im having problems getting the cisco aironet 350 card(the one with no built in antenna) to connect to my linksys router. it runs under windows. Im very new to linux, so if you see something i need to do, please keep it as simple as possible.

on my router it shows the client is connecting as it has the cards mac address listed as a client connected. i use yast to configure the aironet350 and it detects it . I have a built in network card eth0 but its not connect to the network. i know im real close to getting this to work, but something is just holding it back.and yes i have an external antenna plugged in.hope i give enough info about this.

here are the settings in YAST but i may be missing something
1) i used auto dhcp
2) host name is laptop domain name is site ( i call the cpu laptop but im not sure what site is for) also i checked change name via dhcp and checked update servers via dhcp
3)routing default gate way 192.168.1.1 (my router and gateway) i did not check expert settings
4)wireless settings, operating mode managed. essid "hipster" wep kes are all 64bit hex and match my router and chanel 4 is matched in expert settings to the router
5)dhcp client option i have nothing checked and both fields blank

when i finsh, yast saves all the settings and i go to a prompt and do ifconfig, for eth1(wireless) it does not get any ip address .below is what i get on ifconfig and iwconfig.

thanks for any help.


laptop:~ # ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:05:30:2E:2F:E7
inet6 addr: fe80::20f:20ff:fe1e:2fe9/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:41 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 TX bytes:21110 (20.6 Kb)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0xa000

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0G:D2:81:45:B7
inet6 addr: fe80::20f:34ff:fe84:45b2/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:32 errors:78 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:78
TX packets:3 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:7344 (7.1 Kb) TX bytes:1734 (1.6 Kb)
Interrupt:3 Base address:0x100

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:42 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:42 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:2708 (2.6 Kb) TX bytes:2708 (2.6 Kb)

laptop:~ # iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

eth1 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"hipster" Nickname:"laptop"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.417GHz Access Point: 00:0G:D8:81:45:B3
Bit Rate:11Mb/s Tx-Power=17 dBm Sensitivity=0/65535
Retry limit:16 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:****-****-** Security mode:open
Power Management:off
Link Quality:27/10 Signal level:-56 dBm Noise level:-96 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:23 Missed beacon:0

wifi0 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"hipster" Nickname:"laptop"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.417GHz Access Point: 00:0G:D2:81:45:B7
Bit Rate:11Mb/s Tx-Power=17 dBm Sensitivity=0/65535
Retry limit:16 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:****-****-** Security mode:open
Power Management:off
Link Quality:27/10 Signal level:-56 dBm Noise level:-96 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:23 Missed beacon:0

sit0 no wireless extensions.

Hi. I was having similar problems in Fedora. The network configuration tools don't seem to work with this card.

Try doing (all as root):

ifconfig eth0 down <- to bring down your ethernet card
ifconfig eth1 up <- to bring up your wireless card
dhclient eth1 <- to get the IP, DNS etc info from your wireless router

You can check which interfaces Linux is using to connect to the internet with 'route'. That tells you which interface (eth0, eth1 etc) is being used to connect to the outside. You should see around 2 or 3 lines which should end with eth1 once your wireless card is working. There will be a line with lo as well.

It is possible that the firmware on the card is too recent for the Linux drivers. The Windows drivers automatically update the firmware, which is a showstopper if you want to use the card on Linux. Try downgrading the firmware to 4.25.23. This is the recommended firmware version for Linux. You'll have to rake around on the Cisco site for the right files. You'd probably be better off doing this in Windows, as the Cisco software is a bit flakey on Linux, and the firmware comes as a self extracting Windows .exe file. Once you've done that, you can check the version with 'cat /proc/driver/aironet/eth1/Status'. You can also check other info about the card with 'cat /proc/driver/aironet/eth1/Config'.

That said, you card can obviously see the router (as it lists a valid MAC address for it), so you're very nearly there. I'd try the three commands listed above before you do anything else.

