NOTE: this page is for archival only, see the note at the end of the page.

ath5k

ath5k is a completely FOSS wireless driver for Atheros WLAN based chipsets. It is now of John's wireless-testing git repository.

Hacking ath5k

ath5k is currently available through different places.

Developers are encouraged to work using the git repository. If you are not familiar with git please check out our Linux wireless git-guide. Alternatively you can use the Linux wireless compatibility package but please be sure to post patches in unified diff format (diff -u). To learn how to submit patches please read our Submitting patches guideline.

Documentation available

Read this section on Atheros specifications and documentation.

Enabling ath5k

To enable ath5k in the kernel configuration, you must first enable mac80211:

Networking  --->
  Wireless  --->
    <M> Improved wireless configuration API
    <M> Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack (mac80211)

Please note that there is another 802.11 networking stack:

    <M> Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack

You do not need this. This option enables the old SoftMAC stack we hope to kill one of these days. You can still safely enable this though.

You can then enable ath5k in the kernel configuration under

Device Drivers  --->
  [*] Network device support  --->
        Wireless LAN  --->
          <M>   Atheros 5xxx wireless cards support

caveats

This driver is VERY new and under HEAVY development. It works quite well with older AR5212 based devices. Support for newer devices like AR5414 and PCI express is pretty new and might not work so well. Very new devices and PCI express devices might not work at all.

supported chips

ath5k is designed with support in mind for any AR5xxx device.

AR5210   - 802.11a   (Crete/fez)
AR5211   - 802.11ab  (Oahu) (draft g -OFDM only- supported by hw but not by ath5k)
AR5212   - 802.11abg (Venice)
AR5213   - 802.11abg (Hainan)
AR2413/4 - 802.11bg  (Griffin)
AR5413/4 - 802.11abg (Eagle)
AR5423/4 - 802.11abg (Condor) (PCI-E)
AR2425   - 802.11bg  (Swan) (PCI-E)
AR2417   - 802.11bg  (Nala) (PCI-E)

To try the driver you can do this:

modprobe ath5k
sudo ip link set wlan%d up
sudo iwconfig wlan%d essid any
# Make sure you get auth'd and then assoc'd
# Then either set an IP manually or get it via DHCP
ping gw

You'll probably see an immediate rate drop to 1M, this is because of how we currently handle rate control. You should be able to keep at least at 11M but for now set this manually:

iwconfig wlan%d rate 11M

Currently supported PCI ID list with respective status report on basic-testing as defined above.

Vendor:device   Type    Name    Basic-testing
168c:0207       AR5210  AR5210  No tx - working on it
168c:0007       <<      <<      No tx - working on it

168c:0011       AR5211  AR5211  Should work
168c:0012       <<      <<      OK

168c:0013       AR5212  AR5212  OK (*)
a727:0013       <<      <<      Should work
10b7:0013       <<      <<      <<
168c:0014       <<      <<      <<
168c:0015       <<      <<      <<
168c:0016       <<      <<      <<
168c:0017       <<      <<      <<
168c:0018       <<      <<      <<
168c:0019       <<      <<      <<
168c:001a       <<      RF2413  OK
168c:001b       <<      RF5413  OK
168c:001c       <<      AR5424  OK (**)

Notes on supported devices

"OK" means that card operates almost as good as with binary drivers (performance is around 25Mbits max depending on environment -that's because we still don't support ANI or tx power calibration)

"Should work" means that card hasn't been tested (we haven't received any reports) but since chipset is the same with a tested, working card, it should work as well.

(**) 001c is used also for RF2425 parts.

available devices

Please visit http://madwifi-project.org/wiki/Compatibility for a complete list of supported devices

features

Supports 802.11abg, depending on the chipset, and some vendor extensions such as Atheros XR and Turbo. This driver requires no firmware or binary-only HAL!

working

  • Station Mode

  • Ad-Hoc Mode

  • Mesh Point Mode

not working yet

  • Access Point mode

  • Turbo

  • XR

  • SuperA/G

Get driver

This driver is currently only in wireless-testing.git.

ath5k kerneldoc

We have kerneldocs available for ath5k:

Project Home Page

Reported bugs on ath5k

This is a collection of bug reports both unresolved and resolved to help users track issues and to find patches for fixes which have not yet been merged.

ath5k TODO

Things ath5k developers are currently working on.

  • Initvals update (Nick -done, under testing)
  • PHY code updates and cleanup (Nick -done, under testing)
  • Reset updates from legacy HAL (Nick -done, under testing -hangs on some cards)
  • Automatic Noise Immunity (Nick -code needs review)
  • Tx power support and baseband calibration (Nick/Felix)
  • EEPROM helper to get various eeprom infos + caps directly (Nick)
  • Rework phy calibration (I/Q, noise floor etc)
  • AP mode
  • 802.11d/Regulatory enhancements (Bob)
  • 802.11e/WME/QoS support - see Notes on QoS (Tulio Magno)

  • Rfkill (pending patch by Tobias Doerffel)
  • Jumbo frame processing (these appear to just be errors)

  • CCMP hardware support (Bob - have a patch, but it's broken)

This is a static dump of the old wiki, taken after locking it in January 2015. The new wiki is at https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/.
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