How do I can get my wireless working?

[Heobmartin]

Hi everyone!

I have been Linux user(Ubuntu)for about 3 years since my switching from Windows. Although I did not have any complain against it, I wanted to try Debian Lenny. I have already partitioned my disk and installed Debian. Everything worked fine according to my expectations except for one thing: wireless.

I tried different things to get it works without result. The light indicator of my computer seems to be working but the Network Manager does not detect any signal. In Ubuntu the wireless is detected automatically even using the “Live CD.”

Can somebody help me out? Please in suggesting any solution don't use technical jargon I can't understand. I still consider myself newbie in Linux.

Thanks!

Hector

The configuration of my machine is:

Model: Toshiba NB205-330BL
Processor & Chipset: Intel Atom processor N280; 1.66 GHz.
Communication: 10/100 ethernet, Atheros 802.11b/g wireless LAN.

[Bolle1961]

you can try de madwifi driver, it is in synaptic

source for the Multiband Atheros Driver for WiFi
This package provides the source code for the madwifi kernel modules.
The madwifi-tools package is also required in order to make use of these
modules. Kernel source or headers are required to compile these modules.

[deltaflyer]

can you post the output of

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lspci -nn

depending on your kernel, from 2.6.32 the drivers/firmware are already included.Also, check out the wireless devs site here http://linuxwireless.org/ for better info

Andy

[smallchange]

You should enable backports, http://www.backports.org, install a newer kernel and newer network-manager. There have been huge changes in both that will help you . You might also want to consider using wicd instead of network-manager. I personally have had much better luck with wicd but I understand, from reliable sources, that the network-manager 7.2 is a tremendous improvement.

[Heobmartin]

Thanks you all for responding!!

-deltaflyer: This is the output

homartin@debianhector:~$ lspci -nn
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Memory Controller Hub [8086:27ac] (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27ae] (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller [0380]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27a6] (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller [8086:27d8] (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 [8086:27d0] (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 [8086:27d2] (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 3 [8086:27d4] (rev 02)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 4 [8086:27d6] (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:27c8] (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:27c9] (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:27ca] (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 [8086:27cb] (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller [8086:27cc] (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [8086:2448] (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge [8086:27b9] (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller [8086:27df] (rev 02)
00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA AHCI Controller [8086:27c5] (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller [8086:27da] (rev 02)
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. Device [168c:002b] (rev 01)
04:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller [10ec:8136] (rev 02)

Thanks smallchange!! I will apply the suggestion and I'll reply soon.

[Heobmartin]

Hi smallchange !

I tried to enable the backports but I got the following error message: W: GPG error: http://www.backports.org lenny-backports Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY EA8E8B2116BA136C

What can I do?

Thanks!

[smallchange]

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apt-cache search -n keyring

Select the one for backports .org and

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aptitude install debian-backports-keyring

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aptitude update

Now you should be set.

[Heobmartin]

Thanks so much Bolle for the suggestion !!

Unfortunately I tried installing madwifi and I got nothing.

Anyway thank so much.!

[Heobmartin]

Hi smallchange !

Wow ! It is done! The backports are updated.

Now two questions: 1) How to install a newer kernel? the one I actually have is 2.6.26-2-686 ,
and 2) How to install wicd network manager?

Thanks so much!

[smallchange]

Kernels are in packages named linux-image.

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apt-cache search -n linux-image

to see a list of those available. Select one that is appropriate for your computer and is recent, probably the most recent. Then install it.

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aptitude install linux-image-2.6.32-bpo.3-amd64

or -686, as appropriate. While you are at it install network-manager also to get the latest.

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aptitude install network-manager

should bring in 7.2, depending on version pinning or preferences you set as backports.org suggests. Reboot and it is quite likely that your wireless will now work. If not you can install wicd.

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apt-cache search -n wicd

to see what is available and then

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aptitude install wicd

[Roel63]

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aptitude install linux-image-2.6.32-bpo.3-amd64

or -686, as appropriate.

And before that, you might want to type

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uname -r

to see what kernel you are on right now.

[stevepusser]

You may also try and uninstall madwifi if you still have trouble with the wireless, as it installs a setting that prevents the new kernel's builtin ath5k driver from being used, to avoid conflicts. Actually, the 2.6.26 kernel may have been built with it, but it may have to be manually loaded with the modprobe command as root:

su -c 'modprobe ath5k'

but the newer kernel has a much improved version.

http://wiki.debian.org/ath5k

[Heobmartin]

Hi!

After installing the new kernel and wicd, although there is a significant difference, the wireless networks is still not found.

- After typing uname -r the output is 2.6.26-2-686.

-I already deactivate the madwifi.

May I doing something wrong?

Will it be necessary to reinstall the newer kernel?

Thanks!

[Heobmartin]

Hi !

The synaptic manager shows that the newer kernel is installed. However the output I got is the older one.

Thanks!

[Roel63]

While booting, can you choose from more than one kernel?
It seems you are still booting the "old" one.

[nadir]

edit: Roel63 already said it.
when adding a new kernel it gets automatically added to menu.lst, so if you boot you should at minimum see it in the boot-screen.
as grub sets the newest kernel (in the meaning of highest, not the latest one installed) to the top, you should automatically boot into it (if you didn't edit the line "default boot 0 " in menu.lst).
its odd you boot into the old kernel... try update-grub. or, if that doesn't work) edit it manually (you may just copy and paste the "old" entries but replace 2.6.26-2-686 with 2.6.32-bpo (or whatever it ist).
or, if that was too confusing, post your /boot/grub/menu.lst, and someone might help (running update-grub won't hurt).

[Heobmartin]

Hi ! Nadir and Roel63

Thanks! for the observation. I had assumed that the grub would boot with the newer kernel by default.
Now I am booting with the new kernel (2.6.32) but the problem persist. The wireless network is not detected.

I hope the menu of possible solutions is not exhausted. !!

Thanks!!

[Roel63]

Atheros not working on 2.6.32.... beats me.

What do

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iwconfig

and

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ifconfig

say? (you may have to run them as root)

And, what also may tell something, install lshw and run (as root)

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lshw -C network

[Bolle1961]

you can add the DebianEeePC repository. EeePC has also an Atheros wifi

http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/Repository


it's not the right way, but you can get ypur wifi working

[smallchange]

There is much good info in the Debian Wiki
I have no experience with this particular card but you now have a kernel that contains a correct module (driver) for your hardware. It is probably the ath9k module but I might be wrong. You need to load the module, which should happen by itself. Then you need to configure the device, probably using network-manager or wicd. The Wiki will help you figure out which driver you should use and how to configure it.
To see if the module loaded run

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lsmod | grep ath

If it is loaded you will see it. If you see nothing it is not loaded. To load a module you use modprobe, like

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modprobe ath9k