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#1 2009-02-27 04:10:27

ndroftheline
Member
Registered: 2009-02-27
Posts: 7

Can't get Wireless up from Core, sitting here like wtf mate?

Hey all

I'm not a newcomer to Linux in general, having been tinkering with it pretty consistently for about four years now, but this is my first attempt at Arch. Basically everybody on every forum who repped Arch was so Raving Fan about it that I had to give it a try. Read it does well on older hardware, which this qualifies as:

IBM Thinkpad 380XD
300mhz PII Processor
96mb SDRAM
3 gig HD

I'm using a Lucent Technologies Orinoco PCMCIA card, which I know works with WEP because I used it under Puppy (maybe there was some kind of special transient firmware fix? Can't recall...)

I've got Core installed and I've followed all the instructions on the Wireless Setup - Arch Wiki page.
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wireless_Setup

I'm actually already familiar with the commands and the process since at the basic level they're the same as with Puppy Linux, which I was running on this system before the last HD wrecked.

I'm manually typing responses of the system since it's not online and I seem to be having difficulty in copying data to the USB stick I'm using, so I can't paste the output directly.

lspci kicks back:

Socket 0 Bridge: [yenta_cardbus] (bus ID: ....)
Socket 0 Device 0: [orinoco_cs] (bus ID: ...)

when I plug in the device, dmesg | tail shows:

Firmware determiend as Lucent/Agere 7.28
Ad0hoc demo mode suported
IIEEE standard IBSS ad-hoc mode supported
WEP supported, 104-bit key
MAC address ....
Station name "HERMES I"
etho: ready
orinoco_cs at 0.0, irq 3, io 0x0100-0x013f

eth0 shows up on ifconfig, and iwconfig. I can even pass the correct essid and key to iwconfig, which subsequently shows up in iwconfig | eth0. Plus, one of the two lights on the card comes on when I give it the right essid and key (without the right key/code the light doesn't come on).

But running dhcpcd results in a time-out, and running iwlist scan says

Failed to read scan data ; Resource temporarily unavailable.

I've restarted, I've switched PCMCIA ports, I even tried my other Orinoco card but it didn't have the firmware so no linux will even touch it.
I've tried modprobe -r orinoco_cs then modprobe orinoco_cs to reinstall it, ifconfig eth0 down and up, and every combination of the above I've been able to think about.

Please give a recommendation. Arch seems really promising and I need this system up for my main note-taking computer at school! (My eeepc was stolen...bastards...)

~Ender


Bolos may be destroyed, but they never surrender.
We've all gotta die sometime, Red.

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#2 2009-02-27 07:13:04

tomk
Forum Fellow
From: Ireland
Registered: 2004-07-21
Posts: 9,839

Re: Can't get Wireless up from Core, sitting here like wtf mate?

Did you bring the interface up before scanning? Does iwconfig show the Access Point MAC address after you pass the essid/key? Do the logs show that you are associated with the AP after you pass the essid/key?

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#3 2009-03-11 23:21:59

ndroftheline
Member
Registered: 2009-02-27
Posts: 7

Re: Can't get Wireless up from Core, sitting here like wtf mate?

Tomk,

Thanks for your reply!

Yes, I brought up the interface before attempting a scan using

ifconfig eth0 up

I believe the command is working because one of the lights on the card turns on, while the other blinks rapidly while the interface is "up". When I put it "down", of course, the lights go out.

I'll have to log back into my other partition to find out about the AP MAC.

How can I check the logs?

Thanks.


Bolos may be destroyed, but they never surrender.
We've all gotta die sometime, Red.

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#4 2009-03-12 00:18:36

tomk
Forum Fellow
From: Ireland
Registered: 2004-07-21
Posts: 9,839

Re: Can't get Wireless up from Core, sitting here like wtf mate?

Look at /var/log/everything.log. I'd suggest you tail -f it, then try to connect.

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#5 2009-03-12 04:05:27

Daenyth
Forum Fellow
From: Boston, MA
Registered: 2008-02-24
Posts: 1,244

Re: Can't get Wireless up from Core, sitting here like wtf mate?

I believe we have the same card. Doesn't support iwlist scanning as far as I know; has it done so for you on other distros?

Personally I use airodump-ng to "scan" for networks as a workaround

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#6 2009-03-12 08:27:55

ndroftheline
Member
Registered: 2009-02-27
Posts: 7

Re: Can't get Wireless up from Core, sitting here like wtf mate?

