iwconfig doesn't work
 

I have recently bought and installed a wireless card for my desktop computer (Belkin f5d7000) and properly installed the driver using ndiswrapper, and added it to my modules list to load on startup.

but here are my problems:
1. iwconfig doesn't change the values that i input

ie: i type: $iwconfig wlan0 rate "11Mbs"
and press enter. no error meseges pop up, but when i type iwconfig to see if it changed, the new vaues don't show up.
I know that the card is capable of accepting the values i want inputted because it works flawlessly under knoppix. I'll supply any config files if needed

2. I don't know how to tell the initialization scripts to run dhcpcd at startup. This probably could be fixed with netconfig possibly, but i first want to set permenant values to my card first.

I have thought about uninstalling the wireless-tools package that came with slack, and reinstalling the sources.

some system info

slack 10.2
2.4.whatever is stock in the bare.i slack 10.2
intel celeron 566mhz


Thank you for your help,
Nick


PS- I am not a complete noob at linux, i have been toying with it for about a year. But i still need some good step by step instructions. Thanks.

For the rate setting, maybe try to add it to /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless.conf.

As for running dhcpcd on startup, you don't really need to do anything other than uncomment the relevant lines in /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf. Actually, I've just seen that there's a rate setting in there also, so you could probably set it there instead of in rc.wireless.conf.

The stock kernel in Slack 10.2 is 2.4.31 :).

HTH.

Thanks for the help!:)

This is not according to syntax, so maybe that is why your command did not work.

Try Eric

New Problems
 

I got over my kernel compile anxiety and I sucessfully am running Kernel 2.6.15.1:)
after multiple days of tinkering I had my computer(and still for the most part) running flawlessly. I dumped ndiswraapper because it kept causeing the kernel (both 2.4 and 2.6) to crash. I went to the mad-wifi drivers. The card is an atheros card, and the drivers work without a hitch, so far. I had my computer all set to get an ip from the server, and it worked fine for a few days. After a few days my configuration stopped working. and i don't know why. It ironically happened when I was starting the computer to make a backup of the working config. anyway, I know what i changed the first time.
I edited:
/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf

Also as a note, I had to change wlan0 to ath0 because of the new drivers.

I commented out the lines for my wired card, then uncommented some of the wlan lines.

in particular the essid and the dhcpc=yes line

this setup worked for a few days, and has now stopped getting my ipaddress when i start my computer.
here is my dmesg

