Linux - Wireless NetworkingThis forum is for the discussion of wireless networking in Linux.
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I use redhat 7.2, and a linksys wpc11 wireless pcmcia card
on my Dell inspiron 7000 laptop to connect to a windows network at home.
Although the red/green lights on the card seem to light up and I heard redhat 7.2 supports this card since it is based on the intersil Prism2 11mbps Wireless adapter, I can't seem to connect to the network or access the internet through the network.
So far this is what I know:
1)My KDE Control Center under PCMCIA seems to recognize the card is there by listing the intersil Prism2 11mbps Wireless adapter.
2)My hardware browser under PCMCIA seems not to recognize the card and says I have some texas instrument PCI1220 card using a yenta_socket driver
3) these are the files that somehow relate to my wireless connection:
-etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-irlan0
-etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-wireless
-etc/pcmcia/wireless
-etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts
4) I enter a domain in the location window of my browser and I get an error message telling me "unknown host"
Anyone know how I can connect to the internet or if I am even connected to a network?
Distribution: Whatever I feel like at the time I install.
Posts: 284
Rep:
Well I do know a few things about laptops. I worked Dell Tech support for a while and recognized a couple of your terms. The part about seeing the Texas Instruments PCI card is somewhat true. Your pcmcia sockets are based on the TI chipset and that is wehre it is reading the stuff on the TI. I hope this will help you some.
Thanks. (At least someone thought about my problem)
ok... I guess that kinda helps.
So that leads me to believe that the hardware profiles are not in conflict. The intersil drivers for wireless lan are installed somewhere on my computer and the texas instrument reference has no real relevance to my wireless lan. So all the proper drivers are recognized as they should be.
So now that leaves me to assume I have to do some editing to those wireless config files that I mentioned before.
Any suggestions as to what type of editing I should be doing to those files to receive a dhcp-issued ip address so I can be considered on the network?
The problems with getting this to work are probably on the driver level. There are two driver sets that cover the prism2 series cards, and I'm pretty sure RH 7.2 is using the better of the two: orinoco_cs and friends. In order to configure the card with the network name (essid) and channel and such you're going to have to use a command line program called "iwconfig", which was almost definately part of your RH installation. To see what modules you are actually using, try: "lsmod". Hopefully orinoco_cs and orinoco are a part of the mess.
This may seem like a hastle, but before the orinoco_cs drivers the only thing covering prism 2 was this alpha-mess called linux-wlan-ng.
This stuff sounds familiar Finnegan just recently finished helping me out with my wireless mess. I have everything all straghtened out and I'd be glad to give you a hand if you're still having problems...
wvlan_cs is the older version of the orinoco driver set that was built strictly for Lucent chipset cards. The new in-kernel pcmcia cardbus drivers somehow associates prism2 cards with the wvlan_cs module. It thinks this is the right driver for the job, but it isn't. I checked around a little and now I'm almost certain that you have the orinoco drivers on your machine. Does this turn up anything:
locate orinoco
hopefully in the /lib/modules directories?
If so, go here and download the file called hermes.conf and copy it into the directory /etc/pcmcia. Then try the following command:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/pcmcia restart
This should restart pcmcia from pcmcia_core up. If that doesn't work because I have the directories wrong, just yank and re-insert the card.
If you hear two more or less identical high pitched beeps, try:
ifconfig eth1 up (this thing's normal onboard ethernet is eth0, right?)
iwconfig eth1
If the second beep is more of a bonk, check lsmod and see what it loaded.
You set the IP address with ifconfig and all of the networkID, encryption garbage with iwconfig. If you need any help with that, post back. Hopefully that should all work.
After reading some other posts, the below should probably be just a guidline: For instance, eth0 might need to be eth1, wavelan2_cs may not be compatible with your card. Proceed with caution
-------------------
I've never used redhat or other commercial distros, so I'm not familiar with their fanciness. From what I've heard, it's scripts are all mangled, but I'm sure somebody here can probably tell you where to put what information. Okay, here's what I think...
To start:
1) Hopefully you control the access point you're trying to connect to. If so, disable any encryption and allow access to all (meaning do not restrict access by MAC address, etc.). The less complex the better for right now.
2) Edit your config scripts to disable DHCP for the time being. If something fails, DHCP takes a long time to time out and just adds complexity. Let's get the card recognized first.
To disable dhcp, I'd probably start with the ifcfg-eth0 file and change BOOTPROTO="dhcp" line. Please help me out, redhat guys...
Now:
If you only have one nic, wireless or otherwise, card services should try to set it up as eth0. iwconfig reporting "lo: ..." suggests to me that eth0 is not configured and the network is not running. At the very least, should see:
$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions
eth0 no wireless extensions
However, if lsmod reports that wvlan_cs and ds are loaded, then it seems like the hardware is working alright. You can try to manually start the network and see what happens. (This is where redhat knowledge comes in...) I'm guessing that you should be able to do
/etc/pcmcia/network start eth0
Now type iwconfig again. You should see eth0 in there.
Let me know if any of that works. If it does, then you're getting somewhere. You have a couple options, also. You should get away from the wvlan_cs driver and move up to either wavelan2_cs or orinoco_cs. I'll explain all of that when you get there.
[root@localhost root]# iwconfig eth1
eth1 no wireless extensions.
Orinoco seems to be the new driver in use.
Notice that eth1 still has no wireless connection and it does not exist as a device.
I tried starting eth1 under Network monitor but it failed to start. An this is new... eth0 seems to actually have some activity occuring on the activity monitor. This did not happen before. That must be a good sign.
This is Definitely good. It seems that eth0 recognizes the card as linksys and seems to be aware of the wirless signal and link.
But still am not able to connect to the network or internet for some reason.
[root@localhost root]# iwconfig
lo no wireless extension
eth0 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID: "linksys" Nickname: "Prism I"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437GHz Access Point: 00:04:5A:D1:84:C3
Bit Rate: 11Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm Sensitivity:1/3
Retry min limit: 8 RTS thr:off Fragment Thr: off
Power Managment: Off
Link Quality: 15/92 Signal Level: -87 dBm Noise Level:-102 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 invalid crypt:0 invalid misc:0
Last edited by natesaider; 03-18-2002 at 04:38 PM.
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