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I just recieved a new laptop and with my security classes coming up its time I enter the world of wireless. As for home use I will be staying wired so I will need to keep it as default, but for classes and research I will need to setup my wireless cards. Now my laptop came installed with a Cisco PCI Wireless card. This will be good for school and short range activity. I have also went and bought a Cisco PCMCIA Aironet 350 series for long range. With windows it shows both cards and what WLAN they can find. When I installed slack I just set it up to DHCP and when the PCMCIA card is NOT inserted at bootup my wired connection is fine. But when it is I can't connect at all. As for my PCI card installed, I guess it isn't even reading it. I could really use some help on this.
If this helps, when PCMCIA card is NOT inserted:
route:
Code:
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.1.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
loopback * 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
default 192.168.1.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0
ifconfig:
Code:
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:11:25:11:80:5F
inet addr:192.168.1.100 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:91 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:101 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:23969 (23.4 Kb) TX bytes:10962 (10.7 Kb)
Base address:0x8400 Memory:c0220000-c0240000
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
When the PCMCIA card is in:
At bootup when it reads my PCMCIA it gives me:
Code:
eth0 is 'Any ESSID'
Dhcpcd: Mac address = x.xx.
route:
Code:
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
loopback * 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
ifconfig:
Code:
eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:11:25:11:80:5F
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Base address:0x8400 Memory:c0220000-c0240000
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Help is truly appreciated. Thanks again for your time.
The general answer is to have the wireless config scripts identify the cards by their MAC addresses and to ensure that they allow for multiple wireless cards, not just the first one they see.
The specific answer depends entirely on what Linux distro you have.
That said, I can see no good arising out of having two radio transmitter/receiver sets trying to work that close to each other. They will probably step all over each other with intermodulation distortion and local oscillator feedback. That ignores the effect of swamping the receivers with RF, causing them to reduce gain to the point that the other wireless card is the only thing they can see.
Originally posted by not_an_expert The general answer is to have the wireless config scripts identify the cards by their MAC addresses and to ensure that they allow for multiple wireless cards, not just the first one they see.
The specific answer depends entirely on what Linux distro you have.
That said, I can see no good arising out of having two radio transmitter/receiver sets trying to work that close to each other. They will probably step all over each other with intermodulation distortion and local oscillator feedback. That ignores the effect of swamping the receivers with RF, causing them to reduce gain to the point that the other wireless card is the only thing they can see.
Well I won't need them to be transmiting at the same time. The PCMCIA card is for antenna use and the built-in crad can be used for school use. Is there anyway of just turning off the one I don't want to use at the time?
Having trouble installing the driver but im trying to fix it now.
You can do anything to the network that you need to do. I have three wireless cards for my notebook. The built-in WLAN card is a POS that will not work in any OS. I have one card that works at the office but not at home, and another one that works at home but not at the office.
The specifics all hinge on knowing which distro we are talking about.
"ifconfig eth0 down" usually works to take down a card. Usually. With all this hotplug and udev stuff floating around it might just resurrect itself.
You can just pull the PCMCIA when you don't need it.
You have a couple of options. You can let hotplug drive and when you insert the carbus NIC it can take down the internal NIC and bring up the new one. You can also set up a couple of scripts to do this for you. Again, this is distro-specific.
Thanks for the help. I've now been able to set my eth0 as default so I can still use it while it reads the PCMCIA card. Or atleast it shows up in my ifcong now:
Code:
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:11:25:11:80:5F
inet addr:192.168.1.100 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:2168 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2259 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1676004 (1.5 Mb) TX bytes:321136 (313.6 Kb)
Base address:0x8400 Memory:c0220000-c0240000
eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0F:F7:1D:FC:EB
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:3 Base address:0x100
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:12 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:12 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:656 (656.0 b) TX bytes:656 (656.0 b)
The driver installed but I still can't get it to work. I tried using the Wireless LAN manager(Kwifi Manager) that comes with KDE but it can't find an interface. Is there another command I can use to see if my card is reading? Is there something else I'm forgetting to configure?
