Banging my head on the wall - Wireless - ubuntu 8.10 issue

Ok I followed two or three different guides about installing ubuntu 8.10 on aspire one 110.
After successfull installation i disabled the driver that came with ubuntu and installed "5xxx series of Atheros 802.11". So far so good.
Ok, now the problem, although if I "iwlist scan" i get results the card is nowwhere to be found in the network manager, is this suposed to happen? is the configuration of the wireless card supposed to be made through terminal?
thanks in advance.

 

Have you tried using a pre-compiled customized kernel which include the ath5k module?

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=5517&start=40#p41768

 

That is one of the reasons I left Ubuntu and tried Mandriva 2009 Gnome and it works fine.

 

OT @donec I'm not sure if you have posted replies like "Mandriva works!" before, but there are some that seem to post such messages often in the Ubuntu forum. I feel it doesn't add anything to the conversation as the people starting these threads want to use Ubuntu and not Mandriva.. I use Windows most often on my AAO and OS X on my other machines, but you don't see me replying "Works in Windows!!", "Works in OS X" in unrelated threads or a Mandriva forum. So please people stop with this "trolling" and let others choose their own operating system and let them ask for help when they need it.

 

I have given up on Linux. I believe, only Linux-Fans can handle this nettop with linux-distributions.

i have so far failed to get one single Linux-distribution working. Tried Linpus (when I finally managed to install the G3, WLAN didn't work anymore) then tried latest Mandriva version (neither worked), then tried UBUNT and XUBUNTU. Very nice, but couldn't get it to run WLAN and/or G3

and with all those, except for Linpus, the little Nettop became very slow.

meanwhile I had tried a slimmed down version of XP-Pro, which worked fine but was pretty slow. making writing of messages, news items etc extremely frustrating.

switching of paging helped, but now my Internet collapsed quite frequently.

Now I decided to give XP-Pro a last try. I installed an extremely slim version (1,6 GB installed) that uses about 190 MB RAM. I also installed a minimum of drivers manually (provided by Acer). i downloaded a tweak-programme /Tweak-xp) to clean-up the memory and slim down even further.

I did not turn off paging and have sted installed RAM-disk of 40 MB (with Tweak-XP) für the Firefox-Cache.

Now the machine not only starts in about 45-60 seconds (I am running skype, firefox with half a dozen applications/tabs open), Abiword (opedn) as wordprocessor, Thunderbird and another news-ticker programme i need for work - and so far no problem.

needless to say that WLAN and G3 (automatic installation) are running fine.

So my suggestion for Linux-beginners is: unless you don't need to work with that little thing and love to waste time, go back, get a second-hand version of XP or XP-pro, slim down to a minimum with NLite or others and install as suggested. also download a very good freeware defrag-programme. this is rather important for speed.

I now have x-many programmes installed (replace Acrobat reader with a slimline freeware-programme, get excel/pp-viewer from MS for free) and be happy

cheers
Christian

 

If you still have some interest in linux I would advise to try it again within 6 months or so. Most probably there will be a distro that has everything working by then.

Another solution is someone in your neighbourhood that can help you install everything. When I started to use linux I could always ask my brother when something didn't work, today I help my father to install programs and stuff on his laptop. Just like with windows you need a learning curve to get everything working.

 

I have tried Ubuntu and I first and know the problems that come with it. I also know that there are a lot of people that try to make it work but know nothing of Linux and the other possible distros available because they don't get as much attention as Ubuntu. These people are not posting in Ubuntu just because they want to use Ubuntu. Instead they are posting in Ubuntu because they rightfully feel that the best place to get Ubuntu help is an area for Ubuntu. I post my recommendations for Mandriva in order for those people that are trying and failing to get a distro to work so they know there is another alternative that is easy to get to work.

IMO it may not be adding to the conversation on Ubuntu but it does let others know Ubuntu is not the only way. Allowing those that are not interested in making Ubuntu work but rather trying to get their computer to work. This allows the post in the Ubuntu section or any other section to be from those that really want to get Ubuntu working as they desire. Thus increasing the quality of the section.

Sounds to me you just did.

I am not trolling to convince others to switch to Mandriva or any other OS. But when I see people having trouble getting something to work then I try and help by informing them of a way to get it to work. If that help happens to be to checkout Mandriva then so be it. Anyone that is not interested in other OS's can just ignore the post as I ignore OS X post since I know nothing of it. Now your post has taken the Ubuntu section away from the purpose of helping people with their problems and instead force them to see complaints in how and what people post which is not helpful to the section.

 

For people new to Linux , I would suggest using ubuntu 8.04.1 https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne
covers just about all the issues successfully however suspend hibernate is still a problem on ssd versions.

startup time is about 40 seconds usually and it runs quite well. Apart from the suspend/resume problem I've just got trouble getting the alsa mixer saving my settings

sudo alsactl store saves them
alsactl restore restores them (just not doing so after a reboot automatically.

The problem with new releases is usually things don't quite work initially and theres fixes coming out usually daily for a month or two and then it settles down. For someone new to Linux its just a bit too much, hardy is pretty good and thats what i am running now.

If wifi isn't quite working try
sudo apt-get install wifi-radar
then
sudo wifi-radar (with this you should see access points )

sorry i can't help with 8.10 yet but i'm waiting a while longer before moving to intrepid

 

ok today I have 8.10 and its pretty good so far, the wireless was a bit of a pain and i can understand why people have problems getting it going.

First
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
then reboot when it finishes.

from the wiki page.

Wireless module
Seems to work out of the box for some. If not:
disable ath_pci( use ath5k )
System->HardwareDrivers-> ( disable Atheros 802.11 wireless lan cards )

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-intrepid-generic

System->HardwareDrivers-> ( enable 5xxx series of Atheros 802.11 wireless lan cards )
sudo modprobe ath5k

thats fairly good advice but with a hidden problem if you have just done update and upgrade it doesnt seem to work so a reboot
helps and rechecking system->hardware drivers showed both hardware drivers enabled and in use disabling the first one and rebooting and i was able to configure my wireless with my ssid (wierdly it didn't show any ssid's initially but when i gave it my ssid it then showed about 6 in my vicinity. It also may be easier to start with an open ssid and then up the security to what you want afterwards. For me I use open but with mac address filtering, it's easy and fairly secure. Yes not perfect but I don't need perfect. I actually installed
sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-intrepid-generic

twice the first time it didn't work and after a reboot it did find something else to download so if your stuck try installing again
it will do no harm. (i think theres a kernel update already since release and if you download it before using the new kernel your getting the older driver which doesnt work with the newer kernel)

The wifi led doesnt work but who needs it anyway