[ath9k-devel] Fighting with the driver

[ath9k-devel] Fighting with the driver

[Cedric Sodhi]

Hello everyone,

I'd like to ask for some help from you getting a

TL-WN721N

presumably based upon an Atheros 9271 chipset to work.
That's of course my priority, but I also have some questions, trying to
understand why it is so difficult to get this device to work.

So first of all, I have naively tried to simply compile the kernel with

CONFIG_ATH9K_HTC=y

and with the according ar9271.fw in /lib/firmware. It didn't work, the
device would not respond properly. My first question:

IF the correct drivers for this device exist, why are they not in the
kernel? Why is it not possible to have a specific CONFIG_ line in the
kernel that allows me to use my device - why does it have to get
complicated?

So after this didn't work I made some research and basically ended up
at

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k_htc

I followed that guide, selecting, for reasons that remain unclear to me,
the required entries (as listed in that guide) as Module. I then tried
to make compat-wireless which unexpectedly requested that I also
compiled

CONFIG_CFG80211=m

instead of =y. So I did that. Question: Why is there no mention of that
in the guide?

I did that. And then make said, that

CONFIG_CFG80211_WEXT will be deactivated or not working

because CONFIG_WIRELESS_EXT=n and that iwconfig will not work. Well,
first of all I figured no way to enable WIRELESS_EXT, how would I? And
then, question: Why is that happening only for the ath9k_hcl driver from
compat-wireless? iwconfig works fine with the kernel-shipped ath9k_hcl
(although latter does not work with the chipset).

I then restarted, but I just got a couple of errors when wpa_supplicant
tried to start

ioctl[SIO...]: Operation not supported

which, I assume, has to do with wext being unfunctional. So what now? I
have to enable WIRELESS_EXT somehow? How? And why is there no mention of
all this in that guide?

Thanks for your help!

[ath9k-devel] Fighting with the driver

[Cedric Sodhi]

Hello, I had a little trouble with the smtp header, if you have not read
the message, it is again below.

A little update: I managed to enable WIRELESS_EXT, which didn't help
much though. A few of the wpa_supplicant errors are gone, but

SIOCSIFFLAGS: Unknown error 132

remains there, two times. wpa_supplicant wont run. Besides, for some
reason, the interface is always renaming itsself to wlan1.

Thanks


On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 05:56:48PM +0100, Cedric Sodhi wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> 
> I'd like to ask for some help from you getting a
> 
> TL-WN721N
> 
> presumably based upon an Atheros 9271 chipset to work.
> That's of course my priority, but I also have some questions, trying to
> understand why it is so difficult to get this device to work.
> 
> So first of all, I have naively tried to simply compile the kernel with
> 
> CONFIG_ATH9K_HTC=y
> 
> and with the according ar9271.fw in /lib/firmware. It didn't work, the
> device would not respond properly. My first question:
> 
> IF the correct drivers for this device exist, why are they not in the
> kernel? Why is it not possible to have a specific CONFIG_ line in the
> kernel that allows me to use my device - why does it have to get
> complicated?
> 
> So after this didn't work I made some research and basically ended up
> at
> 
> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k_htc
> 
> I followed that guide, selecting, for reasons that remain unclear to me,
> the required entries (as listed in that guide) as Module. I then tried
> to make compat-wireless which unexpectedly requested that I also
> compiled
> 
> CONFIG_CFG80211=m
> 
> instead of =y. So I did that. Question: Why is there no mention of that
> in the guide?
> 
> I did that. And then make said, that
> 
> CONFIG_CFG80211_WEXT will be deactivated or not working
> 
> because CONFIG_WIRELESS_EXT=n and that iwconfig will not work. Well,
> first of all I figured no way to enable WIRELESS_EXT, how would I? And
> then, question: Why is that happening only for the ath9k_hcl driver from
> compat-wireless? iwconfig works fine with the kernel-shipped ath9k_hcl
> (although latter does not work with the chipset).
> 
> I then restarted, but I just got a couple of errors when wpa_supplicant
> tried to start
> 
> ioctl[SIO...]: Operation not supported
> 
> which, I assume, has to do with wext being unfunctional. So what now? I
> have to enable WIRELESS_EXT somehow? How? And why is there no mention of
> all this in that guide?
> 
> Thanks for your help!
> _______________________________________________
> ath9k-devel mailing list
> ath9k-devel at lists.ath9k.org
> https://lists.ath9k.org/mailman/listinfo/ath9k-devel

[ath9k-devel] Fighting with the driver

[Petr Štetiar]

Cedric Sodhi <manday@gmx.net> [2011-02-23 18:23:01]:

> remains there, two times. wpa_supplicant wont run. Besides, for some
> reason, the interface is always renaming itsself to wlan1.

Maybe it's just that 'wonderful' udev persistent rule?

-- ynezz