No wireless on FC6

ZiaTioN · Post by **ZiaTioN** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 9:59 pm

Just installed FC6 on my Toshiba Sattelite A75 (uses Atheros wireless chipset) and for some reason, the wireless interface was never recognized and configured/installed.

Any guidance on how to add a wireless interface and setup wpa-psk encryption? I am afraid I am a complete noob in this arena. I have never dealt with any Linux distro and wireless before. I always used Linux in the past as a server OS.

I had to connect to my linksys via cable just to type this

Void Main · Post by **Void Main** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 10:15 pm

ATrpms FC6 repo has both the madwifi and wpa_supplicant packages. Personally I use the latest madwifi drivers from source, but only out of habit. I am currently using the wpa_supplicant from atrpms though with no problem. I think I actually have a thread around here about how to set it up. The RPM from atrpms might just set everything up for you. You will have to put your proper WPA settings in /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf (I use the "WPA-PSK" section). If you can't get it working in short order I can give you more detailed information. I end up with my WPA settings /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf, my IP and wireless settings (ESSID, CHANNEL, etc) in my /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ath0. I manually add a line to the end of /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-wireless for wpa_supplicant but this may get done automatically if you use the RPM. The line I add is:

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/usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant -iath0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -Dmadwifi -wB

and in ifdown-wireless I put:

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killall wpa_supplicant

So basically when you have all your settings entered properly you can just "ifup ath0" and "ifdown ath0" just like any other interface. I've been doing it this way for a long time so if some of this is done automatically now in the RPMs let me know.

If you want to install the drivers from source (which only takes a few seconds assuming you have your proper kernel-headers and kernel-devel RPMs installed) just grab the latest snapshot:

http://snapshots.madwifi.org/madwifi-ng-current.tar.gz

Extract it and do a "make;make install". Should compile quickly and install. If all your other settings are complete you should be able to just insert your card (or turn it on) and it should automatically come up.

My ifcfg-ath0 looks like this:

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DEVICE=ath0
IPV6INIT=no
TYPE=Wireless
ONBOOT=yes
DHCP_HOSTNAME=voidslaptop
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
IWPRIV="mode 0"
ESSID=MySSID
USERCTL=yes
PEERDNS=yes
IPADDR=
DOMAIN=
NETMASK=
HWADDR=
GATEWAY=
CHANNEL=7
MODE=Managed
RATE=Auto

My wpa_supplicant.conf:

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ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=0
eapol_version=1
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1
network={
        ssid="MySSID"
        #psk="MyPSK"
        psk=df633b4c71abc6b0dcfea46131e6469c5d9e5572c875c397467d815417441bcb
        scan_ssid=1
        proto=WPA
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
        #priority=2
}

ZiaTioN · Post by **ZiaTioN** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 10:40 pm

cool, I got the drivers installed but how do I get the system to recognize the interface? ifconfig -a still shows no wireless. Would a ifup ath0 add the interface to the system once configured?

Void Main · Post by **Void Main** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 11:56 pm

It doesn't even show a "wifi0"? I used to have to put this in my /etc/modprobe.conf but it's currently commented out so it must no longer be needed:

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install ath0 /sbin/modprobe ath_pci; /usr/local/bin/wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode sta
remove ath0 /usr/local/bin/wlanconfig ath0 destroy; /sbin/modprobe -r ath_pci

Hmmmm.... Did you reboot after installing the modules? You shouldn't have to but I think I recall that helping in the past. You should have both a wifi0 and an ath0 when configured properly.

ZiaTioN · Post by **ZiaTioN** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 7:12 am

Nope, no wifi0. Yeah I did reboot after installing the drivers but nothing changed.

I ran kudzu -p to see if it would recognize the new hardware and it shows that it already sees it as eth1:

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class: NETWORK
bus: PCI
detached: 0
device: eth1
desc: "Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC"
vendorId: 168c
deviceId: 0013
subVendorId: 144f
subDeviceId: 7084
pciType: 1
pcidom:    0
pcibus:  2
pcidev:  2
pcifn:  0

ifconfig -a still shows nothing though. I tried adding a ifcfg-eth1 file in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts and doing an ifup eth1 but it tell me the device does not exist.

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[root@localhost network-scripts]# ifup eth1
Device eth1 does not seem to be present, delaying initialization.

this is strange to say the least....

so much for a problem-less install.

ZiaTioN · Post by **ZiaTioN** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 7:51 am

aha!

It would probably help if the actual drivers would have installed:

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Downloading Packages:
warning: rpmts_HdrFromFdno: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 66534c2b


Public key for madwifi-kmdl-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6-0.9.3-29_r1754.fc6.at.i686.rpm is not installed

I have got to say, I have seen the warning about NO KEY before but I have never seen it stop an install.

OK, so I imported the keys:

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rpm --import http://atrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY.atrpms

Now I was able to install the drivers:

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[root@localhost ~]# rpm -qa | grep madwifi
madwifi-kmdl-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6-0.9.3-29_r1754.fc6.at
madwifi-hal-kmdl-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6-0.9.3-29_r1754.fc6.at
madwifi-0.9.3-29_r1754.fc6.at

Now when I probe with kudzu it shows that the device has drivers now:

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[root@localhost ~]# kudzu -pc NETWORK
-
class: NETWORK
bus: PCI
detached: 0
device: eth1
driver: ath_pci
desc: "Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC"
vendorId: 168c
deviceId: 0013
subVendorId: 144f
subDeviceId: 7084
pciType: 1
pcidom:    0
pcibus:  2
pcidev:  2
pcifn:  0
-
class: NETWORK
bus: PCI
detached: 0
device: eth0
driver: 8139too
desc: "Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+"
network.hwaddr: 00:0f:b0:8e:41:6c
vendorId: 10ec
deviceId: 8139
subVendorId: 1179
subDeviceId: ff00
pciType: 1
pcidom:    0
pcibus:  2
pcidev:  3
pcifn:  0

But still nothing?

Void Main · Post by **Void Main** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 8:14 am

Well, I can think of three solutions:

1) Install the key
2) Disable key checking in the yum repo configuration (assuming you are using yum)
3) Install the madwifi driver from source

Like I said I still use option 3 (although I would also install the key so you don't have problems installing other packages). Regarding a problemless install I am pretty sure I told you before you tried to install that you will have to deal with any thirdparty modules as always.

ZiaTioN · Post by **ZiaTioN** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 8:22 am

Yeah I got the drivers installed. And yes you did mention third party modules, I guess I just did not think of wireless interface being a third part module.

I read on linuxquestions that a user had a similar problem in FC5 with the madwifi drivers and Atheros and it was suspected that SELinux was the culprit, so I disabled SELinux and uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled but this did not help. For some reason the ath_pci module is not being installed with the madwifi package.

I did an lsmod after installing these packages and rebooting and see no ath_pci module on the system. There is no alias entry in my /etc/modprobe.con file either. Could it be an issue with the repo I am using (atrpms). Someone else said that they enabled the livna repo and did a simple "yum install madwifi" and it took care of everything needed.

Void Main · Post by **Void Main** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 8:58 am

I think that's why I always install from source, I don't have any of those problems when I do that. Like I said, it only takes a few seconds and a "make;make install" should have you up and running in no time.