Posts: 14
davea4570
Joined: 15 Feb 2014
#1
Hello, been using antix for a while on a Dell Precision M65, love its speed and fluxbox DE. Been wanting to install on my Thinkpad X31, but cannot get wireless working. It has an Atheros card and when I run wicd and change to wla0 the cpu goes to %100 and the whole machines slows to a crawl. I tried changing it to ath0 to no avail. Also tried a usb wireless (edimax) with same result. Currently running Xubuntu 12.04 non pae, but want antix. Crunchbang and Puppy (Wary) work with wireless. Thanks in advance.
Posts: 765
rust collector
Joined: 27 Dec 2011
#2
Try to use ceni, from a terminal.
so:

Code: Select all

 sudo ceni 
enter your user password,
and it should list what interfaces it can find.
enter that name in wicd, or just use ceni...
Posts: 667
jdmeaux1952
Joined: 01 Nov 2013
#3
If you have antix burned on a LIVE cd, try it there. In the Control Panel, see what Hardware profile you have for your network. It may be listed as wlan0. In centi, use wlam0 and then refresh to attempt to make a connection. See how this works.
Posts: 14
davea4570
Joined: 15 Feb 2014
#4
Tried ceni from command line, same result. It's almost like the computer is looking for something due to the cpu maxed out. Mouse is unusable, clock even slows down-seconds update every 10 seconds or so. Trying another usb wifi.
Posts: 765
rust collector
Joined: 27 Dec 2011
#5
Can you post the output of:

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 inxi -nx
If it works as it should, if you are not trying to connect to a network, that is.

Maybe also look at htop, to see what uses how much resources?
Posts: 14
davea4570
Joined: 15 Feb 2014
#6
When I try iwconfig wla0 up on my X31, still shows wlan0 down. Have also tried 2 usb wireless devices with no luck. inxi -nx lists all the devices properly but shows wireless down. Beginning to believe that wireless will not work on the X31 with Antix, too bad. I run Antix on my Dell M65 and my Toshiba P755, and love it. Enjoy runwiththedolphin series on Antix.
Posts: 2,238
dolphin_oracle
Joined: 16 Dec 2007
#7
We could really use the output of inxi -F to help diagnose. The thinkpad X31 series came with about a zillion different wireless chipsets. Also, it would be good to know which atheros chipset you have, as support for some of them are included in the kernel.

***edit***

if I found your model correctly, its a AR5212 chip, which should be supported by the linux kernel directly.

I would also like to see the output of (as root) :

ifconfig

and

iwconfig
Posts: 14
davea4570
Joined: 15 Feb 2014
#8
doing a fresh full install of antix with eth0 for updates on x31 will post ifconfig, inxi -nx, etc shortly. thanks a bunch
Posts: 4,164
rokytnji
Joined: 20 Feb 2009
#9
Just a note/hint/suggestion.

I can never stress how important md5sum checks of any Linux downloaded iso is before burning to cd or dvd or installing to usb is.

I bit that bullet years ago when finding ghost in the shell problems only to find all my problems were due to a corrupted downloaded iso file.

Reasoning for my Statement

atheros-wireless-problems-t4495.html

P.S. I run the ath5 module on some of my AntiX boxes with no problems

wifi-configuration-t3663-90.html
Posts: 14
davea4570
Joined: 15 Feb 2014
#10
hope this helps

Image
Posts: 2,238
dolphin_oracle
Joined: 16 Dec 2007
#11
does putting wlan0 (thats a zero) in your wicd preferences still result in a maxed out cpu in this new install?

also, could you post (text is fine instead of a picture)

Code: Select all

inxi -F 
(capital F).

Thanks.

d.o.
Posts: 14
davea4570
Joined: 15 Feb 2014
#12
inxi -F
Image
Posts: 14
davea4570
Joined: 15 Feb 2014
#13
yes, cpu maxed out. Have to do a manual power off and restart. the Wicd network manager just displays ...scanning... for 30 seconds then no wireless networks found.
Posts: 14
davea4570
Joined: 15 Feb 2014
#14
also, crunchbang, bodhi, xubuntu, puppy, peppermint, (all non-pae) wireless works fine. few distros support non-pae anymore, unfortunately.
Posts: 4,164
rokytnji
Joined: 20 Feb 2009
#15
Open Htop and then open wicd. Then tell us what is over loading cpu.

Funny thing. Back when I had my eeepc. it was ceni that maxed out my cpu for about a couple of minutes. If I left it be for those 2 minutes. Everything would settle down
and then I could work with connecting with ceni OK.

Maybe the opposite applies to you?