Madwifi Installed = problems

[J6771621]

I just downloaded and installed a version of the madwifi driver using the command

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emerge --av madwifi-driver madwifi-tools

Everything successfully installed.

This is the problem...
before I installed it i was getting a kernel panic, it went away when i removed the ethernet card i was using. After i installed madwifi the system would run with the ethernet card, but the wireless card is not being detected at all.

Has anyone had a similar problem if so please give advice.

Thank you

[opentaka]

does the kernel panic occur *after* loading the madwifi(ath_pci I suppose) module?
what happens if you load the module manually?

[J6771621]

The kernel panic was happening before i installed the madwifi module. Yes its ath_pci. After I installed the driver the kernel panic went away, but now it doesnt recognize the ath0 at all. It is not listed in iwconfig. If I try to add it still doesn't appear when i look at iwconfig.

[wrc1944]

Madwifi can be sort of weird. I've been using it for about two years now on several Gentoo systems, and have run into problems no matter what kernel or madwifi versions I was using at the time, and especially after a portage update. IIRC, the versions in portage wouldn't work, and the ebuilds were sometimes not matched to what tarballs were available.

Anyway, it seems with later kernels (2.6.18rcx and beyond into 2.6.19 and 2.6.20rcx) I had to find a testing version from the madwifi website SVN repository, and install it manually, outside of portage. Since I always am trying out the latest kernels, I found this avoided problems, and is easiest for me as I finally found a version that has not had any problems for a few months. I just have to manually reinstall it against any running kernel I might try, and it hasn't failed yet.

What version are you working with, and with what kernel? Also, are the modules actually loading? What's lsmod report?

Oh yeah- your /usr/src/linux symlink MUST be pointing to the current running kernel's source directory location when you install madwifi, so all the modules are created in /lib/modules/"whatever kernel."

[J6771621]

I'm using Linux version 2.6.13.2

Here is the lsmod report

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MODULE                     SIZE                       USED BY
pcspkr                       4320                       0
orinoco_plx                7552                       0
orinoco                     39280                      1 orinoco_plx
hermes                      7040                      2 Orinoco_plx,orinoco
ath_pci                      52768                     0
ath_rate_onoe            8072                      1 ath_pci
wlan                        103772                    2 ath_pci,ath_rate_onoe
ath_hal                    147792                    1 ath_pci

Oh yeah- your /usr/src/linux symlink MUST be pointing to the current running kernel's source directory location when you install madwifi, so all the modules are created in /lib/modules/"whatever kernel."

I already installed the driver and i dont think i did that. How do i go from this point (with madwifi already installed) and install it correctly?

[wrc1944]

Hmmmm... Is there any specific reason you're using such an old kernel, and is it for sure configured to support basic wireless? If it's a default Gentoo kernel from an install, it might not be.

In any case, I've virtually certain with any 2.6.17 kernel the version of madwifi in portage should now work, but not sure about something as old as 2.6.13. Probably 2.6.19 kernels will now work also, whereas before they didn't work with the portage madwifi version (at least for me).

Look in /usr/src and see if the linux symlink is indeed pointing to your 2.6.13.2 kernel source directory. If you haven't compiled any new kernels and put the source directory in another location, it should be in /usr/src, along with it's linux symlink. If for some reason it's not (the symlink pointing to the running kernel), you need to correct that, and then remerge the madwifi stuff, assuming your 2.6.13 kernel does have wifi support compiled in (select "y," not "m" when configuring the kernel). However, since the modules load, it sounds like your symlink was correct.

I really recommend getting a newer kernel, making sure you compile in basic wireless support. The deal is with madwifi you're installing some drivers that aren't in the kernel by default, against the running kernel.

Another thought: What version of madwifi are you dealing with? If you are running stable x86 Gentoo, you might need to try installing the ~x86 madwif version with:

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ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86" emerge madwifi-driver madwifi-tools

Remove the other madwifi stuff with emerge -C first. I'm assuming your system is connected with a regular ethernet card also?

Still more thoughts:
Have you added ath0 to the default run level?

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rc-update add net.ath0 default

What does dhcpcd ath0 up, and /etc/init.d/net.ath0 start show?

IIRC, I also once had to make an ath0 symlink to bring up ath0 at boot:

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cd /etc/init.d
ln -s net.lo net.ath0

To summarize:
Remove the installed madwifi, and emerge --sync, then check the linux symlink (fix if necessary), and emerge madwifi again. Reboot, and see if the modules load automatically. If not, modprobe them, and check lsmod to see if they show up, and see if you are connected. BTW, are you sure your access point is located close enough to your computer?

