driver installation for Atheros AR8132 FastEthernet network interface

eole73 · 2022-07-18 19:43

Hello,

I'm quite new in the linux world although I started working with it since a few months now. A few days ago, I had worked on installing Q4OS on an old Asus laptop from 2009 (my mum's actually). This computer is currently running with Vista but quite labouriously, so the aim of the shift for OSQ is to improve and simplify its functioning. To check the installation and configuration I used a VM on my computer. I believe I set and checked almost everything fine but I just lacked the drivers for the network adaptators (ethernet and wifi).

The ethernet network adaptator on this laptop is an Atheros AR8132 PCI-E Fast Ethernet. After searching for some time on the web, I downloaded this compressed file : compat-drivers-2013-03-04-u.tar.bz2 found at wiki.linuxfoundation.org/networking/alx ,that I understand may contains the driver for this adaptator (reading in the compressed file it has atl1c, atl1e, atl1x and alx files).

But I am a bit stuck here. What should I do then to install the network interface driver at this point from this file? Does this compressed file indeed contains the driver for this network adaptator (it seems this is the case as it is said in the webpage of the previous link that the atl1c driver provides support for the AR8132 chipset). Also, reading a bit more about this, it seemed that the drivers in this file are based on old kernels (2.6.x or 3.x ?), so is it nonetheless possible to install these drivers on the recent kernel of Debian 11? (current version of Q4OS is using Debian 11 Bulleyes with kernel 5.10.0).

Any advice to how install a functionnal driver for this network adaptator would be much appreciated!

ps : I still lack the driver for the Wifi interface also (Atheros AR928X), so any advice for installing a driver for this one would also be much appreciated, but my main need is to get an ethernet connection working with the Atheros 8132.

hchiper · 2022-07-18 20:32

From PCI - Info Center, I see that my wifi card is an Atheros AR9285. The appropriate driver formware-atheros has been installed automatically.

To check whether it is installed on your system, type

$ apt list firmware-atheros

To install it, type

$ sudo apt install firmware-atheros

I hope this will help.

eole73 · 2022-07-18 21:36

Thanks for your answer. I have checked with apt list firmware-atheros and the package is indeed already installed. It had been automatically installed with Q4OS since I didn't do anything myself. The version of the package is the one of debian 11 bulleyes (20210315-3). The thing is that I'm doing this on the VM installed in vmware worstation to test the installation beforehand. I have not tried to install Q4OS on the laptop yet as I'm still unsure whether the network interfaces will be able work or not (the laptop is currently being used).

I am a bit suprised that your network interface is managed with this package since it is not listed in the devices supported on the debian's page : https: //packages.debian.org/bullseye/firmware-atheros

Neither of the two network interfaces (ethernet AR8132 and Wifi AR928X) are listed in the list of the devices supported, so I was supposing that this package couldn't manage them!

hchiper · 2022-07-18 23:21

I have no knowledge of VMware. Not sure, but I believe your Q4OS virtual machine needs to recognize the network interfaces provided by VMware, and not the true hardware. Maybe the problem is in the config of your VM within VMware (network access not allowed?).

tlmiller76 · 2022-07-18 23:44

Yup, unless you've configured VMWare to pass through the hardware to the guest, then the q4os guest is just using VMWare virtual NIC that will use any available connection to it that it's allowed to from the host (by default, any). It does not actually need to know what the host hardware is, as long as the host is connected, VMWare can use it.

Last edited by tlmiller76 (2022-07-18 23:45)

eole73 · 2022-07-19 07:17

hchiper wrote:

I have no knowledge of VMware. Not sure, but I believe your Q4OS virtual machine needs to recognize the network interfaces provided by VMware, and not the true hardware. Maybe the problem is in the config of your VM within VMware (network access not allowed?).

VMware workstation is an hypervisor similar to virtualbox or hyper-V. I worked under this hypervisor just to test and set all was needed for the installation before proceeeding the real installation on the laptop. That allowed me to check the installation of all the softwares that were needed (web browser, media, antivirus, printer driver...). The thing is as tlmiller76 is saying, is that the VM is indeed using the network interface of my personnal computer to simulate a network connection, which is configurable (private network, NAT, bridge). I have no problem with that but since it is the hardware of my computer which is used, I can not test on the VM the effectiveness of a driver on the real network interface of the laptop (Atheros AR8132). So I was still looking at least for some straightforward procedure and documentation for installing a driver for this network interface, since it would only be when I will proceed to the real installation that I'll see if the network interface is correctly handled or not.