nick@peachtree:/etc/rc.d$ dmesg
Linux version 2.6.15.1 (root@peachtree) (gcc version 3.3.6) #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri F
eb 3 23:13:48 UTC 2006
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000000e0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000000bec0000 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000000bec0000 - 000000000bef8000 (ACPI data)
BIOS-e820: 000000000bef8000 - 000000000bf00000 (ACPI NVS)
BIOS-e820: 00000000ffb80000 - 00000000ffc00000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000fff00000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
190MB LOWMEM available.
On node 0 totalpages: 48832
DMA zone: 4096 pages, LIFO batch:0
DMA32 zone: 0 pages, LIFO batch:0
Normal zone: 44736 pages, LIFO batch:7
HighMem zone: 0 pages, LIFO batch:0
DMI 2.3 present.
ACPI: RSDP (v000 AMI ) @ 0x000ff980
ACPI: RSDT (v001 DELL MUMMY 0x20000802 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x0bef0000
ACPI: FADT (v001 DELL MUMMY 0x20000802 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x0bef1000
ACPI: DSDT (v001 DELL DIM_L 0x00000012 MSFT 0x0100000b) @ 0x00000000
Allocating PCI resources starting at 10000000 (gap: 0bf00000:f3c80000)
Built 1 zonelists
Kernel command line: auto BOOT_IMAGE=Slackware ro root=1601
Local APIC disabled by BIOS -- you can enable it with "lapic"
mapped APIC to ffffd000 (011ef000)
Initializing CPU#0
PID hash table entries: 1024 (order: 10, 16384 bytes)
Detected 565.013 MHz processor.
Using tsc for high-res timesource
Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
Dentry cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
Memory: 188356k/195328k available (2886k kernel code, 6480k reserved, 939k data,
220k init, 0k highmem)
Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode... Ok.
Calibrating delay using timer specific routine.. 1131.08 BogoMIPS (lpj=565542)
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
CPU: After generic identify, caps: 0383f9ff 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000
CPU: After vendor identify, caps: 0383f9ff 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 0
0000000 00000000
CPU: L1 I cache: 16K, L1 D cache: 16K
CPU: L2 cache: 128K
CPU: After all inits, caps: 0383f9ff 00000000 00000000 00000040 00000000 0000000
0 00000000
Intel machine check architecture supported.
Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
mtrr: v2.0 (20020519)
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
ACPI: setting ELCR to 0200 (from 0e08)
CPU0: Intel Celeron (Coppermine) stepping 03
SMP motherboard not detected.
Local APIC not detected. Using dummy APIC emulation.
Brought up 1 CPUs
NET: Registered protocol family 16
ACPI: bus type pci registered
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfda95, last bus=1
PCI: Using configuration type 1
ACPI: Subsystem revision 20050902
ACPI: Interpreter enabled
ACPI: Using PIC for interrupt routing
ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (0000:00)
PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
Boot video device is 0000:00:01.0
PCI quirk: region 0400-047f claimed by ICH4 ACPI/GPIO/TCO
PCI quirk: region 0500-053f claimed by ICH4 GPIO
PCI: Transparent bridge - 0000:00:1e.0
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT]
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.PCI1._PRT]
ACPI: Power Resource [URP1] (off)
ACPI: Power Resource [URP2] (off)
ACPI: Power Resource [FDDP] (off)
ACPI: Power Resource [LPTP] (off)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 *11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 *10 11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs *3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 *9 10 11 12 14 15)
Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay
pnp: PnP ACPI init
pnp: PnP ACPI: found 11 devices
SCSI subsystem initialized
usbcore: registered new driver usbfs
usbcore: registered new driver hub
PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
PCI: If a device doesn't work, try "pci=routeirq". If it helps, post a report
PCI: Ignore bogus resource 6 [0:0] of 0000:00:01.0
PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:1e.0
IO window: d000-dfff
MEM window: ff800000-ff8fffff
PREFETCH window: f6a00000-f6afffff
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1e.0 to 64
Machine check exception polling timer started.
apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x03 (Driver version 1.16ac)
apm: overridden by ACPI.
audit: initializing netlink socket (disabled)
audit(1139379500.986:1): initialized
Installing knfsd (copyright (C) 1996 okir@monad.swb.de).
Initializing Cryptographic API
io scheduler noop registered
io scheduler anticipatory registered
io scheduler deadline registered
io scheduler cfq registered
ACPI: Power Button (FF) [PWRF]
lp: driver loaded but no devices found
Linux agpgart interface v0.101 (c) Dave Jones
agpgart: Detected an Intel i810 E Chipset.
agpgart: detected 4MB dedicated video ram.
agpgart: AGP aperture is 64M @ 0xf8000000
[drm] Initialized drm 1.0.0 20040925
PNP: PS/2 Controller [PNP0303:PS2K,PNP0f03:PS2M] at 0x60,0x64 irq 1,12
serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 4 ports, IRQ sharing disabled
serial8250: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
00:07: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
parport: PnPBIOS parport detected.
parport0: PC-style at 0x378, irq 7 [PCSPP(,...)]
lp0: using parport0 (interrupt-driven).
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
dmfe: Davicom DM9xxx net driver, version 1.36.4 (2002-01-17)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] enabled at IRQ 3
PCI: setting IRQ 3 as level-triggered
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:0a.0[A] -> Link [LNKC] -> GSI 3 (level, low) -> IRQ
3
