FS#10535 - madwifi 0.9.4.3382-5 breaks wireless

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by Scott H (stonecrest) - Friday, 30 May 2008, 01:19 GMT
Last edited by Thomas Bächler (brain0) - Saturday, 31 May 2008, 16:08 GMT
Task Type Bug Report
Category Packages: Core
Status Closed
Assigned To Alexander Baldeck (kth5)
Thomas Bächler (brain0)
Architecture i686
Severity High
Priority Normal
Reported Version 2007.08-2
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
Votes 0
Private No

Details

Upgraded to kernel26-2.6.25.4-1 and madwifi-0.9.4.3382-5 and I could no longer get wireless to work. It seems that my ath0 interface switched to wlan0 - but if I use that interface, scanning (iwlist wlan0 scan) retrieves no access points while there are many APs around me. I also can't connect to the open AP in my home with its known essid.

Downgraded to kernel26-2.6.24.4-1 and madwifi-0.9.4.3382-3 and everything is working again (using the ath0 interface).

$ lspci | grep Atheros
02:03.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR2413 802.11bg NIC (rev 01)
This task depends upon

Closed by  Thomas Bächler (brain0)
Saturday, 31 May 2008, 16:08 GMT
Reason for closing:  Not a bug
Comment by Michael (SiD) - Friday, 30 May 2008, 10:09 GMT
Which kernel module you are using?

With ath5k, the device is wlan0 and it does not work for me, too.
Using ath_pci module instead of ath5k, the device is ath0 and it (iwlist ath0 scan) works for me.

I added ath5k (and mac80211) to MOD_BLACKLIST=() in rc.conf and ath_pci to MODULES=()

My WLAN card is a NETGEAR WG511T
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212/AR5213 Multiprotocol MAC/baseband processor (rev 01)
Comment by Scott H (stonecrest) - Friday, 30 May 2008, 15:55 GMT
I'm using ath_pci. I haven't tried other modules provided by madwifi but I will do so when I am on my linux laptop again.
Comment by John S. Smith (potatoe) - Saturday, 31 May 2008, 05:01 GMT
I have almost the same problem, occurring with the same version upgrade. My interface switched from ath0 to wlan0 and while I had slightly more luck than the original reporter, I could scan for networks and connect to them, but the connection would be lost and I would get an error even attempting an "ifconfig wlan0 up" after a few seconds, if I was more than 3-4 feet from my base station.

Michael's suggestion fixed it for me. I had always allowed the modules to be auto detected, and as of this version they no longer seem to be correctly detected: ath5k was being loaded (along with ath_pci). I had to add both an explicit ath_pci and a !ath5k blacklisting to my MODULES array in rc.conf (ath_pci is no longer auto detected by itself if I add only !ath5k).

So the problem seems to be with autoloading the modules, not with the modules no longer working themselves.
Comment by Scott H (stonecrest) - Saturday, 31 May 2008, 14:35 GMT
Just tried Michael's suggestion and indeed it works, thanks. Explicitly adding ath_pci and !ath5k to the modules array fixes the issue.

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