No restricted-modules support in d-i

[Lucas Goss]

On installation my Atheros wifi card was detected fine. But when doing dhcp
autoconfiguration it failed. I then tried to set it up with a static ip but that
didn't work either. And after the install my card did not show up in the Network
Settings under Gnome, only the eth0 card did. But it is identified in the device
manager as "AR5212 802.11abg NIC". I had this card working under Mandrake, the
only thing I had to do was set the EESID and the Gateway. I am using the newest
Hoary release from
ftp://cdimage.ubuntulinux.org/cdimage/releases/hoary/array-3/hoary-install-i386.iso.
I also tried the Warty release but it failed there too and so did the xserver,
so I didn't go very far with that. I saw that someone else had something similar
in which they needed to run dhclient so I tried that but it doesn't even try
using ath0, only eth0 and sit0. Let me know if you need any more info.

[Lucas Goss (lgoss007-gmail)]

Forget the static ip attempt. I didn't disable dhcp on the router. I can try
this, but I'd prefer to get dhcp working. I tried reinstalling and it gave me
the choice of using eth0 or ath0 (same as before), but this time after dhcp
failed I just skipped the networking. After the install I went to check Network
settings, again my wireless card was not there. Do I need to file a seperate bug
for the loss of the Atheros card? I'll try to see if I can get the system to
detect it.

[Lucas Goss (lgoss007-gmail)]

Well I finally got this working after using a wired connection (had to run a
50ft cable through the house) to get package updates. After getting the updates
and rebooting the Atheros card came up in the Network settings tool. I
deactivated the eth0 card and activated the ath0 card, but I still had to run
dhclient to get it to connect. After rebooting again the connection was fine.

[Ainsley (ubuntu-pebble)]

I think I had the same problem, though I use static IPs. The installer detected
the Atheros card, but I had to manually install the non-free kernel modules to
get the ath_pci/ath_hal modules. Perhaps the original reporter's updates
included installing these?

[Lucas Goss (lgoss007-gmail)]

Hmm, could be. Well I looked for a package history and found it (I like
synaptic), and heres what I found:
Installed ...
linux-restricted-modules-2.6.10-2-386 (2.6.10.2-2)

Is that it? I looked at the other updates, most wouldn't include ath stuff but I
wasn't sure about these so just in case:
Upgraded ...
base-config (2.61ubuntu12) to 2.61ubuntu13
ubuntu-base (0.20) to 0.21
ubuntu-desktop (0.20) to 0.21

I thought the Atheros drivers were open source though, why would they be under
restricted? This could make it difficult for new users who can't update their
kernel because they don't have web access.

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

(In reply to comment #4)
> Hmm, could be. Well I looked for a package history and found it (I like
> synaptic), and heres what I found:
> Installed ...
> linux-restricted-modules-2.6.10-2-386 (2.6.10.2-2)
>
> Is that it? I looked at the other updates, most wouldn't include ath stuff but I

Yes, that is the package which contains the Atheros driver.

> I thought the Atheros drivers were open source though, why would they be under
> restricted? This could make it difficult for new users who can't update their
> kernel because they don't have web access.

The Atheros drivers contain some open source modules and some proprietary
modules, so the work as a whole is proprietary.
I don't understand your concerns about new users, given that these drivers are
installed by default on every Ubuntu system since before the first official release.

[Lucas Goss (lgoss007-gmail)]

If they are installed by default then that's great. However when I installed
Ubuntu Hoary array-3 they weren't installed and dhcp failed (see previous
comments for detail).

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

(In reply to comment #6)
> If they are installed by default then that's great. However when I installed
> Ubuntu Hoary array-3 they weren't installed and dhcp failed (see previous
> comments for detail).

You seemed to describe two things:

1. The interface was detected during installation, but it wasn't working
properly (dhcp failed)
2. After installation, the driver was missing(?)

#1 could be explained by a driver problem, but #2 doesn't make much sense. Can
you confirm that the package and/or files were actually missing?

[Lucas Goss (lgoss007-gmail)]

Yes, the package and/or files were not installed, I attempted this twice. The
first time I thought that maybe I just messed up the configuration because it
didn't recognize my card. The second time I hoped that maybe there was an update
online (I didn't think about checking the cd because I figured anything from it
was already installed). But looking at my history reveals that they weren't
installed. which would explain why I couldn't detect them running modprobe.

Sorry for the confusion, I didn't realize at first they weren't installed at all.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

I've fixed the issue where linux-restricted-modules-* wasn't getting installed:

base-installer (1.15ubuntu5) hoary; urgency=low

  * Tweak kernel_update_list to list more general metapackages first, and
    stop listing kernel-image-*.
  * If the ideal kernel isn't available, just pick the first on the list
    rather than trying to match up kernel versions.

 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Mon, 7 Mar 2005 13:11:31 +0000

If there's still a problem configuring the interface in the installer, I guess
it's a driver problem, so reassigning to the kernel.

