Fedora 8 Atheros wifi/ D-Link wifi...frustrated

[Nu-kid]

I just got a Toshiba A215-S6804. The istall was smooth as butter. The builtin Wifi is Atheros AR5006EG. Fedora can see the the device it even shows up under Network Configuration. However I could never get it to work. I typed ifconfig -a it was there as wlan0 along with eth0. If I clicked Activate under Network Configuration I kept getting SSIOCFLAGS message. I typed in the SSID of my network but never got nothing. WHy???
Please some one explain to me why..

2nd After 2 days of trying I decided to buy a USB D-link wireless adapter. Funny thing about that it doesn't ever initialize. I figured since it's Usb it must be easier, but the light never comes on the usb device. SO I read many many many threads about both of these issues. I Installed Ndiswrapper for the USB D-Link. When I type lsusb it sees the usb wireless device but the activation light doesn't come on. After installing Ndiswrapper I go to Network COnfiguration, under the HArdware tab it shows ndiswrapper wireless wlan0. But I can't get it to work.
Why? Please if anybody knows the answer Please help. It's been 3 days and no wireless!!!!
It just seems to me that Wireless adapters and Fedora don't mix. Especially after allll those threads I've read.
Thnx.

[scottro]

http://home.nyc.rr.com/computertaiju...less.html#5007

You probably have a 5007EG. If you haven't yet destroyed the machine in frustration, you can go through the steps in the link above, assuming that you are running 32 bit. (There's a link to a thread of getting it working with 64 bit but it didn't work for me.)
As for why (since you ask for an explanation), I think that what happens is that Fedora (and Linux kernels in general) see that there's an Atheros card, but aren't able to properly identify it--that's why you see it listed, but it never works. It's aggravating and I wish that we could organize all the Linux/BSD users to start boycotting various laptops to change it.

As for a USB adapter, after doing a search like Fedora wireless usb out of the box I tried the Linksys WUSB54GC which worked out of the box. (However, some Ubuntu users have had trouble with it.)

Good luck, and as you can see from your search of the forums, you aren't alone. It's not Fedora, it's Linux and the fact that hardware manufacturers feel that it will hurt them in some way. The laptop manufacturers save money by using the chipsets and wireless cards of these doodie head manufacturers. It probably costs the laptop people more to use an Intel card that works out of the box than the Atheros one. (If you can find the buried Ubuntu laptops on Dell's site, and look at the specs, you'll note that they, at least sometimes, use a different wireless card than the same laptop running MS.)

Good luck, and we all do know it's frustrating. I think that the next time I buy a laptop I'm going to buy one from System76 or another one who preps them for Linux. My time and stress levels are probably worth the extra money.

[MrHappy]

Hi Nu-kid

I had problems getting wireless to work on Fedora 8 and found the following sources of information useful.

http://fedoramobile.org/wireless

http://www.linuxwireless.org/

http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk/products/wireless/

http://live.gnome.org/DarrenAlbers/NetworkManagerFAQ/

I hope some of them help you.

MrHappy

[Nu-kid]

OK...SInce I got tired of spending so much time with the built in ATheros WiFi that didn't work as well as the D-link PCexpress card that didn't work. I was able to return the PC for a full refund.
Now..My question is who knows of a good PC between $800 -$1200 with Wireless -N that will work soon as I install Fedora 8. Please point me in the right direction.

When I was younger without Wife and child I could afford to spend days of hours on this stuff. But not anymore.
Thnx.

[scottro]

System76 specificially builds for Linux compatibility. The Lenovo Y-510, according to a thread on Ubuntu forums also works with wireless out of the box.

I would recommend that you write a very polite letter to the manufacturer and the store where you bought it and explain that you are returning it because it isn't Linux compatible and you don't feel you should have to make an effort to make it work, especially when their competitors have Linux ready computers. Perhaps if enough people do that, the manufacturers will start paying attention.

Please do realize though, that if you take my advice, it will probably be ignored by the recepients--my thought is that the more people who DO do this, eventually, they might realize it can cost them money. I keep thinking of trying a manufacturer by manufacturer boycott, but like you, I've run out of time.

