Atheros 5212 woes

[Kornfan71]

Hi,
I have a D-Link wireless network card (WDA-2320). It's an Atheros 5212/5213 card. I am attempting to install Gentoo Linux 2008.0. I prefer to use the Minimal Install CD. However, when I boot it up, it doesn't detect an ath0 or even a wlan0 interface, only eth0 and lo. I checked ifconfig and iwconfig, but nothing. However, the device is listed in lspci. So, following documentation, I checked "ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net" for an appropriate driver. I found nothing that seemed suitable for the card. So I'm not sure where to go from here, seeing as that computer gets no Internet in Gentoo. I also tried using the LiveCD, but no luck.

Ideas?
Thanks in advance!

[MikeTbob]

Hi,
I have a D-Link wireless network card (WDA-2320). It's an Atheros 5212/5213 card. I am attempting to install Gentoo Linux 2008.0. I prefer to use the Minimal Install CD. However, when I boot it up, it doesn't detect an ath0 or even a wlan0 interface, only eth0 and lo. I checked ifconfig and iwconfig, but nothing. However, the device is listed in lspci. So, following documentation, I checked "ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net" for an appropriate driver. I found nothing that seemed suitable for the card. So I'm not sure where to go from here, seeing as that computer gets no Internet in Gentoo. I also tried using the LiveCD, but no luck.

Ideas?
Thanks in advance!

Welcome to the world of Gentoo.
The way I get around this, I install Gentoo from a LiveCD or use an existing Linux installation. This way you can fart around with the games on the LiveCD or use networking while Gentoo compiles in the background. It takes a littie bit longer but I think it's worth it, rather than just watching Gentoo compile for hours at a time.
Gentoo Linux Documentation -- The Gentoo Linux alternative installation method HOWTO
This document may be a little outdated but I'm not sure. If you have any problems don't hesitate to ask.

EDIT: Once you get the kernel installed, it has a built in driver called ath5k which means if your card is supported you will not need madwifi anymore. I'm almost positive your card is supported but if you want to be sure you can check here.
About/ath5k - madwifi-project.org - Trac
You can also download the module as mentioned in the above link.

You can also get current ath5k code by downloading compat-wireless package from wireless.kernel.org.

[gruven]

Great advice MikeTBob, I just have one thing to add.

I always use the System Rescue LiveCD that is based on Gentoo. It has pretty much everything you need to do a successful Gentoo install.

I know it supports ath5k and wpasupplicant, because I used it on a pc that has that.

Main Page - SystemRescueCd

x86 and x86_64 are both on the same disk.

You will have to set wpasupplicant up manually, but it isn't that hard. "wpasupplicant -h" will help you a lot.

[MikeTbob]

Hiya gruven,

Thanks for the tip, it makes perfect sense to me, so if I ever need to re-install I will use that. I usually always wind up manually installing almost all networking settings.

Great advice MikeTBob, I just have one thing to add.

I always use the System Rescue LiveCD that is based on Gentoo. It has pretty much everything you need to do a successful Gentoo install.

I know it supports ath5k and wpasupplicant, because I used it on a pc that has that.

Main Page - SystemRescueCd

x86 and x86_64 are both on the same disk.

You will have to set wpasupplicant up manually, but it isn't that hard. "wpasupplicant -h" will help you a lot.

[Kornfan71]

Well, for now, I'll be trying one of my oldest tricks: using my laptop as a network bridge. So far, it's working out OK. I'll leave it like that and then download the appropriate drivers later on! Thanks for the input, though. The SystemRescueCD looks like a tool that I'll start using!

[Kornfan71]

So, I've made progress. I have built my kernel with support for ath5k, iwconfig returns wlan0 as an interface that's working, and I have wpa_supplicant installed. Unfortunately, when I run wpa_supplicant, it hangs and does nothing. My router is using WPA2-PSK with AES.

Configuration:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=0
ap_scan=1

network={
    ssid="myssid"
    scan_ssid=1
    proto=RSN
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
    pairwise=CCMP TKIP
    group=CCMP TKIP
    psk="my_secret_psk"
}

Running "wpa_supplicant -dd -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf" shows that the handshake was completed and says "CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to (Router's MAC) completed...blah blah"
At the bottom it says:

RSN: not in suitable state for pre-authentication
EAPOL: startWhen --> 0
EAPOL: Disable timer tick

It then proceeds to do absolutely nothing.

What is going on, but more importantly, how do I fix it??
(If you need more info, I'd be more than happy to add it. Just say what you need.)

[MikeTbob]

I think what you need to do here is, after you run this command:
wpa_supplicant -dd -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.con

Provided everything is working right, and depending on that error you posted, which I have no idea about, all you need to do now is use dhcp to get the IP address and set DNS too.
So launch the above command with an ampersand like this

wpa_supplicant -dd -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.con &

This put the command in the background and returns the screen to you instead of forcing you to open a new terminal window to issue more commands. Next launch dhcp for wlan0, you might use dhclient or pump, whichever you have installed.

dhcpcd wlan0

Try to ping google.

 ping -c3 google.com

What is the proto=rsn? I'm not familiar with that, but I think that is what caused that error.