Atheros Drivers for a/b/g/n mini-pci card?

Rex B · External Since: Mar 05, 2007 Posts: 2

I picked up a Lennovo Z61p and was able to install SUSE 10.1 Linux on
it. Unfortunately, it looks like the included Atheros 5008 chipset
doesn't yet have support. I checked with Atheros and their web site
said they were expecting to have a driver for Linux out in Q1/2007,
but I haven't seen it yet.

When I checked MadWiFi they had support for several other atheros
drivers but indicated that the current drivers did not support this
new card.

I can use a PCMCIA or USB WiFi device until the new card becomes
available but I was wondering if anyone had any other information
about this card and drivers? Has anyone sucessfully figured out a way
to get these cards to work with Linux?

kawk · External Since: Oct 22, 2006 Posts: 8

On Mar 5, 8:37 am, "Rex B" <rex.ball....TakeThisOut@gmail.com> wrote:
> I picked up a Lennovo Z61p and was able to install SUSE 10.1 Linux on
> it. Unfortunately, it looks like the included Atheros 5008 chipset
> doesn't yet have support. I checked with Atheros and their web site
> said they were expecting to have a driver for Linux out in Q1/2007,
> but I haven't seen it yet.
>
> When I checked MadWiFi they had support for several other atheros
> drivers but indicated that the current drivers did not support this
> new card.
>
> I can use a PCMCIA or USB WiFi device until the new card becomes
> available but I was wondering if anyone had any other information
> about this card and drivers? Has anyone sucessfully figured out a way
> to get these cards to work with Linux?

Perhaps this might be relavant: http://linux.wordpress.com/2006/05/21/suse-101-and-atheros-based-wifi-cards/

Although you've probably seen that already, and I'm just pointing out
things you've already done. Sorry if I am . . .

Looks like this is not a common problem, maybe try another distubution
rather than SuSE? Or try Knoppix and see if that works, even
temporarily.

Rex Ballard · External Since: Feb 22, 2006 Posts: 947

On Mar 14, 1:50 pm, k... DeleteThis @theprogrammingsite.com wrote:
> On Mar 5, 8:37 am, "Rex B" <rex.ball... DeleteThis @gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I picked up a Lennovo Z61p and was able to install SUSE 10.1Linuxon
> > it. Unfortunately, it looks like the includedAtheros5008 chipset
> > doesn't yet have support. I checked withAtherosand their web site
> > said they were expecting to have a driver forLinuxout in Q1/2007,
> > but I haven't seen it yet.
>
> > When I checked MadWiFi they had support for several otheratheros
> > drivers but indicated that the current drivers did not support this
> > new card.
>
> > I can use a PCMCIA or USBWiFidevice until the new card becomes
> > available but I was wondering if anyone had any other information
> > about this card and drivers? Has anyone sucessfully figured out a way
> > to get these cards to work withLinux?
>
> Perhaps this might be relavant:http://linux.wordpress.com/2006/05/21/suse-101-and-atheros-based-wifi...
>
> Although you've probably seen that already, and I'm just pointing out
> things you've already done. Sorry if I am . . .
>
> Looks like this is not a common problem, maybe try another distubution
> rather than SuSE? Or try Knoppix and see if that works, even
> temporarily.

The big problem for the Z61p is that the Atheros a/b/g/n card is so
new that not even madwifi recognizes it.

Here's a link to the description of the chiipset used.

http://www.atheros.com/pt/AR50083NX.htm

The irony is that the a/b/g/n routers are based on Linux, and the
drivers for the chipset are written to Linux. Everything needed at
the foundation level is there, but the hardware configuration table
used by Linux doesn't recognize the chip.

The snippet from LSPCI gives

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M56GL [ATI
Mobility FireGL V5200]
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5752M
Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)

This is the entry for the unknown card.

03:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications, Inc.: Unknown
device 0024 (rev 01)

This is the entry for a Netgear WG511 V2 card, which uses the a/b/g
chipset.

16:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212
802.11abg NIC (rev 01)

The 802.11n standard supports raw throughput of 300 Mb/second, and
compressed rates that are even higher.

My guess is that Atheros may have a contract with Microsoft which
prevents them from permitting the port of the drivers to Linux
clients, probably for a certain period, possibly as little as 3
months. According to Atheros, the "restricted time" would end around
the end of this month.

It's possible that they are waiting for finalization of the 802.11n
draft specification, to make sure that there are no last minute
changes.

This may be as simple as filling in the right values in the format
configuration file.

Rex Ballard · External Since: Feb 22, 2006 Posts: 947

On Mar 14, 1:50 pm, k....TakeThisOut@theprogrammingsite.com wrote:
> On Mar 5, 8:37 am, "Rex B" <rex.ball....TakeThisOut@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I picked up a Lennovo Z61p and was able to install SUSE 10.1Linuxon
> > it. Unfortunately, it looks like the includedAtheros5008 chipset
> > doesn't yet have support. I checked withAtherosand their web site
> > said they were expecting to have a driver forLinuxout in Q1/2007,
> > but I haven't seen it yet.
>
> > When I checked MadWiFi they had support for several otheratheros
> > drivers but indicated that the current drivers did not support this
> > new card.
>
> > I can use a PCMCIA or USBWiFidevice until the new card becomes
> > available but I was wondering if anyone had any other information
> > about this card and drivers? Has anyone sucessfully figured out a way
> > to get these cards to work withLinux?
>
> Perhaps this might be relavant:http://linux.wordpress.com/2006/05/21/suse-101-and-atheros-based-wifi...
>
> Although you've probably seen that already, and I'm just pointing out
> things you've already done. Sorry if I am . . .
>
> Looks like this is not a common problem, maybe try another distubution
> rather than SuSE? Or try Knoppix and see if that works, even
> temporarily.

I just ran update-pciids and Linux now recognizes the card.
I haven't rebooted yet to see if the driver works, but I thought it
would be worth mentioning that at least there is now an entry.

Rex Ballard · External Since: Feb 22, 2006 Posts: 947

On Mar 14, 1:50 pm, k....RemoveThis@theprogrammingsite.com wrote:
> On Mar 5, 8:37 am, "Rex B" <rex.ball....RemoveThis@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I picked up a Lennovo Z61p
> > and was able to install SUSE 10.1Linuxon
> > it.

Run "update-pciids", which will get the newest ids from source forge.

The run "lspci" you should get:
03:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5418
802.11a/b/g/n Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)

As one of the entries.
I'll follow-up when I know whether the driver is working.

Here is an update from MadWiFi

http://madwifi.org/ticket/1001

It looks like Lennovo offers an NDISWrapper compatible driver.
I'll try this as well.