Re: Wireless stopped working after kernel upgrade

[Autumn Lansing <autumnlansing@gmail.com>]

Thanks, Stefan!

I checked the file, which states that it is "generated by the
/lib/udev/write_net_rules program, probably run by the
persistent-net-generator.rules rules file," and there is a line for
the madwifi ath_pci driver that sets the wireless card to ath0.  In
addition, there's a line for the ath5k driver that sets it to wlan1.
Ndiswrapper, which I used while attempting to solve the problem with
the Airlink card, sets it to wlan0.

I removed the line for the ath_pci driver.  Hopefully that will
prevent this problem from happening again.  The ath_pci driver was
blacklisted though, so I don't know why that rule would try to run, as
the module wasn't loading, unless all the rules are run regardless of
whether a driver is loaded or not.  Given that the rule was written in
the file before the ath5k rule, that would explain why it took
precedence over it.  I imagine that the ath5k driver was originally
naming the device wlan0, before I installed ndiswrapper, which took
over the name.  That might also explain why ndiswrapper didn't work
either.  And it would explain why the ath5k driver finally did work.
With ndiswrapper using the name wlan0, the ath5k driver chose wlan1,
which had no conflicts.

During my research into this problem, I saw other people mention that
udev was renaming wlan0 to ath0, but no one seemed to think it was a
problem, so I didn't either.  Apparently it was.

Thanks,
Autumn