If you still can't get the portage version working, installing a version from madwifi SVN is no problem, and might work- I'll give you a rundown on what I do if need be.

[wrc1944]

Forgot to mention- did you emerge wireless-tools?

Also maybe take a look at http://madwifi.org/

BTW the new madwifi is called madwifi-ng.

[J6771621]

What was happening is I was running an older version of the madwifi driver on this kernel before, but it had a memory leak problem that was documented on madwifi.org. Since then it was resolved and i was just installing the new driver on the system, but it was able to do wireless communication it would just lose many packets when transferring large files.

I checked the symlink and it is indeed pointing to my kernel version.

I ran into that problem with keywords I manually unmasked each one using code like

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echo "=net-wirless/madwifi-driver-0.1_pre20050420-r1 ~*" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords

for things masked by keywords, and

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echo "=net-wireless/madwifi-driver-0.1_pre20050420-r1" >> /etc/portage/package.unmask

this got rid of hard masks
As a result of mistakes i put in the code (ie. writing wrong version number) i got an error that appears every time i use emerge command, it's "Invalid atom" i know its a result of the unmasking but how do i get rid of them?

dhcpcd ath0 up

does nothing, and

/etc/init.d/net.ath0

did not exist until i used the command

cd /etc/init.d
ln -s net.lo net.ath0

I tried unmerging it and remerging it and nothing was solved. I think I am not using the latest version of madwifi. On my computer i have many versions from past installations. The one I used to install i chose by running

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emerge --search madwifi

but i removed the latest tarball i had of madwifi and ran that search again and the same driver came up as before.
If i do a specific search (ie for madwifi-ng) the result says there is nothing that fits that file name. How do i locate (for sure) the file i want to use? Shouldn't a search of madwifi bring up all the version on the computer?

Yes the access point is very close to the computer

If you still can't get the portage version working, installing a version from madwifi SVN is no problem, and might work- I'll give you a rundown on what I do if need be.

I'd like to explore this option could you give me a rundown of how to do this?

I'm also going to look into updating my kernel. I have limited space on the computer im using.

Thanks for the help

[wrc1944]

Let's try the version in portage first, against your current kernel. I'm not on my wireless system right now, but I just synced, and checked what is currently in portage. Here's the result (I'm running ~x86 on this system):

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gentoo wrc # emerge -p madwifi-ng
These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating dependencies... done!
[ebuild  N    ] net-wireless/madwifi-ng-0.9.2.1  USE="-amrr -onoe"

gentoo wrc # emerge -p madwifi-ng-tools
These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating dependencies... done!
[ebuild   R   ] net-wireless/madwifi-ng-tools-0.9.2
gentoo wrc #

If you are running x86, you'll need to add these to /etc/portage/package.keywords, or you could prefix the emerges with:
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86" to get this version.

If this doesn't work, we can try an SVN version manually.

You still didn't mention if you emerged wireless-tools, or if basic wireless support is really compiled into your kernel.

Run

equery l madwifi

(that's a lower case L), and remove any madwifi stuff that shows up with emerge -C, before you emerge the madwifi-ng stuff.

[J6771621]

ok

i did equery l madwifi and nothing was installed and i do have wireless-tools foully installed and functional

i checked it further by using emerge --search madwifi
i got 2 older versions of it but neither were installed

i synced the portage tree and am using madwifi-0.9.2.1 i downloaded it off www.madwifi.org it was the most recent.

i tried to emerge it but it says it is missing ebuilds

the ebuilds for the other 2 madwifi's i have are in /usr/portage/net-wireless/madwifi-driver
and /usr/portage/net-wireless/madwifi-tools

where are the ebuilds for the madwifi-0.9.2.1 located? how are they made? im sure this will fix my problem.

thank you for your help

[wrc1944]

An ebuild for madwifi-ng-0.9.2.1 is in portage (at least for ~x86 systems).

Delete the tarball you downloaded from madwifi.org (I assume you put it in /usr/portage/distfiles so emerge would find it), and try to emerge madwifi-ng again, getting a fresh tarball.

I think we are having trouble understanding each other. Am I correct in thinking at this point you DON'T have any madfwifi packages installed at all?

What's your output of:

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emerge -p madwifi-ng

and

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emerge -Cp madwifi-ng

and if that returns nothing, the output of:

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emerge -Cp madwifi

If you still want to try one of the svn versions outside of portage, it's very simple. Post back and I'll give you the instructions, but it's better to use portage if you can.

