anyone have an Acer TravelMate notebook or anything with an Atheros wifi chip?

[Lonni J Friedman]

I just purchased an Acer TravelMate 2480 notebook, after researching
it and reading many reports that it works well in Linux.  That seems
to be true, up until I attempt to do anything with the built-in
wireless device.

Its got an Atheros chipset based device, which identifies itself in lspci as:

Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5006EG 802.11 b/g
Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)  168c:001c

I've installed Fedora 8-x86, with all updates, and then installed
madwifi-0.9.4 from the ATrpms yum repo.  I blacklisted the ath5k
driver in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.  Unfortunately, all attempts to
configure the ath0 interface are failing.  In dmesg I'm seeing:

ath_hal: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel.
ath_hal: 0.9.30.13 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, AR5416, RF5111, RF5112,
RF2413, RF5413, RF2133)
ath_pci: 0.9.4.5 (0.9.4)
PCI: Enabling device 0000:03:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:03:00.0[A] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:03:00.0 to 64
MadWifi: unable to attach hardware: 'Hardware revision not supported'
(HAL status 13)
ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:03:00.0 disabled

To say the least, that isn't promising.

I attempted to fall back to using the ath5k driver (after
unblacklisting it), but that one isn't working either.  It detects the
device ok, but any attempts to bring up an interface fail.  I've got
several other systems on the same wireless network that aren't having
any issues, so I'm fairly confident its not the network.

Note, all of the above is before even attempting to use any form of
encryption.  I want to get the thing functional to the point that I
can ping other systems, and then I'll add in encryption.

Anyone have any success stories or suggestions?  thanks

[Lonni J Friedman]

On 11/29/07, Terry Polzin <foxec208(a)wowway.com&gt; wrote:
>  On Thursday 29 November 2007 11:13:23 Lonni J Friedman wrote:
>  > I just purchased an Acer TravelMate 2480 notebook, after researching
>  > it and reading many reports that it works well in Linux.  That seems
>  > to be true, up until I attempt to do anything with the built-in
>  > wireless device.
>  >
>  > Its got an Atheros chipset based device, which identifies itself in lspci
>  > as:
>  >
>  > Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5006EG 802.11 b/g
>  > Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)  168c:001c
>  >
>  > I've installed Fedora 8-x86, with all updates, and then installed
>  > madwifi-0.9.4 from the ATrpms yum repo.  I blacklisted the ath5k
>  > driver in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.  Unfortunately, all attempts to
>  > configure the ath0 interface are failing.  In dmesg I'm seeing:
>  >
>  > ath_hal: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel.
>  > ath_hal: 0.9.30.13 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, AR5416, RF5111, RF5112,
>  > RF2413, RF5413, RF2133)
>  > ath_pci: 0.9.4.5 (0.9.4)
>  > PCI: Enabling device 0000:03:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)
>  > ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:03:00.0[A] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
>  > PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:03:00.0 to 64
>  > MadWifi: unable to attach hardware: 'Hardware revision not supported'
>  > (HAL status 13)
>  > ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:03:00.0 disabled
>  >
>  > To say the least, that isn't promising.
>  >
>  > I attempted to fall back to using the ath5k driver (after
>  > unblacklisting it), but that one isn't working either.  It detects the
>  > device ok, but any attempts to bring up an interface fail.  I've got
>  > several other systems on the same wireless network that aren't having
>  > any issues, so I'm fairly confident its not the network.
>  >
>  > Note, all of the above is before even attempting to use any form of
>  > encryption.  I want to get the thing functional to the point that I
>  > can ping other systems, and then I'll add in encryption.
>  >
>  > Anyone have any success stories or suggestions?  thanks
>
>  Check back a couple days on the list there is another thread, same issue. 
If you're referring to the stuff in this thread, I've already tried
that, and its not working:
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2007-November/msg04763.html

[Lonni J Friedman]

On 11/29/07, Kelly Miller <lightsolphoenix(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>  On Nov 29, 2007 12:06 PM, Lonni J Friedman <netllama(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>  >
>  > Excellent, thanks.  I'll definitely give this a try tonight.
>  >
>
>  Oh damn, I forgot to mention something...
>
>  I was just thinking "There was a reason I didn't use Fedora on this
>  laptop..." and now I remember.  ndiswrapper doesn't work on Fedora with this
>  chipset because it uses the 4K config stack.  It'll just crash... 
Thanks for the warning.  I'm not opposed to rolling my own kernel with
an 8k stack.  Certainly would be easier than having to shell out more
money for another random wifi NIC which may or may not work reliably.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
L. Friedman                                    netllama(a)gmail.com
LlamaLand                       https://netllama.linux-sxs.org

