Atheros WiFi on a Compaq Presario - what do I need to do

[yulester]

After having a hec of a time dealing with nvidia drivers (and I'm not done yet) I thought I better look at what may be required to get my wireless up and running. I can play on this laptop, but I really don't want to chase around too much looking at bad solutions. Looking to see what my best course of action is.


System - Compaq Presario F700 (F756NR) widescreen Notebook. AMD Turion X2 / Nvidia / Wifi

Win Vista indicates it is an Atheros 5007


lshw -
*-network UNCLAIMED
Description: Ethernet controller
Product: AR5006EG 802.11 b/g Wireless PCI Express Adapter
Physical id: 0
Version: 01
width 64 bits
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix cap_list
configuration: latency=0


7.10 x86_64 Kubuntu indicates in the 'restricted driver' section that the proprietary drivers are loaded and functioning indicating Atheros Hardware Access Layer (HAL).

In System Services, hal (usr/bin/hald/) is set for 'start at boot' but is not running (the switch at the front is turned on but an orange light which means it isn't working - in Vista, it goes blue) Network settings show eth0 'Enabled Ethernet Network Device' but I'm assuming it's the CAT5/RJ45 network connection. Regardless, there is only one device listed. I know I have a winmodem up and running (hsfmodem x86_64) But it doesn't apper to be eth0.

So far from what I have read, I am assuming that whatever is loaded and detected really isn't gonna work. Being that this is a 64 bit install, It appears I may need to use ndiswrapper.

[slackero]

Re: Atheros WiFi on a Compaq Presario - what do I need to do

Ya, I ditched the 64-bit kernel, since I was barely making a dent in the 4gb ram.

I've got a WAG511v2 (atheros) running on madwifi, with wpasupplicant and wicd. My card was recognized without any special work.

[Guest]

Re: Atheros WiFi on a Compaq Presario - what do I need to do

I have the exact same laptop and have the same problem in Kubuntu 8.04. I tried the 64bit and reinstalled with the 32 bit but still same problem, wi-fi that is. My video is fine.

[slackero]

Re: Atheros WiFi on a Compaq Presario - what do I need to do

Check your output against my results. I have an HP Compaq laptop, but not the same model as you guys, and I'm using a PCMCIA Atheros card.

slackero@gunslinger:~$ ifconfig
ath0   Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:18:4D:D2:C7:0B
     inet addr:192.168.24.108 Bcast:192.168.24.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
     inet6 addr: fe80::218:4dff:fed2:c70b/64 Scope:Link
     UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
     RX packets:9 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
     TX packets:18 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
     collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
     RX bytes:1910 (1.8 KB) TX bytes:4256 (4.1 KB)

eth0   Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1A:4B:80:64:96
     inet6 addr: fe80::21a:4bff:fe80:6496/64 Scope:Link
     UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
     RX packets:27309 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
     TX packets:19853 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
     collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
     RX bytes:37636037 (35.8 MB) TX bytes:1908935 (1.8 MB)
     Base address:0x5000 Memory:e8000000-e8020000

lo    Link encap:Local Loopback
     inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
     inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
     UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
     RX packets:6 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
     TX packets:6 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
     collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
     RX bytes:448 (448.0 b) TX bytes:448 (448.0 b)

wifi0   Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr 00-18-4D-D2-C7-0B-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
     UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
     RX packets:1092 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:36
     TX packets:149 errors:1 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
     collisions:0 txqueuelen:199
     RX bytes:171283 (167.2 KB) TX bytes:12290 (12.0 KB)
     Interrupt:16

slackero@gunslinger:~$ iwconfig
lo    no wireless extensions.

eth0   no wireless extensions.

wifi0   no wireless extensions.

ath0   IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"STFO" Nickname:""
     Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 00:18:F8:5F:D9:A8
     Bit Rate:54 Mb/s  Tx-Power:16 dBm  Sensitivity=1/1
     Retry:off  RTS thr:off  Fragment thr:off
     Power Management:off
     Link Quality=45/70 Signal level=-34 dBm Noise level=-79 dBm
     Rx invalid nwid:474 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
     Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0  Missed beacon:0

[yulester]

Atheros WiFi on a Compaq Presario - what I did

I found the install recomendations on the Ubuntu forums for using the ndiswrapper and XP drivers. Everything looks good at this point - - I think

Sideline note. I do not have a home wireless network, and there are very few public access points in my area. Even the Public Library doen't have a wireless network hotspot. This being said, I'm new to wireless, even under XP/Vista

Knetwork Manager shows no devices, but as I understand it, that's kinda expected
Kwave control shows 'wlan0' which wasn't there before but that's about all.
KWifiManager does about the same.

This is what ifcongig shows

eth0  Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 90:22:0C:68:1E:00
     UP 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:1000
     RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
     Interrupt:20 Base address:0x4000

lo    Link encap:Local Loopback
     inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
     inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
     UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
     RX packets:34 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
     TX packets:34 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
     collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
     RX bytes:2420 (2.3 KB) TX bytes:2420 (2.3 KB)

wlan0   Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:00:00:00:00:00
     UP 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:1000
     RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
     Interrupt:19 Memory:f6000000-f6010000

[slackero]

Re: Atheros WiFi on a Compaq Presario - what do I need to do

Ok, let us know when you've had a chance to test it out

[yulester]

Re: Atheros WiFi on a Compaq Presario - what do I need to do

OK - - Got to try it out at a public Library about a week ago. As I recall, Wireless assistant was the app that got it to connect. Actually picked up four different signals inside this building, and I know two of them were not local to the Library.

After working with it for about an hour, I tried to cold start the system and recreate what I did - - No go, and I was running out of time.

Went back today and couldn't get connected. It saw all the signals, but connection failed.

One thing I noticed was a couple IP addresses in the resolv.conf file. Deleted those, but that didn't help.

Could there be something that needs to be 'reset' in order to reestablish the connection

ifconfig showed the same as before. kwave didn't help, and neither did kwifi manager. Dinked around with different options with no luck.

At least we know that it scanned and discovered the networks, it just failed to connect. I even pushed the connection time out to 30 seconds in hopes maybe their side was slow in issuing an IP. It's a 'public' access point so no special codes are required.