Kernel v2.6.38-natty & Atheros AR9285

[Stefan Bader]

On 03/18/2011 04:04 PM, Andrés Moreira wrote:
> Hi guys,
>  yesterday I've installed the kernel 2.6.38-natty from here :
> http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v2.6.38-natty/. The
> installation was smooth and the kernel worked amazingly well, but I haven't
> the same luck witht the wifi.
> I've used to have a lot of problems with the chipset AR9285 in the past, but
> from a few version of the 2.6.35 kernel, the wifi is working perfectly. I do
> not know if that is a regression problem with the wifi modules in 2.6.38, or
> just some patches Ubuntu applied to 2.6.35 to work better.
> 
> Info about my system:
> 
> % uname -a
> Linux apollo 2.6.35-28-generic #49-Ubuntu SMP Tue Mar 1 14:39:03 UTC 2011
> x86_64 GNU/Linux
> 
> 02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless
> Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
>  Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 303f
> Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
>  Memory at d3400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
> Capabilities: <access denied>
>  Kernel driver in use: ath9k
> Kernel modules: ath9k
> 
> I'm using the default ath9k module that comes with 2.6.35-28 (Version:
> 2.6.35-28.49 from the package).
> 
> Anybody knows if is it some bug in 2.6.38 , or I have to apply some patch to
> i?
> 
> Thanks in advance!
> 
> Andrés
> 
> 
Hi Andrés,

this could be various things. I do not know of any bug there (though I have not
followed the bug reports that closely). But I would check two things:

1. Check the lspci output on the Maverick and Natty kernel for the wireless card
(is the module loaded on the Natty kernel at all?).

2. Check dmesg for messages when loading the ath9k driver. Anything there? One
potential problem might be that the newer driver tries to load a newer firmware
file which is not present in /lib/firmware.

-Stefan