I believe we have the same card. Doesn't support iwlist scanning as far as I know; has it done so for you on other distros?

Yeah, it actually scans and works fine under Puppy Linux. Which is a distro I strongly recommend that you at least check out, especially if your hardware specs are anywhere near mine. Puppy's one of my favorite distros, and its like a 90 mb download. Couldn't hurt.
I want to use Arch though because I like the idea of a more hands-on distro; Puppy is more simplicity-centric.

Does iwconfig show the Access Point MAC address after you pass the essid/key?

Yes.

Do the logs show that you are associated with the AP after you pass the essid/key?

This is what I did to check:
1. brought down interface with 'ifconfig eth0 down' (light went off)
2. opened a root terminal and issued: 'tail -f /var/log/everything.log'
3. brought up interface
4. passed essid/key to interface 'iwlist eth0 rothgraft key ******'
5. requested dhcp lease 'dhcpcd eth0'
On the everything.log, all I saw was the dhcpcd information, which just said

dhcpcd 4.0.10 starting
broadcasting for a lease
timed out

So basically, it doesn't indicate that its associated with the AP on the everything.log, unless I'm missing a Verbose parameter or something.

Any other ideas?


Bolos may be destroyed, but they never surrender.
We've all gotta die sometime, Red.

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#7 2009-03-12 13:05:05

Daenyth
Forum Fellow
From: Boston, MA
Registered: 2008-02-24
Posts: 1,244

Re: Can't get Wireless up from Core, sitting here like wtf mate?

ndroftheline wrote:

I believe we have the same card. Doesn't support iwlist scanning as far as I know; has it done so for you on other distros?

Yeah, it actually scans and works fine under Puppy Linux. Which is a distro I strongly recommend that you at least check out, especially if your hardware specs are anywhere near mine. Puppy's one of my favorite distros, and its like a 90 mb download. Couldn't hurt.
I want to use Arch though because I like the idea of a more hands-on distro; Puppy is more simplicity-centric.

Huh... interesting. This definitely merits some looking into... Perhaps it's as simple as a patch for the driver...

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#8 2009-03-12 17:10:38

ndroftheline
Member
Registered: 2009-02-27
Posts: 7

Re: Can't get Wireless up from Core, sitting here like wtf mate?

Daenyth wrote:
ndroftheline wrote:

I believe we have the same card. Doesn't support iwlist scanning as far as I know; has it done so for you on other distros?

Yeah, it actually scans and works fine under Puppy Linux. Which is a distro I strongly recommend that you at least check out, especially if your hardware specs are anywhere near mine. Puppy's one of my favorite distros, and its like a 90 mb download. Couldn't hurt.
I want to use Arch though because I like the idea of a more hands-on distro; Puppy is more simplicity-centric.

Huh... interesting. This definitely merits some looking into... Perhaps it's as simple as a patch for the driver...

You know, apparently the orinoco cards require a firmware update, I believe it HAS to be applied with a windows application. I have another card with the same guts, but I haven't updated the firmware, so I can't connect to ANY secured network. With this card, I can get WEP networks, although not WPA - I think the WPA limitation is in the orinoco_cs driver. But I'm not sure, I've never really had to do a lot of searching.

So anyway, yeah...still can't connect to the net on Arch though. Unsecured OR secured.


Bolos may be destroyed, but they never surrender.
We've all gotta die sometime, Red.

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#9 2009-03-12 17:27:51

Daenyth
Forum Fellow
From: Boston, MA
Registered: 2008-02-24
Posts: 1,244

Re: Can't get Wireless up from Core, sitting here like wtf mate?

Specifically, mine is an orinoco "gold" pcmcia wireless 802.11b card. HERMES I chipset, orinoco_cs driver... I never had to update the firmware, took it right out of the box and into my laptop; works with WEP and open networks. I haven't really tested with WPA networks.

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#10 2009-03-15 12:25:51

Diospyros
Member
Registered: 2009-03-15
Posts: 57

Re: Can't get Wireless up from Core, sitting here like wtf mate?

I had a similar weird issue with my wireless card (intel though) where dchpcd would time out unless I specifically gave the AP mac address to iwconfig... I did something like

iwconfig wlan0 essid [X] key [X] ap [mac address]

and then it worked.

