newcomer problem with wireless card.

[disparais]

A little background. I'm completely and utterly new to Ubuntu and Linux in general. I have no Linux background, no programming or code background, no troubleshooting background, no CS major, nothing. In fact, I'm an English major who tested out of all math and all but one science. So believe me when I say I'm a newcomer and more complicated help won't actually help me. It will frustrate me because I won't get it, and it'll probably piss you guys off.

I'm trying Ubuntu 8.10. I installed it on my laptop the other day. I hooked it up in my roommate's room so I could use the wired internet connection for the updates you have to install when you actually install the OS. Since then, I haven't been allowed in their room to use the internet. My wireless card - Atheros something or other - in the laptop (which is a C700 series Compaq) will not work out of box.

This is what showed up in Hardware Drivers:
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/2298/atherosiq0.png

build-essential is installed:
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/938...sentialnq9.png

When I tried to install the madwifi 0.9.4 driver myself, I got this error:
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/5416/errorcl1.png

What can I do?

[MikeTbob]

Hiya disparais, Welcome to Linuxforums.
Don't worry about not knowing what you are doing, we have a ton of new-to-Linux folks here who have no idea what they are doing. It's ok to feel a bit apprehensive, that's normal.
Looking at the screenshot above, I think you already have the driver you need, it's called ath5k. Theoretically you should be able to go into the Network tool to create a new wireless connection, have you tried this yet?
Follow this tutorial and post back as much info as you can and we'll see what we can do.
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/wir...tart-here.html

[disparais]

Here you go:
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/9028/lspcinnbr6.png

[MikeTbob]

what about the rest of the commands? IS the ath5k module loading? check with:

lsmod |grep ath5k

If the ath5k module is loaded, have you tried using the network tool, to create a new wireless connection?
Post the output of:

dmesg

[disparais]

OOPS!

I accidentally overwrote your post, I meant to post a reply!

waterhead

[waterhead]

Here's the reply that I wanted to post:

Ubuntu doesn't have the ath5k driver enabled. They consider it experimental. They supply the Madwifi driver ath_pci. Unfortunately, it doesn't work on some Atheros cards, as the error points out.

[   12.218494] ath_hal: 0.9.18.0 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413, RF5413)
[   12.235032] wlan: 0.9.4
[   12.243710] ath_pci: 0.9.4
[   12.243761] ath_pci 0000:01:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
[   12.243778] ath_pci 0000:01:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[   12.292023] wifi%d: unable to attach hardware: 'Hardware revision not supported' (HAL status 13)

The ath5k driver is available after enabling the Ubuntu backports repository. More info on it can be found here.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuBackports

You can also get the latest version by installing the compat-wireless package. This is the method that I recommend.
Download - Linux Wireless

Sorry again for the post deletion.

[D-cat]

There's been a major spike in posts involving Atheros cards lately, especially involving Ubuntu. Does anyone else think there should be a standard tutorial on here about that, maybe even sticky?

[disparais]

Getting the ath5k driver from the provided website and using their instructions worked beautifully. Thank you very much! <3

[waterhead]

Glad to hear it!

If you installed the driver using the compat-wireless package, there is one thing to remember. If you upgrade your kernel, you will have to re-install the driver for the new kernel.

[disparais]

My boyfriend mentioned that to me earlier when I was talking about it with him, but thank you. :3