Wireless Connection Problem Slackware 13.1
 

Hi.
I'm new to Slackware Linux, and I am having a problem getting
my wireless connection set up. I'm using Slackware linux 13.1
on an older Gateway laptop.

This is my situation:
The correct module for my card is loaded, ipw2200, and
it's dependent modules also.
as root, I ran iwlist scan, with the following output:


eth1 Scan completed :
ESSID:"1111"
Protocol:IEEE 802.11bg
Mode:Master
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
Encryption key:on
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Quality=48/100 Signal level=-72 dBm
Extra: Last beacon: 120ms ago

There are Cell 01 - Cell 06 which are also listed, and several of
them have
ESSID 1111, which is the one I need to use; I'm only showing
one of the ESSID 1111 's which lists out.
Please note this is for interface eth1.

in /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf, I put

# configuration for my SRSU-RGC wireless connection
#IFNAME[5]="wlan0"
IFNAME[5]="eth1"
USE_DHCP[5]="yes"
#DHCP_KEEPRESOLV[5]="yes"
#DHCP_KEEPNTP[5]="yes"
#DHCP_KEEPGW[5]="yes"
WLAN_ESSID[5]="1111"
WLAN_MODE[5]=Master
##WLAN_CHANNEL[5]="auto"
WLAN_KEY[5]=""

I'm not showing the hex wep key I use for my site, but it's in the
actual file.
I've tried this with wlan0 and eth1 as the IFNAME (not at the same
time :|), with and without those DHCP_KEEP.... variables, with
Master or Managed, and nothing works.

The output of /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 is always

bash-4.1# ./rc.inet1
Polling for DHCP server on interface eth0:
dhcpcd: version 5.2.2 starting
dhcpcd: eth0: waiting for carrier
dhcpcd: timed out
dhcpcd: allowing 8 seconds for IPv4LL timeout
dhcpcd: timed out
./rc.inet1: eth1 information: 'Any ESSID'
./rc.inet1: eth1 information: 'Any ESSID'

This output is exactly the same whether or not I've set
IFNAME[5]="eth1" or IFNAME[5]="wlan0".

I've done all of this using the "Configuring your network
in Slackware - Alien's Wike" as my guide. I must be
missing something, but I don't know what it is. Any
help on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Ferrel

Are IFNAME[0] through IFNAME[4] already assigned to devices? If not, try editing the [0] entries.

Wireless Connection Problem Slackware 13.1
 

They are all unused.

Okay, I changed rc.inet1.conf to

# configuration for my SRSU-RGC wireless connection
IFNAME[0]="eth0"
USE_DHCP[0]="yes"
WLAN_ESSID[0]="1111"
WLAN_MODE[0]=Master
WLAN_KEY[0]=""

./rc.inet1 shows

bash-4.1# ./rc.inet1
Polling for DHCP server on interface eth0:
dhcpcd: version 5.2.2 starting
dhcpcd: eth0: waiting for carrier
dhcpcd: timed out
dhcpcd: allowing 8 seconds for IPv4LL timeout
dhcpcd: timed out
./rc.inet1: eth1 information: 'Any ESSID'

Is your access point using WEP or WPA encryption?

Is it possible to turn encryption off for a short period of time to see if you can connect without it? (That isn't a solution; it's just to see if the problem in connecting at all versus encryption mismatch.)

Wireless Connection Problem Slackware 13.1
 

I don't think I can turn it off...I'm connecting to a University
network with a private computer. Is there a way to do it?

Wireless Connection Problem Slackware 13.1
 

Also, it's definitely WEP (forgot to mention in my last reply).

It might not hurt to try disabling the settings in rc.inet1.conf and installing the wicd package from /extra. Then you'll be able to adjust and monitor the wireless from the wicd applet in X (Xfce or KDE), or from the command line with "wicd-curses". If it is a configuration issue like WEP64 vs WEP128 vs WPA [...] you'll be able to test things more quickly that way.

Are you using a hex key for that? Just wondering because I've found passphrases to be less than portable.

Wireless Connection Problem Slackware 13.1
 

The WEP key is all numbers and letters; isn't that in hex?

Wireless Connection Problem Slackware 13.1
 

I'll see what I can do with wicd.

Alien Bob I thought used to have a how to on that. I am at work sorry but it was pretty easy set up.

Wireless Connection Problem Slackware 13.1
 

I installed wicd from /extra on the SlackDVD, added myself
to group netdev, wiped the changes I'd made to rc.inet1.conf,
rebooted, ran wicd, and connected! Very easy. I looked in
/etc/rc.d to see a conf file for the changes made, but it's
not there. I'm curious about the settings it's using, but I
certainly can't complain! Thanks to all for the help.
Ferrel