[jarealist]

wrc1944 wrote:

If you still want to try one of the svn versions outside of portage, it's very simple. Post back and I'll give you the instructions,

I'd appreciate your svn instructions. I'm playing around with the latest binutils on my other laptop and still can't get the latest madwifi-ng release to compile with them and would like to try svn to see if it will. Thanks.

[wrc1944]

OK- here's what I did- very simple, and it worked fine for me in Gentoo, and even on some binary distros like PCLOS.

1. Create a folder in your home directory (I called mine madwifi), and download the source tarball for madwifi-ng from madwifi.org. With PCLOS, which I just did last week, I used the 0.9.2.1 latest version released , I believe (not an svn version). http://sourceforge.net/project/showfile ... p_id=82936

You can use an svn version if you like, with the same method. http://snapshots.madwifi.org/madwifi-ng/
I think I previously used r1754 from last Oct. The latest is r2014, from today, Jan.30, 2007, at the bottom of the page.

Anyway, extract the tarball in the directory you created, and cd to that directory in a konsole, and change to root. Make sure the /usr/src/linux symlink points to the kernel source directory (currently running) you want to compile the madwifi modules for.

then just type:

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make

and let it run, and then type:

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make install

Then you need to modprobe

ath_pci
ath_hal
ath_rate_sample
wlan

That should get you a connection.

Post back if you still have problems. Maybe put those modules in /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 if you need it at boot. You might need to do the stuff i posted above too (ath symlink and default run level).

[jarealist]

wrc1944 Thanks for your help.

Still get this error message with binutils greater than version 2.17.50.0.9. I was using binutils-2.17.50.0.12.

madwifi-ng-r2014-20070130 # make
Checking requirements... ok.
Checking kernel configuration... ok.
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.19-gentoo-r5/build SUBDIRS=/home/family/madwifi/madwifi-ng-r2014-20070130 modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.19-gentoo-r5'
CC [M] /home/family/madwifi/madwifi-ng-r2014-20070130/ath/if_ath_pci.o
LD [M] /home/family/madwifi/madwifi-ng-r2014-20070130/ath/ath_pci.o
LD [M] /home/family/madwifi/madwifi-ng-r2014-20070130/ath_hal/ath_hal.o
/home/family/madwifi/madwifi-ng-r2014-20070130/ath_hal/i386-elf.hal.o: file not recognized: File format not recognized
make[3]: *** [/home/family/madwifi/madwifi-ng-r2014-20070130/ath_hal/ath_hal.o] Error 1
make[2]: *** [/home/family/madwifi/madwifi-ng-r2014-20070130/ath_hal] Error 2
make[1]: *** [_module_/home/family/madwifi/madwifi-ng-r2014-20070130] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.19-gentoo-r5'
make: *** [modules] Error 2

What a pain. Hope this gets incorporated into the kernel sometime in the near future.

I got the madwifi-ng portage version to install by temporarily installing binutils-2.17.50.0.9. Maybe I'll try one of the snapshots at a later date.

[wrc1944]

Maybe try version r1757 - I know that one works with 2.6.19 kernels.

You have as an error:

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/home/family/madwifi/madwifi-ng-r2014-20070130/ath_hal/i386-elf.hal.o: file not recognized: File format not recognized

Check under General setup in your kernel config and see if you have:

CONFIG_ELF_CORE=y

Maybe that ath_hal/i386-elf.hal.o: file not recognized: File format not recognized has something to do with it.

If that's not it, I'd also try manually compiling a new kernel. I've got 2.6.19-beyond2 on my wireless box- the one r1757 is working on.

I'm a little unclear on this- since you say you did install the portage version, is it actually working and you're now getting a wifi connection?

[jarealist]

wrc1944 wrote:

Check under General setup in your kernel config and see if you have:

CONFIG_ELF_CORE=y

Yes, that's in my kernel config.

I just recompiled everything, about 1200 packages, and madwifi-ng was the only package that wouldn't compile with binutils-2.17.50.0.12.
To get it to compile I have to downgrade to binutils-2.17.50.0.9 then it will install and my ath0 wifi connection works just fine. I don't have to recompile the kernel or toolchain to get madwifi-ng to compile -- just install the binutils-2.17.50.0.9 package. I'm assuming then changing kernels wouldn't help. I was just hoping the latest madwifi snapshot might work with >binutils-2.17.50.0.9.

Thanks again for your help.