Etch, Wireless network connection

leamassiot · 07-17-2008, 12:57 PM

Hello everyone,
Thank you for reading my post.
Here is my problem.

My laptop is a "Dell latitude D610".
I have:
- a "Windows XP" system and
- a "Debian Etch" system
on it.

I have two network cards:
- a "wired" one and
- a wireless one.

Both are working properly under Windows.
The "wired" one is also working properly with Debian.

As you have probably guessed I want to establish a wireless network connection
between my computer working under Debian and my network.

If I execute the "lspci" command, I get, among the 18 lines, the two following:

Code:

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 01)
03:03.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection (rev 05)

corresponding to my two network cards I guess.

If I execute the command ifconfig -a, I get:

Code:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:12:3F:13:2F:C6  
          inet addr:192.168.2.252  Bcast:192.168.2.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::212:3fff:fe13:2fc6/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:131629 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:94408 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:178512885 (170.2 MiB)  TX bytes:10053759 (9.5 MiB)
          Interrupt:169 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:28 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:28 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:1816 (1.7 KiB)  TX bytes:1816 (1.7 KiB)

sit0      Link encap:IPv6-in-IPv4  
          NOARP  MTU:1480  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

BTW, I do not know what is that "sit0" interface.

The contents of the "/sys/class/net" directory are the following 3 directories:

Code:

eth0
lo
sit0

I was looking for a driver for my card so:
- I downloaded http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/firmware.php
- I also executed: apt-get install ipw2200-modules-2.6.18-6-xen-686
but I don't know what to do with it/them.

I tried to execute "modprobe" and "dmesg".

I am a bit lost as you can see.

I whish I had:
- a "wlan0" interface or something like that for my wireless card
- with the MAC address associated 00:12:F0:A1:FD:5A (I know it
from the Windows system)
- that would get its IP address via DHCP
- and so on.

I am really confused about modules and all that stuff.
I don't know how to handle that problem.

Can you please give me a hand?

Thanks in advance for you help.

Greenfuse · 07-18-2008, 10:01 AM

Quote:

I am really confused about modules and all that stuff

A module is like a driver that can be loaded into the kernel. You can see what modules are loaded with the command:
# lsmod

If you run lsmod and look through the list that it outputs, you will see if your driver is loaded and ready to be used.

The modprobe command is used to manually load or unload a module.

As far as I can tell you have chosen the correct driver for your wireless interface. When the module loads, it creates the interface called sit0, which is what the system will recognise as the wireless device. To check what the kernel is calling your wireless interface, look in /proc/net/wireless:
# cat /proc/net/wireless

It should be possible to call the interface wlan0 if that is what you really want. The important thing at this stage though is to configure the interface and get connected.

ifconfig is the command to show or configure the IP address of your interface. To check the status of a wireless interface, there are other commands you can use to give you an indication of how your interface is working, or where problems might lie.

Show the status or configure a wireless connection:
# iwconfig sit0

Scan for an access point:
# iwlist sit0 scan

What type of authentication/encryption does your access point use? WPA (the best form of security, WEP is weak) is usually handled by wpa_supplicant. Make sure wpa_supplicant is installed if you need it, and learn how to configure it:
$ man wpa_supplicant

leamassiot · 07-18-2008, 11:08 AM

Thank you very much for your answer!!!
Thank you for your explanations about modules.
Here are the results of the commands you suggested me to execute:

Code:

$ lsmod | grep ipw2200
ipw2200                93824  0 
ieee80211              29416  1 ipw2200
firmware_class          9600  2 pcmcia,ipw2200

I can also give you the whole result of the "lsmod" command...
...so, is my driver loaded and ready to be used?

Code:

# cat /proc/net/wireless

Inter-| sta-|   Quality        |   Discarded packets               | Missed | WE
 face | tus | link level noise |  nwid  crypt   frag  retry   misc | beacon | 20

The file is empty apart from the above column titles...
PROBLEM!