eth0: Davicom DM9009 at pci0000:01:0a.0, 00:01:53:82:5a:a1, irq 3.
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
ICH: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:1f.1
ICH: chipset revision 2
ICH: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
ide0: BM-DMA at 0xffa0-0xffa7, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio
ide1: BM-DMA at 0xffa8-0xffaf, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:DMA
Probing IDE interface ide0...
hda: WDC WD200BB-75DEA0, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
Probing IDE interface ide1...
hdc: QUANTUM FIREBALLlct15 07, ATA DISK drive
hdd: YAMAHA CRW2200E, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hda: max request size: 128KiB
hda: Host Protected Area detected.
current capacity is 39062500 sectors (20000 MB)
native capacity is 39063024 sectors (20000 MB)
hda: Host Protected Area disabled.
hda: 39063024 sectors (20000 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=38753/16/63, UDMA(66)
hda: cache flushes not supported
hda: hda1
hdc: max request size: 128KiB
hdc: 14668290 sectors (7510 MB) w/418KiB Cache, CHS=15522/15/63, UDMA(33)
hdc: cache flushes not supported
hdc: hdc1 hdc2 < hdc5 >
hdd: ATAPI 40X CD-ROM CD-R/RW drive, 8192kB Cache, UDMA(33)
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
libata version 1.20 loaded.
usbmon: debugfs is not available
USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v2.3
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] enabled at IRQ 9
PCI: setting IRQ 9 as level-triggered
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.2[D] -> Link [LNKD] -> GSI 9 (level, low) -> IRQ
9
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.2 to 64
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1f.2: UHCI Host Controller
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1f.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1f.2: irq 9, io base 0x0000ef80
hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 1-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
usbcore: registered new driver usblp
drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: v0.13: USB Printer Device Class driver
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usbcore: registered new driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
usbcore: registered new driver usbhid
drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.6:USB HID core driver
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
oprofile: using timer interrupt.
NET: Registered protocol family 2
IP route cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
TCP established hash table entries: 8192 (order: 4, 98304 bytes)
TCP bind hash table entries: 8192 (order: 4, 98304 bytes)
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 8192 bind 8192)
TCP reno registered
ip_conntrack version 2.4 (1526 buckets, 12208 max) - 212 bytes per conntrack
input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /class/input/input0
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
ipt_recent v0.3.1: Stephen Frost <sfrost@snowman.net>. (******)url not allowed until I post5 times
cts/ipt_recent/
arp_tables: (C) 2002 David S. Miller
TCP bic registered
NET: Registered protocol family 1
NET: Registered protocol family 17
ieee80211: 802.11 data/management/control stack, git-1.1.7
ieee80211: Copyright (C) 2004-2005 Intel Corporation <jketreno@linux.intel.com>
ieee80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'NULL'
Using IPI Shortcut mode
ReiserFS: hdc1: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal
logips2pp: Detected unknown logitech mouse model 74
input: PS/2 Logitech Mouse as /class/input/input1
ReiserFS: hdc1: using ordered data mode
ReiserFS: hdc1: journal params: device hdc1, size 8192, journal first block 18,
max trans len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans age 30
ReiserFS: hdc1: checking transaction log (hdc1)
ReiserFS: hdc1: journal-1153: found in header: first_unflushed_offset 6584, last
_flushed_trans_id 41487
ReiserFS: hdc1: journal-1206: Starting replay from offset 178189603183032, trans
_id 0
ReiserFS: hdc1: journal-1299: Setting newest_mount_id to 40
ReiserFS: hdc1: Using r5 hash to sort names
VFS: Mounted root (reiserfs filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 220k freed
Adding 497972k swap on /dev/hdc5. Priority:-1 extents:1 across:497972k
ath_hal: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel.
ath_hal: 0.9.16.13 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413, RF5413, DFS)
wlan: 0.8.4.2 (Atheros/multi-bss)
ath_rate_sample: 1.2
ath_pci: 0.9.4.5 (Atheros/multi-bss)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:0b.0[A] -> Link [LNKD] -> GSI 9 (level, low) -> IRQ 9
wifi0: 11a rates: 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
wifi0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps
wifi0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36 Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
wifi0: turboA rates: 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
wifi0: turboG rates: 6Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
wifi0: H/W encryption support: WEP AES AES_CCM TKIP
wifi0: mac 5.9 phy 4.3 radio 3.6
wifi0: Use hw queue 1 for WME_AC_BE traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 0 for WME_AC_BK traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 2 for WME_AC_VI traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 3 for WME_AC_VO traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 8 for CAB traffic
wifi0: Use hw queue 9 for beacons
wifi0: Atheros 5212: mem=0xff8f0000, irq=9
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] enabled at IRQ 10
PCI: setting IRQ 10 as level-triggered
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:09.0[A] -> Link [LNKB] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10

