see post #11

I don't have the card, so I don't know about the drivers, but I can see problems here. The first thing is that if when you run iwconfig it gives you status on eth0, then the driver is probably trying to put the card on eth0 and NOT wlan0. That's fine, some drivers like that better, just replace any command that had 'wlan0' with 'eth0'. The other thing is that I assume that if you're trying to connect to another computer that you don't have an access point? - i.e. you're trying to connect directly to the other computer? This means that those two lines that you added to /etc/rd.d/rd.local are wrong. They should be:

iwconfig eth0 mode Ad-Hoc rate 11m essid [your essid]

And get rid of that dhcpcd line completely (that's only for dynamically assigned internal IP addresses).So try that, especially the replacing wlan0 with eth0. Repost what happens when you run 'iwconfig' after you do that. Note also that you can run the lines that you put in /etc/rd.d/rd.local from the command line - it doesn't have to be in a script - at least, don't worry about putting it there until after you get it working somehow. And, you don't need to reboot if you run that from the command line.

I tried it and this is what I got
iwconfig eth0 mode Ad-hoc rate 11m essid [myessid]

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

I also tried each parameter individually and got the same error.

Just to clarify the network topology I'm using, the MAIN computer in the house has the cable connetion. And yes I am trying to connect to the internet through that computer via my Linksys wireless-B USB network adapter v2.8.

Maybe it would help if I included the Windows XP configuration I have (that actually works)

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : VAIO
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139/810X Family PCI Fast
Ethernet NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-E0-18-3E-4A-E3

Ethernet adapter Network Bridge:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : MAC Bridge Miniport
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 92-99-52-CF-F2-75
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.164.163
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 2:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Linksys Wireless-B USB Network Adapter v2.8
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0C-41-5B-AC-1F
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.11
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, March 07, 2004 7:15:13 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, March 07, 2004 8:15:13 PM

I'm using v2.8 with latest berlios tarball on my Redhat linux.

wlan0 is default interface name that berlios driver uses so if you don't have another device named eth0 or not using it I would rename
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 to ifcfg-wlan0
then edit it for your wireless card.

look at ifup-wireless script in the same directory for example of wireless parameters that can be set.

Side note: I was not able to have berlios driver work without reconfiguring and recompiling my kernel to add support for Wireless (non-hamradio).

I have reconfigured my kernel. I did this using make menuconfig and I just enabled everything wireless(non-hamradio) and everything else I thought might help. But now I'm getting an error when I try to make bzImage. I read that his could be because I don't have the latest gcc compiler? Any thoughts? I'll get the latest version and try that. Also I using Kernel-source-2.4.22-10mdk.i586.rpm, which 2.4.22-10mdk is the kernel that I'm running.

Could I get the latest kernel, would that work? Would there be any advantage to doing that?

Also, you can see from my previous message that my windows configuration uses an Ethernet adapter Network Bridge.

Do I have to specify this in my Linux configuration? How would I do that?

I think your kernel version should be fine.

I remember getting warning/errors on bzimage about not being to fit on a floppy (that should be ok). The main thing is that vmlinuz, System.map, and initrd are created under /boot from your make install on the kernel.

I don't use Ethernet adapter network bridge for my v2.8 on Windows XP Home. It is not required for TCP/IP communications to work.

I've been trying to get this to work for a week now. It doesn't help that this is my first Linux installation, kernel reconfiguration and kernel recompile. All in one. It get's sort of confusing.

Okay so I've reconfigured my kernel to add wireless support. I'm not sure if I did it right or not. I looked at some tutorials on the net and it seems that compiling for different kernels requires a different set of operations. Can anyone suggest an excellent tutorial for compiling a kernel ? I'm using 2.4.22-10mdk.i586.rpm to compile. I did a urpmi to extract it. then to compile I basically did a:

make mrproper
make menuconfig
make dep
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install

How are vmlinuz, System.map, and initrd are created under /boot ? Is it automatic? I removed the old ones and made links, for example:

rm -rf /boot/system.map
ln -s /boot/system.map-2.4.22-10mdk /boot/system.map

Also I tried configuring my ifcfg-wanl0 and ifcfg-eth0 files to no avail.

I am also concerned about the output I'm getting when I run dmesg

at76c503.c: Generic Atmel at76c503/at76c505 routines v0.11beta4
at76c503-fw_skel.c: Atmel at76c505 (RFMD 2958) Wireless LAN Driver v0.12beta8 loading
usb.c: registered new driver at76c505-rfmd2958
at76c503-fw_skel.c: using compiled-in firmware
at76c503.c: Downloading external firmware failed: -22

It looks like it wants to work but the firmware failed? what is that?