It seemed that the compat-driver file I mentionned above contains a driver for the Atheros AR8132 (atl1c) but I don't know how to proceed with the installation of the driver from this file. I'm still unsure whether the Atheros AR8132 is supported with the firmware-atheros package as it is not listed in the devices supported.

tlmiller76 wrote:

Yup, unless you've configured VMWare to pass through the hardware to the guest, then the q4os guest is just using VMWare virtual NIC that will use any available connection to it that it's allowed to from the host (by default, any). It does not actually need to know what the host hardware is, as long as the host is connected, VMWare can use it.

Yes, my VM is using the NIC of my computer to establish a connection so I can connect to the internet, download different packages and softwares.

Last edited by eole73 (2022-07-19 07:38)

hchiper · 2022-07-19 09:19

eole73 wrote:

I can not test on the VM the effectiveness of a driver on the real network interface of the laptop (Atheros AR8132). So I was still looking at least for some straightforward procedure and documentation for installing a driver for this network interface, since it would only be when I will proceed to the real installation that I'll see if the network interface is correctly handled or not.

Don't bother trying to install a driver on the guest system; even if you succeed it will not be used since the real hardware isn't visible from the guest, and you won't be able to check if it would work once you have made a real installation on your laptop.

If your laptop is an x64, just boot it on a live Q4OS medium (not available for i386) and you'll immediately see if your Ethernet and WiFi are usable (you'll have to give the WiFi password).
If your laptop is an i386 and want to be certain Q4OS will run perfectly, buy a 2nd-hand drive to replace the original Win Vista HD.

My advice in any case is to buy an SSD to replace the original HD, because with an SSD you'll have an incredible increase of speed; you'll keep your old HD just in case, or to receive backups, for example (just buy a cheap USB-2 case to install it).

eole73 · 2022-07-19 10:51

hchiper wrote:

eole73 wrote:
I can not test on the VM the effectiveness of a driver on the real network interface of the laptop (Atheros AR8132). So I was still looking at least for some straightforward procedure and documentation for installing a driver for this network interface, since it would only be when I will proceed to the real installation that I'll see if the network interface is correctly handled or not.
Don't bother trying to install a driver on the guest system; even if you succeed it will not be used since the real hardware isn't visible from the guest, and you won't be able to check if it would work once you have made a real installation on your laptop.

Yes, I'm aware of this, that's what I was trying to explain. Nonetheless, I was still wanting to find a driver and its procedure to install it. So, at least 'in theory', I would know a driver for this NIC's laptop exists and how to install it, although the real 'test' would be when installing it on the computer.

hchiper wrote:

If your laptop is an x64, just boot it on a live Q4OS medium (not available for i386) and you'll immediately see if your Ethernet and WiFi are usable (you'll have to give the WiFi password).
If your laptop is an i386 and want to be certain Q4OS will run perfectly, buy a 2nd-hand drive to replace the original Win Vista HD.
My advice in any case is to buy an SSD to replace the original HD, because with an SSD you'll have an incredible increase of speed; you'll keep your old HD just in case, or to receive backups, for example (just buy a cheap USB-2 case to install it).

Unfortunately the laptop is a 32 bits and there's no live Q4OS available for these to download. From what I understand, I cannot create a live USB or CD version of Q4OS from the i386 CD install version ?

I have not thought about bying another HD to install Q4OS without touching the existing one. Actually I have never opened a computer and changed something in it so I'm afraid I'll do some mistakes. The actual HD on which vista is installed is 250 GB, which is more than enough for its use. Would there be a possibility to install Q4OS on some part of this disk without hampering on Vista's installation? (if possible, I understand it would need some partitions and formating manipulations)

Last edited by eole73 (2022-07-19 10:52)

hchiper · 2022-07-19 14:27

If you never opened a laptop, I understand you are reluctant to do that. You might search on YouTube for "disassemble <your_brand_&_model_laptop>" or "replace drive <your_brand_&_model_laptop>" just to have an idea.

