Netgear MA111 not working

DragonWisard · 03-15-2005, 08:10 PM

I just bought a Netgear MA111 because I saw that is was listed as Linux Compatible, but after a day of scouring the forums and google and trying several version of the linux-wlan-ng driver I haven't been able to get it to work. When I plug it in, lsusb shows:

Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 0846:4230 NetGear, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

and after doing 'modprobe prism2_usb prism2_doreset=1' dmesg shows:

hub.c: new USB device 00:03.0-1, assigned address 5
usb.c: USB device 5 (vend/prod 0x846/0x4230) is not claimed by any active driver.
prism2usb_init: prism2_usb.o: 0.2.1-pre20 Loaded
prism2usb_init: dev_info is: prism2_usb
usb.c: registered new driver prism2_usb

I've tried "wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_ifstate ifstate=enable" but it says "No such device". The rc.wlan script doesn't. I put the required lines in /etc/modules.conf but it didn't help. "iwconfig" doesn't show a wlan0 and neither does "ifconfig -a". Am I missing something?

Is there a different USB wireless adapter that is easier to install on Slackware 10? I'm using the 2.4.26 kernel (slackware's source).

shepper · 03-15-2005, 08:22 PM

You're half way there. The other items that may need to be configured are the essid, any encrypation, channel etc. It looks like you have the extra slackware package installed so skip to the part about configuring the device.

addresses.Linux WLAN readme

You will also either need set up static or dhcp

DragonWisard · 03-15-2005, 10:21 PM

I'm getting stuck right after the modprobe part.
After I 'modprobe prism2_usb prism2_doreset=1' I don't get a wlan0 so any command targeting wlan0 fails. I'm trying to figure out why wlan0 doesn't appear after the modprobe.

NoXiS · 03-16-2005, 12:49 AM

Wireless network adapters don't always show up as wlan0. It could be eth0 or eth1 as well.

try

Code:

iwconfig

(as root) to see if there is an adapter with network extensions available.

If there is, you can use 'ipconfig' and 'iwconfig' to setup the parameters for the card.

'ipconfig' is used for setting IP address, netmask etc.

'iwconfig' is used for setting WEP keys, frequency, speed etc.

NoXiS · 03-16-2005, 01:19 AM

Went to check a few things...

If there is a wireless adapter there you can set up a static IP address with a line like

Code:

ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.2 255.255.255.0

I just tried that on my onboard network adapter (which I don't use much) and it worked OK. It threw up some kind of error/warning... but it did it! I'm not sure about using DHCP, as I never do.

If you have got to here I think the only thing you'll need to do is set the WEP key (if you are using one). I think it should just auto detect what type of key (64/128) from the parameter you pass to it, and it should detect the frequency to operate at as well.

Code:

iwconfig eth0 key *WEP_KEY*  [KEY_ID_THING]

The other thing you'll probably need to do is set the default gateway (router address), somewhere, but off the top of my head I can't remember where.

you should have a poke about in seemingly network related config files/scripts like

Code:

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf
/etc/rc.d/rc.wireless.conf
/etc/hosts

shepper · 03-16-2005, 08:30 AM

If you are using the linux-wlan-ng drviers the device should show up as wlan0.

If you using dhcp try running the dhcp daemon with

"dhcpcd -h <hostnamehere> wlan0
where
hostnamehere = your computers name such as darkstar.localhost.localdomain

check "man dhcpcd" for specifics

DragonWisard · 03-16-2005, 08:13 PM

iwconfig shows no devices with wireless extensions.
eth0 is my 10/100 ethernet adapter.

I'm familiar with setting up network devices including wireless devices. I have two Atheros cards and a Dell 1350 pcmcia that works w/ ndiswrapper. My problem is not with configuring the networking part but getting the linux-wlan-ng driver to properly function w/ my MA111. The drivers *seem* to recognize the MA111, but don't create wlan0. I'm not sure exactly what's going on, but I can modprobe and it looks like the drivers see the MA111 and start loading. Then I check iwconfig and see nothing. Has anyone here had success with ANY usb wireless adapter?

shepper · 03-16-2005, 09:28 PM

I am using an MA111 in Slackware 10.1 and previously had it working in Slackware 10.0 . I compiled my drivers from source. I could not get pre26 version to compile but had no problem with the pre25 driver.
I am also using a custom kernel with kernel wireless drivers removed. I did not need to modprobe the drivers. lsmod showed the drivers after I compiled the linux-wlan-ng drivers and plugged in the device.