Toshiba Satellite M40 284 WLan [SOLVED]

ultraslinky · Last edited by ultraslinky on Sun Oct 23, 2011 1:26 pm; edited 1 time in total

Hello everyone!
So i was trying to install Gentoo on the only computer that doesn't have Gentoo installed yet in the house, it's a Toshiba Satellite M40 284, from 2004 i think? I though installing Gentoo on it + LXDE was a good idea to revitalize it.

However, the wireless is not behaving properly. It's an atheros wireless card and the ath5k driver has always worked fine. In fact, using the minimal install cd for Gentoo and then scanning the network with iwconfig works (I can't try if it associates because my network is WPA and i need wpa_supplicant).
So then i install everything, installing the ath5k module of course and configuring the kernel for wireless (i've done it before on my netbook, also with an Atheros card) and then i notice that the wlan0 is dead, it exists but it won't do anything, it won't scan or detect any wireless network (there are at least 5 strong networks here). The ath5k module is loaded, reloading it doesn't help.

What could i have done wrong, if the card works (or at least, it scans) with the livecd and doesn't work with my installation?

Thanks for your help!

ultraslinky · Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 7:04 pm Post subject:

I think I'll try to recompile the kernel Ath5k module with debug support.... let's see what that says.

ultraslinky · Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2011 12:21 pm Post subject:

Ok, I've recompiled the whole kernel with debug support and ath5k debug support... Am I doing something wrong? I modprobe'd the ath5k module with debug options, as suggested in the kernel help for ath5k...

Gusar · Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2011 12:29 pm Post subject:

Have you checked if the radio is maybe killed?

ultraslinky · Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2011 12:39 pm Post subject:

ultraslinky · Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2011 12:16 am Post subject:

What else could be wrong here? I'm really running out of options.
I mean, what IS different on the gentoo minimal cd? I really don't understand why ath5k on my installation isn't working while on the installaton cd, it is. The only thing i can think of difference, is the kernel, i have the 3.0.7 kernel on the machine at the moment, and the live cd has 2.6.39... let's try installing 2.6.39 then.

ultraslinky · Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 1:26 pm Post subject:

Yeah, apparently my old wireless card doesn't like the ath5k driver from kernel 3.00 onwards. Now on 2.6.39 the card works perfectly. Hope this helps, anyone with an Atheros AR2413 shouldn't use over kernel 2.6.39
Maybe i should have tried that before everything.
Thanks everyone for the help anyway!