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Netgear PCMIA network card not recognised

PeterK
PeterK Posts: 4
in Ubuntu

As a total newbie to linux I decided to install ubuntu on an old Rock Agenda laptop that I used to use with Windows XP. The installation appears to have worked fine but it does not recognise the Netgear WPN511 wireless PCMIA that I need to contact my router. Am I correct to assume that I need to install a linux driver for this card? If so, any ideas where I could find one as I am not getting any response from Netgear. All suggestions would be most welcome. Thanks, Peter

Comments

  • Goineasy9
    Goineasy9 Posts: 1,114
    Give this a try:
    http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1024108.html
  • PeterK
    PeterK Posts: 4
    Thanks for the suggestion which didn't work for me. In fact even the first command line was rejected as having too few arguments.
  • Goineasy9
    Goineasy9 Posts: 1,114
    I looked a little further, and it seems that the madwifi driver, which is now in the kernel, should work for this wireless card.

    Can you show us lsmod | grep ath*

    I'm a little rusty, the last laptop I has that had an atheros chip was a few years ago. I think that line will bring up the info we need.
  • PeterK
    PeterK Posts: 4
    Hi
    Thanks for your continued help. Hopefully the following is what you need.

    peter@Rock-laptop:~$ lsmod | grep ath*
    cpufreq_stats 7360 0
    freq_table 5792 2 cpufreq_stats,cpufreq_ondemand
    cpufreq_conservative 8200 0
    battery 10756 0
    ath_rate_sample 14080 1
    ath_pci 97312 0
    wlan 204484 4 wlan_scan_sta,ath_rate_sample,ath_pci
    ath_hal 192592 3 ath_rate_sample,ath_pci
    rsrc_nonstatic 14080 1 yenta_socket
    pcmcia_core 40852 3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
    ata_generic 9092 0
    libata 125720 1 ata_generic
    scsi_mod 142348 1 libata
    peter@Rock-laptop:~$


    Regards, Peter
  • Goineasy9
    Goineasy9 Posts: 1,114
    Hey Peter
    I can see that ath_hal is in your lsmod, that is needed for your wifi card, but I don't see the ath5k module. Could you try to (as root) "modprobe ath5k" (without quotes) in terminal and see if that helps.
    While I try to read the forums once a day, I've had a busy work schedule. So, be patient, we'll get it working eventually.
    I'm pretty sure that I used the ath5k module to get my atheros working on the thinkpad, it is used for the widest range of atheros devices.
    If that doesn't work give us the listing of lspci from the terminal and we'll go from there.
  • PeterK
    PeterK Posts: 4
    Hi
    No problem with any delays in your reply as I am a retiree and thus can spend my time as I wish :-) I am just very grateful to find someone who is sufficiently interested to help. However I am slightly concerned that I may not always understand exactly what you want me to do as I am very new to linux and any familiarity with unix goes back many many years. Anyway, I hope the following is what you want.

    peter@Rock-laptop:~$ modprobe ath5k
    FATAL: Module ath5k not found.
    peter@Rock-laptop:~$ lspci
    00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
    00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03)
    00:03.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6812 CardBus Controller (rev 05)
    00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet (rev 02)
    00:05.0 Modem: PCTel Inc HSP MicroModem 56 (rev 02)
    00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: ESS Technology ES1969 Solo-1 Audiodrive (rev 02)
    00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
    00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
    00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
    00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)
    01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Motion, Inc. SM720 Lynx3DM (rev b1)
    02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)
    peter@Rock-laptop:~$

    Peter
  • mfillpot
    mfillpot Posts: 2,177
    I know that ath5k is included in the ubuntu kernel, it should load. Did you attempt to build a custom kernel? Did you check the md5sum of the cd iso image when the downloaded the ubuntu disk and verify the disk image when it was written?
  • Goineasy9
    Goineasy9 Posts: 1,114
    Just another idea. Do you have the Ubuntu Live CD? If you do, can you boot up the Live cd and see if the modem is recognized after booting. I agree with mfillpot, the ath5k module should be in your kernel, it's been in the Linux kernels for quite some time. After booting with the Live CD, if the modem is not recognized, maybe then try to modprobe ath5k again. It might take some experimenting to figure out what is going on.
    It is possible that the iso you originally installed from was faulty.

    Wait, I just noticed something.... In Ubuntu you might have to use sudo, so the command would be "sudo modprobe ath5k" (without quotes). Sorry, my bad, I still don't have an Ubuntu install running so I can try these things out first. With the new 9.10 release just out I might actually get to do that this weekend.

    Let me know what happens when you try the sudo modprobe ath5k command (if it doesn't work try the Live cd). And don't worry about being new to Linux, after 5 years I'm only starting to get used to it myself. Sharing knowledge is what the Linux Community is all about.

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