wifi + dhcpcd but no web access (why) w/ slackware

towsonu2003 · 10-05-2005, 11:56 PM

Could anyone send me a pointer to a howto on setting up wifi internet access with Slackware 10.2? To connect to a non-secure access point, I do:

ifconfig eth0 down (just in case)
ifconfig wlan0 down
iwconfig wlan0 essid "essid"
ifconfig wlan0 up
"turn on the blue wifi card light on the laptop"
dhcpcd wlan0

as root but the web browser can't see that I am connected.
iwconfig reveals I am connected to access point.

I am using ndiswrapper as module for wifi in a hp pavilion zv5120us laptop with kernel 2.6.13 (kernel installed during Slackware 10.2 initial installation without compiling).

I believe I tried pretty much everything (and any combination of the above command series), but maybe I am missing something specific to Slackware (or something very generic).

Any ideas and pointers (specific to Slackware 10.2) are very much appreciated.

pembo13 · 10-06-2005, 03:22 AM

When you say the light comes on, does it come on when you bring up the interface, or do you put it on?

shilo · 10-06-2005, 04:05 AM

Here's what I use

Code:

/sbin/iwconfig ath0 essid arghhh
/sbin/iwconfig ath0 channel 6
/sbin/iwpriv ath0 mode 3
/sbin/ifconfig ath0 192.168.0.110
sleep 2
/sbin/route add default gw 192.168.0.1

The last line seems to be the one you are missing (use your routers IP address). I'm pretty certain that no default gateway = no web browsing.

Alien Bob · 10-06-2005, 04:59 AM

Indeed I think the default gateway setup incorrectly. Do you have set an IP address here in /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf :

Code:

# Default gateway IP address:
GATEWAY=""

If so, you should run

Code:

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 eth0_stop

to clear that default gateway, before you bring your wireless device up.
Better even to put this in /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf (and remove the existing empty ....[1]=... parameters):

Code:

# Config information for wlan0:
IFNAME[1]="wlan0"
IPADDR[1]=""
NETMASK[1]=""
USE_DHCP[1]="yes"
DHCP_HOSTNAME[1]=""
WLAN_ESSID[1]=essid

(substitute the proper ESSID value instead of my "essid") and then bring up wireless using:

Code:

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 eth0_stop
/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 wlan0_start

That should work.

Cheers, Eric

towsonu2003 · 10-06-2005, 04:49 PM

reply to shilo: hmm, when I do
# route add default gw 192.168.0.1
it says:
SIOCADRT: Network is down.
And I'm not able to use the browser. I can ping myself and 192.168.0.1 though.
What does that mean??

reply to pembo13: In windows xp (dual boot) I always turn the light off so that I won't connect to the opan access points by accident (or anyone connects to me somehow). So when I boot to linux, I have to manualy turn the light on so that iwlist wlan0 scan command can come up with access points.

reply to Alien Bob:
I don't have a default gateway set in inet1.conf. Just in case i run
# /etc/inet1 eth0_stop
I also put the lines into the inet1.conf as you suggested.
I still can't use the browser after I do
/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 eth0_stop
/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 wlan0_start
When I do
/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 wlan0_down
it says dhcpcd is not running although I see it when I do
# ps
Is this a concern?
I also did
# route add default gw 192.168.0.1
but the same response came (network down).

PS. You Slackware people are really helpful by the way

I am not used to such detailed help :-)

Alien Bob · 10-07-2005, 12:45 AM

Maybe you should start posting the output of

Code:

route -n

and

Code:

ifconfig -a

before you bring down eth0, and also after you tried to bring wlan0 up.

Eric

towsonu2003 · 10-13-2005, 07:11 PM

update:
wlan0 worked fine w/ no tweaking in ubuntu 5.04. No offense

delpianod · 10-22-2005, 04:08 PM

Maybe this helps:
I installed SuSE 10.0 on a dv1356 and had similar problems.
I had similar problems until I found a thread (don't remember which) here on LinuxQuestions that suggested adding a "pci=noacpi" boot parameter. I did and everything started to work.
Bye
Dario

desertViking · 10-23-2005, 10:54 PM

Hi,

What I have found is that using the instructions from sourceforge for ndiswrapper, I've always been successful using the tool. Assuming that you've got the program built correctly, you can certainly start somewhere down the line. Here is the link to the installation instructions.

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m...p/Installation

Maybe you can begin somwhere around the area of:

iwlist wlan0 scan

When you're sure that one step is complete go on to the next. Once you bring up the wireless by hand, you can go back and implement those steps in the rc files that will make the wireless persistant. The best instructions I've found for that are on the slackbook web site:

http://www.slackbook.org/html/networ...-wireless.html

Using these two sources, I think you'll find what you need. Again get the wireless up by hand first, then worry about making it persistant.

Hope this helps, and Good Luck!