Atheros problem with madwifi

[mountainpups]

Installed Debian 2.6.18-5-486 business card.
installed madwifi to test my atheros AR5005G card.

lspci displays ath_pci, ath_hal ...

ifconfig wifo0 has TX bytes nut no RX.
iwconfig ath1 has 0 for Link Quality, Signal level and Noise level ?

I followed the Madwifi instructions to the T (as I am linux greener than green)

Wireless card just won't work.

AnyOne have any ideas?

[Dapper Dan]

If doing:

lsmod

shows that ath_pci is present, do:

ifconfig ath0 up

Then:

ifconfig

Is ath0 there?

[coopstah13]

did you follow this? UserDocs/Distro/Debian/MadWifi - madwifi.org - Trac
you didn't make mention of the step to create the device

in your /etc/network/interfaces file
under where you create ath0
you have to have a pre-up line that creates the device before its brought up

[mountainpups]

yes, I
ifconfig ath1 up ....no errors BUT weird that it came up as ath1 not ath0 whereas wifi0 came up.

ifconfig .... showed ALL ethernet connections including ath1

.....I will post the actual listing output .....Only have command line mode,
no printer.

I installed madwifi with apt-get
then m-a prepare, m-a ai madwifi then modprobe ath_pci

I checked out UserDocs/Distro/Debian/MadWifi - madwifi.org - Trac
Afterwards to verify IF I had missed a step.
Yes Interfaces setup with pre-up link to script with iwconfig ap {mac address}, rate 11M, essid, channel 10. No encryption stuff.

I was going to go thru the troubleshooting next!

[coopstah13]

are you using this as an AP or are you accessing a wireless connection with the computer? because in your pre-up you are setting it to be an AP

[budman7]

Does "dhclient ath1" give any errors?
Or dhclient ath0?

[mountainpups]

Am trying to access a wireless connection.

Let me remove the pre-up and see if that works.
I was not sure How the get the computer's wireless card
to recognize the gateway /AP.
without the pre-up - how will it? know where the gateway is?
....hmmm


dhclient ath0 <----- No errors No IPs offered
tries dhcpdiscover 7 times then
No dhcp offers

BTW thank you all for helping!!

[coopstah13]

you definitely need that pre-up, look at the documentation to figure out what to put there, it should not be ap if you are trying to access an AP

this is what mine looks like since I'm using my card as an AP

auto ath0
iface ath0 inet static
        address 192.168.1.1
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        network 192.168.1.0
        broadcast 192.168.1.255
        gateway 192.168.1.1
        wireless_rate 54M
        wireless_channel 7
        wireless_essid xxxxxx
        wireless_key xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
        pre-up wlanconfig ath0 destroy
        pre-up wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode ap

[mountainpups]

thanx coopstah13 - your interface options also got Atheros card to work as an Access Point..... now I know it works in AP mode !!

BUT it won't access my gateway via Atheros card - weird
in Managed mode.

the search continues.....