Wireless network card setup on Backtrack

Bullseye727 · 09-30-2006, 01:53 PM

I have Black track 1.0 running from live cd on a laptop. What I am trying to do is get my dlink wireless network card model number "DWL-G630" set up. I tryed the ifconfig ath0 stuff but it doesnt seem to work. I saw that the dwl-g630 was supported by the Madwifi drivers, would that make it work? and if so would I have to install Backtrack to my harddrive?

Sorry for being such a

EDIT: I found out that my specific version of the card has the Atheros chip set

Bullseye727 · 10-01-2006, 11:17 PM

bump

Axo · 10-02-2006, 04:30 AM

No need to do a hardrive install to get your card working, sounds more like the module isn't loaded.

Code:

 lsmod |grep ath_pci

If that returns nothing use "modprobe" to load the module.

Code:

modprobe ath_pci

Then configure your card as normal.

Good Luck.

Bullseye727 · 10-03-2006, 10:27 AM

How would I configure it as normal? lol I have no idea how to set it up

Axo · 10-03-2006, 05:23 PM

Ok did you look to see if the module was loaded? Make sure its loaded before going any further.

Code:

modprobe ath_pci
iwconfig ath0 essid youressidhere
iwconfig ath0 channel yourchannelhere
iwconfig ath0 key yourhexkeyhere  ***Note if your using a ASCII sting add "s:" 
iwconfig ath0 key s:yourasciikeyhere
ifconfig ath0 up
dhcpcd ath0

Hopfully that should get you started.

Good luck

Bullseye727 · 10-04-2006, 03:23 PM

Well I tryed what you said in the last post - which does look exactly right but, when I pull up Firefox it still says page not displayed. I am using a WPA key on my network and it is ASCII so I used the "iwconfig ath0 key s:yourasciikeyhere" command with the s. Does linux only support WEP?

Axo · 10-04-2006, 06:39 PM

Ok you didn't mention WPA in your first post, linux supports WPA fine, after READING the Back Track forums (I dont use WPA) it looks like the wpa_supplicant has an issue with madwifi.
I'll try and help but cant guarantee it will work.

Download the wpa_supplicant module from Here and the README from
Here Save both of these to a thumb drive and boot up Back Track.

Mount the thumb drive.

Code:

 mount /mnt/sda1_removable

Now insert the module

Code:

 uselivemod /mnt/sda1_removable/wpasup.mo

all going well you now should have "/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf"

Edit this file to suit your needs.

Code:

 vi /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

With any luck that should be it.

Code:

wpa_supplicant -D madwifi -i ath0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -B

Quote:

The -B will let it run in the background. Then you issue:

Code:

wpa_gui

to start the GUI interface so you can scan for APs and connect.

*** IMPORTANT ***
You must ALWAYS start wpa_supplicant FIRST before running wpa_gui!

Once connected you will have to manually do:

Code:

dhcpcd ath0

to get an IP address over dhcp.

All these steps worked for me except actually connecting as I dont use WPA.

Good Luck.

Edit fixed URL's

Bullseye727 · 10-05-2006, 07:30 AM

Thanks I'll try that out now. I have one more question, does wifi in linux run in the background similar to windows or do you configure it on a program to program basis? Thanks again for your help

Axo · 10-05-2006, 05:24 PM

Did it work? and yes the connection will run in the background so all programs have access to the net.

mango1122 · 03-05-2007, 01:06 AM

hey u can load ur driver module(.mo file) by putting ur .mo file in modules folder in the iso image.

u may find ur module here www.slax.org.
navigate to modules n locae urs.

bt2 is essentially a slax distro.so u may find all the modules here

miketalion · 04-21-2007, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Axo

No need to do a hardrive install to get your card working, sounds more like the module isn't loaded.

Code:

 lsmod |grep ath_pci

If that returns nothing use "modprobe" to load the module.

Code:

modprobe ath_pci

Then configure your card as normal.

Good Luck.

cisco 350 airo card works like a charm. thank you

Axo · 04-22-2007, 06:02 AM

Glad it helped, and welcome to LQ.

ECRocker · 05-22-2007, 01:18 PM

Hey Thanks. I tried to use the back track live cd last night, and couldn't figure out why it wasn't detecting any signals when I know theres one right next to me.

I tried using the gui program I found but I couldn't figure out how to get it to change channels (suspect thats the problem). I'll this stuff out when I get home.