Problems With Atheros Based Wireless Cards & Ubuntu 6.06 experience

[Gerry Tool]

Gerry Tool wrote:
> Brian Truter wrote:
>> Madwifi-old and madwifi-ng both work fine for me on FC5, but not 
>> without some issues. The interface is not brought up automatically on 
>> boot anymore. I have checked my old configuration, uninstalled and 
>> re-installed, nothing seems to get it working again. NetworkManager 
>> doesnt seem to work anymore, the only way I can bring the interface up 
>> anymore is thru the command line, so i had to resort to shell scripts.
>>
>>
> I have also found that I have to use the cli to bring up my network, and 
> NetworkManager seems to confound the problem.  Can you share the shell 
> script you are using to bring up your network?
> 
> Thanks.  Gerry
> 
I have discovered that creating suitable scripts is very easy.  I have 
one (in my ~/bin directory) called wup:
#!/bin/bash
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 up
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 key xxxxxxxx
/sbin/dhclient ath0
exit

and one called wdn:
#!/bin/bash
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 down
exit

These work for me executing the first after login as sudo wup and before 
logout as sudo wdn.  I found if I didn't run wdn, my machine would hang 
during shutdown.

Also, being curious, I decided to compare this FC5 wireless experience 
with what one should expect from the next ubuntu 6.06.  I downloaded the 
daily DVD, burned it with K3b, booted to it and got my Netgear WG511T 
wireless card working immediately by using System > Administration > 
Networking to configure the already-recognized ath0 device and clicking 
on the NetworkManager icon that was on the panel, and selecting my 
network.  NM asked me for the encryption key and for a password to place 
the key on a keyring.  With that little effort, I had an IP address and 
was ready to use the network.

If Fedora Core doesn't make wireless that easy, it will not be used by 
many laptop owners.

Gerry