Please help! Building linux-wlan package for LinkSys WIFI Card!

I have recently obtained a linux-wlan package that I need to build in order to get a LinkSys WIFI Card working (802.11b). However, towards the end of the configuration prompt, I'm prompted with where the linux whatever is (Source of Linux (/usr/src/linux). I'm not sure but I really need to get this thing configured. Could someone please help here. I'm not even sure how to describe the problem, but what I need is how to build the package so that I get my LinkSys WIFI Card working on Slackware. Thanks.

It's looking for the kernel source, (more than likely just the kernel source header files: *.h files) this package should be part of your distribution. Depending on how your kernel was compiled, it may also need the pcmcia-cs source/headers as well, this should also be part of your distro.

Also, I'm pretty sure that module is a normal part of most distributions, are you sure you need to compile it yourself?

In the instructions that I got off a site somewhere, it said I needed the configured kernel source (for slackware in this case). It said that this'd be the resulting tree after building my own kernel which would be done by running make config, menuconfig, or xconfig. Now from a 's standpoint, I have no idea what it's talking about, about the tree or whatever. I know that once I get this part done, it's smooth sailing from there (or at least it should be). I just need to find out where the kernel is in slackware now.

oops, sorry bout the pcmcia stuff, I guess I'm just steeped in it...
Anyway, if you're using the bare.i kernel (eg; you elected to go with the same kernel you installed slackware with, then you should be able to use pkgtool or installpkg to install the kernel source. I would not recommend you explore compiling a kernel just yet, maybe as a very last resort. Slackware (at least v9.0) separates kernel source and kernel headers in their packaging, so I recommend just installing the headers as they are a lot smaller.

Ahh!! Will someone please show me step by step how to do this?? I can't get it right. I downloaded slack kernel source, make configed that, then did the linux wlan package make config using the source location, and I can't make all and make install. Gives me error 2 something something whatever. I got a readme off of ftp.linux-wlan.org/pub/linux-wlan-ng/README but I seem to be too stupid to get it right the first time. Someone wanna help me out, please?

I am using Slackware 9.0 on a notebook with a Netgear MA401 pcmcia wireless nic and using the linux-wlan prism2 module. After reading your post, I have the impression you tried to recompile the kernel, which you should not need to do. The linux-wlan modules, as with most other compilable modules, simply needs the kernel source present to compile. This is how I did it, step by step (you need to be root):

1. The downloadable Slack 9.0 cd iso does not include the kernel source. My favourite site for getting it is this (fast download speed):
http://www.slackware.at/data/slackwa...0-noarch-5.tgz

2. Use pkgtool command to install the kernel source *.tgz package (from the directory where you downloaded it to).

3. Download the linux-wlan module tarball (http://www.linux-wlan.org) to /usr/local/src, cd /usr/local/src and tar -xvzf linux-wlan*tar.gz.

4. cd into /usr/local/src/linux-wlan* and do: make config

5. edit /etc/wlan/wlan.conf to enter your values for SSID (eg. "MYWLAN") and WEP

6. copy /etc/wlan/wlancfg-DEFAULT to a file named after your SSID eg. wlancfg-MYWLAN

7. edit wlancfg-MYWLAN, channel = 11, authtype="opensystem" [Netgear MA401 uses channel 11, I disabled WEP]

8. edit /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 and append the following:

execute /sbin/wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_ifstate ifstate=enable
execute /sbin/wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_autojoin ssid=MYWLAN authtype=opensystem

ifconfig wlan0 192.168.10.11 up # ip address assigned by wlan router
route add default gw 192.168.10.254 wlan0 # wlan router gateway ip

I'm using SuSE 8.2, I don't have /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1

Should I create one, or there is an equlivelant one for SuSE?

I also did the commands on the command line, but the access point is displayed as "00:00:00:00:00" even though all other settings are correct.

I have the M311 (PCI) so I'm not sure which settings I ought to use.

Ok, my router is setup to be a DHCP server, but I reserved an IP address (192.168.0.5) for my MA311 MAC address.

I had errors when I tried to use

$ ifup wlan0

if says no such device

but after

$ /sbin/wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_ifstate ifstate=enable
$ /sbin/wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_autojoin ssid=MYWLAN authtype=opensystem
$ ifconfig wlan0 192.168.10.11 up # ip address assigned by wlan router
$ route add default gw 192.168.10.254 wlan0 # wlan router gateway ip

I was able to run ifup wlan0 without any errors

now when I execute iwconfig, everything looks normal except for the access point which is 00:00:00:00:00

The iwconfig reports a signal strentgh and so on...

I guess here is what confuses me..

1) Do you need to run the rc.wlan script that comes with wlan-ng package? and if yes, then how?

I used $ rc.wlan start wlan0 and it says

Starting WLAN Devices:

and that's it (wlan0 not mentioned)

2) do you need to have /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-wlan0 ? and if yes then whay do you put in there? here is my current ifcfg-wlan0

DEVICE='wlan0'
ONBOOT='yes'
BOOTPROTO='none'
IPADDR='192.168.0.5'
GATEWAY='192.168.0.1'
NETMASK='255.255.255.0'
NETWORK='192.168.0.0'
BROADCAST='192.168.0.255'
GATEWAYDEV='wlan0'
TYPE='Ethernet'
USERCTL='no'
PEERDNS='no'

without this file, I can't use ifup wlan0.

Any help appreciated...

Ok, so I did some RTFM and it helped clarify some points.

I added the following to my /etc/rc.d/boot.local

modprobe prism2_pci
wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_ifstate ifstate=enable
wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_autojoin ssid=MONTAG authtype=opensystem
ifconfig wlan0 192.168.0.5 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.254
route add default gw 192.168.0.1

in /etc/wlan/wlan.conf

SSID_wlan0=""
ENABLE_wlan0=y

I added "alias wlan0 prism2_pci" to /etc/modules.conf and I add the DNS to /etc/resolv.conf

When I boot, the two wlanctl-ng operations in boot.local return a "success"

I login and I try to ping 192.168.0.1 but it says Destination Host Unreachable

I type iwconfig and this is what I get

wlan0 IEEE 802.11-b ESSID:"MONTAG" Nickname:"MONTAG"
Mode:Auto Frequency:2.462Ghz Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Bit rate:2Mb/s Tx-Power: -874700980 dBm
retry min limit:8 RTS thr: off Fragment thrff
Encryption keyff
Link Quality:44/92 Signal level -65 dBm Noise level:-97 dBm
Rx invalid nwid: 0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc: 0 Missed beacon:0


So it was able to pull in the SSID "MONTAG" and had an average link quality, but why is the access point all zeros?? How about the Tx-power, isn't that an odd number too?

When I run /sbin/wlancgf query wlan0 it just stalls.

Anyone knows if I'm doing anything wrong?

ok, I gave up on SuSE for now, maybe I'll wait till SuSE 9.0 and try again. I installed Mandrake 9.2beta1 and I got the wireless working almost right away.