Atheros wifi problems resolved

Since receiving my IBM T60 laptop, I've had significant issues with the wifi. Windows supports the .11g mode, but the version of madwifi shipped with Mandriva 2008.0 would only keep me connected within 5ft of the WAP. I initially resolved the problem by adding the following to /etc/rc.d/rc.local:

/sbin/iwpriv ath0 mode 2

This forced the Atheros wireless card into 10Mb mode. Things worked, but I was unable to take full advantage of the card.

Recently, while searching google for any updates on the situation (madwifi support for AR5212), I came across an announcement from another Linux user claiming that the latest version of madwifi (0.9.4) taken from the svn repository worked. Sure enough, I downloaded the source from http://www.madwifi.org, built it against the 2.6.22.19-laptop-2mdv kernel, and copied the necessary kernel objects to the drivers directory.

Rebooted the system, and all of a sudden I could use .11g wifi (or at least iwlist ath0 reported back 18Mb)