Arch Linux

Gerenuk81

Member

Registered: 2007-09-15

Posts: 14

Where to put my wireless configuration commands?

Hi,

I figured out that to load my wireless card I need:

modprobe rt61
ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig wlan0 essid ...
iwpriv wlan0 set ...
iwpriv wlan0 set ...
dhcpcd wlan0

Now I wonder what is the best way to save these commands (in some form) in the boot up process or the network loader?
Where shall I put them or what to change in configuration files to make it work?

Anton

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: Where to put my wireless configuration commands?

If it wasn't for those iwpriv commands, you could use the standard Arch network config. With them, however, you'll need to do something a bit hackier. Are you sure the modprobe is required? Udev should detect the device, and autoload the module.

That aside, you can either put the commands in /etc/rc.local, or you can write a custom wifi init script in /etc/rc.d/ and run it from the DAEMONS array in /etc/rc.conf. Here's one I used (briefly) with the legacy rt73 usb driver - static instead of dhcp, but you get the idea.

Now that the question is answered, I would strongly recommend that you try the rt2x00-cvs driver in the unstable repo. I'm now using it with the same Ralink-based USB device, and it's going well - no iwpriv awkwardness, just a nice clean network profile or two.

Gerenuk81

Member

Registered: 2007-09-15

Posts: 14

Re: Where to put my wireless configuration commands?

You're right, "modprobe" isn't actually required again.

I thought some "module postloading" would be a clean solution or a place that network setup should go to. But I'll try the script. Thank you.
I should take out something of the old network startup, since at the moment I need to do "/etc/rc.d/network stop" before "dhcpcd wlan0" works (otherwise timeout), even though I killed "dhcpcd" before. Where should I modify something?

I think I'm using the CVS drivers as the normal ones didn't even compile with the upgraded kernel.
You say no iwpriv? A clean network profile? How does it work?

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: Where to put my wireless configuration commands?

You could, I suppose, configure it in /etc/modprobe.conf, so that your script runs when the module is loaded - and as I said, default Arch network setup would be fine, if not for those iwpriv commands.

You are using the legacy rt61 driver, not the rt2x00 driver. You may have installed it from an rt61-cvs snapshot tarball, but it's still the legacy driver. You haven't said exactly what you're using iwpriv for, so all I have to go on is my experience. I briefly used the script I linked above to connect with WPA, but after switching to rt2x00, I can do all this via standard Arch network profiles.