If you decide to make the step, all you need is to be careful : unplug the laptop first and remove the battery, use a quality and size-adapted screwdriver, don't lose the tiny screws, don't forget to unscrew one, if they are of different lengths, mark in which holes each will have to be screwed back, don't force to open (sometimes there are also some plastic clips on the border), don't put your fingers on the printed circuits and don't skid your screwdriver on them, and don't forget to breathe...! The drive itself is generally mounted in a bracket, which is in turn fastened with 1 or 2 screws; remove these and just slip the bracket in a direction parallel to its longest side to unplug it from its connector; there may even be a plastic strip to pull it.

If you really don't feel confident, ask in a store if they accept to replace the HD by a new SSD if you buy one there.

Installing on an USB key would have avoided to buy a 2nd HD or SSD, but the problem is that, near the end of the installation, the configuration of GRUB fails if an internal HD/SSD is present (see this thread and especially the last posts).

Last edited by hchiper (2022-07-19 15:02)

tlmiller76 · 2022-07-19 22:45

Now that you've explained it better, the 8132 uses the atl1c kernel driver. It does not require a proprietary blob for firmware, and should work out of the box with anything based on Debian.

eole73 · 2022-07-20 16:01

Thanks to both of you for your suggestions and answers.

I have found just one tip about installing this atl1c/alx driver here : https:// askubuntu.com/questions/105607/how-do-i-get-an-atheros-ar8131-ethernet-card-working (it's still more than 10 years old!)

But if it's not needed that would be excellent!

So here's what I'm planning to do :

1) image the laptop HD with clonezilla and put the image on a USB device in case I'd need to restore it (so I would not need to install another HD inside the laptop, but thanks for the suggestion. I'll do it anyway someday as I want to add a 1TB HD on my PC)
2) set a very old PC (running on XP) with the basics to replace the laptop I'll be working on.
3) install Q4OS and hopefully everything would run fine
( 4) but I hope not) I may have a tip to install a driver. And if this also fails, I might just restore Vista with Clonezilla. But hopefully everything woud just run fine without having to install any drivers!

I'll let know how it goes.

eole73 · 2022-07-25 09:14

Hello,

Here's a little feedback about how it went. The installation was quite tedious and a bit time consuming because the CDROM drive is almost out of service, the USB were not bootable (although there was a removable device boot option in the BIOS menu), and a mistake between 32 and 64 bits version on my part (it seems Vista 32bits was installed but the cpu is actually a 64 bits), so I prefered to reinstall with the 64 bits version.

But finally, it seems everything went fine. The Network cards were indeed automatically recognized during the installation so I could connect to the internet and download all the packages. I didn't need to install any driver. From what I checked, the atl1c driver is comprised in the OS and manages the AR8132 and the same with the ath9k driver for the AR928X wifi card.

thanks again!

hchiper · 2022-07-25 09:35

Thanks for your feedback. Happy you were finally able to install Q4OS.

eole73 · 2022-07-25 15:39

You're welcome. ;-)

I forgot to mention that I was able to clone successfully the HD with clonezilla before proceeding to the installation of Q4OS. There was a bit less than 60 GB of data on the HD so I put the image on a USB device and the compression made it to a size of 22 GB! But you can put it on an external HD plugged on a USB port if you need to image a much greater volume of data. So using clonezilla is pretty handy and easy in case you need a backup issue.

Q4OS Forum

#1 2022-07-18 19:43

driver installation for Atheros AR8132 FastEthernet network interface

#2 2022-07-18 20:32

Re: driver installation for Atheros AR8132 FastEthernet network interface

#3 2022-07-18 21:36

Re: driver installation for Atheros AR8132 FastEthernet network interface

#4 2022-07-18 23:21

Re: driver installation for Atheros AR8132 FastEthernet network interface

#5 2022-07-18 23:44

Re: driver installation for Atheros AR8132 FastEthernet network interface

#6 2022-07-19 07:17

Re: driver installation for Atheros AR8132 FastEthernet network interface

#7 2022-07-19 09:19

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#8 2022-07-19 10:51

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#9 2022-07-19 14:27

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#10 2022-07-19 22:45

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#11 2022-07-20 16:01

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#12 2022-07-25 09:14

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#13 2022-07-25 09:35

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#14 2022-07-25 15:39

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