Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC

[Dark_Pingu]

This WIFI card is giving problems, I have got it to a point with help, because I have not got a clue about Linux as I am a newbie, but I am now stuck. I did lspci and that is where I got the subject from. When I do dmesg there is an error unable to load needed module ath_rate_sample (these commands were put in by my friend). iwconfig gives a negative result for wireless being present What do I need to do now. I have madwifi loaded and wpa-suplicant.

[Dapper Dan]

In Linux, Atheros chipsets need madwifi drivers. See this page on how to get them into your installation.

[Dark_Pingu]

Thanks for the reply

I have madwifi already installed as well as wpa supplicant

[Dapper Dan]

In my haste, I didn't see that last sentence, sorry. So if madwifi IS installed, the question is, is the module getting loaded.... From the command line as su, do:

modprobe ath_pci

Then, do:

iwconfig

...and see if you see ath0 there.

I haven't used Gentoo in a while so the actual commands may be:

/sbin/modprobe ath_pci

and,

/sbin/iwconfig

[Dark_Pingu]

Cheers for the feed back

Yep there is an ath0 we have managed to get madwifi to load and the card is recognised and is in the network part of the control centre now. WPA_Suplicant's back end is working, we had a command window open and watched the essids scroll through but it's WPA_GUI does not work it says 'Could not get status from wpa_supplicant' on the status line.

Cheers

[Dapper Dan]

This is for Arch but may prove helpful.

Link

Also, have a look at this...

Link