Good luck. The 350 cards are really good once you get them running.

Dave

Hello... i'm using Mandrake Linux 10.0 kernel 2.6.1 (i think...didn't checked) and i'm trying to use the cisco 350 PCMCIA.
i installed the driver from ciscos site. ran the 'sh install' and it installed the drivers and utilities... but when i go to /opt/cisco/bin and run the acu it outputs the error 'no radio found'. bcard worked fine with no errors.

i'm using the firmware 4.25.23 and i have also tried the 4.25.30 firmware. with both versions of firmware i did what you suggested with the ifconfig eth0 down, ifconfig eth1 up, dhclient eht1 and i get:

now i know that the dhclient prob won't work given that it doesn't find the radio but i'm out of ideas as what to do. the card finds my wireless connection, 'Oz' but it does not connect to it. i can't get an IP, nor can i get the ACU program to run. any help would be GREATLY appreciated. i'm compleate out of ideas and i'm up for anything.

I would try using the kernel drivers instead of the Cisco ones. The drivers in the 2.6.7 kernel work great, but I don't know at what version the drivers were introduced to the kernel tree so I don't know if the kernel you're running will have them.

Time for a kernel compile perhaps?

Dave

Thats what i was thinking... however i'm pretty new to linux so i'm not sure really how to recompile the drivers... i don't want to reformat and install the OS. Like i said before i'm using Mandrake 10.0 and the kernel is 2.6.3-7. Through Mandrake's software installer i reinstalled the kernel but i'm not sure if that is reinstalling/rebuilding/recompiling the kernel's airo_cs drivers or if it's just putting the files on my computer. What would be the commands to compile the kernel? (if installing them through the mandrake software installer didn't work) or if there is a way to check to see which drivers i'm using, cisco's airo_cs or the kernels airo_cs. i installed the cisco's drivers and now i just need to figure out or have some nice person tell me how to uninstall them and reinstall the kernel's drivers. Thank you for the reply. i would love anymore help anyone can give.

OK, if you've re-installed the kernel, then that should have removed the drivers from the Cisco site (hopefully). This being the case, you should just have to insert your Cisco card and the modules should load.

Once the card is in, do lsmod and you should see airo_cs and airo in the listsing.

Incidentally, the following is what I do on my Thinkpad to connect to an open wireless network:

ifconfig eth0 down
ifconfig eth1 down
iwconfig eth1 nick hermes
iwconfig eth1 rate 11M auto
iwconfig eth1 mode Managed
iwconfig eth1 essid <name of network I'm connecting to>
ifconfig eth1 up
dhclient eth1

If it still doesn't work, then uninstall the kernel and then reinstall it, to make absolutely sure all the kernel modules have been removed.

Dave

Ok... well i've tried to upgrade my kernel to 2.6.7 from 2.4.3-7. i fallowed some instructions i found through google. run through all the make commands and then configured lilo to boot to the new kernel. however now the computer stalls or freezes when i boot. stoping at ACPI: IRQ 9: <something>. i'll post the actual output when i get a chance to recreate it. i'm assuming that i didn't setup the modules or the menuconfig right. but i'm not sure. i'll try to recompile the kernel again, but if anyone has anyother idea i would appreciate it. otherwise thanks for all the help

You can grab an rpm of the 2.6.5 kernel here:
http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2004/0...ing_to_26.html

That should save you compiling your own.

Dave

Thanks alot guys. i got an rpm for the 2.6.7 kernel, installed it and everything seems to work fine. cisco's utilities seem to work however now the card is getting an ip of 00.00.00.00. i'll try a few things, but is there something you have to do to get the card to connect. i'm using DHCP and sometimes i use LEAP. i've set the leapscript, which authenticates fine, but it still only gets an ip of 00.00.00.00.

I've had nothing but problems using the Cisco utilities. If you need them for LEAP, then fair enough. If you're using DHCP, then I'd use dhclien instead.

Dave