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Running Ubuntu 12.04 on an Acer Aspire 5750Z with an Intel Pentium

I upgraded the kernel from 3.2.0-35 to 3.5.0-21 to fix a problem with power management (It would freeze my system when I booted from battery and whenever I unplugged the AC adapter) and it worked just fine.

But..

I started experiencing all sorts of network problems (slow, dropped connections, froze when turning off wifi, etc..)

I tried some other kernel changes but all came with the power management problem.

My wifi works perfect in the 3.2 kernel

Is it possible to install the 3.2 kernel ath9k driver into the newer kernel (3.5)??

Do you think that will solve the problem?

When I run lshw -c network on the 3.2 kernel, this is what it shows :

description: Wireless interface  
   product: AR9287 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express)  
   vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.  
   physical id: 0  
   bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0  
   logical name: wlan0  
   version: 01  
   serial: c0:18:85:1e:69:13  
   width: 64 bits  
   clock: 33MHz  
   capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless  
   configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath9k driverversion=3.2.0-35-generic 
firmware=N/A ip=192.168.0.105 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn

And on the 3.5 kernel:

description: Wireless interface
   product: AR9287 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express)
   vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
   physical id: 0
   bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
   logical name: wlan0
   version: 01
   serial: c0:18:85:1e:69:13
   width: 64 bits
   clock: 33MHz
   capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
   configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath9k driverversion=3.5.0-21-generic 
firmware=N/A ip=192.168.0.105 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn

thanks for the help.

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the driver looks like of 3.2. driverversion=3.2.0-35-generic. try building from source. – Web-E Jan 13 at 5:42
thanks Web-E, don't know if I expressed myself right so I edited the question. Let me know if you can help. Ps. I am a noob in linux so if you can point me to a link where I can learn about building a driver from source would be great – S.Maldini Jan 13 at 15:03
possible duplicate of How do I prevent WiFi cycling between connected and disconnected? . I think this will solve your issue. If not let me know and post result of lsmod & rfkill list all – Web-E Jan 13 at 18:08
@Web-E I have solved it installing a driver from wireless.kernel.org Should I delete the question? Or answer it so the solution can help more people? thx! – S.Maldini Jan 13 at 18:43
put it as answer . :) – Web-E Jan 13 at 18:45

closed as too localized by Web-E, Mik, Rafał Cieślak, The Lord of Time, Ringtail Jan 14 at 4:41

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1 Answer

up vote 0 down vote

I will answer my own question since I found a solution :D

I had problems with the atheros ath9k driver when I upgraded my kernel to fix some power management issues.

I downloaded a driver and it solved my wifi problems. This was what I did:

Check kernel version in terminal: uname -a

Go to http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download/stable/ and download the appropiate driver for your kernel.

Unpack the file you just downloaded in a new folder into your downloads folder.
(it should be something like Downloads/compat-wireless-3.5.4-1-snp)
(beware: your filename might be different)

You will probably need the build tools; open a terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-generic

Then after you have installed build-essential and headers, please do:

cd Downloads/compat-wireless-3.5.4-1-snp
sudo su
make
make install
modprobe -r ath9k
modprobe ath9k
exit

My computer crashed shortly after the 2nd modprobe, but when I restarted everything ran lightspeed!!!

Credits to chili555 for his post here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2035156

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