Trouble with setting my Wireless Card

[nshiell]

Hello all,
I am new to Salix. I was introduced to Linux through Ubuntu, but wanted to try something different to try to learn a bit more about Linux. The installation of Salix went mostly smoothly. However, I am having trouble getting the drivers for my wireless card installed. My card is the following:

Atheros 802.11b/g/n

I downloaded linux-2.6-allstable compat-wireless-releases from inuxwireless.org/en/users/Download. And am using it to install the ath9k driver. When I follow the steps on the website I get the following error after trying to 'make' :

"WARNING: CONFIG_CFG80211_WEXT will be deactivated or not working because kernel was compiled with CONFIG_WIRELESS_EXT=n. Tools using wext interface like iwconfig will not work. To activate it build your kernel e.g. with CONFIG_LIBIPW=m."

I have gathered that during the installation the tools requires weren't installed. Will I have to do a full reinstall to get them? And if so, why are they not included by default?
Anyway, thanks in advance for your help,

Nicholi.

[Shador]

"WARNING: CONFIG_CFG80211_WEXT will be deactivated or not working because kernel was compiled with CONFIG_WIRELESS_EXT=n. Tools using wext interface like iwconfig will not work. To activate it build your kernel e.g. with CONFIG_LIBIPW=m."

That's not the Salix kernel.

I downloaded linux-2.6-allstable compat-wireless-releases from inuxwireless.org/en/users/Download. And am using it to install the ath9k driver. When I follow the steps on the website I get the following error after trying to 'make' :

atk9k driver is included by default.

[nshiell]

hmm, if the driver is included by default is there some where I need to go to tell Salix to use it?

It seems like Salix is completely unaware of my wireless card, since it doesn't recognize the 'iwconfig' command.

[mimosa]

Did you install Core or Basic, rather than Full? It shouldn't make any difference, but only Full has Wicd.

What do you mean when you say Salix

doesn't recognize the 'iwconfig' command

?

Are you running it as root?

In any case, given what Shador syas about the kernel, something pretty strange seems to have happened to your installation. You could try testing on that machine with a Salix Live CD (possibly on USB) just to see if you have the same problems.

I recommend trying with wicd. You shouldn't need to do any manual configuration, since it appears the driver concerned is installed by default. Maybe something got broken when you tried to install it again?

[gapan]

What is the output of:

Code: Select all

uname -a

and

Code: Select all

zcat /proc/config.gz |grep LIBIPW

?

[nshiell]

Linux DarkStar 2.6.37.6 #3 SMPSat Apr 9 22:49:32 CDT 2011 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) II Neo K125 Processor AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

and

CONFIG_LIBIPW=m
# CONFIG_LIBIPW_DEBUG is no set

[nshiell]

when I try iwconfig I get:

lo no wireless extensions

eth0 no wireless extensions

[Shador]

Ah, I probably know what's wrong. I guess you need to copy /boot/config to /usr/src/linux/.config and run make prepare in that directory to make the build work.

But as I said before the driver is already included. Just run modprobe ath9k. Do you have wicd installed?

[nshiell]

Yup I have wicd installed. I tried copying the file over as you said but there is no such directory /usr/src/linux/ its just the linux/ that doesnt exist.

[gapan]

You didn't answer Mimosa's question: did you do a full or a basic installation?