Wireless

Guest · 2003-03-27 19:05:40

What is the best way to get wireless set up under Arch Linux?

Guest · 2003-03-27 20:59:06

Let me rephrase....

I have a Linksys router that handles DHCP requests using RFC1918 addresses. I have a Toshiba Satellite and a Linksys WAP and a Linksys WPC11 wireless card. After getting Arch linux set up and riunning, what is the best method for setting up wireless connectivity?

Thanks...

Xentac · 2003-03-28 00:59:14

What you're going to want to do is install the pcmcia-cs package from current and the wlan-ng package from unofficial.

Then your config files will be in /etc/wlan/, be sure to read the conf files supplied to get it right.

You'll have a problem about network interfaces not being configured automatically. A patch has gone to Judd but he just hasn't got around to checking it out yet, until then you'll want to restart your network interfaces when you put the card in. You'll see what I mean.

Anyway, have fun.

whatah · 2003-10-08 16:11:57

if you want to use a wireless pcmcia card, you might want to create a wireless start script for hotplug. I just set up my wireless and there is no ifup, which hotplug looks at. I stole the lines from /etc/rc.d/network:

 case $1 in
eth0)   HOSTNAME=DiRT;; // change the HOSTNAME to DiRT if the interface is eth0
eth1)   HOSTNAME=DiRTwLAN;; // change the HOSTNAME to DiRTwLAN for my wireless.
esac
rm -f /etc/dhcpc/dhcpcd-${1}.{pid,cache} >/dev/null 2>&1
    /usr/sbin/dhcpcd -t 10 -h $HOSTNAME $1

and then just replace every occurrence of 'ifup' with the name for that script. It works, it really does,

farphel · 2003-10-08 17:02:11

I have a Linksys WAP and WPC11 pcmcia card and have it working fine under Arch.

gnuwarrior wrote:

I have a Linksys router that handles DHCP requests using RFC1918 addresses. I have a Toshiba Satellite and a Linksys WAP and a Linksys WPC11 wireless card. After getting Arch linux set up and riunning, what is the best method for setting up wireless connectivity?

It's on my laptop at home so I can't check config files now, but if you're still running into trouble later, feel free to 'pm' me and I'll give you my configs.

Cheers,
farphel

Jagged · 2003-10-08 17:31:39

I've got a linksys WMP11 (PCI version). Not exactly pcmcia, but the drivers used for the card are the linux-wlan-ng drivers. linux-wlan-ng has support for certain pcmcia, plx (pci - pcmcia adapter), pci, and usb devices. The linksys devices are supported by linux-wlan-ng. I recommend using a version > 0.2.0, the new configuration scripts are most excellent.

jskier · 2003-12-10 21:21:34

I have the WPC11 PCMCIA card and can't seem to get it going... It seems to recognize the device fine in the slot, but I'm confused about the actual config file set up... If anyone has this card up could you please post how you got there and some config files? Thanks in advance,

JSkier

farphel · 2003-12-10 23:44:40

The only thing I installed was the pcmcia-cs package. I don't use the wlan stuff or even hotplug (but I don't plug/unplug my wireless card while booted). I edited my /etc/rc.conf file and added the following:

eth0="dhcp"
eth1="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(lo eth0 eth1)

DAEMONS=(pcmcia esd network crond sshd fam exim ...)

If I'm wired, then eth0 starts up and if I'm wireless, eth1. I'm running Arch's default 2.4.23 kernel too.

The only other thing I'll mention is that if you have a Dell Inspiron laptop, you need to edit /etc/pcmcia/config.opts and remove the "port 0x800-0x8ff" range.

hth,
farphel

jskier · 2003-12-11 03:25:16

Thanks for the quick reply. My config file already looks like that, however it does not work. What does your modules.conf look like? I just guessed and aliased eth1 to the orinco module. I tried taking that out and still no activity on the wireless card. Thank you again in advance.

JSkier

Xentac · 2003-12-11 05:32:49

Have you checked iwconfig? You might have the wrong SSID or channel or something.

Guest · 2003-12-11 05:48:13

iwconfig shows nothing. Where exactly do I set the channel and other configuration for the card?

JSkier

farphel · 2003-12-11 11:54:28

I don't have anything (that I can recall) in my /etc/modules.conf. It just worked. That was one thing I loved when I switched from gentoo; under gentoo, I tried for about a month to get my card working (it used to be fine under Debian), but under Arch it just worked.

Have you tried tailing your log files when you pop the card in? That should indicate which driver its trying to load based on the card database in /etc/pcmcia.

I seem to recall that there might be an issue with the newer WPC11 cards. Something about a "version 4" comes to mind where Linksys switched chipsets. Try googlling a bit for something like that. If you have one of those newer cards, you might have to add your own entry in the pcmcia card database.