So.. when i found out that my tweaks stopped working, i went to this bulletin and looked at the advice from before. I have no /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless.conf file to edit...
some help on how to set one up, and include it into the startup scheme.
I also hand installed my wireless tools, and they work to set my access point and essid. but the settings don't last past a restart.

special note to add
when i configure the card like this in a terminal:
#iwconfig ath0 essid masterpeace ap **:**:....(the actual value)
#ifconfig ath0 up;dhcpcd ath0

...the card works fine like it is now. Is there a way to set a script up to do this while it loads, because it might be the easiest way for me. Especially since i don't want to try to even explain to the windows user people that use my box that they must type in my root password, and run these commands. It is WAY over their heads!

Thank you for your time and consideration,
Nick

PS - if you see anything in the dmesg that looks like i might be able to disable on startup, that would be awesome. I am always competing startup times with my dad's laptop on winXP and my computer that is much much older loads faster, and the faster i gaet it to go, the closer i am to get him to convert to Linux!

PPS When i tried to post this, it said i couldn't link to outside urls.. and apearently some snowman dot net url is in my dmesg... and i dont know why.. help on that would be great as well

Perhaps you could post what you have in /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf (and mask out any key values with *** for instance).

Also, it is strange that you do not have a file called /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless.conf (because it is installed when you install the wireless-tools package) so my guess is you removed the wireless-tools slackware package and then installed a newer version from source?
If so, you are probably also missing the script /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless and this is where your card's wireless properties are configured.

Eric

rc.inet1.conf
 

yes, I removed the slack package and installed the wireless-tools source, version:

wireless_tools.27.tar.gz

and here is my rc.inet1.conf

# /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 ("").

# You can configure network interfaces other than eth0,eth1... by setting
# IFNAME[interface] to the interface's name. If IFNAME[interface] is unset
# or empty, it is assumed you're configuring eth<interface>.

# Several other parameters are available, the end of this file contains a
# comprehensive set of examples.

# =============================================================================

# 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"

## Example config information for wlan0. Uncomment the lines you need and fill
## in your info. (You may not need all of these for your wireless network)
IFNAME[4]="ath0"
#IPADDR[4]=""
#NETMASK[4]=""
USE_DHCP[4]="yes"
#DHCP_HOSTNAME[4]="icculus-wireless"
#DHCP_KEEPRESOLV[4]="yes"
#DHCP_KEEPNTP[4]="yes"
#DHCP_KEEPGW[4]="yes"
#DHCP_IPADDR[4]=""
#WLAN_ESSID[4]=masterpeace
#WLAN_MODE[4]=Managed
##WLAN_RATE[4]="54M auto"
#WLAN_CHANNEL[4]="11"
##WLAN_KEY[4]="D5AD1F04ACF048EC2D0B1C80C7"
##WLAN_IWPRIV[4]="AuthMode=WPAPSK EncrypType=TKIP WPAPSK=7B1ABEEB5D197741923ED26727569C365E31212096A0EAFAD563B268BAD01CAF TxRate=0"
#WLAN_WPA[4]="wpa_supplicant"
#WLAN_WPADRIVER[4]="ndiswrapper"

## Some examples of additional network parameters that you can use.
## Config information for wlan0:
#IFNAME[4]="wlan0" # Use a different interface name nstead of
# the default 'eth4'
#HWADDR[4]="00:01:23:45:67:89" # Overrule the card's hardware MAC address
#MTU[4]="" # The default MTU is 1500, but you might need
# 1360 when you use NAT'ed IPSec traffic.
#DHCP_KEEPRESOLV[4]="yes" # If you dont want /etc/resolv.conf overwritten
#DHCP_KEEPNTP[4]="yes" # If you don't want ntp.conf overwritten
#DHCP_KEEPGW[4]="yes" # If you don't want the DHCP server to change
# your default gateway
#DHCP_IPADDR[4]="" # Request a specific IP address from the DHCP
# server
#WLAN_ESSID[4]=DARKSTAR # Here, you can override _any_ parameter
# defined in rc.wireless.conf, by prepending
# 'WLAN_' to the parameter's name. Useful for
# those with multiple wireless interfaces.
#WLAN_IWPRIV[4]="AuthMode=WPAPSK EncrypType=TKIP WPAPSK=thekey TxRate=0"
# Some drivers require a private ioctl to be
# set through the iwpriv command. If more than
# one is required, you can place them in the
# IWPRIV parameter (space-separated, see the
# example).

The key values and such were all there as default examples i think. I tinkered with adding masterpeace (my wirelessnetwors name) in the wlan_essid line, but commented it back out since it doesn't work.

If you need any more values let me know. And help with recreatina a rc.wireless.conf file would be nice. I could try reinstalling a new slack-pack, but i would prefer learning how to tweak the system without depending on packages.

Thanks again,
Nick

OK... a couple of remarks on this:

First, without the wireless-tools slackware package, you're missing the rc.wireless and rc.wireless.conf files, which makes it impossible for the Slackware boot scripts to setup your wireless card at all. The only option would then be to add the iwconfig/ifconfig/dhcpcd commands in /etc/rc.d/rc.local ...
But that is ugly.

This is what you could do instead. Install my wireless-tools package from http://www.slackware.com/~alien/slac...e10-i486-1.tgz
which is (1) newer than your wireless-tools-27 and (2) contains the missing rc.wireless stuff.

Then, you need to change the lines in rc.inet1.conf a bit. You did add your ESSID name as but the # in front makes that a comment effectively - it does not do a thing. The fact that it did not work for you with the # removed was of course due to the fact that you removed the rc.wireless script when removing the wireless-tools package.
This is how that setup for ath0 should look like (I left out the irrelevant bits):
I understand that you want to be able to configure your system without depending on packages too much, but the wireless-tools package contains more than yust the compiled wireless-tools. There are essential Slackware files added to it.