I don't use GUI's to manage wireless, just config files. The files used are distribution specific. Whithout knowing which one, I would't be able to give a meaningful answer.
Originally posted by not_an_expert I don't use GUI's to manage wireless, just config files. The files used are distribution specific. Whithout knowing which one, I would't be able to give a meaningful answer.
Be advised that the Aironet 350 is a really old card without, AFAIK, support for modern 2.6 kernels. It is also only an 11b card.
I have had great luck with the Prism 54 series of cards in Slackware, and they are 11g. There is even a project dedicated to running them on Linux (www.prism54.org).
I mainly use a Netgear WG511 card. It is cheap, widely available, and it works really well.
You may be able to get the Aironet card to work, but the Cisco drivers are not listed as being compatible with the Slack 10 base kernel, and who uses that anyway?
I have a Centrino WLAN card in my HP nc8000 laptop, and the only thing it ever does is blink a little blue light occasionally and then die. It does not work in any OS supported (or not) on this laptop. Maybe your card will work better, but dont count on it. The cardbus cards at least have predictable firmware that makes it possible to get them running. The internal cards have usually had their firmware diddled with by the laptop manufacturer, and those guys don't seem to know squat about wireless.
#!/bin/sh
# /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless
#
# Wireless network card setup.
#
# This script sets up PCI, USB, and 32-bit Cardbus wireless devices
# NOT 16-bit PCMCIA cards! Those are configured in /etc/pcmcia/.
# Single parameter to this script is the name of a network interface.
# Normally this script is called from rc.inet1 rather than run
# directly.
#
# This script is a modified '/etc/pcmcia/wireless' script
# 09/apr/2004 by Eric Hameleers
#
if [ -z $1 ] ; then
echo "Usage: rc.wireless <interface>"
return 1 2> /dev/null || exit 1
fi
INTERFACE=$1
LOGGER=${LOGGER:-cat}
# Find the path where wireless tools are installed
for IWPATH in /usr/{bin,sbin} /usr/local/{bin,sbin} /sbin ; do
if [ -x $IWPATH/iwconfig ] ; then break ; fi
done
# Set all desired settings via iwconfig
IWCOMMAND="$IWPATH/iwconfig ${INTERFACE}"
IFCOMMAND="/sbin/ifconfig ${INTERFACE}"
is_wireless_device ()
{
[ -x $IWPATH/iwconfig ] || return 1
LC_ALL=C $IWPATH/iwconfig $1 2>&1 | \
grep -q "no wireless extensions" || return 0
return 1
}
# Is the device wireless? If not, exit this script.
is_wireless_device ${INTERFACE} || return 0 2> /dev/null || exit 0
# Bring interface up - to avoid 'not ready' errors when calling iwconfig and
# for determining the HWADDR
$IFCOMMAND up
sleep 2
# Get the MAC address for the interface
HWADDR=`/sbin/ifconfig ${INTERFACE} | sed -ne 's/.*\(..:..:..:..:..:..\).*/\1/p'`
# Read the configuration information for the card with address $HWADDR
# from /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless.conf:
. /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless.conf
[ -n "$VERBOSE" -a -n "$INFO" ] && echo "$0: $1 is '$INFO'"