[Lonni J Friedman]

On 11/29/07, Kelly Miller <lightsolphoenix(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>  On Nov 29, 2007 11:36 AM, Lonni J Friedman <netllama(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>  > So you did try using it with ndiswrapper?  If so, I'd like to try that
>  > out before I spend any more money, but I don't see AR5007EG listed on
>  > the ndiswrapper website.  Which driver did you use, and where did you
>  > get it?
>  >
>
>
>  Yes, I did, actually.  Though technically it does work, sometimes the system
>  just forgets the wireless is installed, and sometimes ndiswrapper just
>  refuses to connect to any wireless hub.  But if you want to try it, you can
>  get the XP drivers from
>  http://www.atheros.cz/download.php?atheros=AR5007EG&system=1
>  ; they do work with ndiswrapper.
>
>  Also, you may want to search for and install the acer_acpi program... 
Excellent, thanks.  I'll definitely give this a try tonight.

[Kelly Miller]

On Nov 29, 2007 11:36 AM, Lonni J Friedman <netllama(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:

>  So you did try using it with ndiswrapper?  If so, I'd like to try
> that
>  out before I spend any more money, but I don't see AR5007EG listed on
>  the ndiswrapper website.  Which driver did you use, and where did you
>  get it? <https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list>
>  

Yes, I did, actually.  Though technically it does work, sometimes the system
just forgets the wireless is installed, and sometimes ndiswrapper just
refuses to connect to any wireless hub.  But if you want to try it, you can
get the XP drivers from
http://www.atheros.cz/download.php?atheros=AR5007EG&system=1 ; they do work
with ndiswrapper.

Also, you may want to search for and install the acer_acpi program...

[Lonni J Friedman]

On 11/29/07, Kelly Miller <lightsolphoenix(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>  On Nov 29, 2007 11:13 AM, Lonni J Friedman <netllama(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>  > Note, all of the above is before even attempting to use any form of
>  > encryption.  I want to get the thing functional to the point that I
>  > can ping other systems, and then I'll add in encryption.
>  >
>  > Anyone have any success stories or suggestions?  thanks
>
>  Despite what lspci says, the wireless you have is NOT actually an AR5006EG,
>  it is in fact an AR5007EG (interestingly enough, Windows XP makes the same
>  identification mistake).  That is why it doesn't work; neither madwifi nor
>  ath5k currently support the AR5007EG.  At all. 
ugh

>  I managed to 'fix' it by waltzing down to the nearby computer store and
>  buying a wireless PCMCIA card, because madwifi and ath5k won't work, and
>  ndiswrapper with this chipset is horribly unpredictable. 
*sigh*  thanks for the tip, I do appreciate it.

So you did try using it with ndiswrapper?  If so, I'd like to try that
out before I spend any more money, but I don't see AR5007EG listed on
the ndiswrapper website.  Which driver did you use, and where did you
get it?

thanks

[Kelly Miller]

On Nov 29, 2007 11:13 AM, Lonni J Friedman <netllama(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:

>  Note, all of the above is before even attempting to use any form of
>  encryption.  I want to get the thing functional to the point that I
>  can ping other systems, and then I'll add in encryption.
>
>  Anyone have any success stories or suggestions? 
> thanks<https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list> 

Despite what lspci says, the wireless you have is NOT actually an AR5006EG,
it is in fact an AR5007EG (interestingly enough, Windows XP makes the same
identification mistake).  That is why it doesn't work; neither madwifi nor
ath5k currently support the AR5007EG.  At all.

I managed to 'fix' it by waltzing down to the nearby computer store and
buying a wireless PCMCIA card, because madwifi and ath5k won't work, and
ndiswrapper with this chipset is horribly unpredictable.

[Patrick Lists]

On Thu, 2007-11-29 at 12:29 -0500, Kelly Miller wrote:
>  
>  
>  On Nov 29, 2007 12:06 PM, Lonni J Friedman <netllama(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>          
>          Excellent, thanks.  I'll definitely give this a try tonight.
>  
>  Oh damn, I forgot to mention something... 
>  
>  I was just thinking "There was a reason I didn't use Fedora on this
>  laptop..." and now I remember.  ndiswrapper doesn't work on Fedora
>  with this chipset because it uses the 4K config stack.  It'll just
>  crash...  
atrpms.net has kernel rpms with an 8K stack. These kernel rpms contain
more stuff like suspend2. Might try that one and see if it solves your
problem.

http://atrpms.net/name/kernel-tuxonice/

Regards,
Patrick

[Kelly Miller]

On Nov 29, 2007 12:06 PM, Lonni J Friedman <netllama(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:

>  Excellent, thanks.  I'll definitely give this a try
> tonight.<https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list>
>  
Oh damn, I forgot to mention something...

