MadWifi
Debian MadWifi Packages
There is an official madwifi package in the non-free section of the Debian archive. Below is an example /etc/apt/sources.list file, that would allow you to use apt to get madwifi:-
Please use EITHER unstable OR testing OR stable, everything else probably results in heavy problems. If you don't know what you're doing.
# Unstable deb ftp://ftp.au.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free deb-src ftp://ftp.au.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free # Testing deb ftp://ftp.au.debian.org/debian testing main contrib non-free deb-src ftp://ftp.au.debian.org/debian testing main contrib non-free # Stable deb ftp://ftp.au.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free deb-src ftp://ftp.au.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
Please see the list of Debian mirrors for repositories at your location or simply adjust your existing entries as required (you may need to add non-free to your existing entries).
backports.org also provides a version of the package for the previous stable branch, sarge. See the instructions page for more information.
# Sarge Backports deb http://www.backports.org/debian sarge-backports non-free
Installation (with module-assistant)
The preferred method of installing madwifi-modules uses the module-assistant (m-a) tool to automate all of the following steps: preparing the kernel source/headers, unpacking the module tarball, compiling, building a binary-modules debian package, installing and cleaning up.
$ su # apt-get update # apt-get install madwifi-source # apt-get install madwifi-tools # m-a prepare # m-a a-i madwifi
See /usr/share/doc/madwifi-source/README.Debian for extra details. The module-assistant documentation may also be of value (man m-a).
Installation (with kernel-package)
An alternative method of building madwifi-modules involves the use of the scripts provided by kernel-package. An exhaustive set of instructions for building madwifi for Debian kernels exists on Martin List-Petersen's site and is also applicable to the madwifi-source package.
Post-Installation
By now the modules should be installed to the correct location, and module dependencies updated. So it should just be a matter of loading the correct module:-
# modprobe ath_pci
In syslog or the output of dmesg you should see something similar to the following messages for successful insertion of the MadWifi modules (example with two cards):-
ath_hal: 0.9.16.16 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413, RF5413) wlan: 0.8.4.2 (svn 1451) ath_rate_sample: 1.2 (svn 1451) ath_pci: 0.9.4.5 (svn 1451) ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:02.0[A] -> Link [LNKC] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10 wifi0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps wifi0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps wifi0: H/W encryption support: WEP AES AES_CCM TKIP wifi0: mac 5.6 phy 4.1 radio 1.7 wifi0: Use hw queue 1 for WME_AC_BE traffic wifi0: Use hw queue 0 for WME_AC_BK traffic wifi0: Use hw queue 2 for WME_AC_VI traffic wifi0: Use hw queue 3 for WME_AC_VO traffic wifi0: Use hw queue 8 for CAB traffic wifi0: Use hw queue 9 for beacons wifi0: Atheros 5212: mem=0xd0000000, irq=10 ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:03:00.0[A] -> Link [LNKC] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10 wifi1: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps wifi1: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps wifi1: turboG rates: 6Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps wifi1: H/W encryption support: WEP AES AES_CCM TKIP wifi1: mac 7.9 phy 4.5 radio 5.6 wifi1: Use hw queue 1 for WME_AC_BE traffic wifi1: Use hw queue 0 for WME_AC_BK traffic wifi1: Use hw queue 2 for WME_AC_VI traffic wifi1: Use hw queue 3 for WME_AC_VO traffic wifi1: Use hw queue 8 for CAB traffic wifi1: Use hw queue 9 for beacons wifi1: Atheros 5212: mem=0xd2000000, irq=10
Most up-to-date systems will load this module automatically at boot time via the hotplug mechanism, if not you can make sure it is loaded by adding it to the /etc/modules list:-
# echo ath_pci >> /etc/modules
