[ltp] T61 Atheros wireless LED

[Micha]

On Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:48:38 +0300
Micha <michf@post.tau.ac.il> wrote:

> On Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:36:03 -0400
> "Robert T. West (\"Tim\")" <rtimwest@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 10:21 AM, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh
> > <hmh@hmh.eng.br> wrote:
> > > On Wed, 23 Jul 2008, Micha wrote:
> > >> There is also a ath5k driver both in the kernel and compatwireless but
> > >> although it recognises my card it fails to actually communicate. I've
> > >> been told not long ago on this list that it's because the card is pci-e
> > >> and there is an issue with the interrupts at the moment.
> > >
> > > I have seen a patch for that already in the linux-wireless ML, it just
> > > disables MSI for now on all ath5k and ath9k cards, and that's enough to
> > > fix the interrupt issues.  Which doesn't mean everything will work, but
> > > at least it will have a non-zero chance to :-)
> > >
> > > It might even be on the newest wireless-compat already, but you can look
> > > at the linux-wireless archives for ath5k: emails and check.
> > >
> > 
> > That's of great interest. I haven't had much luck running Ubuntu Hardy
> > on a T60p. Currently using ndiswrapper (probably because I don't know
> > better) to get the Atheros pci-e wireless to work at all, and, as of
> > my last bout with it, it works with no encryption or WEP, but will
> > only handshake with WPA if it's within a few feet of the router, and
> > never reliably. I find that... strange.
> 
> I'm working with the madwifi driver and it's quite reliable. Not sure if I
> reach the full bandwidth for some reason, but didn't try with high stress and
> close to the router.
> At home with wpa2 I had some disconnections, not sure about the current state
> of affairs. At work with wep it's working with no problem.

Found out the problem after a bad day of disconnections. For some reason that
card keeps alternating between a and g mode and loses the connection whenever
it goes into a mode. Locking it into g mode solved the problem for now.

> With the kernel ath5k and compatwireless as of two weeks ago (didn't check if
> I need to activate something in the code) the ath5k is not working.
> The only issue is the wireless led that is configured rather strangely. I can
> set it to blink but with a default state of off. The driver knows how to turn
> on the led, it just doesn't want to do it to show that the antenna is active,
> just to show traffic.
> 
> Also it seems that the mechanical antenna switch is not connected to the
> wireless for some reason. It only disables the bluetooth. Don't remember what
> it did under windows but I think that it is also sends a software switch. Will
> need to configure it for the next flight ...