HOW-TO Install Madwifi, Linux device driver for wireless LAN chipsets from Atheros

Madwifi is project provides a Linux kernel device driver for Atheros chipset based Wireless LAN device. We have Madwifi-old, Madwifi-ng and official release Madwifi-0.9.x drivers.
Web :
http://www.madwifi.org/
http://www.madwifi.net/

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My system :
- RHEL 4 with kernel 2.6.9-5 and 2.6.13-5
- SUSE Linux 10.0 with kernel 2.6.13
Wireless driver : Madwifi-ng , Madwifi-old , Madwifi-0.9.2
Wireless device : ATERM WL54AG
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Зайлшгүй шаардагдах нөхцөл:
- GCC compiler collection
- Ашиглаж буй системийн цөм (kernel)-ийн эх код ("source -> /usr/src/linux-XXXXX" байдлаар холбоос үүссэн байх.)
- Ашиглаж буй системийн цөмд "Wireless Extensions" дэмжигдсэн байх.

1. Download the Madwifi wireless driverCheckout current Madwifi driver (madwifi-ng) from madwifi.org with subversion

# cd /usr/local/src
# svn list http://svn.madwifi.org/trunk
# svn checkout http://svn.madwifi.org/trunk madwifi-0.9.2
or
# svn checkout http://svn.madwifi.org/branches/madwifi-old

2. Compile Madwifi driver

# cd madwifi-ng
# make
# make install

3. After compile, Madwifi drivers are loaded at: /lib/modules/`uname -r`/net

# ls -ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/net
ath_hal.ko
ath_pci.ko
ath_rate_sample.ko
wlan_acl.ko
wlan_ccmp.ko
wlan.ko
wlan_scan_ap.ko
wlan_scan_sta.ko
wlan_tkip.ko
wlan_wep.ko
wlan_xauth.ko

4. Installing Madwifi modules
We need to use the countrycode option (exm: Japan = 392) when loading the madwifi driver.

# modprobe ath_pci countrycode=392
# lsmod
. . . . . . . . .
ath_pci 110628 0
ath_rate_sample 13056 1 ath_pci
wlan 199004 6 wlan_scan_sta,ath_pci,ath_rate_sample
ath_hal 189008 5 ath_pci,ath_rate_sample
. . . . . . . . .

5. To make this happen during boot, add the following to modprobe config file “/etc/modprobe.conf”.

options ath_pci countrycode=392 (Japan:392)

6. Configuring device (athX) interface

- Wireless network interface name : "ath0"
- Operation mode = master/station/adhoc
- Channel = between 1 and 14
- ESSID = "TEST"

- Destroy madwifi device which detected automaticly

# wlanconfig ath0 destroy

- Create new madwifi-ng driver

# wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode ap

- ESSID , channel, ... setup

# iwconfig ath0 essid CAP11 channel 3

- Network IP, Netmask, ... setup

# ifconfig ath0 192.168.61.1 broadcast 192.168.61.255 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

7. Display wireless network Interface configuration

Display network interface configuration

# ifconfig ath0

Display wireless network interface configuration

# iwconfig ath0

8. Some usefull commands to display wireless information

# cardctl ident
Socket 0:product info: "NEC AccessTechnica, Ltd.", "AtermWL54AG(PA-WL/54AG)", "1.0", " "manfid: 0x0010, 0x0012function: 6 (network)

# lspci
...........
05:02.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c475 (rev 80)06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)