ath9k and 3.x kernel fix

jaapkroe · n00b Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 4

Hi,

I just tried installing the latest gentoo release (install-x86-minimal-20111101) on my EeePC 1101HA.
However I ran in to the problem that my wireless card is not recognized on the liveCD.
I need to use wlan at the moment (i'm in a hotel for a while).
On my current system (debian, linux 2.6.32) I use the ath9k module and everything works fine
However when I 'modprobe ath9k' on the liveCD (linux 3.0.6) no wlan0 shows up.
After some trial-and-error and searching the web I found that the problem is in the kernel compilation, in the kernel's ".config" file there should be a line
CONFIG_ATH9K_PCI=y

One of the pages discussing this is
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-6776642.html
and it seems there should be a fix, but in my downloaded iso the option is still disabled.
"zgrep CONFIG_ATH9K_PCI /proc/config.gz" returns "disabled".

It seems to me I cannot recompile the kernel from the liveCD (maybe I'm wrong here but there is no /usr/src/linux...)
Is there any way I can fix this? Can I somehow recompile the kernel (maybe from debian)?
Should I download the dvd-iso?
Or is a simple way?

Thanks for any suggestions!

turtles · Veteran Joined: 31 Dec 2004 Posts: 1698

Welcome to the forums.

So you need a ath9k module compiled for a 3.0.6 kernel for a live cd?
I put mine here:
http://www.think-electric.com/pentium4/ath9k/
If you can download them and get them on a thumb drive.
boot the live cd and
copy them into:

jaapkroe · n00b Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 4

Thanks for the suggestion. I had a quick try.
I downloaded the files, made the same folder structure, mounted my debian home dir and modprobed with
modprobe -d /mnt/h/lib ath9k
Unfortunately no luck, still no wlan0 (or other wireless device). I will try more extensively tonight.

Thanks again.

turtles · Veteran Joined: 31 Dec 2004 Posts: 1698

What kind of error did you get from modprobe?
EDIT there are three modules.
When you boot the minimal live cd check that it is not loading any ath9k modules with a lsmod.
or

cach0rr0 · Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 6:19 am Post subject:

i would recommend (as others do) using SystemRescueCD to do your gentoo installation if you are going to need to use wireless

it will be an older kernel, but, your installed gentoo system does not use the LiveCD's kernel; it uses the kernel you install to your actual gentoo system. Thusly, using an older kernel to do the install should be just fine

I would not expect pulling ath9k.ko from another system to work, even of the same version.
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turtles · Veteran Joined: 31 Dec 2004 Posts: 1698

KillerHonky · n00b Joined: 17 Jun 2011 Posts: 70

I had the same problem with the newest livecd. I just ended up using the previous version 11.0, works all the same as you are probably just installing.
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jaapkroe · n00b Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 4

Thanks for all the replies. I ended using the SysRescCD (latest version) and it now works fine.
As I type, it is emerging the last things to get a working desktop.
Emerging takes forever of course on this intel-atom cpu, but I hope I will work a bit faster after everything's installed.

My wireless and wired work (compiling atl1c and ath9k into the kernel and using wpa_supplicant for wireless).
In case anyone else is someday interested, my /etc/conf.d/net looks like this:
(note: no driver needed, i.e. no wpa_supplicant_wlan0=..)