Hello,

This will be a rather long post sorry!! I am having problems with getting my new Cisco Aironet 340 Wireless 802.11b PCMCIA card to work under Red Hat 8.0 with the 2.4.18.14 kernel on a Dell Inspiron 8100 Laptop.

First off here is the output of the command "cat /var/log/messages"

Jun 23 06:44:19 localhost cardmgr [502]:executing: './network stop eth0'
Jun 23 06:44:19 localhost cardmgr [502]:executing: 'modprob -r airo_cs'
Jun 23 06:44:21 localhost /etc/hotplug/net.agent' NET unregister event not supported
Jun 23 06:44:24 localhost cardmgr [502]: Socket 1:Aironet PC4800
Jun 23:06:44:25 localhost cardmgr [502]: executing:'mobprob airo_cs'
Jun 23:06:44:30 localhost kernel:airo: Probing for PCI adapters
Jun 23:06:44:32 localhost kernel:airo: Finished probing for PCI adapters
Jun 23:06:44:34 localhost kernel:airo: MAC enabled eth0 0:40:96:39:44:f
Jun 23:06:44:35 localhost kernel:eth0:index 0x05:Vcc 5.0,Vpp 5.0, irq 3, io 0x0100-0x013f
Jun 23:06:44:36 localhost cardmgr [502]: executing: './network start eth0'
Jun 23:06:44:40 localhost /etc/hotplug/net.agent:invoke ifup eth0

Here is the output of the command 'cat /proc/driver/aironet/eth0/Status

Status: CFG ACT
Mode: f
Signal Strength: 0
Signal Quality: 3
SSID: WLAN
AP:
Freq: 0
BitRate: 11mbs
Driver Version: airo.c 0.3 (Ben Reed & Javier Achirica)
Device: 340 Series
Manufacturer: Cisco Systems
Firmware Version: 3.93
Radio Type: 2
Country: 0
Hardware Version: 20
Software Version: 393
Software Subversion: 0
Boot Block version: 143

Ok, now that that is out of the way, I then issue the command "neat" in a term window as root. When the window pops up I get this warning error

"eth0 has an alias to module airo_cs in modules.conf, instead of currently loaded module airo!"

after clicking on "ok" I then click on "activate" to activate the device. After clicking on "activate" I get this little error in my term window,

"Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06):
SET failed on device eth0; Invalid argument"

Then a message comes on the term window and says pretty much that it pinged the gateway (192.168.1.1) and all packets where lost.

Also when I do the commond "/sbin/ifconfig -a" I can see that its doing something it shows that RX packets:0 errors:563 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:563
and that TX packets:24 errors:24 dropped:0 overrun:0 carrier:22

I dont konw what else to do. Your help is greatly appreciated and thank you for your time!

Scott

What modules are loaded?

/sbin/lsmod

What's the output of:

iwconfig

Also, if you edit the line in /etc/modules.conf to point to airo.o, what happens?

Cheers,

Finegan

Hello,

/sbin/lsmod reports the following,

Module Size Used by Not tainted

airo.cs 4900 0 (unused)
nfsd 79920 8 (autoclean)
lockd 58064 1 (autoclean) [nfsd]
sunrpc 79324 1 (autoclean) [nfsd] [lockd]
autofs 13348 0 (autoclean) (unused)
ds 8712 2 [airo_cs]
yenta_socket 12960 2
pcmcia_core 54784 0 [airo_cs ds yenta_socket]
airo 42408 1 [airo_cs]

Then a bunch of other stuff that really doesnt pertain to this subject like ieee1394 firewire stuff and cdrom stuff.

/sbin/iwconfig reports the following,

lo no wireless extensions.


eth0 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"sevans" Nickname:"localhost"
Mode: Managed Frequency: 2.412GHz Access Point:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
Bit Rate=11Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm Sensitivity=0/65535
Retry limit:16 RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Encryption keyff
Power Managmentff
Link Quality:1/10 Signal level:-84 dBm Noise level: -256 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:1797 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:134 Missed beacon:0


The ESSID is different then the ESSID on my previous post, thats because I changed it, but it matchs my AP/wireless router (which is a Linksys/Cisco).

When I change "eth0 alias airo" to "eth0 alias airo.o" or to "eth0 alias airo_cs" in /etc/modules.conf ,I get this error when I issue the command "neat" to bring up the network configuration tool.