Oddly enough, when I switched to using netcfg to manage my wireless, it just worked without me specifying anything to iwconfig (just the essid and WEP key in the profile)

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#11 2009-03-15 12:38:25

.:B:.
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Registered: 2006-11-26
Posts: 5,819
Website

Re: Can't get Wireless up from Core, sitting here like wtf mate?

Offtopic: Honestly there are far lighter distro's out there than Arch, for that kind of machines.

But of course - to each his own wink.


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

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#12 2009-03-15 12:42:05

Daenyth
Forum Fellow
From: Boston, MA
Registered: 2008-02-24
Posts: 1,244

Re: Can't get Wireless up from Core, sitting here like wtf mate?

Hmm, interesting. My dad's laptop on ubuntu is using the same card, and iwlist does not tell me it doesn't support scanning... though when you scan, it doesn't find them anyway. (He's been having lots of trouble connecting lately...). I'll try that trick with the AP for it.

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#13 2009-03-15 15:24:23

ndroftheline
Member
Registered: 2009-02-27
Posts: 7

Re: Can't get Wireless up from Core, sitting here like wtf mate?

B wrote:

Offtopic: Honestly there are far lighter distro's out there than Arch, for that kind of machines.

But of course - to each his own wink.

Hey, you know I actually decided to run Arch after reading a post from a guy who was running it on a 200 mhz with 64mb ram, successfully. My setup runs pretty smooth, and at desktop has about 24 mb RAM usage. I can't do serious research with it, but this setup isn't slow - I've used Puppy Linux for quite a while on this machine, and the slim Arch setup I have runs quicker. I don't use a login manager, startx manually after login. I use LXDE as my desktop environment and basic tools like Abiword, gnumeric, leafpad, xpdf, and for a browser I use Midori. It plugs right along, even though it takes a good ten seconds to load any of the major apps.

But if you have a recommendation for a lighter distro, I'd be more than interested in hearing about it.

I'll let you know about the AP thing. Thanks for all the follow-up!


Bolos may be destroyed, but they never surrender.
We've all gotta die sometime, Red.

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#14 2009-03-15 17:58:21

ndroftheline
Member
Registered: 2009-02-27
Posts: 7

Re: Can't get Wireless up from Core, sitting here like wtf mate?

Diospyros wrote:

I had a similar weird issue with my wireless card (intel though) where dchpcd would time out unless I specifically gave the AP mac address to iwconfig... I did something like

iwconfig wlan0 essid [X] key [X] ap [mac address]

and then it worked.

Oddly enough, when I switched to using netcfg to manage my wireless, it just worked without me specifying anything to iwconfig (just the essid and WEP key in the profile)

I don't have quick access to another system thats wireless on my network, so I didn't know the MAC address of the router off hand. However, this card DOES successfully associate with the AP mac address when I pass the essid and key to it. So I did that at first, copied down the MAC address for the AP, and passed the iwconfig command again, this time with ap 00:11:50:11:A7:21, the MAC address of the router.

This is what it kicked back:

Error for wireless request "Set AP Address" (8B14) :
     SET failed on device eth0 ; Operation not supported.

Another interesting little piece of information: When I insert the PCMCIA card, dmesg | tail kicks back this:

eth0: Hardware identity [x]
etho: Station identity [x]
eth0: Firmware determined as Lucent/Agere 7.28
eth0: Ad-hoc demo mode supported
eth0: IEEE standard IBSS ad-hoc mode supported
eth0: WEP supported, 104-bit key
eth0: MAC address [x]
eth0: Station name "HERMES I"
eth0: ready
eth0: orinoco_cs at 1.0, irq 3, io [x]

What interested me: does this indicate that ONLY the ad-hoc mode is supported, and NOT the managed mode? This would make it pretty much impossible to get a dhcp lease, right?

Does anybody know how to go about updating the firmware on one of these Orinoco cards?


Bolos may be destroyed, but they never surrender.
We've all gotta die sometime, Red.

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#15 2009-03-15 20:46:17

Diospyros
Member
Registered: 2009-03-15
Posts: 57

Re: Can't get Wireless up from Core, sitting here like wtf mate?

ndroftheline wrote:

What interested me: does this indicate that ONLY the ad-hoc mode is supported, and NOT the managed mode?

This might be trivial... but what mode does iwconfig show the card as being in?  Maybe it starts in ad-hoc mode by default, or something.  You might have to add "mode Managed" to the list of arguments.

