configuring atheros ar5001 on acer notebook with mandrake 10

mayasedai · 09-09-2005, 08:07 AM

just bought a acer laptop (2315nlci) with sis900, but i cant setup the wireless connection at all. i get to configure network > wireless connection > sis900 > autodetect and a box apears and disappears before i know what it says. if i choose manual configuration, what should the parameteres be? i used the wireless connection indicator, it says no wireless card. i ran modprobe sis900, it exited without errors.

what now?

david_ross · 09-09-2005, 01:05 PM

From what I remember the sis900 chipset is for wired cards.

Are you sure you have a wireless adaptor? Can you post the output from lspci.

mayasedai · 10-11-2005, 11:11 AM

ok that was my stupid mistake -- according to the specs, its supposed to be

Wireless LAN : Integrated miniPCI 802.11b/g Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ solution
Acer SignalUp wireless technology support

i just bought the machine and am pretty sure its supposed to have the wlan card. so why cant the sysytem identify it, let alone configure it?

i read on another post that users seem to find that only slax seems to work with this card on an acer machine. so do i need to change my distribution?

david_ross · 10-12-2005, 12:58 PM

Can you let us know what chipset it uses by posting the output from "lspci"

mayasedai · 10-12-2005, 01:16 PM

hi,
i've been trying to configure this onboard adaptor to connect to my wireless network, but am stuck. i wasnt sure what make the adapter was, but going backwards from the windows driver that came with it, i believe its atheros ar5001 wireless network adaptor.
i followed the tutorial here on how to use ndiswrapper to configure it, and it went ok but i cant connect.

the output from lspci is:

Code:

 # lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]: Unknown device 0661 (rev 11)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]: Unknown device 0003
00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]: Unknown device 0963 (rev 25)
00:02.1 SMBus: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]: Unknown device 0016
00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE]
00:02.6 Modem: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] Intel 537 [56k Winmodem] (rev a0)
00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] Sound Controller (rev a0)
00:03.0 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.1 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.3 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 2.0 Controller
00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 10/100 Ethernet (rev 91)
00:06.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1410 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 02)
00:0b.0 Ethernet controller: Unknown device 168c:001a (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]: Unknown device 6330

the windows driver is net511.inf
my wireless provider has given the following:
essid: 2WIRE316
key: 6812091622
first, i did ndiswrapper -i net5211.inf
ndiswrapper -l gives

Code:

 
installed ndis drivers:
net5211 present

doesnt say anything about the hardware.
next , i created ifcfg-wlano in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts which reads:

Code:

DEVICE=wlan0
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
ONBOOT=yes
HWADDR=00:14:A4:1E:3E:65
TYPE=Wireless
MODE=Managed
ESSID=2WIRE316 
CHANNEL=11
IPADDR=
DOMAIN=
NETMASK=
USERCTL=no
PEERDNS=no
GATEWAY=
IPV6INIT=no
RATE=Auto
KEY=6812091622

i got the hwaddr from ifconfig
then i created a script /etc/wlan the path to which i added to rc.local. the script reads:

Code:

echo "Loading ndiswrapper..."
modprobe ndiswrapper

echo "Setting mode Managed..."
iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed

echo "Setting up wireless interface wlan0..."
echo " -- Setting ESSID"
iwconfig wlan0 essid 2WIRE316

echo " --Setting to cchannel 11..."
iwconfig wlan0 channel 11

echo " --Turning on managed mode..."
iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed

echo " --Setting encryption key"
iwconfig wlan0 key restricted 6812091622

echo "Bringing up interface wlan0..."
ifconfig wlan0 up

echo "Activating UP address via DHCP..."
dhclient wlan0

the output from iwconfig wlan0 is:

Code:

# iwconfig wlan0
wlan0     IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:""
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412GHz  Access Point: FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
          Bit Rate:54Mb/s
          Encryption key:6812-0916-22   Security mode:restricted
          Power Management min timeout:0us  mode:All packets received
          Link Quality:0/100  Signal level:-93 dBm  Noise level:-256 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

why doesnt it connect --- what am i missing?
why doesnt the essid appear in iwconfig? and do i need a seperate 'access point'?
the wireless provider has given a cd but it doesnt work with linux. my housemates are using the same connection on their winxp-s with only the essdi and key as inputs. will any information from their connections be useful?

any advice would be most helpful!

mayasedai · 10-12-2005, 01:58 PM

hi,
i just posted a more detailed message on the wireless networking forum [i thought it might be more appropriate there -- hope i didnt break the rules] outlining my progress so far.
please could you take a look at

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?s=&threadid=372340

thanks!

david_ross · 10-12-2005, 02:04 PM

I've merged your threads. Can you post the output from "iwlist scan"

mayasedai · 10-12-2005, 02:17 PM

Code:

#iwlist scan
lo              Interface doesn't support scanning : Operation not supported

etho          Interface doesn't support scanning : Operation not supported

wlan0       Interface doesn't support scanning : Operation not supported

sit0           Interface doesn't support scanning : Invalid argument

mayasedai · 10-12-2005, 02:33 PM

i do remember getting an output from iwlist scan earlier, as it was given in the tutorial. i dont remember what the exact values were, but i know there were 2 'cells'... dont know why i cant get it anymore

david_ross · 10-13-2005, 01:13 PM

It's funny that the operation isn't supported. It sounds like the driver may be failing. Which windows version of the driver did you use?

mayasedai · 10-13-2005, 01:30 PM

its for windows 2000, xp and above

its strange how iwlist scan worked when i first installed the driver using ndiswrapper, but now it doesnt.

do you think i need to enter the other parameters into the ifcfg-wlan0 file?

...oh great just wanted to check what the other parameter options were, and the file has clearly disappeared! it was there just a minute ago i assure you...
whats going on - is it mandrake? would you recommend a different distribution?

david_ross · 10-14-2005, 01:11 PM

I'm not really a mandrake user but the configuration file shouldn't really matter, you should still be able to do a scan. Is you encryption key right?

mayasedai · 10-14-2005, 01:39 PM

yes the key is correct, other people on the same network are using the same key.

i tried knoppix today, and one good thing is that atleast the network adapter was partly correctly identified. i did the whole ndiwrapper process again, and the same thing happens --- the first time iwlist scan works, just like it did on mandrake, but it doesnt again.

david_ross · 10-14-2005, 01:50 PM

Do you get any messages at the end of dmesg?