Eric

OK, i'll get right on that as soon as i get 1 little question relieved that has been on the back of my mind since the day i first compiled source code...well two questions:
1. Should I remove the wireless-tools that i compiled before installing that package?
2. How do I remove software that I compile myself?

Thank you very much for your help,
Nick

On (1) yes definitely.
On (2) any code you compile yourself is your responsibility to remove. That's why packages exist - they make life a little easier.

Eric

As a side note, to make package management easier when compiling from source, you may want to use the checkinstall utility (it's included on the second Slack disk under /extra).

Basically you go about compiling normal but change one step:

./configure
make
checkinstall (instead of make install)

This utility makes it into a slackware package (.tgz) and installs using pkgtool (slackware's package manager). That way, when you want to uninstall something you can use pkgtool and select the package to be removed. It's a great little utility.

Thanks for the tip on the checkinstall, I will definitely use it. I'll post the results of my adventure soon

My wireless network is working 100% correctly now! Many thanks to all of you who helped make it work for me!

Thank You,
Nick

OK, that was a false alarm... My computer still doesn't run dhcpcd on my wireless card when it starts up. I have edited both rc.wireless.conf, and rc.inet1.conf

any brainstorming ideas would be great, because i am about maxed out on my linux knowledge. here is what my conf files look like

## Example config information for wlan0. Uncomment the lines you need and fill
## in your info. (You may not need all of these for your wireless network)
IFNAME[4]="ath0"
IPADDR[4]=""
NETMASK[4]=""

USE_DHCP[4]="yes"
#DHCP_HOSTNAME[4]="icculus-wireless"
#DHCP_KEEPRESOLV[4]="yes"
#DHCP_KEEPNTP[4]="yes"
#DHCP_KEEPGW[4]="yes"
#DHCP_IPADDR[4]=""
#WLAN_ESSID[4]=masterpeace
WLAN_MODE[4]=Managed
##WLAN_RATE[4]="54M auto"
##WLAN_CHANNEL[4]="auto"
##WLAN_KEY[4]="D5AD1F04ACF048EC2D0B1C80C7"
##WLAN_IWPRIV[4]="AuthMode=WPAPSK EncrypType=TKIP WPAPSK=7B1ABEEB5D197741923ED26727569C365E31212096A0EAFAD563B268BAD01CAF TxRate=0"
#WLAN_WPA[4]="wpa_supplicant"
#WLAN_WPADRIVER[4]="ndiswrapper"

and rc.wireless.conf

VERBOSE=1

case "$HWADDR" in


# Generic example (decribe all possible settings)
00:11:50:54:e7:19
INFO="Belkin Atheros Wireless Card"
# ESSID (extended network name) : My Network, any
ESSID="masterpeace"
# NWID/Domain (cell identifier) : 89AB, 100, off
#NWID=""
# Operation mode : Ad-Hoc, Managed, Master, Repeater, Secondary, auto
MODE="managed"
# Frequency or channel : 1, 2, 3 (channel) ; 2.422G, 2.46G (frequency)
#FREQ=""
CHANNEL="11"
# Sensitivity (cell size + roaming speed) : 1, 2, 3 ; -70 (dBm)
#SENS=""
# Bit rate : auto, 1M, 11M
RATE="11M"
# Encryption key : 4567-89AB-CD, s:password
#KEY=""
# RTS threshold : off, 500
#RTS=""
# Fragmentation threshold : off, 1000
#FRAG=""
# Other iwconfig parameters : power off, ap 01:23:45:67:89:AB
IWCONFIG=ap 00:0c:41:84:73:2a
# iwspy parameters : + 01:23:45:67:89:AB
#IWSPY=""
# iwpriv parameters : set_port 2, set_histo 50 60
#IWPRIV=""
;;
esac

Is it possible that the rc.inet1.conf file is working properly because it says wlan, and my card is ath0?

Thanks again,
Nick

P.S.
Does anyone have working versions of their rc.inet1.conf and rc.wireless.conf files that I could look at to try to learn from example?

I think I have it hacked up to the point it will work. I added a line to the rc.inet1.conf file that reads:
/sbin/iwconfig ath0 ap ****

before the dhcpc seting. I get a strange messege in dmesg, but it seems to be working just fine. I don't know if this adds any sort of a security risk to my computer to add that line there, so if it is, please tell me. Thanks for looking and helping me find what files to tweak!

Nick