Atheros 5006 Wireless network problems with Live CD

[essenby]

Hi,

I have a Tosh Satellite A100 laptop which has an Atheros 5006 on board wireless network card (full specs here) and I'm thinking of replacing Widoze Vista so I tried the VL6.0-KDE-Classic-Live CD exerything starts up great, but although it shows that I have a functioning wireless dvice on wlan0, it does not appear to be able to scan for, or locate any wireless networks.  The wlan0 is a bit unusual as other distros I have tried have nearly always named it ath0.  Is this an indication that the card has not been recognised correctly and therefore not using the correct modules/drivers? 

Any ideas what I can check/try/tweak to get my wireless card recognised and working correctly?

[nightflier]

As root, run "/sbin/VLwifi". It should give you the name of your wireless device.

You can change the settings in the wicd network manager by left-clicking on the tray icon, then the "Preferences" box.

[essenby]

Tried that and VLwifi tells me that it has found a network device wlan0 and prompts for essid and WEP key but does not make the connection.

Setting the Preferences in wicd has exactly the same non-effect :-(

It's a shame really, the VL interface is really nice to use and it really flies - but if I can't get the network connection it's a bit of a non starter for me.

[nightflier]

It is very possible that the wrong driver gets loaded. I believe the options would be "ath_pci", "ath5k" (maybe ath9k) or ndiswrapper.

Wireless is not my strong point. I suggest adding "Atheros 5006" to the title of your original post, maybe we'll attract the attention of someone who uses that chipset.

It would be helpful if you could post the output of the command "lsmod".

[essenby]

I tend to agree - ath5k is probably the most suitable and I'm sure this is the one used by those distros that work flawlessly.  Unfortunately my (total) lack of knowledge precludes me from changing which driver is used or ensuring it is loaded automatically

I'm not at the laptop right now but I'll post lsmod output when I get the chance

EDIT
I've just done what I should have done first off and read all the FAQ's and stickies etc.  I've just found this HowTo so I'll work through that and post back if I srtill have issues.

Fingers crossed 

[roarde]

I have ath2k card. VL calls it wlan0, and that works.

On the other hand, isn't KDE live the one that doesn't have wireless interface filled in in wicd? Go back to preferences, you'll see the wired connection is eth0 or some such, but wireless isn't filled in. Make it wlan0.