Arch Linux

Oblong_Cheese

Member

Registered: 2007-01-25

Posts: 42

Netgear WG311v3 802.11g

Hi all, just installed Arch Linux on my dad's computer. Anyway, I'm having some problems with the wireless network card. I have installed ndiswrapper fine, installed the XP driver fine, got it all working just dandy, I can even scan for and detect my wireless network, the problem is that using iwconfig, I simply cannot get the wireless card to associate with the wireless network. Output of various commands below:

[owen@wayne ~]$ iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11FH  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.452 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Bit Rate:1 Mb/s   Sensitivity=-200 dBm  
          RTS thr=2346 B   Fragment thr=2346 B   
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

[owen@wayne ~]$

[owen@wayne ~]$ iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:0F:B5:E3:59:4E
                    ESSID:"PISSOFF"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11g
                    Mode:Managed
                    Frequency:2.452 GHz (Channel 9)
                    Quality:7/100  Signal level:-91 dBm  Noise level:-96 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=100
                    Extra:atim=0
          Cell 02 - Address: 00:0F:B5:E3:59:4E
                    ESSID:""
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11g
                    Mode:Managed
                    Frequency:2.452 GHz (Channel 9)
                    Quality:4/100  Signal level:-93 dBm  Noise level:-96 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=100
                    Extra:atim=0

[owen@wayne ~]$

There appears to be a duplicate of my network here, they both have the same MAC address. And yes, "PISSOFF" is my SSID. :-P

[owen@wayne ~]$ ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:30:18:A8:3B:45  
          inet addr:192.168.1.106  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::230:18ff:fea8:3b45/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:1636 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1196 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:2040205 (1.9 Mb)  TX bytes:141054 (137.7 Kb)
          Interrupt:18 Base address:0x8000 

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)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:14:6C:C1:DB:12  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  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:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:18 Memory:f6010000-f6020000 

[owen@wayne ~]$

(the above is AFTER I have typed ifconfig wlan0 up, before that the wlan0 device does not show in ifconfig output)

Issuing the appropriate iwconfig command returns nothing, no errors, no success messages, nothing:

[owen@wayne ~]$ sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid PISSOFF key 6E578E38669AA7603820E4184C channel 09
Password:
[owen@wayne ~]$

Does anyone have any ideas what's going on? And where should I look for output from iwconfig?

Last edited by Oblong_Cheese (2007-03-12 07:50:55)

luca

Member

From: Rome

Registered: 2005-10-30

Posts: 280

Re: Netgear WG311v3 802.11g

Hi Oblong_Cheese,
just a guess, try with:

sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid PISSOFF key restricted 6E578E38669AA7603820E4184C channel 09

Note the *restricted* after the key word

Oblong_Cheese

Member

Registered: 2007-01-25

Posts: 42

Re: Netgear WG311v3 802.11g

That doesn't help either.

Insomnolent

Member

From: Manassas, VA

Registered: 2005-07-12

Posts: 9

Re: Netgear WG311v3 802.11g

Hello! I realize this reply is a bit late, but I encountered the same exact problem. I did some research, followed by some tweaking, and worked out a way to get my WG311v3 to connect to my router. Now, I'm not the most advanced user and maybe someone can trim down my solution. First off, the issue resides with your card and WPA -- the iwconfig key method doesn't work here and as you've seen, even with the correct parameters nothing happens. Secondly, since you're able to scan for networks, you're already a step ahead and don't have to tinker with the driver. So here we go, step by step:

1. Install the wpa_supplicant and dhclient packages.

2. Create a configuration file for wpa_supplicant at /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf.

#/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf


ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=users

network={
  ssid="zulu"
  psk="wburgvirg"
  priority=5
  key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
  proto=WPA
}

Fill in the appropriate information, if you're using a different type of WPA, consult the example /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf and scroll down until you find the instruction set for your type of encryption.

3. Go ahead and make /etc/wpa_supplicant only readable to root for security purposes.

chmod 600 /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

4. Now you should be able to manually initiate the connection with the following command:

wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -Dwext -B

You can edit out "wlan0" with whatever you've named your wireless interface. Also, if you experience any issues with your connection, you can try changing the "-Dwext" argument to "-Dndiswrapper", or another driver if you're using a different card.

5. Take a look at the interface to verify the connection with:

iwconfig wlan0

6. If it appears that you are connected, we now need to receive an IP address from the router. Do so with:

dhclient wlan0

VOILA! You should now have access to the internet and a general feeling of success. However, it gets quite annoying to have to manually bring up the interface whenever you boot up your box, so let's create a network profile.

7. Navigate to /etc/network-profiles and create a new profile, or consult the template for an example if this is unfamiliar territory. (You can also check out the Network Profiles Wiki here: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Network_profiles). Here's what mine looks like:

# /etc/network-profiles/wg311v3


#
# Network Profile
#

DESCRIPTION="WG311v3 Profile"

# Network Settings
INTERFACE=wlan0
#HOSTNAME=myhost

# Interface Settings (use IFOPTS="dhcp" for DHCP)
IFOPTS="dhcp"
#GATEWAY=192.168.0.1

# DNS Settings (optional)
#DOMAIN=localdomain
#DNS1=192.168.0.1
#DNS2=

# Wireless Settings (optional)
ESSID="zulu"
#KEY=
#IWOPTS="mode managed essid $ESSID channel 6 key restricted $KEY"

WIFI_INTERFACE=wlan0   # use this if you have a special wireless interface
                        # that is linked to the real $INTERFACE

WIFI_WAIT=5            # seconds to wait for the wireless card to
                        # associate before bringing the interface up
USEWPA="yes"           # start wpa_supplicant with the profile
WPAOPTS="-D wext"             # use "" for normal operation or specify additional
                        # options (eg, "-D ipw")
                        # see /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf for configuration
#AUTOWPA="yes"          # automatically configure WPA
#PASSKEY=""             # wpa passkey/phrase. for use with AUTOWPA

Edit the above with your settings and save. If you had to use the -Dndiswrapper argument earlier when we manually brought up the connection, change the WPAOPTS to "WPAOPTS="-D ndiswrapper",

8. Now we'll need to make sure the profile is loaded automatically when you boot up, so you can either edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and have it defined there like so:

# /boot/grub/menu.lst snippet


# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda4 ro [b]NET=yourprofilenamehere[/b]
initrd /kernel26.img

Or you can add it to your /etc/rc.conf by uncommenting the option under the network profiles section and entering your profile's name. (NET_PROFILES=(yourprofilenamehere).

You should now automatically connect to the internet when you restart. Now, there is one bug that I have not worked around yet... When you reboot and your network profile is being loaded, you may see an error that reads: FAILED TO CONNECT TO WPA_SUPPLICANT - WPA_CTRL_OPEN: NO SUCH FILE OR DIRECTORY EXISTS!. This won't have an effect on your connection starting, but it may make the boot process slower and its an ugly error. Apparently this is a bug that hasn't been worked out yet and if you need some more info, there's a couple posts on the forums regarding it (check out http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=19236 and http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=36125). If it bugs you too much, you can go back to manually bringing the interface up each time you boot, or try and work the bug out yourself.

Anyway, I hope this helped.