Wireless lost after upgrade to KDE 4.3.4

[pwabrahams]

I had my wireless connection working just fine, using wicd, until I updated my system (an Acer Aspire 3100 with an Atheros chip) to KDE 4.3.4. Now wicd cannot find any wireless networks. I also noticed, using iwconfig, that the only interfaces available are eth0 and lo. Since wireless was working before the update, I would think that all the necessary software components are present.

What might have gotten clobbered by the upgrade, and how can I fix it? Somehow I would expect I'm not alone in this difficulty.

[pwabrahams]

Diagnosis: a casualty of the kernel upgrade. Cure: unknown

Following some posts in the Ubuntu forum, I started up from the -16 kernel instead of from the -17 kernel. My wireless started right up! But I haven't yet found out how to make the Atheros wireless chip work with -17. Apparently the support for it is missing from or malfunctioning in the new kernel.

At least I have the comfort that I wasn't overlooking the obvious. I wonder how many other people are encountering the same problem. Perhaps there will be more of us as more people do the latest upgrade, and a nice solution will emerge.

[sithlord48]

Re: Wireless lost after upgrade to KDE 4.3.4

my laptop is working w/ an archos card and kde 4.3.4 (2.6.31-15 or -16 ), i didn't put wicd on it , cause i barely use it. check to see what driver its using in the -16 kernel then see, if you can modprobe -a <ath driver name> to get it working.(in the -17 kernel)

[pwabrahams]

SOLVED: madwifi needs to be recompiled

A solution to this problem has been posted: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1309072. I've followed the procedure there and it worked for me.