[gentoo-user] Problems with ath9k: can't authenticate

Claudio Roberto França Pereira

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Apr 13, 2012, 8:50:02 AM4/13/12

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Hi guys. I'm having problems with my wireless nic, on a notebook. The
card is an ath9k 802.11n wireless adapter. The driver is loaded,
wpa_supplicant and wicd get to recognize them, I can see the
association working correctly, but I can't get the card to
authenticate, it ALWAYS times out. I tried looking at the kernel
documentation for the ath9k driver, but without success. I'll look for
it using the work internet.

Anyway, does anyone with a similar setup had any problems with atheros
nics? And how did you solve it?

Thinking further, I had to enable wireless extensions (wext) to make
wicd handle ath9k. Should I disable it and stick to wpa_supplicant?
Also, I'm using a non-modular kernel, compiling everything in it.
Yesterday I left the notebook making a new modular kernel, with sound
and wireless drivers modular. I'm almost going all the way to
genkernel. Any clues?

I'm running ~amd64, kernel 3.3.0. 3.1.X worked somewhat ok, but I
can't shake the feeling that under Windows this laptop of mine would
work flawlessly. I'm not whining, just wanna find a comparable
configuration, and solve my usability issues.

Thanks

--
Claudio Roberto França Pereira

Robert David

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Apr 13, 2012, 9:50:01 AM4/13/12

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Hi,

Check in wicd settings which routing tool you use. Select "route" when
using "ip". I got some problems with wicd and "ip".

I just using similar ath9k card on 3.0.x with no problem. I always use
wifi as module. And I don't use genkernel, just my plain config and
easy initrd for lvm root support and fbsplash.

Robert.

V Fri, 13 Apr 2012 09:44:25 -0300
Claudio Roberto França Pereira <spid...@gmail.com> napsáno:

Claudio Roberto França Pereira

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Apr 13, 2012, 4:50:02 PM4/13/12

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On Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 10:43, Robert David
<robert.da...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Check in wicd settings which routing tool you use. Select "route" when
> using "ip". I got some problems with wicd and "ip".
>
> I just using similar ath9k card on 3.0.x with no problem. I always use
> wifi as module. And I don't use genkernel, just my plain config and
> easy initrd for lvm root support and fbsplash.

I'll check this when I get home. Thank you for the feedback.

>
> Robert.

Zhu Sha Zang

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Apr 13, 2012, 10:20:01 PM4/13/12

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I'm not using wicd, only two configuration file:

first:

[root@asgard ~]$ cat /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf 16:31
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant ctrl_interface_group=0 eapol_version=1

ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1

network={
ssid="KOJIRO"
proto=RSN
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=CCMP TKIP
group=CCMP TKIP
psk="*******"
}

and second:

[root@asgard ~]$ cat /etc/conf.d/net

modules="wpa_supplicant"

#HOME
config_wlan0="10.10.10.21 netmask 255.255.255.0"
routes_wlan0="default via 10.10.10.1"
dns_servers_wlan0="mydns1 mydns2"

In this configuration:

Linux asgard 3.3.0-gentoo-asgard #4 SMP PREEMPT Fri Apr 13 12:59:38 BRT 2012 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU M 460 @ 2.53GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

Working!!!

But a warning, have some bug in kernel-3.3.1 that the same configuration don't work:

take a look in this post too:

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-919090-highlight-wireless.html

Best Regards

Willie WY Wong

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Apr 16, 2012, 10:30:02 AM4/16/12

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On Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 09:44:25AM -0300, Penguin Lover Claudio Roberto França Pereira squawked:

> Anyway, does anyone with a similar setup had any problems with atheros
> nics? And how did you solve it?

Does your problem happen with WEP or WPA networks?

There is a known bug introduced in the 3.2 kernels that breaks ath9k
for WEP networks (though WPA and WPA2 are not effected). The patch I
thought had been merged into the 3.3 series, though I am not sure when
(which minor version) it went in.

(I have been putting off a kernel upgrade because of this.)

W
--
Data aequatione quotcunque fluentes quantitae involvente fluxiones invenire
et vice versa ~~~ I. Newton

Claudio Roberto França Pereira

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Apr 16, 2012, 1:10:02 PM4/16/12

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I'm using WPA2 but tried even with no authentication, without luck.
The authentication always times out. I'll try your configurations Zhu.
I've tried wpa_supplicant before with similar configurations, without
luck. I'll look at this carefully.

Thank you for all your feedback. I'll come back today later with results.