CrunchBang Linux

Svensk023

New Member

From: California

Registered: 2009-03-26

Posts: 5

Website

[HOWTO] Atheros AR242x wireless chipset

Well I have noticed a significant amount of people having trouble getting their Atheros AR242x wireless chipset to work in Intrepid (ubuntu | ku, ed, x, myth|)
After bloodying my fingers trying to tweak it, i Just couldnt get it to work, but after taking bits and pieces from several other guides I came up with a solution that will hopefully work for most of you.

*Notice* This HOWTO is based off of a clean install of Crunchbang 8.10 standard
*Notice* Be sure you are connected to the internet, as you will need to download packages.

After you boot your computer for the first time be sure to update the system.
After the updates, go ahead and navigate to the System > Restricted Device Manager and Disable any proprietary drivers for your Atheros card. (if you would like, go ahead and enable your graphics card's proprietary drivers, this will not affect your wireless)
Reboot your system

Now firstly we will need to grab the packages necessary to compile source code, open up a terminal and run:

sudo apt-get install build-essential

Now to get the madwifi packages, in your terminal run:

wget http://snapshots.madwifi-project.org/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-current.tar.gz

now to unzip the packages:

tar xvf madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-current.tar.gz

Next you will need to change into the file's directory, but since these files are updated on a regular basis, the directory name may be different for you, an example is:

cd madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r942-20081204

Notice that cd madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3942-20090205 is a date and cd madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3942-20090205 is what i believe to be to be a release number. (I am most likely wrong on my guess, but that is irrelevant).
But to cope with these two variables, just compare my example with some of the out-put from your:

tar xvf madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-current.tar.gz

and make the necessary changes.

Once in the directory, run the following in your terminal to compile:

make

Then run:

sudo make install

Then to load the module run:

sudo modprobe ath_pci

To have the module load at every boot you will need to add it to your /etc/modules:

sudo gedit /etc/modules

and then add this to the very end of the file:

ath_pci

Reboot your computer, and by all that is good, you should have your wirless up and running!

If there are any concerns you can send my a private message via the forums, or simply reply to this.

I hope this helps you out!

-Cheers!

Gullible Jones

Member

Registered: 2009-01-04

Posts: 11

Re: [HOWTO] Atheros AR242x wireless chipset

This won't work for all ar2425; AR5007EG for instance needs ndiswrapper, because the madwifi Ubuntu uses isn't patched to deal with it.

Svensk023

New Member

From: California

Registered: 2009-03-26

Posts: 5

Website

Re: [HOWTO] Atheros AR242x wireless chipset

Its the only thing that worked for me. AR242x is my chipset, and this is what the HOWTO is specifically written for.