Ubuntu – How to get an Atheros AR9485 wireless card working

atheroswireless

Recently i updated my 12.10 ubuntu, ever since i got this strange wifi internet problem. Net works fine on the initial boot, after couple of web requests from a browser or command line or any tool, internet stopped working. I have to disconnect & connect the wifi to get it work again.

It happens every few minutes. Its frustrating. It was working fine before the upgrade. I am sure this is not the machine problem, because my dual boot win 8 works fine.

I tried iwconfig, this is the output

lo        no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"jumbotron"  
       Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: 08:86:3B:8C:C0:74   
       Bit Rate=150 Mb/s   Tx-Power=16 dBm   
       Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
       Encryption key:off
       Power Management:off
       Link Quality=50/70  Signal level=-60 dBm  
       Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
       Tx excessive retries:1  Invalid misc:2   Missed beacon:0

anybody know whats goin on?

Update:

I connected my android phone in wlan and enabled USB tethering with ubuntu machine. It works great.

So the problem is defenitly with wireless configuration or drivers

These are some configs i got

lshw -C network

  *-network               
       description: Wireless interface
       product: AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter
       vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: wlan0
       version: 01
       serial: 00:08:ca:e6:6b:59
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath9k driverversion=3.2.0-23-generic-pae firmware=N/A ip=192.168.2.11 latency=0 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn
       resources: irq:17 memory:dea00000-dea7ffff memory:dea80000-dea8ffff

ifconfig

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:1727 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1727 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:137632 (137.6 KB)  TX bytes:137632 (137.6 KB)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:08:ca:e6:6b:59  
          inet addr:192.168.2.11  Bcast:192.168.2.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::208:caff:fee6:6b59/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1400  Metric:1
          RX packets:12133 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:11872 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:9352562 (9.3 MB)  TX bytes:1851594 (1.8 MB)

nm-tool 

NetworkManager Tool

State: connected (global)

- Device: wlan0  [jumbotron] -------------------------------------------------
  Type:              802.11 WiFi
  Driver:            ath9k
  State:             connected
  Default:           yes
  HW Address:        00:08:CA:E6:6B:59

  Capabilities:
    Speed:           150 Mb/s

  Wireless Properties
    WEP Encryption:  yes
    WPA Encryption:  yes
    WPA2 Encryption: yes

  Wireless Access Points (* = current AP)
    *jumbotron:    Infra, 08:86:3B:8C:C0:74, Freq 2437 MHz, Rate 54 Mb/s, Strength 57 WPA WPA2

  IPv4 Settings:
    Address:         192.168.2.11
    Prefix:          24 (255.255.255.0)
    Gateway:         192.168.2.1

    DNS:             192.168.2.1

Best Answer

About a year before, I was having problems with that same Atheros AR9485 on my Ubuntu "Natty Narwhal". Back then, Ubuntu not even recognized that hardware as integrated to the computer. I purchased a cheap USB wireless network adapter that has worked excellent on Ubuntu; it has the form of a USB pendrive, and I connect it through an extension wire (I read that for health purposes is better to place it 15 cm. far to your body).

The name of the adapter is "Realtek RTL8187B WLAN Adapter". --it works pretty good in Ubuntu by just conecting it to USB port. If you buy an adapter, I recomend you to take your laptop to the store and ask to try the adapter right there before buying it.

Today I have upgraded to Ubuntu Precise Pangolin LTS and now the atheros works..., but with that same problems you mentioned. So I prefer to go back to my Realtek adapter. I did it by disconnecting the Atheros network and allowing the Realtek:

1----Connect the adapter on USB port

2----left click in the network icon (on the top right of your screen)

3----click on "disconnect" atheros

4----click on "connect" the Realtek adapter (or whatever wireless adapter you have)

There is another method, but I haven't try it:

1----Obtain the Windows driver for your Atheros network card. (You can download it in
the official website of your computer)

2----Locate the specific file that ends with ".inf "

3----Install "ndisgtk" --use your linux repositories--.

4----Open ndisgtk

5----Select "install new driver"

6----choose the location of your windows ".inf" file and click "install"

7----click o.k.

for more information on this method google: "ndisgtk"

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