Moma's notes for 20.oct.2009.

ACTIVATING WIRELESS CONNECTION IN FUJITSU SIEMENS Li 1718 LAPTOP AND UBUNTU 9.10 (Karmic Koala). 
THIS GUIDE IS KNOWN TO WORK ON SOME OTHER AMILO AND ACER MODELS TOO.
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The Atheros driver (ath5h) is automatically loaded but the WLAN hardware (or hotkey) is not turned on.
This guide will tell you how to activate the hotkey by installing the acerhk driver.
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EDIT: Good news for the future. The new "acer-wmi" module will replace the old "acerhk" module.
Let's hope that it becomes soon available for ordinary users via their distros.
Please read this document: http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Documentation/laptops/acer-wmi.txt

You may try
$ sudo apt-get update 
$ sudo modprobe acer-wmi

If it does not exist yet in your distro, use the old "acerhk" method outlined here below. 
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If you do not want to compile the 32bit driver (acerhk.ko) from source, download it directly from my website.
Just do this:
$ wget http://www.edbl.no/karmic/acerhk.ko 
$ sudo mkdir -p /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/extra/
$ sudo mv acerhk.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/extra/
$ sudo depmod -a

http://www.edbl.no/karmic/acerhk.ko.md5sum contains checksum if you want to verify the file.

Then continue from step 3).
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Steps to compile the acerhk driver form source:

0) Install pre-requirements
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)
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1) Download source code
$ cd $HOME

$ wget http://www.edbl.no/karmic/acerhk-fixed.tar.bz2
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2) Unpack and compile it

$ tar -xvjf acerhk-fixed.tar.bz2 

$ cd acerhk-0.5.35/

$ make 

$ sudo make install
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3) Test the module (do it manually first ;-) 
This works for Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Li 1718 and Amilo Pro V3505. 
$ sudo /sbin/modprobe acerhk force_series=6805 autowlan=1

Many other models should NOT have the "force_series=6805" option, so drop it. Test
$ sudo /sbin/modprobe acerhk autowlan=1
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4) Switch the wireless off, the led light should turn off too.
$ echo 0 > /proc/driver/acerhk/wirelessled

And turn it on, watch the led light.
$ echo 1 > /proc/driver/acerhk/wirelessled

Or simply press the Fn + ((o)) buttons. 
See this picture: http://www.edbl.no/karmic/Fujitsu-Siemens-Amilo-li1718.jpg
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5) Load the acerhk module at system startup.

5a) Edit the /etc/modules file and add "acerhk" module at the bottom.
$ sudo gedit /etc/modules

loop
lp
acerhk

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5b) Create a new file /etc/modprobe.d/acerhk.conf
$ sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/acerhk.conf

and add the following options line to it. This works for Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Li 1718 and Amilo Pro V3505.

options acerhk force_series=6805 autowlan=1
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Notice!: If you have any other model (such as Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo A1650g), change the line to:

options acerhk autowlan=1
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6) Turn the wireless ON at system startup. Edit the /etc/rc.local file.

$ sudo gedit /etc/rc.local
and add the following line BEFORE THE "exit 0" STATEMENT and save the file.

echo 1 > /proc/driver/acerhk/wirelessled

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In case of errors:

Use the lsmod command to check the loaded modules.
$ lsmod | egrep "ath|ace"

ath5k                 124260  0    <-- Wifi driver 
mac80211              181236  1 ath5k
led_class               4096  1 ath5k
ath                     8060  1 ath5k
cfg80211               93052  3 ath5k,mac80211,ath
acerhk                 30296  0    <-- Hotkey driver

Looks good.
Both ath5k (or ath9k) and acerhk modules are loaded. 
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You may also control the system messages. 
$ dmesg | egrep -i "ath5|acer"

[   11.999082] input: Acer hotkey driver as /devices/virtual/input/input7
[   12.000945] Acer Travelmate hotkey driver v0.5.35

[   14.384203] ath5k 0000:02:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[   14.384215] ath5k 0000:02:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
[   14.384231] ath5k 0000:02:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[   14.384292] ath5k 0000:02:00.0: registered as 'phy0'
[   14.508276] ath5k phy0: Atheros AR2425 chip found (MAC: 0xe2, PHY: 0x70)
...
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Remove duplicate copies of acerhk.ko. Find all acerhk.ko drivers in your system.
First, update the file database.
$ sudo updatedb 

Then find all acerhk.ko files.
$ locate acerhk.ko

It should find acerhk.ko in the /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/extra/ directory.
Remove (sudo rm...) the other copies.
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You can always unload/load the WLAN driver ath5k (or ath9k).
sudo modprobe -r ath5k
sudo modprobe -vv ath5k
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Literature and references:
1) The utimate guide for Atheros wifi on Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope). 
   http://futuredesktop.org/jaunty/amilo_1718_wireless_in_linux.txt

2) http://newyork.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1294262

3) https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/acerhk/+bug/456123

4) The original source code for acerhk is avail. from the Ubuntu's repo.
   $ apt-cache search acerhk-source
   $ sudo apt-get install acerhk-source
   It puts a tar-ball into /usr/src/ directory. Unpack it with 
   $ sudo tar -xvjf acerhk.tar.bz2   # use sudo because /usr/src/ is owned by root.
   Then look in the /usr/src/modules/acerhk/ directory.

5) Moma's homepage
   http://www.futuredesktop.org