by all means, I'll try that. Also, I can work with getting the USB adapter operating, too. Happy to go either way, just tell me what you'd like me to run.

Please send us output of the following command:

ls -lart /etc/modprobe.d ; sudo lshw -C network; cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

You are not going to like this answer, but according to the following link

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HardwareSupportComponentsWirelessNetworkCardsBelkin

your wireless USB adapter should out of the box in Ubuntu 9.10....

I believe it will work out of the box, if you keep the wireless Belkin USB adapter connected before, during and after the install of Ubuntu 9.10 (keep it connected at all times)

Sorry, if this is not the answer you wanted....

Well, crap, then I'd need to know how to save my bookmarks, passwords, and settings and offload pics and documents. Then I have to use another computer to download and burn. Damn it! But I suppose that's a project for another time.

As for the command output, this is what I got:

bbanzai@little-sparky:~$ ls -lart /etc/modprobe.d ; sudo lshw -C network; cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
total 88
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 115 2007-12-30 12:38 nvidia-kernel-nkc
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 173 2008-02-25 15:20 options
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 299 2008-02-25 15:20 isapnp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 838 2008-02-25 15:20 blacklist-watchdog
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 628 2008-02-25 15:20 blacklist-framebuffer
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 980 2008-02-25 15:20 blacklist
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4624 2008-02-25 15:20 aliases
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 343 2008-02-26 12:25 fuse
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 156 2008-03-08 20:24 blacklist-modem
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2180 2008-03-08 20:24 alsa-base
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16 2008-03-17 18:26 libpisock9
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 38 2008-03-25 12:31 libsane
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 41 2008-04-14 02:51 toshiba_acpi.modprobe
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 41 2008-07-27 15:30 blacklist-oss -> /lib/linux-sound-base/noOSS.modprobe.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 36 2008-07-27 22:40 blacklist-local
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 294 2008-10-10 12:16 lrm-video
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 2008-11-17 01:07 arch-aliases -> arch/i386
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-11-17 01:07 arch
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 52 2009-12-12 13:49 blacklist.conf
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2009-12-12 13:49 .
drwxr-xr-x 141 root root 12288 2009-12-12 16:11 ..
[sudo] password for bbanzai:
  *-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: wifi0
       version: 01
       serial: 00:1f:3a:26:8f:1f
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix bus_master cap_list logical ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath_pci latency=0 module=ath_pci multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11g
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 1
       bus info: pci@0000:02:01.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 10
       serial: 00:1b:38:ff:2f:e3
       size: 100MB/s
       capacity: 100MB/s
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=8139too driverversion=0.9.28 duplex=full ip=192.168.1.105 latency=64 link=yes maxlatency=64 mingnt=32 module=8139too multicast=yes port=MII speed=100MB/s
# This file lists those modules which we don't want to be loaded by
# alias expansion, usually so some other driver will be loaded for the
# device instead.

# evbug is a debug tool that should be loaded explicitly
blacklist evbug

# these drivers are very simple, the HID drivers are usually preferred
blacklist usbmouse
blacklist usbkbd

# replaced by e100
blacklist eepro100

# replaced by tulip
blacklist de4x5

# causes no end of confusion by creating unexpected network interfaces
blacklist eth1394

# snd_intel8x0m can interfere with snd_intel8x0, doesn't seem to support much
# hardware on its own (Ubuntu bug #2011, #6810)
blacklist snd_intel8x0m

# causes failure to suspend on HP compaq nc6000 (Ubuntu: #10306)
blacklist i2c_i801

# replaced by p54pci
blacklist prism54

# replaced by b43 and ssb.
blacklist bcm43xx

# most apps now use garmin usb driver directly (Ubuntu: #114565)
blacklist garmin_gps

# replaced by asus-laptop (Ubuntu: #184721)
blacklist asus_acpi

Does that shed any light on the subject, sir?

Well, it looks like we made progress with your Atheros wireless chipset, as it is no longer "unclaimed". It is currently using the ath_pci madwifi driver.

Please send us the output of the following command to see if it detects any wireless access points now:

sudo iwlist scanning

As for installing Ubuntu 9.10, it is not hard. Just make sure to first backup your /home directory (to a USB drive?) and any other directories that contain personal data before installing Ubuntu 9.10 from a LiveCD session. Choose "custom partitioning" in the LiveCD installer's program. Choose to format the root drive (/ directory) that contains Ubuntu 8.04 system files, but do NOT format the /home partition. This will allow the Ubuntu 9.10 installer to overwrite the Ubuntu 8.04 install with a clean install of Ubuntu 9.10, without losing your Firefox bookmarks, etc... Make sure to choose the same username as you used to log into Ubuntu 8.04

I have done installs this way many times before and it works fine (for me ;-)

Well, with advice like that, it's hard to disagree. If it does what you say, that'll probably be the most painless reinstall of any OS I've had the misfortune to have to do. I suppose I'll have to warm up the thumb drives and get a CD burned!