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#16 2009-03-15 21:04:34

ndroftheline
Member
Registered: 2009-02-27
Posts: 7

Re: Can't get Wireless up from Core, sitting here like wtf mate?

Yeah I thought that too but iwconfig indicates that it's going into Managed mode.


Bolos may be destroyed, but they never surrender.
We've all gotta die sometime, Red.

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#17 2009-03-22 13:18:29

Daenyth
Forum Fellow
From: Boston, MA
Registered: 2008-02-24
Posts: 1,244

Re: Can't get Wireless up from Core, sitting here like wtf mate?

I was chatting on #aircrack-ng and psycho_oreos pointed me to this

Maybe it will help..

09:12:41 < Daenyth> the orinoco one is assy, I can't even iwlist scan
09:12:55 < psycho_oreos> Daenyth, that and the ability to do 802.11g modes.. I'm presuming you have ar5212abg.. which also means 802.11a as well
09:13:09 < Daenyth> psycho_oreos: lspci tells me I have AR5001x+
09:13:12 < psycho_oreos> orinoco can scan, you just have to choose the right firmware smile
09:13:36 < Daenyth> psycho_oreos: oh really? If you could point me to any info on that, I would _much_ appreciate it.. right now when I roam I use airodump and filter for OPN
09:13:54 < Daenyth> it works, but it's not fun
09:14:07 < psycho_oreos> Daenyth, I've documented a bit on backtrack's wiki, however I too myself never bothered to flash it personally, you need windows to do it
09:14:16 < Daenyth> ugh
09:14:21 < Daenyth> that's not polite
09:14:26 < Daenyth> hrmm... would vmware work?
09:14:30 < Daenyth> I don't own any windows machines
09:15:03 < psycho_oreos> Daenyth, http://backtrack.offensive-security.com … _High_Rate
09:15:17 < psycho_oreos> only with usb should one use vmware
09:15:26 < Daenyth> hmm, no go then
09:15:36 < Daenyth> well thanks a lot, that gives me something to look into.
09:15:39 < psycho_oreos> I've got all the firmwares and stuff for it but never got around testing it smile
09:16:28 < Daenyth> where do you get the firmware?
09:16:43 < psycho_oreos> I've listed the links on that link I just posted smile
09:16:58 < psycho_oreos> but the firmware, you can't flash it via linux I believe, they are all .exe binary blobs
09:17:12 < Daenyth> ahh thanks
09:17:20 < Daenyth> wonder if wine could do it...
09:17:52 < psycho_oreos> wine might be able to do it but I wouldn't risk bricking it smile
09:18:10 < Daenyth> well my dad has a partly windows laptop.. I'll try that
09:18:44 < psycho_oreos> Daenyth, if you have any success, I'd like to hear about it smile I need to do something similar with a pair of hermes I cards I got
09:19:02 < Daenyth> will do
09:19:08 < psycho_oreos> and I'm not sure about using win2k, you might need win98
09:19:15 < Daenyth> uh... hrm
09:19:22 < Daenyth> well it's winXP MCE
09:19:33 < psycho_oreos> *shrug* might work

Last edited by Daenyth (2009-03-22 13:19:48)

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#18 2009-04-05 10:16:06

mole
Member
Registered: 2007-02-17
Posts: 21

Re: Can't get Wireless up from Core, sitting here like wtf mate?

ndroftheline wrote:

With this card, I can get WEP networks, although not WPA - I think the WPA limitation is in the orinoco_cs driver..

You can get WPA networks with Hermes I and orinoco_cs using kernel 2.6.29-ARCH.
http://freenet-homepage.de/obauer/#wpa

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#19 2009-04-05 11:03:02

moljac024
Member
From: Serbia
Registered: 2008-01-29
Posts: 2,676

Re: Can't get Wireless up from Core, sitting here like wtf mate?

Wow, crappy wireless cards...


The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
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But if they tell you that I've lost my mind, maybe it's not gone just a little hard to find...

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#20 2009-04-05 11:15:50

Daenyth
Forum Fellow
From: Boston, MA
Registered: 2008-02-24
Posts: 1,244

Re: Can't get Wireless up from Core, sitting here like wtf mate?

Oreo wrote this on firmware extraction: http://tuxsavvy.vox.com/library/post/co … ction.html

Lately I don't know what's changed but I can now scan for networks. Try bringing the interface down then up

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