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Enabling Atheros Ethernet controller on ubuntu (AR8151)

If you have installed ubuntu in your system and it has a Atheros network controller ,your network card will not be detected.

If you don't know what enternet controller is present run the command

lshw -class network 

It should list out all the network controllers present, if you see Atheros/Attansic in the list then do the following to enable your card. 


The ubuntu distros by default don't have the drivers for the Atheros/Attansic drivers and hence need to be installed. 
Download the package from
http://partner.atheros.com/Download.aspx?id=162
(this works for AR8151, might work for all 81 series too) .
NOTE: The link is not working any more after take over of atheros by qualcomm. Will update once I get the correct link.
Please refer to the comment by kodb for update
Thanks for the update NO the driver can be downloaded from

Once you have downloaded the .gz  pacakage, put it into a empty folder and run the following commands Your network should be recognized now, have fun :-)

58 comments:

  1. this is easy understanding answer. thank u!!!

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  2. You saved my day. Thanks!

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  3. Oh man, you literally saved my life, your awsome ;p

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  4. That was awesome...!! but my wifi is not enabled..after this steps only wired connections are detected.. can u please explain how to enable wifi in ubuntu 10.04?

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  5. click on system->administration->hardware drivers or additional drivers.
    The wireless driver should be listed here, just select the driver and click on enable. You might need Internet connection as the drivers are downloaded from the net.

    hope it helps. :-)

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  6. my latop's ethernet is an atheros and after I installed 10.04 I got it to work without problem having followed your procedures

    but I got some updates regrettably now its back to no wired network for me.

    I have tried doing the same procedure again and it still didnt work on Kernel Linux 2.6.32-28 generic but if I boot into the previous kernel Linux 2.6.32-21 generic it works well.


    Here is my network detail..
    __________________________________________

    *-network UNCLAIMED
    description: Network controller
    product: Broadcom Corporation
    vendor: Broadcom Corporation
    physical id: 0
    bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
    version: 01
    width: 64 bits
    clock: 33MHz
    capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
    configuration: latency=0
    resources: memory:f0500000-f0503fff
    *-network UNCLAIMED
    description: Ethernet controller
    product: AR8152 v1.1 Fast Ethernet
    vendor: Atheros Communications
    physical id: 0
    bus info: pci@0000:04:00.0
    version: c1
    width: 64 bits
    clock: 33MHz
    capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vpd bus_master cap_list
    configuration: latency=0
    resources: memory:f0400000-f043ffff ioport:2000(size=128)

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  7. when you try to make and insert the driver for 2.6.32-28 do you get any errors ?

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  8. Too bad the tar file on the site is corrupt and unusable now. have to go elsewhere to find it

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  9. @ryan untar it on the command line, it does give some errors when done in GUI. If a folder does get created after the untar,with the source files in it then it might work.

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  10. Yea, it was untarred via the command line initially, that's what gave these errors:
    gzip: stdin: decompression OK, trailing garbage ignored
    tar: Child returned status 2
    tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

    and then when trying to make install it spews out this:
    make -C ./src/ install
    make[1]: Entering directory `/media/ntfs/linuxfiles/src'
    Makefile:105: *** Linux kernel source not configured - missing autoconf.h. Stop.
    make[1]: Leaving directory `/media/ntfs/linuxfiles/src'
    make: *** [install] Error 2

    I did a ton of reading and the only solution I found was to upgrade the kernel to an unreleased one and then download the source files, etc etc etc. Last time I used a beta kernel my system became hella unstable so I learned my lesson that way. Still not quite sure how you got it to work. I'm running 2.6.35-28-generic , what are you running?

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  11. have tried this on 2.6.28-11 and 2.6.32... Haven't tried it on 2.6.35, will give it a try and see what comes about.

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  12. same here. Seems that the downloaded file is the problem.

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  13. Thanks dude It works for - :). .

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  14. Thankyou thankyou thankyou!

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  15. Your provided link is not working please provide other link.

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  16. @Gaurav -- It's not _his_ link.

    It looks like Atheros has changed something.
    I get "Bad Request (Invalid Hostname)"

    Atheros is working on a new driver, see:
    http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.network/200232

    I've written to qca.info@qca.qualcomm.com
    and asked if they could keep the old drivers available for now.

    -- jh

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  17. @anonymous thanks for filling up :-) .


