How to get Atheros ar242x wireless adapter working under Debian Linux?

Question

Does anybody know how to get the Atheros ar242x wireless adapter working under Debian Linux (5.0.2 and/or 5.0.3)? My Debian live CDs and install CDs both don't like this card at all.

Curisouly, it seems to work on other, Debian-based, Linuxes.

Is this a free/non-free Driver issue? I know Debian gets mardy about that.

Although for what it's worth, the Live CD doesn't seem to detect my wired LAN connection either...

Specifically this is on a Samsung R610 laptop (some version of which seem to have an intel wireless adapter - this one definitely doesn't!)

I've tried all sorts of things but obviously on a live CD installing software is limited. I've also tinkerering with network config files and kernel modules etc but to no avail.

Answer 1

The MadWifi driver should work.

• Download the latest version
• Extract it:

$tar xzvf madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-current.tar.gz

• Compile it:

$cd madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r4016-20090429
$make

• Install as root:

$sudo make install

• Load the module:

$modprobe ath_pci

• Configure it to load at bootup:

$echo "ath_pci" >> /etc/modules

You should be good to go.