AR5523 Wifi Dongle -AGAIN! (SOLVED, thanks)

[muungwana]

I plug the Atheros dongle in. No lights. I do lsusb as Root, and it is found, but returns no firmware.
I have the .inf files for both net5523 and athfmwdl, and ar5523.bin together with the other files culled from a Win driver suite.

This is from your first post.

what output does lsusb give when it talks about no firmware?

copy the "ar5523.bin" file to "/lib/firmware" and rerun "lsusb" and check if it still complain about firmware.

The card may say it doesnt need the firmware but it may need it, it wouldnt hurt having the firmware available just incase

[BJF]

[mdm@localhost ~]$ su root
Password:
[root@localhost mdm]# lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0d8e:7802 Global Sun Technology, Inc. AR5523 (no firmware)
[root@localhost mdm]# lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0d8e:7802 Global Sun Technology, Inc. AR5523 (no firmware)
[root@localhost mdm]#

I think it's commenting on the item it finds. That it doesn't require firmware. No change between before and after copy of ar5523.bin to /lib/firmware.

I'll look for a more recent driver around "life". Things to do, people to see. Gurgle is our friend. Be back soon.

[BJF]

Muungwana: I'm not getting cold feet. I'm not backing out. Not scared. But between you and me, what are our chances of getting this thing going? I'm up for it, but you're the one with all the clues.
I have found a couple of likely Vista drivers in Gurgle but extracted, they don't contain .inf files. Help!!

[muungwana]

you have version 1.1 of the driver, you can get 1.5 at: http://www.atheros.cz/atheros-wireless-download.php?chipset=11&system=1

The driver is in the "3COM\Driver" sub folder folder.

it worked before,no reason why it shouldnt work again.

what are the chances of getting it working? It should be working 

Windows driver couldn't initialize the device (C0000001)

the above is the error you are getting,do you have a windows computer? does the dongle work there? It working it there could eliminate hardware defect.

[BJF]

(Cue manic laughter!) You, sir, are a b****y genius!

Went and got the drivers you found. Coincidentally I'd seen them and discounted them as 3Com and therefore not what was wanted, and spent fruitless hours trying to better them.

Extracted them and replaced the old drivers with them. Did Configure>>>Install new Ndiswrapper> and got the raspberry over no device present again.

So I went back through your help and advice, and did as Root:

ndiswrapper -a 0d8e:7802 net5523

modprobe -r ndiswrapper

modprobe ndiswrapper

Then unplugged and replugged. And it burst into life! See, it posts to Forums!

I will now set about testing. See if it survives Hibernation and reboots. More follows.

(Goes off chuckling and giggling. Muungwana Rules, OK!!) 

[muungwana]

it works, finally!!! .. what a relief, was running out of ideas 

what does dmesg | tail -n 50 give you?

It will be nice to know what info dmesg prints when things work.

You think you can remember the steps a few months down the line?

Very old posts are deleted from time to time. Its probably best if you record the instructions somewhere else.

[BJF]

[mdm@localhost ~]$ su root
Password:
[root@localhost mdm]# dmesg | -n 50
bash: -n: command not found
[root@localhost mdm]# dmesg | tail -n 50
parport_pc 00:09: activated
serial 00:0a: activated
firewire_core: skipped bus generations, destroying all nodes
usb usb1: root hub lost power or was reset
ata2.00: ACPI cmd ef/03:45:00:00:00:a0 (SET FEATURES) filtered out
ata2.00: ACPI cmd ef/03:45:00:00:00:a0 (SET FEATURES) filtered out
ata2.00: ACPI cmd ef/03:0c:00:00:00:a0 (SET FEATURES) filtered out
ata2.00: configured for MWDMA2
usb 1-2: reset full-speed USB device number 5 using ohci_hcd
firewire_core: rediscovered device fw0
ata1.00: ACPI cmd ef/03:45:00:00:00:a0 (SET FEATURES) filtered out
ata1.00: ACPI cmd ef/03:45:00:00:00:a0 (SET FEATURES) filtered out
ata1.00: ACPI cmd ef/03:0c:00:00:00:a0 (SET FEATURES) filtered out
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
PM: restore of devices complete after 2223.287 msecs
Restarting kernel threads ...
usb 1-1: USB disconnect, device number 4
done.
snapshot_ioctl: ioctl '4004330c' is deprecated and will be removed soon, update your suspend-to-disk utilities
Restarting tasks ... done.
video LNXVIDEO:00: Restoring backlight state
eth0: DSPCFG accepted after 0 usec.
eth0: DSPCFG accepted after 0 usec.
EXT4-fs (sda1): re-mounted. Opts: commit=0
EXT4-fs (sda6): re-mounted. Opts:
eth0: DSPCFG accepted after 0 usec.
eth0: DSPCFG accepted after 0 usec.
EXT4-fs (sda1): re-mounted. Opts: commit=600
EXT4-fs (sda6): re-mounted. Opts: commit=600
ndiswrapper version 1.58rc1 loaded (smp=yes, preempt=yes)
usb 1-2: reset full-speed USB device number 5 using ohci_hcd
ndiswrapper: driver net5523 (,07/27/2005,1.5.0.102) loaded
ndiswrapper (ZwQueryValueKey:2336): not fully implemented (yet)
wlan0: ethernet device 00:03:2f:30:41:c2 using NDIS driver: net5523, version: 0x10005, NDIS version: 0x501, vendor: 'NDIS Network Adapter', 0D8E:7802.F.conf
wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP; TKIP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2-PSK; AES/CCMP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2-PSK
usbcore: registered new interface driver ndiswrapper
eth0: DSPCFG accepted after 0 usec.
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
eth0: DSPCFG accepted after 0 usec.
eth0: DSPCFG accepted after 0 usec.
EXT4-fs (sda1): re-mounted. Opts: commit=600
EXT4-fs (sda6): re-mounted. Opts: commit=600
wlan0: no IPv6 routers present
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
ata1: EH complete
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
EXT4-fs (sda1): re-mounted. Opts: commit=600
EXT4-fs (sda6): re-mounted. Opts: commit=600,commit=600
[root@localhost mdm]#

Yes. I'll copy and paste the saga to a .doc and file it safe. Thanks again.

(Edit) It's still pumping, muungwana. Only one of it's little LED's lights now with the new driver but it survives Hibernate and log-out. Is there a way to speed the discovery of wifi on boot? It brings up the Desktop, checks eth0 and reports it missing, then checks and finds the wlan. Can I reverse that and get wlan checked first? Can I move it up the load order so it goes in with the Desktop for a real or imagined quicker boot-up. Yes I know, some people are never happy!
Sorry. Lapsing dangerously close to a multi-topic thread. The boot has morphed to load and start in a completely satisfactory fashion and I'm a happy and grateful man. Thank you muungwana, thank you coffeetime, this one is SOLVED.