I was just thinking "There was a reason I didn't use Fedora on this
laptop..." and now I remember.  ndiswrapper doesn't work on Fedora with this
chipset because it uses the 4K config stack.  It'll just crash...

[Terry Polzin]

On Thursday 29 November 2007 11:13:23 Lonni J Friedman wrote:
>  I just purchased an Acer TravelMate 2480 notebook, after researching
>  it and reading many reports that it works well in Linux.  That seems
>  to be true, up until I attempt to do anything with the built-in
>  wireless device.
>
>  Its got an Atheros chipset based device, which identifies itself in lspci
>  as:
>
>  Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5006EG 802.11 b/g
>  Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)  168c:001c
>
>  I've installed Fedora 8-x86, with all updates, and then installed
>  madwifi-0.9.4 from the ATrpms yum repo.  I blacklisted the ath5k
>  driver in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.  Unfortunately, all attempts to
>  configure the ath0 interface are failing.  In dmesg I'm seeing:
>
>  ath_hal: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel.
>  ath_hal: 0.9.30.13 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, AR5416, RF5111, RF5112,
>  RF2413, RF5413, RF2133)
>  ath_pci: 0.9.4.5 (0.9.4)
>  PCI: Enabling device 0000:03:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)
>  ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:03:00.0[A] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
>  PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:03:00.0 to 64
>  MadWifi: unable to attach hardware: 'Hardware revision not supported'
>  (HAL status 13)
>  ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:03:00.0 disabled
>
>  To say the least, that isn't promising.
>
>  I attempted to fall back to using the ath5k driver (after
>  unblacklisting it), but that one isn't working either.  It detects the
>  device ok, but any attempts to bring up an interface fail.  I've got
>  several other systems on the same wireless network that aren't having
>  any issues, so I'm fairly confident its not the network.
>
>  Note, all of the above is before even attempting to use any form of
>  encryption.  I want to get the thing functional to the point that I
>  can ping other systems, and then I'll add in encryption.
>
>  Anyone have any success stories or suggestions?  thanks 
Check back a couple days on the list there is another thread, same issue.

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Lonni J Friedman <netllama(a)gmail.com&gt;

| Sadly, even with the 8k stacks kernel, I'm getting an immediate kernel
| BUG() followed by crash of the OS when doing a "modprobe ndiswrapper".
|  This is with the latest ndiswrapper release (1.50) as well as the
| 1.47 release.  I guess i'm entirely screwed at this point.

My experience may or may not be relevant.  I set up Ubuntu Feisty on my son's
Acer Aspire 5570-2792.  I wrote up my experience here:
  https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestingTeam/AcerAspire5570-2792
Near the end is a description of the wireless part of the story.

I had tried madwifi + HAL and got HAL status 13.  That was not even
logged.  Anyway, HAL is a black box and apparently the open source
folks cannot to get the author to respond to problem reports.

This might be relevant: http://madwifi.org/ticket/1206

I ended up trying ndiswrapper.  It did not work.  But I found the
author on IRC and he actually sshed into my machine (with permission),
figured out the problem, and checked a fix into the repository.  Now
that is service!

I've not touched the setup since May -- the box is thousands of
kilometers away.  I don't know how reliable the WiFi is.

[Lonni J Friedman]

On 11/29/07, Patrick <fedora-list(a)puzzled.xs4all.nl&gt; wrote:
>  On Thu, 2007-11-29 at 12:29 -0500, Kelly Miller wrote:
>  >
>  >
>  > On Nov 29, 2007 12:06 PM, Lonni J Friedman <netllama(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>  >
>  >         Excellent, thanks.  I'll definitely give this a try tonight.
>  >
>  > Oh damn, I forgot to mention something...
>  >
>  > I was just thinking "There was a reason I didn't use Fedora on this
>  > laptop..." and now I remember.  ndiswrapper doesn't work on Fedora
>  > with this chipset because it uses the 4K config stack.  It'll just
>  > crash...
>
>  atrpms.net has kernel rpms with an 8K stack. These kernel rpms contain
>  more stuff like suspend2. Might try that one and see if it solves your
>  problem.
>
>  http://atrpms.net/name/kernel-tuxonice/
>  
Sadly, even with the 8k stacks kernel, I'm getting an immediate kernel
BUG() followed by crash of the OS when doing a "modprobe ndiswrapper".
 This is with the latest ndiswrapper release (1.50) as well as the
1.47 release.  I guess i'm entirely screwed at this point.