Wifi on Acer Aspire 3502

[kariukidw]

Hi Guys,

Did u guys ever sort the problem?

Am having the exact problem and would really apreciate it if u helped me out.

Darth:/home/darth-vader# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller IDE (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8038 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller (rev 14)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. Unknown device 001c (rev 01)
0a:09.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller
0a:09.2 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD)

i have installed madwifi an dit installed successfully;

Darth:/home/darth-vader# modprobe ath_pci
Darth:/home/darth-vader#


when i iwconfig my card is still detected.

Darth:/home/darth-vader# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

sit0 no wireless extensions.

vmnet8 no wireless extensions.


Is there something i else i can do??

PS; I also tried switching on my card with the switch at the front of my laptop but it doesnt come on.

[SeanGee]

It definitely seemed to be the switch in my case. The Laptop is working fine now. Every so often the wireless disappears and I have to play with the switch. Usually one press isn't enough. It seems you first have to turn it off and then back again. In any event I just hit the switch wait a few seconds and try iwconfig. I keep doing this until it works.

[kariukidw]

I tried the switch but it still doesnt work, the module loads ok but i still cant fiure out why the card isnt detected.

my card details from lspci -v are as follows;

03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. Unknown device 001c (r ev 01)
Subsystem: AMBIT Microsystem Corp. Unknown device 0428
Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 177
Memory at 32100000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=64K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [50] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit- Queue=0/0 Enable-
Capabilities: [60] Express Legacy Endpoint IRQ 0
Capabilities: [90] MSI-X: Enable- Mask- TabSize=1
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [140] Virtual Channel


Am beginning to think that this specific card isnt supported by Madwifi

[rudie_rage]

I tried the switch but it still doesnt work, the module loads ok but i still cant fiure out why the card isnt detected.

my card details from lspci -v are as follows;

03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. Unknown device 001c (r ev 01)
Subsystem: AMBIT Microsystem Corp. Unknown device 0428
Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 177
Memory at 32100000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=64K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [50] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit- Queue=0/0 Enable-
Capabilities: [60] Express Legacy Endpoint IRQ 0
Capabilities: [90] MSI-X: Enable- Mask- TabSize=1
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [140] Virtual Channel


Am beginning to think that this specific card isnt supported by Madwifi

If Its an atheros card, its supported by madwifi.

I had trouble with this a while back on my desktop, and it turned out I was missing kernel support.

UserDocs/KernelConfig - MadWifi - Trac <---madwifi required kernel options

check it out if you havent already. Whenever I install a distro the first thing i do is install a new kernel to support my wireless card, video card, and framebuffer.

[SeanGee]

hmmm - just fired up the laptop after about two weeks of inactivity (it gets used by my daughter when she visits.) It had lost the wireless and I couldn't get the switch to work either. I booted into Windows and the switch worked there. Rebooted into Linux and it was up again. Not ideal I know...

Here is the output from lspci -v

00:0b.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5005G 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)
        Subsystem: AMBIT Microsystem Corp. Unknown device 0418
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 168, IRQ 22
        Memory at e2010000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
        Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2

This was done while wifi was not working.

I am using madwifi 0.9.3-1. Bear in mind that I am now running PC Linux on this laptop so this is possibly slightly newer than the one in Debian stable.

If anyone does know of a way to kick the interface into life automatically at boot time I would love to hear it too

[Juan Pablo]

I just discovered how to turn on the wireless switch automatically. Install acerhk and do this as root

modprobe acerhk force_series=300
You can turn on or off the hardware like this
echo 1 > /proc/driver/acerhk/wirelessled
echo 0 > /proc/driver/acerhk/wirelessled

With the first one you turn it on and the secnd turn it off

I automatized this by adding the first line to /etc/init.d/rc.local