Hey all, loving arch linux, only having annoying problem with getting it connected to the wireless network.

My tower computer is having a minor difficulty with ndiswrapper:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=309675

** so then something totaly unrelated to ^ that **

I decided to install arch linux on my laptop and use my MA111 usb device to connect it to the network.

I downloaded the linux driver:
ftp://ftp.linux-wlan.org/pub/linux-w...1-pre26.tar.gz
and followed the README inside the directory it made.

Long story short I now get wlan0 in my iwconfig and ifconfig which all looks fine and dandy, now what? All the other machines on the wireless home network run windows (not my fault) and connect to the internet via one machine with broadband connection.
When its booting up it says Starting Network or whatever it gives a FAIL although I think this may be to do with the driver be loaded and run after that point.

What do I now need to do to connect this puppy to the network and the internet? I am willing to give any extra information if needed.

Are you loading ndiswrapper automatically at boot?
Can you ?
afterward can you set the essid
?
can you get a dhcp lease?
what errors do you get?
what is the output of iwconfig after all of this?

sorry, I didnt mean to confuse, I use ndiswrapper on my tower box but a linux driver on my laptop, I will correct the origional post.

not sure if this is still needed but I will post.

"iwconfig wlan0 essid WLAN" gives me:
Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1A) :
Set failed on device wlan0 ; Operation not supported.

"can you get a dhcp lease?" I have no idea what a DHCP lease is. I googled but have found no explanation and no way to check to see if I can get a dhcp lease.

"what errors do you get?" I get no errors. However I just checked dmesg and found this "wlan0: no IPv6 routers present" which I have not noticed before.

"what is the output of iwconfig after all of this?" iwconfig:

lo no wireless extensions

sit0 no wireless extensions

wlan0 IEEE 802.11-b ESSID:"WLAN" Nickname:"WLAN"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: 00:30:BD:67:97:AE
Bit Rate:11 Mb/s Tx-Power:-951635968 dBm
Retry min limit:8 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Link Quality=88/92 Signal level=-40 dBm Noise level=-97 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

type 'dhclient wlan0' after you've verified that the essid has been set correctly, your system may use dhcpd instead.

A DCHP LEASE: http://www.j51.com/~sshay/tcpip/dhcp/dhcp.htm

is ndiswrapper in the output of lsmod? If so, good, if not, do modprobe ndiswrapper.

Have you done 'iwlist wlan0 scan' to see if the wlan0 connection in iwconfig is actually yours? sometimes it's not. Do you have an ESSID? Encryption key? If so do man iwconfig to read about how to put in the correct values.

can you ping your gateway, other computers on your network, and DNS eg www.google.com?

DHCP is Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol.

mrGenixus:
"dhclient wlan0" gives me:

listening on LPF/wlan0/00:09:5b:b7:20:18
sending on LPF/wlan0/00:09:5b:b7:20:18
sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPREQUEST on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK from 192.168.0.1
bound to 192.168.0.59 -- renewal in 285 seconds.

I am not sure what this means, hope it means something to you.

dcdbutler:
"is ndiswrapper in the output of lsmod?" no because I do not use ndiswrapper on my laptop. Though I did see the modules from my linux driver:

Module Size Used by
prism2_usb 80388 0
p80211 37904 1 prism2_usb

"iwlist wlan0 scan" gives me:

wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:30:BD:67:97:AE
ESSID:"WLAN"
Mode:Master
Encryption key:off
Channel:1
Quality:41/92 Signal level:-50 dBm Noise level:-91 dBm
Cell 02 - Address: 96:03:01:01:41:00
Mode:Ad-Hoc
Encryption key:off
Frequency:19.542 kHz
Quality:192/92 Signal level:1/154 Noise level:65/154

Cell01 matches the information from iwconfig. Cell 02 i'm assuming is just some nonsense. Tell me if i'm wrong but I think the fact that 'iwlist wlan0 scan' an 'iwconfig' show the same information means that the wlan0 connection in iwconfig is mine.

"can you ping your gateway, other computers on your network, and DNS eg www.google.com?" no I cannot.

this puppy, can connect to the networ and internet.
from http://wiki2.archlinux.org/index.php...P%20and%20DHCP


2.1 For DHCP IP:

Edit /etc/rc.conf like this:

lo="lo 127.0.0.1"
eth0="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(lo eth0)
ROUTES=(!gateway)

That's your wireless connection, for sure. The only thing I can see that is different is that the mode is "managed" on the iwconfig output, but "master" on the scan. you could change this though I'm not sure whether it would make any difference. do you find that you can get an internet connection via ethernet?

heyho, this post is now irrelevent as I am no longer using arch on my laptop, thank you all for your contributions.

that's kindof obnoxious, actualy, but you're welcome, I guess.

Ha!

Those kind of comments are usually flying the in the opposite direction across the Atlantic