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Atheros 802.11a/bg PCI/PCI-E devices (ath5k)
This page describes how to enable support for WiFi devices based on Atheros 802.11a/bg PCI/PCI-E chipsets, using the ath5k driver on Debian systems.
Contents
ath5k is a driver supporting Atheros 802.11a/bg PCI/PCI-E chipsets, included in the mainline Linux kernel since version 2.6.25.
Unlike the MadWifi driver, ath5k does not require a binary HAL (hardware abstraction layer). No firmware is required to be loaded from userspace. Supported devices are listed at the end of this page.
Atheros 802.11a/bg USB devices are supported by the zd1211rw and ar5523 drivers.
Atheros 802.11n PCI/PCI-E devices are supported by the ath9k driver.
Missing Features
As stated1 on the Linux Wireless ath5k driver page:
- XR (eXtended Range)
If required, the above feature is available in the MadWifi driver.
Known Issues
The ath5k driver is in a constant state of development, with varying levels of support for chipsets depending on their age.
- AR242x chipset
Found in the Acer eMachines D620 laptop, among others. This suffers from a "noise floor calibration timeout" bug, which means the wireless may not function after installing Lenny. The bug is fixed since Linux 2.6.28.1.
Lenny users: install a backported kernel image package from Debian Backports.
Installation
The ath5k driver is present in Debian Linux kernel images since version 2.6.24.
Switching from MadWifi to ath5k
The following section can be skipped if MadWifi was not previously used.
Installation of madwifi-tools (version 1:0.9.4~rc2+dfsg-1 and later) installs /etc/modprobe.d/madwifi, which blacklists the ath5k driver.
Purge the madwifi-tools package (aptitude purge madwifi-tools) and run update-initramfs -u -k all to also remove this blacklist from initramfs.
Amend /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules and change 'ath0' to 'wlan0'.
Amend /etc/network/interfaces, changing all references of 'ath0' to 'wlan0'.
- Restart your system.
- Verify that wireless networking is functional.
If you can connect but not send/receive anything, you might need to adjust your firewall configuration. For example, if you have configured your firewall using shorewall, find and replace all occurrences of 'ath0' with 'wlan0' in files within /etc/shorewall.
squeeze/hostapd users: the ath5k driver implements access point functionality as of Squeeze. You are required to amend any existing hostapd configuration (driver=madwifi → driver=nl80211). See the hostapd Linux documentation page for more information.
Configuration
Install the wireless-tools package:
aptitude install wireless-tools
- If not already performed, physically connect the device to your system.
The necessary kernel module should be automatically loaded. If necessary, it can be manually loaded via:
modprobe ath5k
Verify your device has an available interface:
iwconfig
Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.
Supported Devices
The page HowToIdentifyADevice/PCI explains how to identify a PCI device.
The following list is based on the alias fields of modinfo ath5k in Debian 2.6.32 (2.6.32-39) kernel images.
PCI: 10B7:0013 3Com Corporation AR5212 802.11abg NIC (3CRDAG675) PCI: 168C:0007 Atheros Communications Inc. AR5210 Wireless Network Adapter [AR5000 802.11a] PCI: 168C:0011 Atheros Communications Inc. AR5211 Wireless Network Adapter [AR5001A 802.11a] PCI: 168C:0012 Atheros Communications Inc. AR5211 Wireless Network Adapter [AR5001X 802.11ab] PCI: 168C:0013 Atheros Communications Inc. AR5212/AR5213 Wireless Network Adapter PCI: 168C:0014 Atheros Communications Inc. (Device name unknown) PCI: 168C:0015 Atheros Communications Inc. (Device name unknown) PCI: 168C:0016 Atheros Communications Inc. (Device name unknown) PCI: 168C:0017 Atheros Communications Inc. (Device name unknown) PCI: 168C:0018 Atheros Communications Inc. (Device name unknown) PCI: 168C:0019 Atheros Communications Inc. (Device name unknown) PCI: 168C:001A Atheros Communications Inc. AR2413/AR2414 Wireless Network Adapter [AR5005G(S) 802.11bg] PCI: 168C:001B Atheros Communications Inc. AR5413/AR5414 Wireless Network Adapter [AR5006X(S) 802.11abg] PCI: 168C:001C Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x / AR542x Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) PCI: 168C:001D Atheros Communications Inc. AR2417 Wireless Network Adapter [AR5007G 802.11bg] PCI: 168C:0207 Atheros Communications Inc. AR5210 Wireless Network Adapter [AR5000 802.11a] PCI: 168C:1014 Atheros Communications Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC PCI: A727:0013 3Com Corporation 3CRPAG175 Wireless PC Card
Unsupported
Devices with an Atheros AR5005VL (AR5513) chipset (PCI ID 168c:0020):
- D-Link DWL-G520M (PCI)
- D-Link DWL-G650M (Cardbus)
- ZyXEL Zyair M-102 (Cardbus)
- ZyXEL Zyair M-302 (PCI)
Use of NDISwrapper may be possible for device support.
See Also
ath9k - Atheros 802.11n PCI/PCI-E devices
WiFi/ath_pci - MadWifi driver