Slackware 10.2 Wireless & Sound On Laptop
 

I've been using Slackware 10.2 for a couple of days now on my Laptop...

The only two problems I'm having are a lack of all sound (except for the default internal *beep* sounds), and though it detects a card in the PCMCIA slot, the card is not active and I'm incapable of connecting to my wireless network and thus the internet...

I installed under bareacpi.i (having read a few posts on here, this was another option I attempted having reinstalled several times already)...

Any suggestions? I use a Netgear WG511 PCMCIA wireless network card...

As for sound, interestingly enough my volume control does control the internal *beep* default sounds, but... yuck.

Anyway, I appreciate any help that can be thrown this way.

- Another Newbie you wish you hadn't met. ;-)

:newbie:

There are several chipsets for that wireless card. Run the command lspci or lspci -v to get the details on the card (and cross your fingers that it's an Atheros. If it is, get the MadWiFi drivers.

As for the sound, check the permissions for /dev/dsp* Also run alsaconf if you haven't, to set up the sound system.

That's awesome. Listening to my sound right now. Thanks so much!

Working on the wireless card. I'll know in a sec. :D

I was just googling the madwifi drivers and I think I died inside.

:confused:

EDIT/UPDATE (at 11:30 or so):

I've come to the MAKE point on the madwifi...

It tells me I'm missing ath_hal.o

:study: :scratch:

Did the Madwifi driver tell you this? It is supposed to insert this on the way. Did you simply untar it , go root and ask it to 'make'? I never had problems with this on Slackware.
You are sure your card is an Atheros chipset? Not that that would have an impact on compiling.

In compiling that is the error I receive, and then it simply stops.


I rechecked it and I'm not sure what I was reading last night... Here is the information, if anybody knows the driver(s) I need:


"Network Controller: Intersil Corporation Intersil ISL3890 [Prism GT/Prism Duette] (Rev 01)"
"Subsystem: Netgear WG511 Wireless Adapter"
"Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 80, IRQ 11"
"Memory at 18800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size ok]"
"Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 1"

Is your wifi card made in Tiawan or China? Netgear has a history of making their first run of cards in Tiawan with a good chipset (hermes, anthros, prism, etc) followed by a run of cards from China that says that it has the same good chipset but lies.

OK, so plan B. Your card is using the PrismGT chipset. The drivers are here: http://prism54.org/

The web site is seriously borked, though, after a site move. I was unable to get anything usable. Poor planning.

Well, to answer the question on where it is made... China.

As for the Prism54 website, you really weren't kidding. Very messy. I'll have to try again later... or something.

It looks like I'm needing a new card (one more laptop in the network) anyway, so can anybody recommend a good (compatible) one?

I see several of these on ebay:

Reltek 8180 802.11b Wireless WiFi Card Linux Compatible: CHIEFMAX 802.11B WIRELESS PCMCIA ETHERNET ADAPTER FOR LAPTOPS (REALTEK 8180 CHIPSET)

I appreciate everybody's help in this. So far (especially having sound now...) my laptop is running better than ever. I can't wait to have the thing online.

:Pengy:

The Intersil Corporation Intersil ISL3890 [Prism GT/Prism Duette] chipset is supported by the prism54 module that is part of both 2.4 and 2.6 kernels that Slackware 10.2 ships with AFAIK.
Could you check dmesg output for any sighs of the prism54 driver trying to load?
In particular, this driver needs a firmware file that you would normally download from http://prism54.org/~mcgrof/firmware/1.0.4.3.arm - it's just not there because of the mess that their web site is in. You might find that file on the CD that came with the card, or by looking hard on the internet. The 1.0.4.3.arm file has to be renamed to isl3890 and placed in the /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/ directory (this hotplug firmware directory changed name in recent Slackwares, you'd have to check if that directory is where your hotplug looks for firmware files).

Cheers, Eric

Thanks Eric, I made several attempts at what you suggested and nothing has worked...

...I even went the ndiswrapper route, and that failed also.

Should I update my Kernel? 2.4.31 is my current.

Uhhh.....


*leaps up and dances*

^ Nobody saw that ^


I purchased a new card today... Belkin product. Took about 5 minutes of my time to get going perfectly.

...

Thanks to everybody for your help!!!!!

:cool:

:D

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