Wireless Drivers – How to Install ath10k

atherosdriverskernelwireless

I have exhausted google on how to do this, compounded by being a beginner.

I am trying to install this module.

I have a nice new Acer Nitro (which will be even nicer once I remove dependency on win 8.1), with Atheros Qualcomm QCA61x4 wifi/bluetooth card, which seems to pop up with the same signature 168c:003e as the QCA6174, so I am hoping this module will work.

I have tried with windows drivers and ndiswrapper but this didn't work for me.

I have also tried upgrading the kernel to 3.19 but that didn't seem to fix it. Now on a FRESH 14.04 install.

  • How do I download the appropriate files from github (& where do I save them?)

  • Which packages do I need to rebuild the kernel? (I have a fresh 14.04 install)

Best Answer

Ubuntu 16.04 users with internet access (e.g. ethernet) should just have to install updates and reboot:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo reboot

For those without internet, download the firmware drivers from here. Choose the latest version for your architecture. For example, version 1.157.5 (newest as of 29/11/16) for amd64 is here.

Once you have the .deb package, install as usual. For our example, it is:

sudo dpkg -i linux-firmware_1.157.5_all.deb

Reboot, and now it should be working.

It might be easier to install backports than trying to use github

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-generic
wget https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/projects/backports/2015/03/13/backports-20150313.tar.xz
tar xvfJ backports-20150313.tar.xz
cd backports-20150313
make defconfig-ath10k
make
sudo make install

Then reboot when it is finished. Your wifi is fairly new to Linux so it might not be fully functional even with this

Related Question