How to install ATHEROS drivers for wireless card in FC3.

[imdeemvp]

I had success installing my airlink101 AWLC4030 Super G™ Wireless Cardbus Adapter. This device uses the atheros drivers which in linux are called the madwifi drivers and as you can see you can get these packages from atrpms. If you have this repository in your yum.conf you can install via yum and a dependency will be needed to install the drivers. The dependency is installed according to your kernel version. Please note that everytime you upgrade the kernel reinstallation of dependency is required.

UPDATE: Let us begin by adding atrmps to your repo data base, if you already have it skip this step . Now open terminal and become root and run this command:

gedit /etc/yum.repos.d/atrpms.repo

and add this lines:

[atrpms-stable]
name=ATrpms for Fedora Core $releasever stable
baseurl=http://apt.atrpms.net/fedora/$releasever/en/$basearch/at-stable
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1

and click on SAVE , also root import the gpg key from the terminal: rpm --import http://atrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY.atrpms

For example I am using:

[imdeemvp@myfc3 ~]$ uname -r
2.6.10-1.760_FC3
[imdeemvp@myfc3 ~]$

Which requires me to install this dependency first: madwifi-kmdl-2.6.10-1.760_FC3-0.9.4.12-15.rhfc3.at.i686.rpm so I ran yum command:

yum install madwifi-kmdl-2.6.10-1.760_FC3-0.9.4.12-15.rhfc3.at.i686.rpm

once this is installed you can run yum command:

yum install madwifi

and this is the result:

Resolving Dependencies
--> Populating transaction set with selected packages. Please wait.
---> Package madwifi.i386 0:0.9.4.12-15.rhfc3.at set to be installed
--> Running transaction check

Dependencies Resolved
Transaction Listing:
Install: madwifi.i386 0:0.9.4.12-15.rhfc3.at
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
madwifi-0.9.4.12-15.rhfc3 100% |=========================| 2.4 kB 00:00
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Installing: madwifi 100 % done 1/1

Installed: madwifi.i386 0:0.9.4.12-15.rhfc3.at
Complete!

We are not done you may run into some issues like I did. My wireless was SLOW so I asked for help and this was the SOLUTION!

You may also need some extra tools to monitor your wireless connection and in this tutorial you can learn how to do it. I am posting my wireless configuration:

[imdeemvp@myfc3 ~]$ cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ath0
# Please read /usr/share/doc/initscripts-*/sysconfig.txt
# for the documentation of these parameters.
IPV6INIT=no
ONBOOT=yes
USERCTL=yes
PEERDNS=no
GATEWAY=
TYPE=Wireless
DEVICE=ath0
HWADDR=00:0f:axbd:ax <<- this was modified before posting
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
NETMASK=
DHCP_HOSTNAME=
IPADDR=
DOMAIN=
ESSID=
CHANNEL=6
MODE=Managed
RATE=36Mb/s
[imdeemvp@myfc3 ~]$

I created this little how to in my laptop as I was wireless connected! I am also posting some screenshot to give you an idea how your setting should look like. ONE quick tip I make the NetworkMangerInfo start during my login by adding it to session >startup program

IF YOU HAVE CONNECTION PROBLEMS DO THE FOLLOWING: You can try to download the kernel http://atrpms.net/dist/fc3/kernel/ burn in a cd, copy to hard drive and install it and do same for madwifi drivers and make sure you are VERY careful in the kernel you choose. OR if you have a pen flash drive save it there and transfer it to you fc3 box! Also note the that drivers are supported from kernel 2.6.10-737 and higher.

[ned99]

Hi I have a Netgear WG311T which needs madwifi to run however my kernel is 2.6.9-1.667 and atrpms doesn't make a madwifi driver for that kernel. I was wondering if you knew how I can update my kernel without internet access on my Linux partition?

I'm running Fedora Core 3 by the way.

Thanks,

[imdeemvp]

You can try to download the kernel http://atrpms.net/dist/fc3/kernel/ burn in a cd, copy to hard drive and install it and do same for madwifi drivers and make sure you are VERY careful in the kernel you choose.

OR if you have a pen flash drive save it there and transfer it to you fc3 box!

I would select this one: kernel-2.6.10-1.760_12.rhfc3.at.i686.rpm

[ned99]

Hey, so I downloaded the files you suggested and burned them on a CD to transfer over onto my Linux partition. When I open the CD and doubleclick on the kernel file I get an error message that says I can't open the file and I should check the permission. This even happense after I have logged in as root in the terminal and the little key icon is up top. I tried dragging the files from the CD into a folder in my home directory and then opening the permissions tab under properties and changing the settings but that still doesn't work.

Sorry to keep bugging you but I really want to get Linux working.

Thanks.

[ned99]

Hey sorry disregard that last post I figured out how to install that kernel. Madwifi is still not installing i'm getting this error: requires - /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10-1.760_FC3 in order to install, i'm guessing that means i've the wrong kernel for that version of madwifi?

Any ideas?

thanks.

[alancooney]

Try getting the source rpm for madwifi and then creating the rpm again.

[imdeemvp]

Hey sorry disregard that last post I figured out how to install that kernel. Madwifi is still not installing i'm getting this error: requires - /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10-1.760_FC3 in order to install, i'm guessing that means i've the wrong kernel for that version of madwifi?

Any ideas?

thanks.

Did you download the dependency according to your kernel? as I suggest in the how-to....because its asking you for it and once installed it will not ask your for dependency.

[tarunkhurana]

i didn't have atrpms.repo so i created a new file in /etc/yum.repos.d and added the following

[atrpms-stable]
name=ATrpms for Fedora Core $releasever stable
baseurl=http://apt.atrpms.net/fedora/$releasever/en/$basearch/at-stable
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1

But when I try to run $>yum list available it says invalid base url for atrpms-stable

Any help would be much appreciated

[imdeemvp]

that is tha correct link as far as i know may be the server was busy or could be a connection problem specially with dial-up.