EDIT: Another thought comes to mind - I hate to suggest this, but it might help you out. Take a look on gentoo's forums for WPC11 threads. There are several combinations of kernel compiles/pcmcia-cs/wlan/hotplug that you could try and most are documented in the gentoo forums. Like I said above though, that never helped me - switching to Arch helped!

dp · 2004-01-12 13:59:38

using kernel 2.6.1 gives this if run iwconfig:

[root@Asteraceae damir]# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

sit0      no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

Warning: Driver for device eth1 has been compiled with version 16
of Wireless Extension, while this program is using version 15.
Some things may be broken...

eth1      IEEE 802.11-DS ...

this warning about xcompiled wextensions ... does it mean something do not work? (i cannot try ... i used wireless only to exchange data with colleagues, so no accesspoint in my near :-) )

shen · 2004-02-23 20:07:41

Another wifi pcmcia card that work that I use is an Orinoca Gold I purchased it from newegg.com. I know you can purchase them off ebay I am just to leary of ebay..:) Anyways The linksys issue is correct ver4 won't work no if ands or buts.. The D-Link DWL650's only hW ver A1-J3 will work newer ones are HW ver M!, P and such. Sometimes you can look on the back of the package if the store has bar code for it and the H/W: will be listed. I have found many of your newer cards you buy at local shops like bestbuy compusa and such now use newer cheaper chipsets which aren't supported by linux. From researching I have found Prism2 and most Orinoco based chipsets will work fine. Anyways just abit of info I found out with hrs of googling..:)

aCoder · 2004-04-19 00:20:35

btw : im modprobing the model and iwconfig it every boot cuz frankly i do not know ( yet ) how to do it in anyother way .. but im learning ...
[ i just thought that its something needed to know ... ]

Well, you can add the names of the modules you need to load to the MODULES option in /etc/rc.conf, and any other commands you need to run at boot can be put in your /etc/rc.local. There are network options in rc.conf, but with some wireless setups, it can be easier to run the commands in rc.local.

yowwww · 2004-09-20 08:59:36

I recently got wireless set up on my laptop and am quite enjoying it.

Some of the information in this thread was useful - mainly getting the wireless_tools package so I could enable wep on my pcmcia card on my laptop.

Don't forget to check out additional packages like Airfart which can be found in Incoming:

ftp://ftp.archlinux.org/incoming/

as well as some other packages which can be found by doing a search for wireless on the Arch website.

Just to add, if you are using a wireless router as an access point but want to disable the routing/dhcp features, then make sure you go through the web interface and disable those features accurately. I got into a snag due to not knowing I had to disable dhcp in two places. Also, if you already have a router and are just using this added wireless router as an a/p or switch like me, then make sure your gateway on the router is different from your own router, it helps to make things easier. As well if you are using a pcmcia card, make sure you have added pcmcia to your Daemons section of your rc.conf so your pcmcia support starts at boot.

Hope that helps others in the future.

Cheers and happy wireless Arching

cs25x · 2005-06-21 20:12:11

There is a driver for rtl8180 gear on sourceforge.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/rtl8180-sa2400
it works with kismet on my 2.6.11 laptop, you have to install the modules under /lib/modules/whatever yourself, and modprobe the 8180 module to load everything. It also works without Kismet too, it also works under ndiswrapper.
The project homepage explains more
http://rtl8180-sa2400.sourceforge.net/
HTH everybody who has a rtl card.

Frem · 2005-07-08 23:16:31

I'm sooo confused. I can't figure out how to get this thing working.

I have a hawking HWC54G wireless card. It's supported by wlan-ng, accourding to their compatability table. (I'm currently online using a wired hawking USB ethernet adapter on the same laptop.)

So, here we go. First, I made sure the wireless-tools package was installed, then I got wlan-ng26, for my 2.6 kernel. (You can see it at the top of my kernel buffer.)

installing wlan-ng26... done.
[james@wombat Opera]$ iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

sit0      no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

[james@wombat Opera]$ lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
ohci_hcd               23048  0 
ehci_hcd               36488  0 
pcspkr                  4044  0 
[james@wombat Opera]$ iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

sit0      no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

[james@wombat Opera]$ sudo modprobe wlan-ng
FATAL: Module wlan_ng not found.
[james@wombat Opera]$ sudo modprobe linux-wlan-ng
FATAL: Module linux_wlan_ng not found.
[james@wombat Opera]$ ifconfig etho0 down
etho0: unknown interface: No such device
[james@wombat Opera]$ lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
ohci_hcd               23048  0 
ehci_hcd               36488  0 
pcspkr                  4044  0 
analog                 12704  0 
ns558                   6016  0 
gameport                5120  2 analog,ns558
parport_pc             29252  0 
parport                38600  1 parport_pc
yenta_socket           23560  1 
rsrc_nonstatic         11648  1 yenta_socket
pcmcia_core            51488  2 yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
i2c_piix4               9104  0 
i2c_core               23296  1 i2c_piix4
uhci_hcd               33424  0 
tsdev                   8256  0 
evdev                   9984  0 
rtl8150                14336  0 
usbcore               125560  5 ohci_hcd,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd,rtl8150
rtc                    13260  0 
[james@wombat Opera]$ ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:E0:4C:00:11:68  
          inet addr:192.168.1.100  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1540  Metric:1
          RX packets:1992 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1969 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:1856622 (1.7 Mb)  TX bytes:284633 (277.9 Kb)

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

[james@wombat Opera]$ help!!!

phrakture · 2005-07-09 00:36:41

you need to modprobe the right module for your card... orinoco or prism2 or something - try running lshwd and see if it reports it

Frem · 2005-07-09 19:43:55

Ok, it looks like I have a few choices for this card. None of them seem to work.

