Hi all!
Summary: In my case, the ath9k driver in kernel 3.7.10 does not work
with the Atheros AR2985, but the 3.2.39 driver does.
I have a Dell Inspiron N5040, which has an Atheros AR9285 wireless
card. lspci -v reports:
12:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network
Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1502 802.11bgn Half-size Mini PCIe Card
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
Memory at fbe00000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
Capabilities: [60] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [140] Virtual Channel
Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number 00-15-17-ff-ff-24-14-12
Capabilities: [170] Power Budgeting <?>
Kernel driver in use: ath9k
When I run the 3.7.10 kernel with the ath9k module loaded, the
wireless does not work, and iwconfig wlan0 reports:
wlan0: no wireless extensions.
When I run the 3.2.39 kernel, the wireless works, and iwconfig wlan0 reports:
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:"HardFatCox"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:22:75:49:42:F7
Bit Rate=48 Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:on
Link Quality=50/70 Signal level=-60 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:23 Invalid misc:11577 Missed beacon:0
My best guess is that recent driver revisions broke compatibility with
my wireless card.
The non-working sources that I used (the 3.7.10 kernel) were
downloaded from the Gentoo portage repository, which has some patches
applied. I am willing to try a more "official" version of the kernel
(really, any version you guys want me to) if you think it would help
in understanding this. Also let me know if there is anything else I
can do to help.
I am not subscribed to the mailing list; please cc me on any replies.
Thank you for your good work on this project! I am very glad that I
can use my wireless card on Linux.
Nick Thomas
Sujith,
Thanks for the reply!
The latter iwconfig readout is from an old kernel version (3.2.39),
where the card does indeed work. What I wish to report is that in a
more recent kernel version (3.7.10), the card doesn't work (iwconfig
says "no wireless extensions"). It's not a problem for me (I'm happily
using the old kernel), but I thought it was worth reporting.
Some Googling tells me that a number of people have run into similar
problems (kernel versions >=3.3 breaking their AR928X cards). Maybe
you guys have been made aware of this?
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1085309
Nick
On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 11:03 PM, Sujith Manoharan <[email protected]> wrote:
> Nick Thomas wrote:
>> When I run the 3.7.10 kernel with the ath9k module loaded, the
>> wireless does not work, and iwconfig wlan0 reports:
>>
>> wlan0: no wireless extensions.
>>
>> When I run the 3.2.39 kernel, the wireless works, and iwconfig wlan0 reports:
>>
>> wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:"HardFatCox"
>> Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:22:75:49:42:F7
>> Bit Rate=48 Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm
>> Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
>> Encryption key:off
>> Power Management:on
>> Link Quality=50/70 Signal level=-60 dBm
>> Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
>> Tx excessive retries:23 Invalid misc:11577 Missed beacon:0
>>
>> My best guess is that recent driver revisions broke compatibility with
>> my wireless card.
>
> The card is recognized properly by ath9k, since it is shown in the interface
> list and it's even associated with HardFatCox :)
>
> What doesn't work ?
>
> Sujith
Nick Thomas wrote:
> When I run the 3.7.10 kernel with the ath9k module loaded, the
> wireless does not work, and iwconfig wlan0 reports:
>
> wlan0: no wireless extensions.
>
> When I run the 3.2.39 kernel, the wireless works, and iwconfig wlan0 reports:
>
> wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:"HardFatCox"
> Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:22:75:49:42:F7
> Bit Rate=48 Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm
> Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
> Encryption key:off
> Power Management:on
> Link Quality=50/70 Signal level=-60 dBm
> Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
> Tx excessive retries:23 Invalid misc:11577 Missed beacon:0
>
> My best guess is that recent driver revisions broke compatibility with
> my wireless card.
The card is recognized properly by ath9k, since it is shown in the interface
list and it's even associated with HardFatCox :)
What doesn't work ?
Sujith
Nick Thomas wrote:
> The latter iwconfig readout is from an old kernel version (3.2.39),
> where the card does indeed work. What I wish to report is that in a
> more recent kernel version (3.7.10), the card doesn't work (iwconfig
> says "no wireless extensions"). It's not a problem for me (I'm happily
> using the old kernel), but I thought it was worth reporting.
Ah, ok.
> Some Googling tells me that a number of people have run into similar
> problems (kernel versions >=3.3 breaking their AR928X cards). Maybe
> you guys have been made aware of this?
That issue was fixed a long time by reverting the problematic commit.
https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=011afa1ed8c408d694957d2474d89dc81a60b70c
3.7.x shouldn't be affected by that issue. Can you post the kernel log ?
Sujith
Nick Thomas <[email protected]> writes:
> The latter iwconfig readout is from an old kernel version (3.2.39),
> where the card does indeed work. What I wish to report is that in a
> more recent kernel version (3.7.10), the card doesn't work (iwconfig
> says "no wireless extensions"). It's not a problem for me (I'm happily
> using the old kernel), but I thought it was worth reporting.
What if 3.7.10 kernel just doesn't have the old wireless extensions
(CONFIG_CFG80211_WEXT) enabled? Did you try iw which uses nl80211?
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Documentation/iw
--
Kalle Valo
Kalle,
I'll try those things!
Nick
On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 10:03 PM, Kalle Valo <[email protected]> wrote:
> Nick Thomas <[email protected]> writes:
>
>> The latter iwconfig readout is from an old kernel version (3.2.39),
>> where the card does indeed work. What I wish to report is that in a
>> more recent kernel version (3.7.10), the card doesn't work (iwconfig
>> says "no wireless extensions"). It's not a problem for me (I'm happily
>> using the old kernel), but I thought it was worth reporting.
>
> What if 3.7.10 kernel just doesn't have the old wireless extensions
> (CONFIG_CFG80211_WEXT) enabled? Did you try iw which uses nl80211?
>
> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Documentation/iw
>
> --
> Kalle Valo