# Mode needs to be first : some settings apply only in a specific mode!
if [ -n "$MODE" ] ; then
echo "$0: $IWCOMMAND mode $MODE" | $LOGGER
$IWCOMMAND mode $MODE
fi
# This is a bit hackish, but should do the job right...
if [ ! -n "$NICKNAME" ] ; then
NICKNAME=`/bin/hostname`
fi
if [ -n "$ESSID" -o -n "$MODE" ] ; then
echo "$0: $IWCOMMAND nick $NICKNAME" | $LOGGER
$IWCOMMAND nick $NICKNAME
fi
# Regular stuff...
if [ -n "$NWID" ] ; then
echo "$0: $IWCOMMAND nwid $NWID" | $LOGGER
$IWCOMMAND nwid $NWID
fi
if [ -n "$FREQ" ] ; then
echo "$0: $IWCOMMAND freq $FREQ" | $LOGGER
$IWCOMMAND freq $FREQ
elif [ -n "$CHANNEL" ] ; then
echo "$0: $IWCOMMAND channel $CHANNEL" | $LOGGER
$IWCOMMAND channel $CHANNEL
fi
if [ -n "$KEY" ] ; then
echo "$0: $IWCOMMAND key ************" | $LOGGER
$IWCOMMAND key $KEY
fi
if [ -n "$SENS" ] ; then
echo "$0: $IWCOMMAND sens $SENS" | $LOGGER
$IWCOMMAND sens $SENS
fi
if [ -n "$RATE" ] ; then
echo "$0: $IWCOMMAND rate $RATE" | $LOGGER
$IWCOMMAND rate $RATE
fi
if [ -n "$RTS" ] ; then
echo "$0: $IWCOMMAND rts $RTS" | $LOGGER
$IWCOMMAND rts $RTS
fi
if [ -n "$FRAG" ] ; then
echo "$0: $IWCOMMAND frag $FRAG" | $LOGGER
$IWCOMMAND frag $FRAG
fi
# More specific parameters
if [ -n "$IWCONFIG" ] ; then
echo "$0: $IWCOMMAND $IWCONFIG" | $LOGGER
$IWCOMMAND $IWCONFIG
fi
if [ -n "$IWSPY" ] ; then
echo "$0: $IWCOMMAND $IWSPY" | $LOGGER
$IWCOMMAND $IWSPY
fi
if [ -n "$IWPRIV" ] ; then
echo "$0: $IWCOMMAND $IWPRIV" | $LOGGER
$IWCOMMAND $IWPRIV
fi
# ESSID need to be last : most devices re-perform the scanning/discovery
# when this is set, and things like encryption keys had better be
# defined if we want to discover the right set of APs/nodes.
# NOTE: when automatic association does not work, but you manage to get
# an IP address by manually setting the ESSID and then calling dhcpcd,
# then the cause might be the incorrect definition of your ESSID="bla"
# parameter in rc.wireless.conf.
# Debug your wireless problems by running 'iwevent' while the card
# is being configured.
if [ -n "$ESSID" ] ; then
echo "$0: $IWCOMMAND essid $ESSID" | $LOGGER
$IWCOMMAND essid $ESSID
fi
rc.inet1.conf
Code:
# /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf
#
# This file contains the configuration settings for network interfaces.
# If USE_DHCP[interface] is set to "yes", this overrides any other settings.
# If you don't have an interface, leave the settings null ("").
# Config information for eth0:
IPADDR[0]=""
NETMASK[0]=""
USE_DHCP[0]="yes"
DHCP_HOSTNAME[0]=""
# Config information for eth1:
IPADDR[1]=""
NETMASK[1]=""
USE_DHCP[1]=""
DHCP_HOSTNAME[1]=""
# Config information for eth2:
IPADDR[2]=""
NETMASK[2]=""
USE_DHCP[2]=""
DHCP_HOSTNAME[2]=""
# Config information for eth3:
IPADDR[3]=""
NETMASK[3]=""
USE_DHCP[3]=""
DHCP_HOSTNAME[3]=""
# Default gateway IP address:
GATEWAY=""
# Change this to "yes" for debugging output to stdout. Unfortunately,
# /sbin/hotplug seems to disable stdout so you'll only see debugging output
# when rc.inet1 is called directly.
DEBUG_ETH_UP="no"
I'm running 2.4.6 kernel. The reason I bought the card was because I needed a card that could connect to an externel antenna. And through a post here I was told the aironet series was the most supported through linux wireless projects. My IBM laptop did come with an internel Cisco PCI card but I'm not that worry if I get that one working. But it would be nice. Thanks for your help.
My firmware folder is empty. I can check the cisco site and see if there is something for me to download. They did have the drivers for the card.
As far as the iwconfig:
Code:
lo no wireless extensions.
eth0 no wireless extensions.
eth1 no wireless extensions.
Thats wierd. When you go to the site and choose your OS for the card it gives you the driver but the firmware is .exe and says for windows? Could I get the firmware from the windows system, like I've hears you can do with the windows drivers?
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