[reh4c (gene-hoffler)]

I also have an atheros minipci card that's detected fine during installation. However, I can't get
DHCP to work after setting the ESSID and key. It must be something to do with the restricted modules
not getting loaded. Therefore, I must get packages with my wired LAN during the install. After the
installation is complete, then the restricted module (madwifi) is downloaded with synaptic. It would
be great if the module could be loaded and used during the installation, but if it's restricted and
can't be part of the install media (CD)...oh well. That is a pain in the butt for those of us trying
to install ubuntu without having a wired lan available.

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

(In reply to comment #10)
> I also have an atheros minipci card that's detected fine during installation.
 However, I can't get
> DHCP to work after setting the ESSID and key. It must be something to do with
the restricted modules
> not getting loaded. Therefore, I must get packages with my wired LAN during
the install. After the
> installation is complete, then the restricted module (madwifi) is downloaded
with synaptic. It would
> be great if the module could be loaded and used during the installation, but
if it's restricted and
> can't be part of the install media (CD)...oh well. That is a pain in the butt
for those of us trying
> to install ubuntu without having a wired lan available.

The madwifi drivers are available both in the installer and after installation.
 The linux-restricted-modules package is included on the CD and installed by
default.

At any rate, you're not having the same problem described in this bug if your
device was detected by the installer

[David Tansey (djtansey)]

I have found a temporary solution/fix, though I haven't installed enough on my
x40 to have it down perfectly.

if you swith to another virtual terminal and do the following:

iwconfig ath0 mode managed
iwconfig ath0 essid -whatever you want-
iwconfig ath0 rate 36M

and you can modprobe -r ath_hal ath_pci ath_rate_onoe wlan_wep wlan and modprobe
them again

i have always done it in that order and next thing i know iwconfig shows me
connected to the AP, and clicking "attempt to get dhcp address again" works.

i think the "mode managed" line is the most important. i remember once just
doing that and having no problem with anything else.

just wanted to give my tip.

i hope this gets fixed. it's one of the problems that must have pretty basic
answers and is thus very frustrating when it doesn't get fixed from release to
release. i'm much more understanding of things like external monitors not
working easily or dock/undockign because i know that some of that are
fundamental problems that will require more time to fix.

[Ben Collins (ben-collins)]

Can some confirm whether this problem is fixed with Colony 5 install?

[Lucas Goss (lgoss007-gmail)]

Well I guess since I reported it I should probably test it :)

But can I test it on the live cd (I'm not sure how much it's merged with the
regular install cd)? If not I'll just have to do some backups before doing a
fresh install.

[Ben Collins (ben-collins)]

Yes, the Colony 5 live cd is fine for testing.

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

(In reply to comment #15)
> Yes, the Colony 5 live cd is fine for testing.

Yes, but be careful...if it isn't working in d-i, then the module will still be
loaded later (and ath0 will appear). Check whether it gets an IP address
automatically.

[Lucas Goss (lgoss007-gmail)]

Ok, well here's my results after testing colony 5. After booting up the cd I
tested my connection, but it wasn't connected so I went to
"System->Administration->Networking". There were three devices (ppp0, eth0, and
ath0), all with the status of not configured. I clicked on the properties for
ath0, set the essid, and changed the configuration to dhcp, then clicked ok. I
clicked ok again and tested the connection, it still wasn't there. I went back
into the Networking, and changed the "Default gateway device" to ath0. I clicked
ok again and tested the connection but it still wasn't there. So I went back to
Networking one more time and noticed the "Default gateway device" wasn't set to
ath0 (even though I set it previously). I figured out that I had to create a
location (I don't remember having to do this previously), but after I created a
location and changed the "Default gateway device" to ath0, it stayed ath0, and
my connection finally worked.

So yes, it worked after doing the above, thanks.

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

This problem was fixed for Hoary, but presumably unfixed for Breezy with the new
l-r-m infrastructure

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

(In reply to comment #18)
> This problem was fixed for Hoary, but presumably unfixed for Breezy with the new
> l-r-m infrastructure

Yes. We need binutils-static-udeb (ugh!) before anything can be done about this.

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

*** Bug 23771 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Adam Conrad (adconrad)]

(In reply to comment #19)
>
> Yes. We need binutils-static-udeb (ugh!) before anything can be done about this.

We have all the required pieces now, this is just a reminder that we need the
udpkg postinst-for-packages-with-dots-in-the-name bugfix for dapper, so we can
actually get this working. :)

(I also wouldn't mind being tossed that bugfix so I can do some testrun breezy
images with no changes other than the fixed udpkg, for people with ath hardware
to test...)

[Ben Collins (ben-collins)]

This bug has been flagged because it is old and possibly inactive. It may or may
not be fixed in the latest release (Breezy Badger 5.10). It is being marked as
"NEEDSINFO". In two weeks time, if the bug is not updated back to "NEW" and
validated against Breezy, it will be closed.

This is needed in order to help manage the current bug list for the kernel. We
would like to fix all bugs, but need users to test and help with debugging.

If this change was in error for this bug, please respond and make the
appropriate change (or email <email address hidden> if you cannot make the
change).

Thanks for your help.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

This bug is still active; reassigning to linux-restricted-modules, where it's
more appropriate.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

The changes required for this were too late for Breezy, but this should finally be fixed in Dapper now, due to a whole slew of changes in various places.