Arch Linux

Kei

Member

Registered: 2007-04-05

Posts: 88

[SOLVED] Wireless card works, but configuration and software doesn't

Hi,

I could manage to activate my Atheros wireless card using the madwifi drivers. I wanted to use knetworkmanager, but unfortunatly i doesn't recognize any of my network devices. I've read the other networkmanager threads, changed the daemons order, disabled the network daemon and the routing entry in rc.conf, but still (k)networkmanager doesn't know anything about my devices.
I tried to use knetworkmanager-svn from the AUR. Initially it doesn't work because the SVN URLs inside the PKGBUILD script a wrong, but even after I fixed them I couldn't compile the source, because there is no configure and no Makefile in the svn head. I'm really a noob when it comes to the linux build system, so I had to give it up.
Now I use wifi-radar. It is terribly slow to connect, but it works. However, when I disconnect with wifi-radar, then do 'ifconfig ath0 down && ifconfig eth0 up' the DNS requests fail. I checked /etc/resolv.conf and the default route (set to eth0), but they are right; the interface just doesn't use the name servers. The only way to get it working is to restart the laptop. How does Linux chose a "default interface"?

I'm not afraid of editing text files, but I'd like change networks fast and easy. I don't want to spend hours to adapt to a new access point... I'm really looking forward to the new wlan stack; maybe things will be getting easier then.

kei

Last edited by Kei (2007-05-04 12:36:00)

.:B:.

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2006-11-26

Posts: 5,819

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless card works, but configuration and software doesn't

If you use wpa_supplicant (which should be possible with madwifi afaik) you can tell wpa_supplicant to sort it out by itself. Just define the multiple networks in the configuration file and it will connect to the first one available.

Is that what you are looking for more or less?

---

Got Leenucks? :: Arch: Power in simplicity :: Get Counted! Registered Linux User #392717 :: Blog thingy

Kei

Member

Registered: 2007-04-05

Posts: 88

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless card works, but configuration and software doesn't

Yes, more or less. I want to be able to connect to a new network quickly, regardless of which type the network is. I don't know if wpa_supplicant is capable of connecting to WEP encrypted networks. Of course, I can edit wpa_supplicant by hand every time I get to a new network.
At the moment my main problem is switching back to the wired network, regarding the DNS settings.

Kei

Member

Registered: 2007-04-05

Posts: 88

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless card works, but configuration and software doesn't

Okay, now KNetworkManager works (I forgot adding my user to the HAL group :] ).

There is still a problem - I know it's networkmanager related: At home I'm not using a DHCP server. KNetworkManager cannot handle static IP configuration. However, if I issue the command 'ifconfig ath0 192.168.0.12 subnet 255.255.255.0' while KNetworkManager is searching for a DHCP server I can even ping my gateway, so there is definitely a connection. Unfortunatly KNetworkManager closes this connections after a short period (dhcp timeout). Is there a quick'n'dirty workaround for this issue?

Another problem with KNetworkManager: When switching back to wired network, the DNS server is there :-) but the default gateway is not

Thanks for suggestions..
kei

//EDIT: In Debian there is a configuration file called /etc/network/interfaces. KNetworkManager uses the static IP information I enter there. However, when I modify /etc/rc.conf accordingly in ArchLinux, KNetworkManager does NOT use it.

//EDIT 2: After '/etc/rc.d/networkmanager restart' the static IP setting from /etc/rc.conf are used. The problem with the default gateway only occurs when the connection to one of the networks FAILS. After that failure the configuration is kind of messed up.
Altough it seems more like a dirty hack than a definite solution, I'm quite happy with the way it works now.

[CLOSED] <-- maybe I'm blind, but how can I change the topic to "[SOLVED] $Topic" ?

Last edited by Kei (2007-05-03 23:26:04)

.:B:.

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2006-11-26

Posts: 5,819

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Wireless card works, but configuration and software doesn't

You could try editing your first post, dunno if it works...

As for WEP & wpa_supplicant: a lot of people think it doesn't support WEP, but in fact it does .

---

Got Leenucks? :: Arch: Power in simplicity :: Get Counted! Registered Linux User #392717 :: Blog thingy