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Thread: Assistance on Removing Ath5k and installing madwifi

  1. #1
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    Assistance on Removing Ath5k and installing madwifi

    Does anyone know the best way to remove teh ath5k drivers and install the madwifi drivers?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
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    Helsinki, Finland
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    650
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    Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    Re: Assistance on Removing Ath5k and installing madwifi

    Here we go:

    1. You'll need build-essential, make & friends for compiling the driver, so open up a terminal and run
      Code:
      sudo apt-get install build-essential
    2. Make sure you comment out (add a # in front) or delete the lines with ath_pci, ath_hal or wlan from the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist*.conf files. Jaunty for instance creates a blacklist-ath_pci.conf file, where ath_pci is blacklisted.
    3. Unload the wireless with
      Code:
      sudo ifconfig wlan0 down
    4. Blacklist ath5k with
      Code:
      echo blacklist ath5k | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
    5. Grab the latest snapshot from here, download it somewhere you can easily find it (need to compile it again every time you update kernel), ~/MadWifi/ for instance. Then unpack the archive.
    6. Navigate your terminal to the directory where the files were unpacked and ensure there are no conflicting modules present by running
      Code:
      sudo ./scripts/madwifi-unload
    7. Then compile the driver with
      Code:
      make clean
      make
      sudo make install
    8. Get the new driver up and running with
      Code:
      sudo depmod -ae
      sudo modprobe -r ath5k
      sudo modprobe ath_pci
    9. mkroetzsch (below) solved an issue with suspend (where you otherwise had to manually unload and reload the driver to get it working after resume) by editing the following line (the part on red is what you add there) in /etc/default/acpi-support:
      Code:
      MODULES="ath_pci"


    If you run into some problems, post back on this thread and we can see about fixing them.
    Last edited by t0mppa; November 17th, 2009 at 11:39 AM. Reason: to keep this up to date

  3. #3
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    Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

    Re: Assistance on Removing Ath5k and installing madwifi

    Thank you very much! This was very helpful and mindless for me!

  4. #4
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    Re: Assistance on Removing Ath5k and installing madwifi

    I think you meant:

    Code:
    echo blacklist ath5k | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
    Either way, ath5k is still being loaded in addition to ath_pci at boot.

    Any idea what package it is in? I'll just uninstall it altogether.

    Thanks,
    Josh

  5. #5
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    Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    Re: Assistance on Removing Ath5k and installing madwifi

    Quote Originally Posted by jshayden View Post
    I think you meant:

    Code:
    echo blacklist ath5k | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
    Yes, that's right, good call there.

    Quote Originally Posted by jshayden View Post
    Either way, ath5k is still being loaded in addition to ath_pci at boot.

    Any idea what package it is in? I'll just uninstall it altogether.

    Thanks,
    Josh
    That's odd, there shouldn't be any other module depending on it and thus loading it as a side product, so can't see why the simple blacklisting doesn't work.

    Anyway all the wireless drivers come prebuilt with the kernel, so uninstalling it through conventional means might prove a little troublesome. What you can do though is look up the module file /lib/modules/<kernel_that_you_use>/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath5k/ath5k.ko and rename it (to ath5k.ko.disabled for instance), that should make it unloadable and thus solve your problem.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
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    Re: Assistance on Removing Ath5k and installing madwifi

    I eventually got the blacklist to work; I think I was writing to the wrong file somehow.

    So, now ath_pci is loading and ath5k is not.

    However, the wireless connection isn't working. It asks for my WPA password over and over. Every once in awhile it will connect, but it's very slow with horrible latency.

    Not only did this work perfectly in Jaunty, but it was included in the repositories. Any ideas?

    Thanks,
    Josh

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
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    Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    Re: Assistance on Removing Ath5k and installing madwifi

    Ok, that is a somewhat common problem in that it persists over different drivers and cards. I never was troubled by it myself, so can't really say one way or the other what's causing it (a lot of different solutions have been offered and without getting to test any of them, no way of knowing which are worth their while), but there's plenty of threads about it on the forums. Thus, I'm afraid I can't be of much help on solving said issue.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
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    Re: Assistance on Removing Ath5k and installing madwifi

    Interesting. What is odd, though, is that I have never had trouble with mine—since Gutsy. I compiled the newest madwifi source.

    Any idea why it is no longer in the repositories?

    Any other ideas from anyone?

    Thanks,
    Josh

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
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    Helsinki, Finland
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    Distro
    Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    Re: Assistance on Removing Ath5k and installing madwifi

    Quote Originally Posted by jshayden View Post
    Any idea why it is no longer in the repositories?
    Because it was finally superseded by ath5k & ath9k as they use the newer wireless stack and don't feature binary-only, i.e., no source code is available, components, which are very troublesome to work with. You can read more about it from here, if you're truly interested.

  10. #10
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    Ubuntu Development Release

    Re: Assistance on Removing Ath5k and installing madwifi

    giving this a bump.
    I have had the same exact issue. I had no trouble in the alpha but the beta gave some speed issues. I now have a fresh 9.10 and it looses connection often. I'm going to play with some settings and see. Mandriva 2010 uses Madwifi still. WHY?

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