On Debian 11 we should add the respective repositories to install the firmware, we should edit the source list
nano /etc/apt/source.list
# adding the next repository
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bullseye non-free The next step is load the references to the new repository added to source list
apt updateInstall the firmware
apt install firmware-atherosThe firmware could generate some issues that we could fix.
I'm using the default network manager and when I try to see the new adapter on it, the new appears and disappears and I noted that it tried to rename itself to wlan0, even I already have one. I starting to check the errors and I get the following:
sudo demesg | athThe result could be similar:
[ 1593.543590] ath: phy139: RX failed to go idle in 10 ms RXSM=0xc076c3
[ 1593.646657] ath: phy139: RX failed to go idle in 10 ms RXSM=0xc076c3
[ 1593.750674] ath: phy139: RX failed to go idle in 10 ms RXSM=0xc076c3
[ 1593.828401] usb 1-4: ath9k_htc: USB layer deinitialized
[ 1594.287461] usb 1-4: ath9k_htc: Firmware ath9k_htc/htc_9271-1.4.0.fw requested
[ 1594.292635] usb 1-4: firmware: direct-loading firmware ath9k_htc/htc_9271-1.4.0.fw
[ 1594.582792] usb 1-4: ath9k_htc: Transferred FW: ath9k_htc/htc_9271-1.4.0.fw, size: 51008
[ 1594.834235] ath9k_htc 1-4:1.0: ath9k_htc: HTC initialized with 33 credits
[ 1595.097089] ath9k_htc 1-4:1.0: ath9k_htc: FW Version: 1.4
[ 1595.097102] ath9k_htc 1-4:1.0: FW RMW support: On
[ 1595.097110] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x833a
[ 1595.097114] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a country code
[ 1595.097120] ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
[ 1595.097126] ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x37
[ 1595.097132] ath: Country alpha2 being used: GB
[ 1595.097136] ath: Regpair used: 0x37
[ 1595.141920] ath9k_htc 1-4:1.0 wlx00c0ca75dc05: renamed from wlan0
[ 1596.059421] ath: phy140: RX failed to go idle in 10 ms RXSM=0xc076c3
[ 1596.162673] ath: phy140: RX failed to go idle in 10 ms RXSM=0xc076c3
[ 1596.266973] ath: phy140: RX failed to go idle in 10 ms RXSM=0xc076c3
[ 1596.336325] usb 1-4: ath9k_htc: USB layer deinitialized
c
The above log confirm to me as I see on network-manager:
ath9k_htc 1-4:1.0 wlx00c0ca75dc05: renamed from wlan0
After research I overwrite the ID-INET-NAME.It maintained the uniqueness of the interface name while shortening it.
copied /lib/udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-link.rules to /etc/udev/rules.d/
changed $env{ID_NET_NAME} to $env{ID_NET_SLOT}
After restart the system I tried to list the network interfaces and I got the both atheros working, the wlan0 the internal chip on the laptop and wlan1 the external adapter.
sudo nmcli device status
DEVICE TYPE STATE CONNECTION
wlan0 wifi connected my-current-network
p2p-dev-wlan0 wifi-p2p disconnected --
enp1s0 ethernet unavailable --
lo loopback unmanaged --
wlan1 wifi unmanaged --
Also could be easy to see with airodump
sudo airodump-ng
PHY Interface Driver Chipset
phy0 wlan0 ath9k Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
phy4 wlan1 ath9k_htc Qualcomm Atheros Communications AR9271 802.11n