unable to get wmp54gs wireless card working on slackware 10.2
 

hello all. i am running slackware 10.2. i have followed the walk-through provided by Barton, and others. all of the commands ran, but the connection is not up. i did have to go back a few versions for gcc compatibility and update the sym-links to a few files. i plan to update to Slackware 11, but i think the questions below should still hold true.

here is(are) the issue(s):

01. the iwconfig command shows settings. when i try to update those settings with iwconfig the only setting that reflects my changes is nickname. is there a reason why?

02. recycling/start-stop/bouncing network services. when i used to make changes on my network i had to recycle the system for Slackware 8 to read all of the updated files. do i have to do that now? if so, which command(s) or daemon(s) would handle that in this case?

03. security. i noticed that none of the threads mention implementing securtiy. i plan to use WPA-PSK [TKIP] + WPA2-PSK [AES]. i am not sure how to implement this with Slackware. help?

04. in Suse 10.1 i had to run a route add command. did anyone else have to?

thanks everyone. if there is any information that is needed please let me know. i will provide it asap.

Most commonly, ndiswrapper is not installed correctly, the driver is not loaded or the interface is not active. Review the steps for installing carefully. Install the program, run the program to install the Windows driver files, run the protram to make changes to the modules.conf file and load the module.

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 restart

Use wpa_supplicant. There have been several threads on how do configure wpa_supplicant in Slack recently, both in this forum and the wireless networking one.

If you pull an address from a DHCP server, it should be fine. I ran into a problem, though, with the neighbor's router responding to the DHCP broadcast before mine did, so I specified a gateway in /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf
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[QUOTE=2Gnu]Most commonly, ndiswrapper is not installed correctly, the driver is not loaded or the interface is not active. Review the steps for installing carefully. Install the program, run the program to install the Windows driver files, run the protram to make changes to the modules.conf file and load the module.

re-ran everything. make install, ndiswrapper -i, modprobe ndiswrapper, ndiswrapper -l(wmp54gs driver installed, hardware present), ndiswrapper -m (got an error that alias existed), dhcpcd wlan0, iwconfig wlan0... same behavior from iwconfig command. ran slocate modules.conf and only came back with a man page?

btw, i am using ndiswrapper 1.11. incompatibility issues?

Does ndiswrapper show up when you lsmod?

Does ifconfig show a device (typically wlan0)?

That is a pretty old version. Sometimes, it's hot or miss with the version that will work.

Did you use the .sys and .inf from the ndiswrapper site or the ones from the CD that came with the card. Using the files known to work is usually a better bet.

when i ran lsmod i get back a full entry for ndiswrapper. not sure if it matters, but i also get a (related?) listing lower down:

usbcore 59148 1 [ndiswrapper hid usb-ohci ehci-hcd]

ifconfig alone only shows the local loopbback, lo. '#ifconfig wlan0' does show info on the interface (kb/packets received too?). wlan0 is shown with iwconfig though. not sure if that is proper scenario. is there a command to list all connections in one list?

i will run through a few versions to see which are compatible with the compiler. i am running gcc 3.3.6. the latest ndiswrapper versions require more up to date gcc compilers. i wanted to avoid upgrading gcc until i got online and did a full kernel upgrade. not sure if that mode of thinking is logical though.

i only used files from the original cd. i did not use the .sys. i used the .inf. this is the file i used with suse(64), not at all to say that it should work just stating as a point of reference.

i appreciate your help.

The .sys file should be in the same dir as the .inf when you run the install command.

There's an entry on the ndiswrapper wiki list of working cards with a link to the drivers used and the version of ndiswrapper. Don't know if that helps or not.

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m...index.php/List

thanks! read up on that link you sent. looks like my "problem" was a symptom of having a security issue. i am unable to associate my NIC with my router because the router will not associate with the NIC.

with that said, my issue seems to be with the iwconfig command. i am executing:

iwconfig wlan0 key restricted s:PASSWORD

this is returning:

Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
Set failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument

i have tried mutiple variation on this them, removing arguments, quoting, etc... and i end up with either too few or invalid arguments.

this seems to possibly be a symptom of not having certain encryption elements compiled into the kernel. i will explor this further.

thank you for all of your help.

Two other things to try:

Drop the s. Open authentication is slightly more secure than shared key with WEP (although the ease with which WEP keys can now be discovered makes it a minor point) but more importantly, some configs just don't like shared. Make sure the router is set to open or auto for the WEP authentication.

ex: iwconfig wlan0 key 1234567890

Next, make sure to use hexadecimal keys and not a passphrase for both the router and the client. 40/64 bit WEP is a 10-digit hex key (as in the example above) 108/128 bit uses a 26-digit key.

ex: iwconfig wlan0 key 7CDE-18BB-A214-ADF6-4BC2-8EB1-23

If it's feasible, move away from WEP to WPA for better security.

well it looks like this is an issue with my router. i started from scratch again and went completely open. because my router does not accept hex entries for keys and such i believe there was a conflict.

now when i set up my network using slackware everything runs smoothly. when i go into my router, netgear wgt624, it shows the MAC address of the connected device, but no IP or Device Name. i am searching the forums for this issue now.

if you have any ideas 2Gnu it is greatly appreciated. you have been a great help.

Are you sure the router doesn't take hex keys? Grab the manual online just to be sure. Some routers, for example, require that a hex value be entered as 0x123457890ABCDE. Without the 0x, it's interpreted as ASCII.

Your symptom is characteristic of a WEP key mismatch.

Try iwpriv wlan0 authmode 2