As for the wireless command, let's see:

bbanzai@little-sparky:~$ sudo iwlist scanning
[sudo] password for bbanzai:
lo Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

wifi0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

ath0 No scan results

So progress on one front, but this one is a bit confounding as yet. What next step would you recommend?

Please verify that you have listed eth0 as your wired interface and ath0 as your wireless interface name in the preferences panel in wicd network manager

And also make sure that your WPA supplicant driver is listed by wicd as madwifi (again in preferences of wicd)

Then retest wireless using wicd.

If that still does not help, I would proceed with installing Ubuntu 9.10, while keeping the wireless USB adapter connected at all times.

Verified, verified, and I had to change the supplicant driver, but upon restarting (for good measure), there was no change, either in the wicd display or in the "sudo iwlist scanning" results.

So it looks like I'm going to have to install 9.10. I'm sorry we can't get the onboard wireless going; thanks for the attempt. When I get the chance to burn the disk and do the install, I'll update.

Mr. Rijckenberg, I hope you or someone equally helpful is on reasonably soon, because I finally have everything backed up or offloaded, disk burned, ready to format like you suggested so that I can get my USB adapter running, which is the point of the exercise, and I'm running into an issue.

You said: "Just make sure to first backup your /home directory (to a USB drive?) and any other directories that contain personal data before installing Ubuntu 9.10 from a LiveCD session. Choose "custom partitioning" in the LiveCD installer's program. Choose to format the root drive (/ directory) that contains Ubuntu 8.04 system files, but do NOT format the /home partition. This will allow the Ubuntu 9.10 installer to overwrite the Ubuntu 8.04 install with a clean install of Ubuntu 9.10, without losing your Firefox bookmarks, etc... Make sure to choose the same username as you used to log into Ubuntu 8.04."

Well, I have the LiveCD, I booted up, selected Install Ubuntu from the initial menu, and when it got around to the installation menus, I chose my language, my time zone, and my keyboard. Then it asked me about partitioning: side by side with 8.04, erase the drive and use all of it, or specify partitions manually. Given only your instruction to choose custom partitioning, I chose to specify partitions manually. And then I find I don't know what I'm doing. I'm not sure what /dev/sda means (for example), I don't know what numbers make sense, I don't know what file system to specify -- it's advanced, as the warning says, and I'm not up to that point yet. I would go with the suggested partition amounts, if it would let me, but it demands I change something, and I don't know what I'm changing.

I want to follow your directions, but I have no idea how to get to the point where I tell it not to overwrite the /home partition.

Suggestions?

The manual partitioning tool is asking you which physical storage devices (starting with /dev in the name) should be linked/mapped/mounted to which mount points (for example: / directory, /home directory, /media directory, ....).

To find out what the current mount points are on your system, please boot into Ubuntu 8.04.3 and then send us the output of the following command:

df -h; mount

Yes, still working on 8.04.3 until I learn what to do. Thanks for the explanation; good to know that's what's happening. Now we find out what I need to do about it. Therefore:

bbanzai@little-sparky:~$ df -h; mount
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 146G 7.9G 130G 6% /
varrun 501M 120K 501M 1% /var/run
varlock 501M 0 501M 0% /var/lock
udev 501M 44K 501M 1% /dev
devshm 501M 12K 501M 1% /dev/shm
lrm 501M 40M 462M 8% /lib/modules/2.6.24-26-generic/volatile
gvfs-fuse-daemon 146G 7.9G 130G 6% /home/bbanzai/.gvfs
/dev/sda1 on / type ext3 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
/sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755)
varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
devshm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
lrm on /lib/modules/2.6.24-26-generic/volatile type tmpfs (rw)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/bbanzai/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=bbanzai)

There you go. And again, thank you for helping me.

OK, now I know that you backed up all your personal data (including everything in /home) and I know what your devices and mount points are. So I assume it is safe for you to continue....

I recommend the following installation procedure:

During the install, make sure to use the same username/logon name as the one you used when installing Ubuntu 8.04

In the manual partitioning part of the install routine, first delete the partition linked to /dev/sda, which will free up 146 GB of diskspace.

Using the manual partitioner, create a first partition on /dev/sda that is 10 GB (=gigabyte) in size. This first partition should be formatted as an ext4 partition and set as the / (=root) partition.

Then create a second partition on /dev/sda that is 135 GB (=gigabyte) in size. This second partition should be formatted as an ext4 partition and set as the /home partition.

Then create a third partition on /dev/sda that is 1 GB (=gigabyte) in size. This third partition should be formatted and set as the swap partition.

