mad wifi on FC5 2.6.16-1.2096_FC5
 

can anyone tell me where to find madwifi for the kernel 2.6.16-1.2096_FC5 ? also could anyone elaborate on which packages to install to get madwifi for fedora core 5? the wiki from madwifi directs fedora 5 users to an fc5 section where the rpms are and they all have the same description. any thoughts?
atrpms.net/dist/fc5/madwifi/

Haven't seen any for it yet. You would be better off building your own. Easy to do as long as you have your kernel-devel-2.6.16-1.2096.rpm installed. To see if you have it use the command ' rpm -qa | grep kernel-devel* '. If you don't have a matching version then you need to download it from where you got the kernel-2.6.16-1.2096.rpm from.

Now download the lastest madwif source from thier site.
Extract it somewhere.
At a command prompt where it was extracted run the following commands.
make
su
<enter root's password>
make install

Setup the ath0 and off you go.

Reason this is best is it can be a few days before the rpm for madwifi to match your kernel version. As long as you install the kernel install the kernel-devel at the same time.

Brian1

Brian1 thanks so much for your reply. i added livna to my repositories and tried yum install madwifi....after reboot and update this appears to have worked with a match for my updated kernel version. i now have network manager running in my tray and listing access points while my network configuration lists wifi0 as my card. /sbin/iwconfig yields:
[dehavik@localhost ~]$ /sbin/iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wifi0 no wireless extensions.

ath0 IEEE 802.11a ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:5.28 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:0 kb/s Tx-Power:16 dBm Sensitivity=0/3
Retry:off RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=0/94 Signal level=-95 dBm Noise level=-95 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

sit0 no wireless extensions.

my problem now is i can still connect via wires but cannot connect to my access point wireless after inputting my wep key nor can i connect to any unsecured network wireless (two are in the vicinity and listed). i think this may have to do with the fact that my iwconfig says wifi0 is not linked with my card which appears to be under ath0. how do i configure this so it is recognized? and how can i make sure that my driver installation went off well? the installation says yum installed all dependencies and the kernel listed matched my kernel. can i assume it worked?
pls help. i just want my wireless working and i think i'm almost there.
thanks Brian1 and the rest of the community for the generous doantion of your time!

You have ath0 configuered. To make it easier first is turn off wep, wpa, mac, ip filtering on the router. Now turn off the eth0 port then bring up the wireless ath0 port. What happens now?

As root type ' ifdown eth0 ' to disable eth0 then ' ifup ath0 ' to enable ath0.

If this works then you can start to apply the wep, wpa and so on.
Brian1

Brian 1 thanks for the help. can i bring eth0 back up with "ifup eth0" if i need to? i want to be able to reverse any process on my own so that i can fix any errors created by my inexperienced meddling.

Yes you can ' ifup eth0 ' to bring it back up.
If you decide on which one you want the most goto /etc/sysconfig/networking-scripts. There will be ifcfg-eth0 and ifcfg-atho. Edit each one as root and make the one you want up at reboot by making the the line ' Onboot=on ' and ' Onboot=off ' for the one to not be active. One tool you can use is called NetworkManager. An rpm if you don't have it installed. It brings up the interface that is active like when the cable is plugged into the ethernet port it will make eth0 active.

Brian1

ok, here is what happens when i proceed as instructed....
[root@localhost dehavik]# /sbin/ifdown eth0
[root@localhost dehavik]# /sbin/ifup ath0

Determining IP information for wifi0... failed.

i do have network manager installed and running listing all my access points, i just cannot connect to them....with wep key or unsecured networks.

one other thing.....
can anyone tell me how to get rid of the entry in "Hostname (optional)" category under
Network Configuration -> Edit -> General
i entered my ssid there to try it out and now can't get rid of it no matter how many times i erase then save. will this effect any functionality?

Whats in your /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ath0?
I seldom use the gui tools. I manual configure many config files.

Brian1

it is under /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wifi0 not /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ath0. i still don't know why that is either. but this is what it says in that file:


# Please read /usr/share/doc/initscripts-*/sysconfig.txt
# for the documentation of these parameters.
ONBOOT=no
USERCTL=yes
IPV6INIT=no
PEERDNS=yes
TYPE=Ethernet
DEVICE=wifi0
HWADDR=00:0d:02:58:10:eb
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
DHCP_HOSTNAME=machine
IPADDR=192.168.1.100
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
GATEWAY=192.168.1.1

thanks again for all the help.

I use this in my ifcfg-ath0
# NAME='Linksys WPC55AG'
# STARTMODE='auto'
ONBOOT=no
DEVICE=ath0
# ESSID=default
MODE=Managed
# BOOTPROTO=dhcp
BOOTPROTO=none
WIRELESS=yes
IPADDR=192.168.1.100
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
GATEWAY=192.168.1.1
RATE=auto
# IWPRIV="authmode 1"
TYPE=Unknown

See if this helps. Why it is called wifi I do not know mind has always been ath0 even with the latest madwifi.
Brian1

by following another thread i started on fedoraforums
http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/sho...2&page=1&pp=15
i was able (with tremendous help from one member) to get to the point of having an ath0 and going through various configurations to try and get the card up and running. now i still have use of eth0 my wired connection, but i cannot associate with any access points whether encrypted or not, whether eth0 is on or off. i tried using network manager but when that didn't work either i was told i should turn it off so as not to complicate things.
/sbin/iwlist scan yields the many access points in my area including my own access point. i configured ifcfg-ath0 with the info you gave and the other different info that was not in your list but was in my file i left alone.
so my wireless card still doesn't work and i am left with no clue as to where to proceed.
thanks for all the help Brian1 thusfar. are there any file contents you would like to look at to get a better idea?
madwifi is installed properly as far as i know but as we've established, i don't know too much at this point.

also, if i do /sbin/ifdown on eth0 and wifi0, then /sbin/ifup ath0 and try to open the browser window, it searches for google for a long time then comes up with the can't find server error. the Network Configuration gui that came with my fc5 distro says that ath0 is active and the ifup command doesn't have an error but i still can't connect. a couple of times i have had different action on the lights on my card.....usually alternating b/w the ACT light and the PWR light, sometimes both blinking on and off at the same time, and currently just the PWR light is on. don't know if that holds any significance.

Brian1,
you don't use any hwaddr in your ifcfg-ath0 file?

I could for the ath0 interface since I only have one atheous card but for my eth1 I have two wireless pcmcia cards ( one uses prism54 and the other orinoco_cs) that use eth1 when either are plugged in. Since the IP and other info will always be the same but mac address will not be. I leave it out so all I have to do is pop one out and the other in and it works right off the bat. No errors saying the mac hardware value is wrong.

What is the make and model of the card and interface?

Brian1

the card is an NEC Aterm WL54AG which uses the Atheros chipset ar5212. it is a pcmcia or cardbus card on a laptop. was the orinoco_cs pcmcia card you have recognised by your distro without any driver's or did you have to use ndiswrapper or linuxant? what did you use for the prism54? ndiswrapper? i am under the impression that the wired ethernet works much more easily than the wireless. do you have an opinion as to the best all around wirelesss card to use with linux or possibly the most user friendly you've come across?

it's good to know you can just leave out the hwaddr if you use multiple cards. what is the benefit of multiple ethernet cards?

i am currently trying tweaking with several versions of ifcfg-ath0 (one at a time of course) in the devices folder as well as the network-scripts folder. since i only use the one pcmcia card other than my onboard ethernet card, i will continue to provide the hwaddr for my card. i have been reading the doc about these files to get a better idea of the parameters involved. any suggestions?