Atheros Driver Resolution

[Robert Love <rml novell com>]

I have had my hands on a real Atheros laptop for a week or two, so I
have been able to try out some real-world fixes instead of my blind jabs
and hooks of previous attempts.

I was able to reproduce the problem as such: On NLD with a 9.1-based
kernel, the Atheros card works fine.  On NLD with a SUSE 9.2-based
kernel, the Atheros card does not work.  It drops nearly all packets and
you cannot even obtain a DHCP lease.  This has been reproduced on SUSE
9.2's stock kernel, so it is not an issue with inotify.

But I feel for you all.

Through debugging and prodding I have managed to get the Atheros
working, albeit accompanied by a small amount of packet loss.  In normal
use (web browser, so on) I do not notice any degradation but a ping
flood shows about 15~25% loss.

There are a few steps.

First, download and install the new 2.6.8-717.inotify.7 kernels:

http://primates.ximian.com/~rml/kernel-rml/suse-92-i586/kernel-default-2.6.8-717.inotify.7.i586.rpm
http://primates.ximian.com/~rml/kernel-rml/suse-92-i586/kernel-default-nongpl-2.6.8-717.inotify.7.i586.rpm

Next, download and install the 707.1 wireless-tools package:

http://primates.ximian.com/~rml/misc/wireless-tools-27pre26-707.1.i586.rpm

Third, edit /etc/sysconfig/network/wireless.  The last line or so should
have the option "WIRELESS_IWPRIV_OPTIONS."  Set it to "mode 2."  E.g.,

	WIRELESS_IWPRIV_OPTIONS="mode 2"

Finally, reboot.

I set eth0 to manual and ath0 to on-boot in YaST and it does indeed come
up automatically.

Oh, and scanning is messed up with the 9.2 version of the driver.
Unlike the above problem, however, this is a known issue with the
madwifi folks.

Best,

	Robert Love