This is the output I get for lsmod

at76c505-rfmd2958 39516 0 (unused)
at76c503 54560 0 [at76c505-rfmd2958]
ide-scsi 11376 0
sbp2 19860 0 (unused)
scsi_mod 106176 1 [ide-scsi sbp2]
ieee1394 201284 0 [ohci1394 sbp2]
usb-uhci 25136 0 (unused)
usbcore 74988 1 [at76c505-rfmd2958 at76c503 usb-uhci]

is this what I'm supposed to be getting? I believe that at76c505-rfmd2958 is supposed to be used isnt it?

Just in case it helps, these are what my network-script files look like

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0

DEVICE=wlan0
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
MODE=Ad-hoc
RATE=11m
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
ONBOOT=yes
ESSID=1028851-02

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=static
IPADDR=192.168.0.11
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
NETWORK=192.168.0.0
BROADCAST=192.168.0.255
ONBOOT=no
MII_NOT_SUPPORTED=yes

sorry this is so long, I really need the help. THANK YOU!

Nice work.

from lsmod you should also have usbdfu which is the module that does the firmware loading.

I would get the latest cvs tarball again from the berlios site and try that again.

both wlan0 and eth0 have to be on different networks. also they each need GATEWAY defined which is IP address of router or gateway on their local network. This is necessary for any communications to occur, else the routing will be confused.

I reinstalled the driver. Then I found usbdfu and did a modprob usbdfu. Then when I ran lsmod, I found it, but it said (unsused). then I run dmesg and it still says the same error:
downloading external firmware failed.

When you say eth0 and wlan0 have to be on different networks, do you mean that I should set 2 different default networks ? You can see from my previous posts in this thread that wlan0 is on network 192.168.0.0. Should I set my eth0 to something like 172.16.0.0 ? or 10.0.0.0 ? And the gateway in my network has an ip address of 192.168.0.10, so I should set that as the gateway on eth0 and wlan0 ? I'm obviously a little more than confused about how to set up these parameters. Thanks for the help.

Yes, if you just have one network, then you can just use one of the
interfaces at a time. You can do this by renaming the ifcfg-<interface name>
file to unused-ifcfg-<interface name> or some other name not starting with ifcfg-

The ifcfg- files should be under /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts directory.

you will set the gateway for the interface on the 192.168.0 network to
192.168.0.10

for the driver should be able to just do a
modprobe -v at76c505-rfmd2958

for the kernel settings do
cat /usr/src/linux-2.4.22-10mdk/.config | grep CONFIG_NET

and make sure CONFIG_NET_WIRELESS and CONFIG_NET_RADIO are
set to Y

I got very tired of trying Mandrake 9.2, so I switched to Fedora Core 1 and installed the driver. And instantly it recognized my wireless adapter: at76c503a. it also configured everything for me. And the light on the adapter is BLINKING! But...of course it's not that simple. I can't connect to the internet. When I'm on windows, DHCP is enabled and it works fine. But when I try that with Fedora, the adapter will not activate. these are my windows settings for the wireless device:

Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.11
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

But it won't activate. So I try to configure my settings statically, and the device will activate, but no connection, won't ping the gateway, or the other computer in the network.

Also, in the wireless settings it asks me for a few things I don't understand. i.e. channel, alias.

Also, the configuration tool finds my key automatically, is that right? shouldn't I have to set that? Could that be the problem causing my lack of connection?

Also, I ran ls in the /sbin directory and the normal list of tools, but when I try to run ifconfig or iwconfig it says:
bash: iwconfig: command not found

what is causing that?

Okay I got the /sbin commands to work by adding the directory to my path. So here is what I get from iwconfig


lo no wireless extensions.

eth1 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"1028851-02" Nickname:"okuwlan"
Mode:Ad-Hoc Channel:1 Cell: 02:00:58:32:C5:47
Bit Rate=11Mb/s
RTS thr=1536 B Fragment thr=1536 B
Power Management: off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

eth0 no wireless extensions.

look again at ifup-wireless for wireless settings that you can add to your ifcfg-eth1 file.

Nickname will be your host name, you can leave this blank.

Maybe try changing Ad-Hoc to Managed.

Also check that CHANNEL is set to the right channel.

Hope this helps some.

I believe the main issue here is DHCP. While in windows I get an address assigned by DHCP. But when I try that with the Fedora setup, the wireless adapter will not ACTIVATE.

So I've tried setting my IP address statically and it will ACTIVATE, but will not ping the gateway, other computer on the network or any internet address.

In windows, DNS Server , Default Gateway, and DHCP Server all have the same IP. 192.168.0.1

Please Help

make sure that GATEWAY is set to 192.168.0.1 in ifcfg-eth1.

for proper networking should have at least
GATEWAY=192.168.0.1
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
BROADCAST=192.168.0.255

If you still can't ping gateway then go over the wireless settings,
see ifup-wireless script for examples of parameters that can be set.

nameserver 192.168.0.1
should be an OK entry for the lines in the /etc/resolv.conf file.