Once this partitioning is done, you can accept the changes and continue with the install of Ubuntu 9.10.

Make sure to keep the Belkin wireless USB adapter connected before, during and after the install procedure.

Once the install is finished, you will need to copy the /home directory contents from your backup into the newly created /home partition, if you want to keep your old Firefox bookmarks in Ubuntu 9.10.

Hope it helps....

Install success! Things seem to be functioning, and I haven't yet started to copy over my /home directory.

I thought I'd log in immediately in hopes someone could tell me how to get the wireless going, though!

The new network manager perceives my original wireless adapter, and it also perceives my USB adapter! Hurray! However, it says in both cases that the wireless is disabled.

So, now that I'm on 9.10, how do I enable either or both of my wireless adapters so I can free myself of this cursed network cable? Hopefully, this is the last leg of the problem! (crosses fingers) Ideally, I'd want to utilize my original, but since we were unable to get it going in 8.04, I have no idea if we can get it going now (though I'm encouraged by the fact that the OS can see and identify the chipset).

Thanks so much so far!

To save a little bit of time, let's go back over the thread and put in some of the diagnostics you asked for earlier:

bbanzai@little-sparky:~$ lsusb; sudo lshw -C network
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 050d:705a Belkin Components F5D7050A Wireless Adapter
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 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
  *-network DISABLED
       description: Wireless interface
       product: AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter
       vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       logical name: wmaster0
       version: 01
       serial: 00:1f:3a:26:8f:1f
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix bus_master cap_list logical ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath5k latency=0 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg
       resources: irq:16 memory:51300000-5130ffff
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 1
       bus info: pci@0000:02:01.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 10
       serial: 00:1b:38:ff:2f:e3
       size: 100MB/s
       capacity: 100MB/s
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=8139too driverversion=0.9.28 duplex=full ip=192.168.1.100 latency=64 link=yes maxlatency=64 mingnt=32 multicast=yes port=MII speed=100MB/s
       resources: irq:16 ioport:1000(size=256) memory:51200000-512000ff
  *-network DISABLED
       description: Wireless interface
       physical id: 1
       logical name: wlan1
       serial: 00:22:75:fd:a3:b8
       capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg

That was one, then there was this:

bbanzai@little-sparky:~$ ls -lart /etc/modprobe.d ; sudo lshw -C network; cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
total 48
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16 2009-08-26 04:49 libpisock9.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1077 2009-09-15 16:46 blacklist-watchdog.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 662 2009-09-15 16:46 blacklist-framebuffer.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 213 2009-09-15 16:46 blacklist-firewire.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1603 2009-09-15 16:46 blacklist.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 325 2009-09-15 16:46 blacklist-ath_pci.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 156 2009-10-11 17:07 blacklist-modem.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2497 2009-10-11 17:07 alsa-base.conf
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2009-10-28 16:02 .
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 41 2009-12-20 17:54 blacklist-oss.conf -> /lib/linux-sound-base/noOSS.modprobe.conf
drwxr-xr-x 130 root root 12288 2009-12-20 19:01 ..
[sudo] password for bbanzai:
  *-network DISABLED
       description: Wireless interface
       product: AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter
       vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       logical name: wmaster0
       version: 01
       serial: 00:1f:3a:26:8f:1f
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix bus_master cap_list logical ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath5k latency=0 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg
       resources: irq:16 memory:51300000-5130ffff
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 1
       bus info: pci@0000:02:01.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 10
       serial: 00:1b:38:ff:2f:e3
       size: 100MB/s
       capacity: 100MB/s
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=8139too driverversion=0.9.28 duplex=full ip=192.168.1.100 latency=64 link=yes maxlatency=64 mingnt=32 multicast=yes port=MII speed=100MB/s
       resources: irq:16 ioport:1000(size=256) memory:51200000-512000ff
  *-network DISABLED
       description: Wireless interface
       physical id: 1
       logical name: wlan1
       serial: 00:22:75:fd:a3:b8
       capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg
cat: /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist: No such file or directory

and what else? Let's see...

bbanzai@little-sparky:~$ sudo iwlist scanning
lo Interface doesn't support scanning.
eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.
wmaster0 Interface doesn't support scanning.
wlan0 Interface doesn't support scanning : Network is down
wmaster1 Interface doesn't support scanning.
wlan1 Interface doesn't support scanning : Network is down

The wired network is automatically on eth0, according to the display when I mouse over the toolbar icon.

Let me know what else you might need.

Thanks Mark Rijckenberg, that solved my question.

Hurrah! Also: it's embarrassing how simple it was once I switched to 9.10. Oh, my. Ah, well, at least it's running, so thank you so very, very much!

Which solution in the following bugreport solved your issue?

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/395565