Quote:

It should be possible to call the interface wlan0 if that is what you really want. The important thing at this stage though is to configure the interface and get connected.

All right!

Code:

# iwconfig sit0
sit0      no wireless extensions.

# iwlist sit0 scan
sit0      Interface doesn't support scanning.

Quote:

What type of authentication/encryption does your access point use? WPA (the best form of security, WEP is weak) is usually handled by wpa_supplicant. Make sure wpa_supplicant is installed if you need it, and learn how to configure it:
$ man wpa_supplicant

I am not really sure that I do understand what you are telling me...
My access point is a Lynksys WAP54G AP linked to a Cisco router.
It uses WPA encryption.

Code:

apt-cache search man wpa_supplicant

returns nothing.
Apparently this package is not available under Debian Etch...

Thank you for your help

!

leamassiot · 07-18-2008, 11:23 AM

Just a little thing more:

The three following commands:

Code:

$ rmmod ipw2200
$ modprobe ipw2200
$ tail /var/log/messages

produce the following output:

Code:

Jul 18 18:17:21 TerreDOmbre kernel: ipw2200: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
Jul 18 18:17:21 TerreDOmbre kernel: ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:03:03.0 disabled
Jul 18 18:17:21 TerreDOmbre kernel: ipw2200: probe of 0000:03:03.0 failed with error -5
Jul 18 18:18:56 TerreDOmbre kernel: ipw2200: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver, 1.1.2kmq
Jul 18 18:18:56 TerreDOmbre kernel: ipw2200: Copyright(c) 2003-2006 Intel Corporation
Jul 18 18:18:56 TerreDOmbre kernel: PCI: Enabling device 0000:03:03.0 (0110 -> 0112)
Jul 18 18:18:56 TerreDOmbre kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:03:03.0[A] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 201
Jul 18 18:18:56 TerreDOmbre kernel: ipw2200: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
Jul 18 18:18:56 TerreDOmbre kernel: ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:03:03.0 disabled
Jul 18 18:18:56 TerreDOmbre kernel: ipw2200: probe of 0000:03:03.0 failed with error -5

Junior Hacker · 07-18-2008, 09:46 PM

Setting up IPW2200 in Debian is very easy.
Download firmware version 3 from here, navigate into the directory you downloaded it into from command line as root and unpack with this command: tar xzf ipw2200-fw-3.0.gz, change into this folder/directory with this command: cd ipw2200-fw-3.0, copy all needed files to proper place with this command: cp *.fw /lib/firmware.
Reboot and configure a connection.
Link to read

Greenfuse · 07-18-2008, 10:02 PM

lsmod shows that the kernel has loaded your wireless driver module.

The absence of information in /proc/net/wireless, the lack of information from the iwlist and iwconfig commands, and the error message when loading the module, all point to a faulty module.

Quote:

apt-get install ipw2200-modules-2.6.18-6-xen-686

This module package is for the 2.6.18-6-xen-686 kernel. If this is not the exact kernel you are running then that might be part of the problem. To find out the exact kernel you are running use the command:
$ uname -r

If your ipw2200 package does not match your kernel, uninstall it and look for one that does.

If the package you installed is correct for your kernel, try reinstalling it. If it still does not work you might need to uninstall it and use a driver from here which you will need to conpile and install.

To install a driver in this way, have a look at the instructions in this post (near the end of the thread).

EDIT- According to thinkwiki the driver is built into the kernel but can be updated

By the way, this: http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/firmware.php does not look like linux drivers (I may be wrong).

EDIT this is firmware which apparently needs to be installed to get the driver working properly.

More information about wpa_supplicant:
There are different stages in connecting successfully to a wireless access point.

Picking up the signal (what we need to fix at this point)
Authenticating
Obtaining an ip address (unless using static address)

The tool to handle authentication (for most linux wireless drivers) is wpa_supplicant. Once configured, wpa_supplicant can be used automatically by a network manager (there are different network management tools in different distros. A common one which you might be using is 'gnome-network-manager') You can also start wpa_supplicant from the command line.

