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Ubuntu 8.04 Drivers

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 7:18 pm
by -vitali-
Okay, I need help installing the MadWifi 9.04 drivers for my D-Link DWA-542.
I get errors when I type in _make and then _make install.
Could someone provide me with REALLY clear instructions and stuff I need to download (Ubuntu 8.04 clean install) , or even better provide me with a .deb file for the drivers(can only access Internet through Vista, so need all the files at once so that I don't have to reboot back and forth) ?

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 Drivers

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 10:56 pm
by bitvector
So, Ubuntu already has Madwifi drivers bundled with it, but it's an older version (that card's chipset probably wasn't supported in a stable release available at the time). You're first going to need to disable the built-in drivers. System->Administration->Hardware Drivers and disable the "Atheros Hardware Access Layer (HAL)" and "Support for Atheros 802.11 wireless LAN cards" options. That will prevent the built-in version from conflicting with anything extra you do.

As far as getting errors during make and make install, you probably don't have the kernel source and maybe don't even have the build-essential stuff (compilers, libraries, etc.). The easiest way to get them is to install module-assistant and then run module-assistant prepare (as root -- under sudo). That will download and install all of the packages you need to build the madwifi source you downloaded (build-essential, linux-headers-(your kernel version)). You're really going to need to be connected to the internet for that, though, so you might try to hook it up via a wired connection.

Frankly, I would recommend building MadWifi from a Debian source package, as well. You would do it as follows:
$ sudo bash
$ wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/non-free/m/madwifi/madwifi-source_0.9.4+r3772.20080716-1_all.deb
$ dpkg -i madwifi-source_0.9.4+r3772.20080716-1_all.deb
$ m-a a-i madwifi-source

That will use module assistant to build the madwifi-source and package it up as an Ubuntu package. If you haven't already gotten the compilers and kernel headers, it will do that for you as well. IMO using module-assistant is the least painful way of doing this.

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 Drivers

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:00 pm
by bitvector
I can't seem to edit my post above, but I forgot to mention one thing. After building that source, you'll probably need to update your madwifi-tools as well to match the new drivers (since the old tools may not work with the new drivers). You can grab the corresponding version by:
$ wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/m/madwifi-tools/madwifi-tools_0.9.4+r3685.20080531+dfsg-1_amd64.deb
or
$ wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/m/madwifi-tools/madwifi-tools_0.9.4+r3685.20080531+dfsg-1_i386.deb

then
$ dpkg -i (the file you downloaded)

Get an install the first one if you're running 64-bit Ubuntu, or the second if you're running 32-bit (uname -m will show x86_64 for the 64-bit).

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 Drivers

Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:19 am
by -vitali-
bitvector wrote:
I can't seem to edit my post above, but I forgot to mention one thing. After building that source, you'll probably need to update your madwifi-tools as well to match the new drivers (since the old tools may not work with the new drivers). You can grab the corresponding version by:
$ wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/m/madwifi-tools/madwifi-tools_0.9.4+r3685.20080531+dfsg-1_amd64.deb
or
$ wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/m/madwifi-tools/madwifi-tools_0.9.4+r3685.20080531+dfsg-1_i386.deb

then
$ dpkg -i (the file you downloaded)

Get an install the first one if you're running 64-bit Ubuntu, or the second if you're running 32-bit (uname -m will show x86_64 for the 64-bit).


Thanks for the help, I will not be able to use wget, becuase I don't have access to the internet through Ubuntu, so I'll just download the files. To download the files through a wire would require to carry a monitor keayboard mouse,pc etc...
downstairs. I might do it just at a later time.

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 Drivers

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 2:03 pm
by -vitali-
Okay, I finally installed, all the Mad-WiFi, drivers, or at least what you have given me to install in the code, but when I run
"iwconfig", I get "wireless devices present". Do I need to install any thing else? The way I installed the drivers were by downloading all of the dependencies through Windows.

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 Drivers

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 4:04 pm
by titan
Use Ubuntu's wireless network manager GUI. I forget what it's called, but it's much simpler than using iwconfig.

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 Drivers

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:54 pm
by -vitali-
Edit: I mean I get " NO wireless device present"

I got it to work using the ndiswrapper, and loading the drivers on the D-Link disk

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 Drivers

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:11 pm
by -vitali-
Okay, now it take about # tries to actually obtain an IP address, using networkmanager, how do I tell it to try to obtain an IP adress till it gets it?

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 Drivers

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 10:00 am
by -vitali-
I know, network manager is installed in Ubuntu by default, and that's the thing that times out on me a few times before I can actually connect.

Re: Ubuntu 8.04 Drivers

Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 10:57 am
by -vitali-
For anyone with the same network adapter, and is having trouble setting it up, you need the ATH9K drivers.