Atheros AR5B91 Wireless Config

**roox** · 08-07-2009

I recently installed the ndiswrapper utility to use my Windows wireless
driver. The program asks for the .inf driver file. The driver listed in device
manager is athr.sys which the utility will not accept as valid. I have searched
the whole drive and can find nothing. Any ideas ???

**reed9** · 08-07-2009

Most atheros cards are well supported by linux. You shouldn't need to use ndiswrapper at all.

Please read this thread and post the requested info so we can confirm the chipset and find out what drivers are loading.

I think you need either the ath5k or ath9k module.

**roox** · 08-08-2009

Atheros AR5B91 wireless adaper info. lsmod.txt

lspci.txt

uname.txt

**waterhead** · 08-09-2009

NDISwrapper is good for wireless cards with no Linux drivers. There is no need to use it, because your wireless uses the Linux driver ath9k:

Linux Kernel Driver Database: CONFIG_ATH9K: Atheros 802.11n wireless cards support

This driver is available in kernels 2.6.27 and newer. Since you have a 2.6.24 kernel, you will have to manually install the driver. A wired internet connection is needed to do this. It is part of the compat-wireless package, which contains many Linux wireless drivers.

First, you need to install a few things.

Code:

sudo apt-get install linux-source linux-headers build-essential

Then you need to download the driver source. Go to this site, and click the link to download the compat-wireless-old package.

compat-wireless-old - Linux Wireless

Download it to your home folder (not your Desktop), then you can unpack it by opening a terminal and entering this command.

Code:

tar jxvf compat-wireless-old.tar.bz2

This creates a folder named compat-wireless-2.6-old. Direct the terminal to that folder with this command.

Code:

cd compat-wireless-2.6-old

You then build the driver modules with this command.

Code:

make

This may take a little while, as there are quite a few modules to build. When it is done, you install the modules with this command. You need root permissions, so the sudo prefix is used.

Code:

sudo make install

Give your password, and it will install all of the modules. When done, run this command.

Code:

sudo make unload

Now reboot the system. It may take the system a bit before it realizes it now has a driver for the wireless. You may even want to reboot a second time. I recommend also removing NDISwrapper, as it can only interfere with the Linux driver. If you are have trouble with the new Linux driver, remove NDISwrapper and reboot.

**roox** · 08-10-2009

Great instructions. I got all the way to "sudo make install" in the
the terminal and it would not input my sudo password. Cursor
just blinks but will not accept keystrokes.
Ideas?

**waterhead** · 08-10-2009

When you use sudo, it asks for your password. When you enter the password, it remains hidden (security feature?). Just hit the Enter key after you have typed in the password.

**roox** · 08-10-2009

Got the sudo make install command to work. Have rebooted several times
and system still doesn't seem to recognize the driver. The network app
shows wired connection but nothing for wireless.

**waterhead** · 08-10-2009

Is the ath9k module loading? Post the output of these commands.

Code:

lsmod

Code:

ifconfig

Code:

iwconfig

**roox** · 08-10-2009

ifconfig.txt

lsmod.txt

iwconfig wouldn't attach - stated no extensions
also, i removed ndis before make file

**waterhead** · 08-10-2009

I still see NDISwrapper loading. Try manually removing the ndiswrapper module, and loading the ath9k module.

Code:

sudo modprobe -r ndiswrapper

Code:

sudo modprobe ath9k

See if iwconfig will now list a wireless interface.

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