Atheros USB Wireless Linux Driver Installation Guide


Supported Linux distributions

This software supports

RedHat Linux 9.0 running kernel version 2.4.20-8

RedHat Enterprise Linux WS3 running kernel version 2.4.21-4.

SUSE Linux 9.1 running kernel version 2.6.x

Installation

From the root account execute the following commands:

1.      To run using the Full binary:

rpm –ivh  AtherosUsbLinuxBin2.4-1.3.1-x.i386.rpm if you are running RedHat  Linux with kernel 2.4 and

rpm –ivh  AtherosUsbLinuxBin2.6-1.3.1-x.i386.rpm if you are running RedHat  Linux with kernel 2.6.

The driver is installed with the device unplugged and then device must be plugged in. If the driver is installed with the device plugged, to enable the driver the device must be unplugged and plugged.

2.      To run using the Full source:

rpm –ivh  AtherosUsbLinuxFull-1.3.1-x.src.rpm

cd /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES

tar –zvxf AR5005.tgz

make clean

make

make install

The driver is installed with the device unplugged and then device must be plugged in. If the driver is installed with the device plugged, to enable the driver the device must be unplugged and plugged.

3.      To run using the Partly source and Partly binary:

rpm –ivh  AtherosUsbLinux-1.3.1-x.src.rpm

cd /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES

tar –zvxf AR5005.tgz

make clean

make

make install

The driver is installed with the device unplugged and then device must be plugged in. If the driver is installed with the device plugged, to enable the driver the device must be unplugged and plugged.

To load the module use

            insmod athusbfw.o

            insmod athusbwlan.o

To unload the modules use

            rmmod athusbfw.o

            rmmod athusbwlan.o 

Uninstallation

To uninstall the full binary rpm:

rpm –e  AtherosUsbLinuxBin2.4-1.3.1-x for the 2.4 kernel and

rpm –e  AtherosUsbLinuxBin2.6-1.3.1-x for the 2.6 kernel.

To uninstall the source rpm:

            rm /lib/modules/<Kernelver>/kernel/drivers/usb/athusbfw.o

            rm /lib/modules/<Kernelver>/kernel/drivers/usb/athusbwlan.o

This removes the modules from the system, but not remove the code from the source directory. The source code has to be manually removed from the system.

Features

- Infrastructure (Managed) and Ad-Hoc Mode

- Open and Shared Key authentication mode with 64, 128 and 152-bit encryption

- WPA and 802.1x Support using wpa_supplicant

- 802.11 a/b/g support with Atheros Turbo and SuperA/G modes

- Wireless Extension Support

- Short / Long preamble support

Driver Configuration

The driver can be controlled and configured using Wireless Tools version 26 and above. The driver supports Wireless Extension 15 or above and is tested against Wireless Extension 15 and Wireless Tools 26. The Wireless Tools commands that are currently supported are listed below. For details please refer the man pages of the commands. The device is identified by the name "ath0". The driver right now has support for only one device and is always identified by "ath0"

iwconfig and iwpriv commands can be executed at any point in time. i.e if the driver is loaded but not active (ifconfig down), then the parameters are set in the local configuration and returned. If the driver is loaded and active (i.e ifconfig up), then the parameters are set and the driver is restarted as and when required. iwlist commands does not provide any valid result when the driver is not active.

Find below the list of commands supported by the private wireless extensions (iwpriv) apart from the ones supported by standard wireless configuration command.

Option Name

Possible values

Description

netband

1 – 802.11a, 2 – 802.11a Turbo, 4 – 802.11b, 8 – 802.11g, 16 – 108G and combination of the above

This option controls whether the adapter will operate in the 2.4GHz band, the 5GHz band, or in both. It is possible to set a combination of the values. For example 24 (16+8) means 802.11b/g with 108G support.

spreamble

0 - disabled, 1 - enabled

This option controls whether short preamble is enabled or not.

adhocband

0 – 802.11b, 1 – 802.11a, 2 – 802.11a Turbo, 4 – 802.11g, 5 - 108G

This option selects the network band for Ad-Hoc mode network starting.

calibtime

0 to 65535

This option selects the calibration time in seconds. Default value is 30

Triggeradj

100 to 32767

This option selects the threshold level for Transmit trigger.

WPA supplicant

The WPA supplicant, which is part of this software, allows WPA-PSK authentication to be used. To enable WPA-PSK, enter the SSID of the AP and the pre-shared key into the wpa_supplicant.conf file, bring up the wireless interface by typing ifconfig ath0 x.x.x.x. The software comes with a sample WPA configuration file conf.ath. In the supplicant select the driver as “athusb” and run the supplicant as wpa_supplicant -i ath0 -d athusb -c wpa_supplicant.conf -w.

Wireless Configuration Utilities

This software is compatible with many Linux wireless configuration utilities. Consult http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Tools.html for more information.