Atheros unveils free Linux driver for its 802.11n devices

[dogone]

From the announcement...
"We are pleased to announce Atheros has released ath9k to the community. This driver is aimed at inclusion to the Linux kernel and supports all Atheros IEEE 802.11n devices."

Looks like good news for we Atherosians! Do we wait for this to be incorporated or grab it from somewhere?

http://madwifi.org/wiki/news/20080725/a ... driver-for

[tempestuous]

I just tried to compile the ath9k module against Barry's latest 2.6.25.11 kernel. Unfortunately it failed with this error

Code: Select all

/usr/src/ath9k/ksrc/beacon.c:426: error: too few arguments to function 'ieee80211_beacon_get'

I suspect that it would work if I compiled the full mac80211 wifi stack from git, but this would then involve ugrading Puppy's wifi subsystem. I think it would be best just to wait until this driver becomes part of the standard kernel.

[galbicka]

Will Deep Thought 4.2 support ath9k? Hoping to get my Dlink dwa-652 and dir-655 talking at better than g speeds. Currently using ndiswrapper on 4.1.2 with wep. Hoping to be able to use wpa2/aes soon.

[galbicka]

Since 4.2 is based on the 2.6.25 kernel it is my guess ath9k support is not available yet. Any hopes of a pup distro based on 2.6.27 any time soon? If not can anyone give me some direction on whether it is possible to do this procedure on 4.1.2 or 4.2?
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download

[tempestuous]

Any hopes of a pup distro based on 2.6.27 any time soon?

Already done, four months ago:
"Unnamed pupplet (puppy411 kernel-2.6.27.5 Xorg-7.4 LXDE)"
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=36592

[galbicka]

already done

Thanks - ran across that after my post. I downloaded it yesterday and will burn it and test today and see if it plays better with my wireless equipment.

[galbicka]

That distro looks nice but won't boot on my older laptop with 333 MHz AMD-K6-2 processor. Seems the later kernels don't support the older processors. So would it be possible to perform this procedure on the 4.1.2 distro with the 2.6.25 kernel? Are kernel headers installed in puppy distros?

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download

[tempestuous]

So would it be possible to perform this procedure on the 4.1.2 distro with the 2.6.25 kernel

Yes, but it requires a fair amount of effort. To build the latest wifi drivers you must also build the entire wifi subsystem.
You will need the Puppy development tools (devx), and also the Puppy-compatible 2.6.25.16 kernel source.

That distro looks nice but won't boot on my older laptop with 333 MHz AMD-K6-2 processor.

An easy fix might be to boot with SMP features disabled, as I just explained here -
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=41190

[galbicka]

An easy fix might be to boot with SMP features disabled

Tried that great suggestion but it didn't make any difference. This newer kernel still won't boot. Halts with messgae "Cmov - Unable to boot - please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU."

[galbicka]

I got the unamed puplet distro to boot on a Dell Inspiron 8000 fine and was able to use the network wizard to configure my DWA-652 using the ath9k module. It claims that this module doesn't support WPA though. This defeats the main reason I wanted to use it. The DIR-655 router will not operate in n mode with WEP security. Has anyone had any success using ath9k with WPA?

[tempestuous]

It claims that this module doesn't support WPA though.

That's a problem of the Network Wizard (constantly) needing to catch up with the latest network drivers.
Dougal's latest revision of the Network Wizard adds support for the ath9k driver, but unfortunately he recently removed it from the "Improved Network Wizard" thread here
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=31522

I have just attached it to this post -
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 280#295280

[galbicka]

Thanks for the tip. Would it be correct to assume if I configured the adapter at bootup with commands in a config file instead of using the network wizard WPA would be functional? That was going to be my next test. If not then I would go ahead and install the updated network manager pet.

[tempestuous]

Would it be correct to assume if I configured the adapter at bootup with commands in a config file instead of using the network wizard WPA would be functional?

Yes, but that's what the Network Wizard does anyway - it creates a configuration file which is then read at each bootup.

But if you want to streamline the wifi configuration commands, refer to
"How to configure wifi from the commandline"
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=22469
You can add your own startup commands to /etc/rc.d/rc.local

[galbicka]

Your excellent link is where I previously learned how to configure my adapter from the command line for 4.1.2 using ndiswrapper and WEP. I was also successful in configuring it using the later version network wizard you pointed me to with ath9k and WPA2 on the later version kernel used in the unnamed pup. The speed was disappointing though - nothing close to advertised n speeds. I need to do some more tweaking on the router side to see if I can improve this though. If I get done proving ath9k offers better performance/security than ndiswrapper for my DWA-652 I will then still have to figure out how to get this running on my older laptop.

[galbicka]

After tweaking my DIR-655 wireless router settings I was able to get great results with ath9k drivers in upup and my DWA-652 adapter. Using WPA2/AES only in n mode only with no other access points (b or g) running I consistently connected at 270 mbps with great range and zero transmit/receive errors. This is much better than using ndiswrapper around the xp drivers. Now I need to solve how to get this running on a platform that supports my old laptop.

[edoc]

I downloaded the April 1st Network Wizard and installed it to a 421 install - no change.

Still shows as "Network Wizard (old version).

I need ath9k for this Acer Aspire 5535 laptop (not a netbook).

Do I need to run Fatpup or unnamed in order to have access to ath9k or is there a drivr somewhere that works in 421 that I am failing to locate?