I do understand your aggravation--I feel the same way--4 years ago it was fun, now I want wireless, sound, video and printing to Just Work(TM). I don't feel I should have to google to get any of that going.
Sound is often Linux's fault, it should be an OOTB thing by now, in my opinion. Video detection is really excellent--I'm not a gamer, the generic nv driver is fine for me--all those desktop effects get old to me very quickly, I want to be able to use my desktop to have several terminals and a browser open at once.

Printing can often be a hassle, and now that CUPS has been bought by Apple, I hate to say it, as I think Apple has more doody heads than MS, but it's gotten really pretty brainless. Wireless is the manufacturers refusing to give driver information even though they should see that it hasn't hurt Intel to at least provide binary blobs.

Also, when you do buy your computer that is more Linux compatible, especially if you don't use System76 (http://system76.com/) be sure to write them as well, telling them that you were going to buy their competitor's product but the fact that theirs was Linux compatible was the deciding factor.

[MrHappy]

Also worth a read are the following sites

http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk/products/laptops/

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9781

http://www.emperorlinux.com/

MrHappy

[lovenemesis]

Originally Posted by scottro

http://home.nyc.rr.com/computertaiju...less.html#5007

You probably have a 5007EG. If you haven't yet destroyed the machine in frustration, you can go through the steps in the link above, assuming that you are running 32 bit. (There's a link to a thread of getting it working with 64 bit but it didn't work for me.)
As for why (since you ask for an explanation), I think that what happens is that Fedora (and Linux kernels in general) see that there's an Atheros card, but aren't able to properly identify it--that's why you see it listed, but it never works. It's aggravating and I wish that we could organize all the Linux/BSD users to start boycotting various laptops to change it.

Thank you very much for pointing it out and providing the link above!

I've struggled to get my 5007EG work for a long time. I am a member of Linux user group in my university. Another guy in the group wrote a HOWTO configure Ubuntu wireless to access to the campus wireless network. It's quite simple for his Intel adaptor. As a Fedora user, I thought I could also write a HOWTO for Fedora.

Well, it seems I have to give up my test, at least on my laptop, because I'm running Fedora 8
X86_64 and having a 5007EG.

[scottro]

There's a link on my page to an Ubuntu thread (for another Acer but the same card.) Some people have gotten it working with ndiswrapper in X86_64, but I wasn't one of them. iwlist scan would give results, but it could never connect.

There is always hope that MadWifi will come out with 64 bit driver, but it was spoken of months and months ago and nothing happened.

[lovenemesis]

Originally Posted by scottro

There's a link on my page to an Ubuntu thread (for another Acer but the same card.) Some people have gotten it working with ndiswrapper in X86_64, but I wasn't one of them. iwlist scan would give results, but it could never connect.

The same to my madwifi. The wpa_supplicant scan give results, but never connect. It always complain that it cannot cooperated with driver, although I replaced the official wpa_supplicant rpm with the latest release and compiled with madwifi_devel.

[scottro]

To my knowledge, (though I have NOT been following it lately) the official MadWifi doesn't even support the 32 bit version. You have to use that patched version from October 2007.

I could be wrong about that, however, looking at the ticket on MadWifi's site, I don't see any indication that it's changed.

(I see SuSE has an rpm for the patched version though. The page is in German but I see 32 bit in red, so I guess it's the same deal).

[lovenemesis]

Originally Posted by scottro

To my knowledge, (though I have NOT been following it lately) the official MadWifi doesn't even support the 32 bit version. You have to use that patched version from October 2007.

What do you mean that it doesn;t even support 32bit version?

I installed the madwifi and madwifi_devel from livna f8 x86_64 repo. Of course it comes with a kernel mod for the latest kernel.

And the version of madwifi is 0.9.4, released on Feb 2008.

[scottro]

What I mean is that, poking around the MadWifi site, I don't see any indication that this patch was merged into the official releases. It seems that it remains a sort of outside thing.

I could be wrong about that, I haven't checked lately, but last time I looked at the thread, which I link to on that page I mention above, there was nothing about the patch being taken into the official tree.

[lovenemesis]

Oh, I see.

I didn't check but probably not been merged into official tree according to the latest version right now.