    @gaurav atheros has been bought over by qualcomm

    http://www.qca.qualcomm.com/technology/technology.php?nav1=48&product=97

    but the site of qualcomm does not seem to have any drivers for download, I too have sent a mail to
    qca.info@qca.qualcomm.com .
    will update the blog as soon as I get to know some thing.

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  18. Hi. I have a Acer Aspire 5253-BZ820, I just intall Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid 2.6.32-21-generic and I don't have Internet (Ethernet o wireless):

    lspci shows:
    Atheros Communications Device 1083 (revc c0)
    Broadcom Corporation Device 4357 (rev 01).


    Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Device [1969:1083] (rev c0)

    Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation Device device [14e4:4357] (rev 01)

    I try to follow this link and another:

    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1677122

    But I cant solve the problems. Any idea?

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  19. hi
    The link for athreos driver given in the blog used to work until qualcom took over athreos a few months back. Now the drivers are not available at the site, though I did mail their customer care for help did not get any reply.

    So as of now no idea how to get atheros up.

    But for broadcom wireless the drivers are avialable, try this link out
    http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43

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  20. I posted the current workaround to do this in Lucid (10.04)
    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1821732
    see post #7 for link to drivers and directions on decompressing/mounting the archive. Then refers back to this thread's directions
    Bob

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  21. @kodb That is terrific... thanks for the update.

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  22. @kodb thank you - you've saved my day!

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  23. Thanks a tonne . My agony ended by following the steps given by and I am now happily connected to the web. This was for ASUS EE PC 1015PX .

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  24. Worked fine, thanks!

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  25. Very nice, worked fine Thanks!

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  26. I cant thank you enough for this post, really great.

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  27. I also found this article very helpful for my new ASUS laptop.
    However, I had to do some changes from the above:
    ---- Version AR81Family-Linux-v1.0.1.14.tar.gz, instead 1.9 (found by search)
    ----- atl1c driver name instead of atl1e
    ----- In addition I had to run the command "ifconfig eth0 up"
    After these steps it started to work.

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  28. thanks for the update itz, can you share the link where you found the drivers ?

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  29. you made my day!! Thank you so much!!
    Worked on a brand new Asus N55SL series.
    Atheros AR8151 network card.
    Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

    Next is the wirless card...

    THANK YOU !

    Cheers, Andy

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  30. Works fine for Lenovo G575 running Ubuntu 10.04 32bit - thank you.

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  31. Works for Asus U36SD running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS 64 bit.

    Thank you

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  32. thank a lot for driver, it's very usefull

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  33. Thanks, only this one worked!

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  34. Thanx a lot it saved my time....but frequently am getting driver problem ....

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  35. I have been using this solution every time I update the kernel in 10.04, but now that 12.04 is due for its first point version any time soon and I do plan to update to 12.04 LTS (I only go from LTS to LTS) I was wondering if this will still work. I am concerned as I have three machines due to go from 10.04 to 12.04, all in constant (although domestic) use.

    many thanks

    Rick

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    Replies
    1. Haven't tried it on 12.04, it might work, will update once I get a chance to try it.

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    2. Thanks a bunch. Don't Canonical have anything about this?

      Rick

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  36. Pleased to report no apparent problems with atheros card after upgrade to 12.04 LTS. No need to do anything. Card works straight off

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  37. Setup 5 machines for customer. Couldnt get network up. THANKS saved my butt

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  38. Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. Device 1090 (rev 10) is my NIC pls help me to find the driver that is to be insalled in RHEL 6

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    Replies
    1. if your is a registered RHEL the customer care might be able to help better.... will update if i get a solution.

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  39. I just have to say : Thank You !

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  40. It's working for me. Thank you

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  41. Hi sir my Laptop Toshiba satelite c40 , i install redhat linux 5 and 6, but not install display drivers and Lan drivers, my lan authors driver , any body please help me

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  42. Replies
    1. If you are looking for hardware details of your network you can run
      lshw -class network

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  43. ok, perfect! thanks

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  45. Hi
    I am getting this on my ubuntu 12.04. Please help me out.

    Makefile:105: *** Linux kernel source not configured - missing autoconf.h. Stop.

    3.2.0-36-generic-pae

    Please guide me.

    Thanks


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    Replies
    1. have you installed the kernel headers ? They will be available in the package manager, install the kernel headers fro your kernel version and then try.

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