The configuration for wpa_supplicant is in the file /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf (this is the usual location of wpa_supplicant.conf but it can vary with different distros). Find it and have a look at the examples given towards the end of the file.

The command <man wpa_supplicant> will open the manual page for this tool. Almost every command line program has a man page. Try looking at some.
$ man modprobe
$ man iwlist
$ man iwconfig
$ man lsmod

Use the 'q' key to quit a man page.
Search for words in a man page by typing a slash, followed by the word you want to find, then press enter (for example- /driver )... To find the next occurrence of the word, press the 'n' key.

The QUICK START section of the man page for wpa_supplicant will be useful to you, once you get a working driver module.

At first the information in a man page might appear difficult to understand, but it is always logical and a wonderful way to learn how to use your linux.

leamassiot · 07-19-2008, 08:33 AM

Thank you to both Greenfuse and Junior Hacker for their posts.

Code:

# uname -r
2.6.18-4-686

So, I haven't chosen the right package, have I?

If I run:

Code:

# apt-cache search ipw2200

I get:

Code:

ipw2200-modules-2.6-486 - Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 and 2915ABG (ipw2200) driver modules for Linux 2.6 on x86
ipw2200-modules-2.6-686 - Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 and 2915ABG (ipw2200) driver modules for Linux 2.6 on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
ipw2200-modules-2.6-686-bigmem - Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 and 2915ABG (ipw2200) driver modules for Linux 2.6 on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
ipw2200-modules-2.6-amd64 - Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 and 2915ABG (ipw2200) driver modules for Linux 2.6 on AMD64
ipw2200-modules-2.6-k7 - Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 and 2915ABG (ipw2200) driver modules for Linux 2.6 on AMD K7
ipw2200-modules-2.6-vserver-686 - Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 and 2915ABG (ipw2200) driver modules for Linux 2.6 on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
ipw2200-modules-2.6-vserver-k7 - Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 and 2915ABG (ipw2200) driver modules for Linux 2.6 on AMD K7
ipw2200-modules-2.6-xen-686 - Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 and 2915ABG (ipw2200) driver modules for Linux 2.6 on i686
ipw2200-modules-2.6-xen-vserver-686 - Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 and 2915ABG (ipw2200) driver modules for Linux 2.6 on i686
ipw2200-modules-2.6.18-6-486 - Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 and 2915ABG (ipw2200) driver modules for Linux 2.6.18 on x86
ipw2200-modules-2.6.18-6-686 - Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 and 2915ABG (ipw2200) driver modules for Linux 2.6.18 on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
ipw2200-modules-2.6.18-6-686-bigmem - Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 and 2915ABG (ipw2200) driver modules for Linux 2.6.18 on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
ipw2200-modules-2.6.18-6-amd64 - Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 and 2915ABG (ipw2200) driver modules for Linux 2.6.18 on AMD64
ipw2200-modules-2.6.18-6-k7 - Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 and 2915ABG (ipw2200) driver modules for Linux 2.6.18 on AMD K7
ipw2200-modules-2.6.18-6-vserver-686 - Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 and 2915ABG (ipw2200) driver modules for Linux 2.6.18 on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
ipw2200-modules-2.6.18-6-vserver-k7 - Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 and 2915ABG (ipw2200) driver modules for Linux 2.6.18 on AMD K7
ipw2200-modules-2.6.18-6-xen-686 - Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 and 2915ABG (ipw2200) driver modules for Linux 2.6.18 on i686
ipw2200-modules-2.6.18-6-xen-vserver-686 - Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 and 2915ABG (ipw2200) driver modules for Linux 2.6.18 on i686

As far as I can see, none of these packages fits with the kernel version 2.6.18-4-686...

Quote:

If your ipw2200 package does not match your kernel, uninstall it and look for one that does.

Can you tell me how to do that properly?
Is a little "apt-get remove ipw2200-modules-2.6.18-6-xen-686" sufficient?

I will look at what a "firmware" is.

