I downloaded the 3.12-8 kernel files linux-headers-all.deb, linux-headers-generic_i368.deb; linux-image-generic_i386.deb from kernel.org and installed them via:
dpkg -i *.deb
Now I'm trying to eliminate some wifi signal dropouts, which are probably caused by the driver itself. Apparently there have been some fixes to the ath9k driver, so I'd like to replace the default by a backports version.
I downloaded backports-3.12.8-1.tar.gz from kernel.org and tried to get the ath9k module ready by:
cd ~/.source/backports-3.12.8-1/
sudo apt-get install build-essential
sudo apt-get build-dep linux-image-$(uname -r)
sudo ln -s /usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r) /usr/src/linux
make defconfig-ath9k
This leaves me with following "missing-prototypes ERROR":
cc -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes -Wstrict-prototypes -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -c -o conf.o conf.c
cc -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes -Wstrict-prototypes -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -c -o zconf.tab.o zconf.tab.c
cc conf.o zconf.tab.o -o conf
But when I continue with:
sudo modprobe -r ath9k
sudo make
sudo checkinstall
everything works!!!
So my questions are:
Does this module depend on certain other kernel modules?
Yes following command does tell you:
modinfo ath9k
If so, where's information about that stuff?
Have a look at wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k.
Is there a right way to install this kernel module resp. driver?
Probably by getting a pro in kernel compiling :-).
THX