Warning!
"Eth0 has an alias to module airo.o in modules.conf instead of currently loaded module airo!"

Dont know if this will help but in the /usr/src/linux-2.4.18-14/drivers/net/wireless directory I have the following

airo.c
airo_cs.c
airport.c
Config.in
hermes.c
hermes.h
hermes_rid.h
ieee802.11.h
Makefile
orinoco.c
orinoco_cs.c
orinoco.h
orinoco_pci.c
orinoco_plx.c
README
todo.txt



Thank you again for your time

Scott

Oh goodness... I just realized the problem... its the firmware... For a while, about 2 years ago, which is about the age of redhat kernel, the firmware onboard the cisco cards was too new for the stock kernel driver to understand... The kernel driver has since gotten over this, but you're 8 minor versions behind, about 3 years old actually. You can install the cisco modules for the card, or upgrade kernels, and this will probably be sorted out. Sorry I didn't realize that last post.

Cheers,

Finegan

What do you think would be eaiser? Upgrading the kernel or the firmware? Also can I up grade the firmware under linux?

I have two kernels on this laptop setup as a dual boot with GRUB 2.4.18-14 and 2.6.1

Would the fix be in 2.6.1?

Scott

Yeah it would be in 2.6.1, but that's getting pretty far ahead for the rest of pcmcia to work, if you want to compile by hand, 2.4.26 is the way to go, I wouldn't jump a kernel series with RH8 on there. Also, I know for certain there are made-by cisco kernel modules for that rh8 kernel, and those should work accross the board.

And I know you can't change the firmware under Linux, at least I've never heard of it... not with the cisco cards anyway. And you would need to downgrade it to get it to the age of the kernel driver.

In order of ease one of these will work:

1. Get the Cisco driver.
2. Upgrade to 2.4.26 by hand.
3. Upgrade to Fedora Core 2 (or something newish), man is RH8 old now, you know how much prettier everything has gotten!

Cheers,

Finegan

Yeah I really should upgrade to Fodera Core 2 huh, lol

I have looked for the cisco drivers cant find the right ones. I downloaded linux-acu-driver-v21.tar.gz but it dont work.

I get errors when I try to untar it


Fodera Core 2 is looking mighty good right now. Im on dial up know thou, so might take a week to d/l


Scott

hmmmm, I have Mandrake 9.0 iso's laying around. I wonder what kernel is in Mandrake 9.0

2.4.21-ish if I remember right... what errors did you get on the tar?

tar xvzf linux-acu-driver-v21.tar.gz

scablooey?

Cheers,

Finegan

I do

tar xvzf linux-acu-driver-v21.tar.gz as root and I get the following

linux/
linux/driver/
linux/driver/aes.h
linux/driver/aestab.h
linux/driver/mpi350.c
tar: Skipping to next header
tar: Archive contains obsolescent base-64 headers

gzip: stdin: invalid compressed data--format violated
Tar: Child returned status 1
tar: error exit delayed from previous errors


I get a /linux directory and a /linux/driver directory but only thing in there are the three files aes.h, aestab.h mpi350.c


im downloadingn the 2.4.26 kernal patch from kernal.org, patch-2.4.26.bz2, (wait, its done downloading lol). I just dont remember how to patch the kernel, havnt done it in awhile


Scott

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...004/03/1/85911

That should probably unpack the bugger right. Weeeeeird.

Cheers,

Finegan

ok, now im having problem with patch the kernel to 2.4.26

I copied the patch to /usr/src
and used the command

patch -p0 < patch2.4.26 ( I already uncompressed it)



what is the right way to patch this sucker??


thanks for your help

Scott

maybe its b/c im jumping from 2.4.18-14 to 2.4.26?

Well looks like I will be making a trip to my sisters house this weekend and downloading the Fodera Core 2 cd's. Maybe this will fix my problem. Would I still have to update the firmware?? or would upgrading to FC2 be enough? I dont have a spare windows laptop laying around to flash the firmware. If I have to upgrade the firmware I guess I could backup all my stuff on this laptop, install my copy of XP upgrade the firmware then install Fodera Core 2 lol.. will take like 8 hours but it will be worth it to get this card working.


Scott