Atheros AR5BXB63 in Acer Aspire 5420

Atheros AR5BXB63 on Ubuntu with madwifi
SourceAA
Source B

 The Linux wireless regulatory database 

http://wireless.kernel.org/download/wireless-regdb/debs/

This package contains the wireless regulatory database used by all cfg80211 based Linux wireless drivers. The wireless database being used is maintained by John Linville, the Linux wireless kernel maintainer. The regulatory database is used by CRDA and cfg80211 to configure wireless devices to operate within the radio spectrum allowed in the local jurisdiction. 

WPA supplicant 

http://hostap.epitest.fi/wpa_supplicant/

wpa_supplicant is a WPA Supplicant for Linux, BSD, Mac OS X, and Windows with support for WPA and WPA2 (IEEE 802.11i / RSN). It is suitable for both desktop/laptop computers and embedded systems. Supplicant is the IEEE 802.1X/WPA component that is used in the client stations. It implements key negotiation with a WPA Authenticator and it controls the roaming and IEEE 802.11 authentication/association of the wlan driver.

wpa_supplicant is designed to be a "daemon" program that runs in the background and acts as the backend component controlling the wireless connection. wpa_supplicant supports separate frontend programs and a text-based frontend (wpa_cli) and a GUI (wpa_gui) are included with wpa_supplicant.

wpa_supplicant uses a flexible build configuration that can be used to select which features are included. This allows minimal code size (from ca. 50 kB binary for WPA/WPA2-Personal and 130 kB binary for WPA/WPA2-Enterprise without debugging code to 450 kB with most features and full debugging support; these example sizes are from a build for x86 target).

nl80211 userspace

http://git.sipsolutions.net/?p=iw.git

Texto mejorado y simplificado por cebaehren
Opción A
Soporte de Atheros por HAL, modo monitor e inyección.
Solución valida tanto para 32 como para 64 bits.
Descargar los drivers de Madwifi HAL y usar el parche de Aircrack

2. Disable the following options:

• Atheros Hardware Access Layer (HAL)
• Support for Atheros 802.11 wireless LAN cards.

3. Reboot your system

4. After reboot, open a terminal and issue the following:

Update: For updated releases please visit http://snapshots.madwifi.org/special

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential
$ wget http://snapshots.madwifi.org/special/madwifi-ng-r3366+ar5007.tar.gz
$ tar xfz madwifi-ng-r3366+ar5007.tar.gz
$ cd madwifi-ng-r2756+ar5007
$ make
$ sudo make install
$ sudo modprobe ath_pci

5. Done! If everything went well, your wi-fi is ready to use! In order to verify it, you can issue the following:$ ifconfig wifi0
wifi0     Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-19-7E-3F-59-55-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
      UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  

Additionally, you can put it inside your /etc/modules file so everytime you boot up your laptop it will automatically call the
ath_pci module!
As root: 

echo ath_pci >> /etc/modules 

Opción AA
If you have Atheros AR5007 wireless network adapter follow this procedure to make it work in ubuntu 8.04

For i386 Users
First go to System--Administration--Hardware Drivers and disable by un-ticking the following option
Atheros Hardware Access Layer (Hal)
Then Reboot your system.
Preparing your system
sudo apt-get install build-essential
Then open the terminal from Applications--Accessories--Terminal and copy the following commands:
wget http://snapshots.madwifi.org/special/madwifi-ng-r2756+ar5007.tar.gz
tar xfz madwifi-ng-r2756+ar5007.tar.gz
cd madwifi-ng-r2756+ar5007
make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe ath_pci
sudo reboot
That’s it now your wireless should work without any problem.
For AMD64 Users
If you are using 64 bit version following this procedure
Blacklist the default driver
echo “blacklist ath_pci” | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

wget -c http://vostorga.org/files/ar5007eg-64-0.2.tar.gz
Extract driver using the following command
tar xvf ar5007eg-*.tar.gz

[Installing ndiswrapper

#apt-get install ndiswrapper
Don't forget to reinstall the module each time a compiling the kernel.
Installing the drivers:
# ndiswrapper -i ar5007eg-64-0.2/ar5007eg/net5211.inf
Download the 64 bit driver] or if the package was downloaded:
tar xvf ndiswrapper-newest.tar.gz
Ensure you have your kernel headers and the build essential package.
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential
Install ndisgtk
sudo apt-get install ndisgtk
Either use ndisgtk to install the driver or
sudo ndiswrapper -i net5211.inf
Load up ndiswrapper every time Linux is loaded
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
echo “ndiswrapper” | sudo tee -a /etc/modules
Restart your system using the following command
sudo reboot
Your card should have been detected and it should show available networks but if it does not, try
sudo iwlist scan

Opción B
Gracias mil, GoGAddict!!
Con drivers ya parcheados y listos para instalar
Primero e importante: 
sudo apt-get install build-essential
luego descargar
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=78U8TB7O
o
http://rapidshare.com/files/143396780/MadWifi_Hal_parcheados_para_seguridadwireless_por_GoGAddict.tar.html
En una terminal desconectar las unidades wifi:
ifconfig ath0 down
ifconfig wifi0 down
Ir a la carpeta de los drivers descomprimida en el escritorio
cd
cd Desktop
cd madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3861-20080903
Configuración usando los scripts:
cd scripts
./madwifi-unload
./find-madwifi-modules.sh $(uname -r)
cd ..
Compilación e instalación
make
make install
Luego
modprobe ath_pci
Voilá: todo instalado y listo para funcionar.
iwconfig
Si no reconoce la interfaz, al reiniciar el equipo lo hará.
Opción BB
Créditos a Morglum007

Bueno, mucha gente anda preguntando porque Wifislax no funciona con esta tarjeta. La opción de los drivers es buena, pero yo me he tirado 3 dias completos hasta que precompile y metí los drivers correctamente en la suite, ya que si no lo tienes instalado en el disco duro, jodido lo llevas al tener que reiniciar.
En cualquier caso, he dejado la distro completa para meterse en un pen y funciona con la susodicha tarjeta (probado y comprobado en un Asus X51RL con AR5007EG en modo monitor) con versión de drivers madwifi del 1 de agosto de 2008.
La hubiese pasado a iso, pero no tenia espacio en disco, así que espero que alguien por aquí la pase a dicha iso y deje esta magnífica suite en versión CD.
Teneis los archivos completos en:

http://rapidshare.com/files/139477864/Archive.zip.001.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/139499337/Archive.zip.002.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/139524912/Archive.zip.003.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/139532358/Archive.zip.004.html

Comprimido con 7zip, descomprimis, copiais en un pen con config FAt/FAT32 y ejecutais el .bat de la carpeta boot para hacer el pen de arranque.

NOTA al respecto del .bat: Si cuando ejecutais el bat os da error y el pen no se vuelve de arranque, es el VISTA. Si algo he aprendido con el tocoteo en los mbr con el bcdedit y puñetas en vinagre es que el VIsta aun en modo Admin hace LO QUE LE SALE (especialmente con SCSI o S-ATA). Desconozco si son las versiones home basic o premium, pero ejecutad el sh en linux o en XP si podeis. NO es problema del PEN, como veo en algunos post, es problema del VISTA. En mi caso he usado un sandisk de 1 gB ( no funciona bat en VISTA , ni tampoco programas como BCDedit o BCDedit Pro para sistemas multiboot, pero si en XP, incluyendo edición de LILO, eLILO o GRUB bajo dichos OS. Vista se niega a modificar algo o lo complica todo, un caos amos, nasti de plasti, una cagada.....).
Ya teneis "live" con soporte atheros.