Linux Debian support - Etch & Wifi Problem

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Author Etch & Wifi Problem
Mark Shelby

2007-04-12, 1:14 am

I am running etch on a laptop.
I can't get etch to properly use my wireless card. It's a Belkin (Atheros?)
F5D7010 card. Has anyone gotten this to work?

I know the card works. I have tried several live distro's and they all boot
right up with the card working fine. Debian 4.0 doesn't.

Any help appreciated.
repo

2007-04-12, 7:15 am

On Wed, 11 Apr 2007 21:29:18 -0400, Mark Shelby wrote:

> I am running etch on a laptop.
> I can't get etch to properly use my wireless card. It's a Belkin (Atheros?)
> F5D7010 card. Has anyone gotten this to work?
>
> I know the card works. I have tried several live distro's and they all boot
> right up with the card working fine. Debian 4.0 doesn't.
>
> Any help appreciated.


Did you tried ndiswrapper ?

--
Chaos, panic & disorder - my work here is done
http://beginnerslinux.org
ray

2007-04-12, 1:28 pm

On Wed, 11 Apr 2007 21:29:18 -0400, Mark Shelby wrote:

> I am running etch on a laptop.
> I can't get etch to properly use my wireless card. It's a Belkin (Atheros?)
> F5D7010 card. Has anyone gotten this to work?
>
> I know the card works. I have tried several live distro's and they all boot
> right up with the card working fine. Debian 4.0 doesn't.
>
> Any help appreciated.


Are you sure it's Atheros? My F5D7010 was broadcomm.

Andreas Janssen

2007-04-12, 1:28 pm

Hello

Mark Shelby (<mshelby1@windstream.net> ) wrote:

> I am running etch on a laptop.
> I can't get etch to properly use my wireless card. It's a Belkin
> (Atheros?) F5D7010 card. Has anyone gotten this to work?
>
> I know the card works. I have tried several live distro's and they all
> boot right up with the card working fine. Debian 4.0 doesn't.
>
> Any help appreciated.


I use several atheros based cards. However please first run lspci and
post the output here so we can be sure that they really use an atheros
chipset.

regards
Andreas Janssen

--
Andreas Janssen <andreas.janssen@bigfoot.com>
PGP-Key-ID: 0xDC801674 ICQ #17079270
Registered Linux User #267976
http://www.andreas-janssen.de/debian-tipps-sarge.html
Mark Shelby

2007-04-13, 1:14 am

lspci outputs:

Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5005G 802.11abg NIC

So I wonder what I am missing? I am certain it is a few simple files, but I
just don't know enough about wireless to make it go. I tried ndiswrapper
and installed a INF file for Win98/ME/XP but it didn't make a bit of
difference.

Maybe I should back up a bit... I currently have a minimal install on the
laptop but I have tried the full install Etch and several levels in
between. My system is just not downloading the right programs to use
wireless. Problem is I don't know what all programs I need to get it
working. I am using KDE on top of Debian etch. Can anyone point me in the
right direction?

Seems like I have noticed a lot of questions about wireless ethernet cards
not working in etch. Wonder what is up with that? I can boot up on the same
laptop with a live cd distro (Nimblex) and the pcmcia card is detected just
fine and works perfectly.

Help, somebody please point me to a list of all the files I need to install
for wireless networking!!!!
Andreas Janssen

2007-04-13, 7:13 am

Hello

Mark Shelby (<mshelby1@windstream.net> ) wrote:

> lspci outputs:
>
> Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5005G 802.11abg
> NIC


Alright, that looks good.

> So I wonder what I am missing? I am certain it is a few simple files,
> but I just don't know enough about wireless to make it go. I tried
> ndiswrapper and installed a INF file for Win98/ME/XP but it didn't
> make a bit of difference.


There is no need for ndiswrapper, Debian has native drivers. Make sure
that your /etc/apt/sources.list does not only include "main" but
"main contrib non-free" (only servers, do not change CD/DVD entries),
run apt-get update, and install the driver.

1. install build environment:
apt-get install build-essential module-assistant
2. install kernel headers
module-assistant prepare
3. install driver
module-assistant auto-install madwifi-source

That's it. After that, load the driver using

modprobe ath_pci

If you use udev, the driver will be loaded automatically at boot time.
Use iwconfig/wpasupplicant to configure the card, or network-manager if
you want point and click configuration.

> Maybe I should back up a bit... I currently have a minimal install on
> the laptop but I have tried the full install Etch and several levels
> in between. My system is just not downloading the right programs to
> use wireless. Problem is I don't know what all programs I need to get
> it working. I am using KDE on top of Debian etch. Can anyone point me
> in the right direction?


You should install wireless-tools (includes iwconfig), wpasupplicant if
you want to use wpa/wpa2 encryption (recommended), network-manager and
network-manager-kde if you want to configure the card from within KDE.

> Seems like I have noticed a lot of questions about wireless ethernet
> cards not working in etch. Wonder what is up with that? I can boot up
> on the same laptop with a live cd distro (Nimblex) and the pcmcia card
> is detected just fine and works perfectly.


They probably include the driver pre-built on their CD. Debian however
does not, because the driver is not free software and Debian does not
distribute software on it's CDs that do not comply to the Debian free
software guidelines. So you need to install the driver from the net.

regards
Andreas Janssen

--
Andreas Janssen <andreas.janssen@bigfoot.com>
PGP-Key-ID: 0xDC801674 ICQ #17079270
Registered Linux User #267976
http://www.andreas-janssen.de/debian-tipps-sarge.html
AJackson

2007-04-15, 7:13 pm

On Apr 13, 11:09 am, Andreas Janssen <andreas.jans...@bigfoot.com>
wrote:
> Hello
>
> Mark Shelby (<mshel...@windstream.net> ) wrote:
>
>
> Alright, that looks good.


....

> They probably include the driver pre-built on their CD. Debian however
> does not, because the driver is not free software and Debian does not
> distribute software on it's CDs that do not comply to the Debian free
> software guidelines. So you need to install the driver from the net.
>
> regards
> Andreas Janssen


Realy good answer! Like I wrote it myself ;-)
Should get Mark going with the wireless-card.

It shouldn't be hard doing stuff Debian way, like shown here. Jusally
one doesn't need to compile the kernel to get extra stuff in. Just
try module-assistant and go from there. If some module drivers isn't
packed, you need to do some more stuff. But if it is, is realy isn't
more then this.

Good Luck

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