[SOLVED] wireless doesn't work

[jesusitoLinux]

Hello friends! I can't get my wireless card working. I'm using debian. this is the output of lspci

Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter

I'm trying with madwifi. And when i type "make" i get this error

jesus:/home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4# make
Checking requirements... ok.
Checking kernel configuration... ok.
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.26-2-686/build SUBDIRS=/home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4 modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.26-2-686'
  CC [M]  /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/ath/if_ath.o
  CC [M]  /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/ath/if_ath_pci.o
  LD [M]  /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/ath/ath_pci.o
  CC [M]  /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/ath_hal/ah_os.o
  HOSTCC  /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/ath_hal/uudecode
  UUDECODE /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/ath_hal/i386-elf.hal.o
  LD [M]  /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/ath_hal/ath_hal.o
  CC [M]  /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/ath_rate/amrr/amrr.o
  LD [M]  /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/ath_rate/amrr/ath_rate_amrr.o
  CC [M]  /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/ath_rate/minstrel/minstrel.o
  LD [M]  /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/ath_rate/minstrel/ath_rate_minstrel.o
  CC [M]  /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/ath_rate/onoe/onoe.o
  LD [M]  /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/ath_rate/onoe/ath_rate_onoe.o
  CC [M]  /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/ath_rate/sample/sample.o
  LD [M]  /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/ath_rate/sample/ath_rate_sample.o
  CC [M]  /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/net80211/if_media.o
  CC [M]  /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/net80211/ieee80211.o
  CC [M]  /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/net80211/ieee80211_beacon.o
  CC [M]  /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/net80211/ieee80211_crypto.o
  CC [M]  /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/net80211/ieee80211_crypto_none.o
  CC [M]  /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/net80211/ieee80211_input.o
  CC [M]  /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/net80211/ieee80211_node.o
  CC [M]  /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/net80211/ieee80211_output.o
  CC [M]  /home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/net80211/ieee80211_power.o
/home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/net80211/ieee80211_power.c: In function 'ieee80211_pwrsave':
/home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/net80211/ieee80211_power.c:240: error: implicit declaration of function '__skb_append'
make[3]: *** [/home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/net80211/ieee80211_power.o] Error 1
make[2]: *** [/home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4/net80211] Error 2
make[1]: *** [_module_/home/jesus/madwifi-0.9.4] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.26-2-686'
make: *** [modules] Error 2

What can i do??
Thank you very much!

[jesusitoLinux]

I solved the problem with madwifi-0.9.4 branch. But when i finished with "modprobe ath_pci", it doesn't work, even restarting the computer....

What's the problem?

[saulius2]

Does the PC restart instantly or make some timeout before restarting?

[MikeTbob]

You do not need madwifi, you need either ath5k or ath9k which are both provided with the kernel now.

[previso]

Is this by any chance a Dell laptop? If, then better off w/ NDISWRAPPER.

[jesusitoLinux]

Ok, i've solved the problem installing ubuntu, which loads automatically the driver. But which distro of Linux do you recommend me? Ubunto or Debian?

Thank you very much

[MASONTX]

Ubuntu or Mint are the top 2 choices on distrowatch.com, and are good starting places for linux newbies. If you go to distrowatch.com, they have over 600 distro's available, and a search function that can help you decide which ones to try. Have fun.