Googling around brought up a page saying I needed to use prism54. MODPROBE'ED (sorry ) iwconfig can't find wlan0.

I have installed, configured, and modprobed ndiswrapper. It loads fine, it says it found the card and the driver works, systems seem to be go, but iwconfig STILL can't find it, and wlan0 still does not exist on the system.

I've also used hwd. It says I need to run

sudo modprobe yenta_socket
sudo modprobe ds
sudo cardmgr

yenta_socket is preloaded, probaly hotplug's doing, modprobing ds freezes the terminal (leaving a thing on dmesg: "eth0: no IPv6 routers present"), and the cardmgr command cannot be found. I don't know what package I need to install to get it.
needless to say, iwconfig still can't find anything.

This is the output of lshwd.

pcilib: Cannot open /proc/bus/pci/01/00.0
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp.|440BX/ZX - 82443BX/ZX Host bridge (AGP disabled) (unknown)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Neomagic Corp.|NM2160 [MagicGraph 128XD] (neomagic)
00:07.0 Bridge: Intel Corp.|82371AB PIIX4 ISA (unknown)
00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp.|82371AB PIIX4 IDE (ata_piix)
00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp.|82371AB PIIX4 USB (uhci_hcd)
00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corp.|82371AB PIIX4 ACPI - Bus Master IDE Controller (sonypi)
00:0a.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments|PCI1225 PC Card Controller (yenta_socket)
00:0a.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments|PCI1225 PC Card Controller (yenta_socket)
pcilib: Cannot open /proc/bus/pci/01/00.0
01:00.0 Class ffff: Texas Instruments|WLAN Device TNETW1130(ACX111) (acx100_pci)
001:002 USB Vendor Specific Class: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.|RTL8150 Fast Ethernet Adapter (rtl8150)
001:001 USB Hub: Virtual|Hub (hub)
---:--- Mouse: Generic PS/2 Wheel Mouse [/dev/psaux] (msintellips/2)

(You can also see my Hawking HUF11 usb/ethernet adapter I'm using to access the net while I try to get wireless working in there. I take eth0 down while testing the wifi card, so it shouldent matter.)

EDIT

Oh, man this is bad. Before I tried in Linux, I set it up in Windows. It worked fine before all that tweaking, now it gives me the same problems in Windwos it gave me in NdisWrapper: It can see the router fine, it can't connect to the internet.

Someone told me that the firmware is software driven, like a WinModem, and it's reuploaded whenever the computer is turned on, so I dunno what to do. If the Firmware does not stay on the card anyway, what's the problem?!

phrakture · 2005-07-11 18:46:35

Sounds like a router setting to me.... if you can see and ping the router (and go to the management page?) there shouldn't be any problem with the wireless card itself, but I'd assume th router is blocking you from the outside (that's it's job)

Frem · 2005-07-18 17:36:16

Whoops, yep, it was the router. This stupid bug that causes DHCP addresses to not expire when the computer using them has been rebooted and is now using a different address. Eventually, it runs into the max DHCP address limit and simply blocks all computers from accessing the network. (Soultion? Set the max DHCP users from 5 to 50.)

I've now boiled down the problem.

Hotplug won't load the prism54 firmware when I ask it too.
I found the command that does it, but it just says something like 'Can't preform action "" '.
I used it again, specfying the full path and filename. Same deal. Any ideas?

I've also added wlan0 to the list of network interfaces in rc.conf, and that made iwconfig at least find the card when prism54 is modprobed. I just need to figure out how to get that stupid firmware on there.

Arch Linux

#1 2003-03-27 19:05:40

Wireless

#2 2003-03-27 20:59:06

Re: Wireless

#3 2003-03-28 00:59:14

Re: Wireless

#4 2003-10-08 16:11:57

Re: Wireless

#5 2003-10-08 17:02:11

Re: Wireless

#6 2003-10-08 17:31:39

Re: Wireless

#7 2003-12-10 21:21:34

Re: Wireless

#8 2003-12-10 23:44:40

Re: Wireless

#9 2003-12-11 03:25:16

Re: Wireless

#10 2003-12-11 05:32:49

Re: Wireless

#11 2003-12-11 05:48:13

Re: Wireless

#12 2003-12-11 11:54:28

Re: Wireless

#13 2004-01-12 13:59:38

Re: Wireless

#14 2004-02-23 20:07:41

Re: Wireless

#15 2004-04-19 00:20:35

Re: Wireless

#16 2004-09-20 08:59:36

Re: Wireless

#17 2005-06-21 20:12:11

Re: Wireless

#18 2005-07-08 23:16:31

Re: Wireless

#19 2005-07-09 00:36:41

Re: Wireless

#20 2005-07-09 19:43:55

Re: Wireless

#21 2005-07-11 18:46:35

Re: Wireless

#22 2005-07-18 17:36:16

Re: Wireless

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