As for installing the driver manually by putting the right files at the right places, compiling things, I am afraid I do not understand the logic of it.
Like: put that file here, create that directory here, do "make" and so on and at the end, having nothing to work, having understood nothing and having to tidy up everything that has been done and not knowing if something has been left that may provoque troubles...
There probably are basic rules for installing manually a driver under Debian but I didn't manage to find what they are.

I'll browse the various links and manpages you submitted me and see if it highlights something

.
Thanks again and see you

.

leamassiot · 07-21-2008, 03:19 AM

Hi,

I did a little "apt-get remove ipw2200-modules-2.6.18-6-xen-686"
and removed the "ipw2200" directories that had been created.

I used Junior Hacker's link: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Ipw2200

I first downloaded the two following archives:

Code:

- ipw2200-1.2.0.tgz
  (http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/#downloads)
- ipw2200-fw-3.0.tgz
  (http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/firmware.php)

I created a directory to put them in:

Code:

# mkdir /root/ipw2200
# mv <path>/ipw2200-1.2.0.tgz /root/ipw2200
# mv <path>/ipw2200-fw-3.0.tgz /root/ipw2200
where <path> is the directory in which the two archives have been downloaded.

I uncompressed the archives:

Code:

# tar xzf ipw2200-1.2.0.tgz 
# tar xzf ipw2200-fw-3.0.tgz

Two directories were created:
/root/ipw2200/ipw2200-1.2.0 and
/root/ipw2200/ipw2200-fw-3.0

Then I did:

Code:

# cd /root/ipw2200/ipw2200-1.2.0
# make install

I moved the contents of the "/root/ipw2200/ipw2200-fw-3.0" directory to the "/lib/firmware" directory.

Code:

# mv /root/ipw2200/ipw2200-fw-3.0/* /lib/firmware

Then I did:

Code:

# modprobe ipw2200

To check if things were ok, I did:

Code:

# lsmod | grep ipw2200
ipw2200               125956  0 
ieee80211              29416  1 ipw2200
firmware_class          9600  2 pcmcia,ipw2200

Code:

# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

eth1      IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"linksys"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: 00:18:39:A1:64:9A   
          Bit Rate:54 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   Sensitivity=8/0  
          Retry limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=62/100  Signal level=-63 dBm  Noise level=-85 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:50   Missed beacon:25

Code:

$ vim /proc/wireless

Inter-| sta-|   Quality        |   Discarded packets               | Missed | WE
 face | tus | link level noise |  nwid  crypt   frag  retry   misc | beacon | 20
eth1: 0000   67.  -60.  -86.       0      0      0      0      8        7

Code:

# dmesg | tail -n 6
ieee80211: Copyright (C) 2004-2005 Intel Corporation <jketreno@linux.intel.com>
ipw2200: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver, 1.2.0mq
ipw2200: Copyright(c) 2003-2006 Intel Corporation
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:03:03.0[A] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 201
ipw2200: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
ipw2200: Detected geography ZZD (13 802.11bg channels, 0 802.11a channels)

Now, "linksys" is not my wireless network identifier.
I will now have to get linked to mine.
See you later

.

leamassiot · 07-22-2008, 06:12 AM

1. As my access point is WPA secured (Wi-Fi Protected Access), I installed the "wpasupplicant" debian package as Greenfuse suggested (thank you).

Code:

$ apt-get install wpasupplicant

Then I used the following document to help myself (it proved to be useful). But I'm sorry, this is a French link

.
http://www.commentcamarche.net/faq/s...s-linux#en-wpa

2. I edited the "/etc/network/interfaces" file and added the three following lines:

Code:

auto eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp
  wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

3. I created the "/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf" configuration file and write the following lines in it:

Code:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
eapol_version=1
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1

network={
  ssid="yyyyyyyyyy"
  scan_ssid=1
  proto=WPA
  key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
  psk="xxxxxxxxxxxxx"
  priority=5
}

where "yyyyyyyyyy" is the access point SSID 
and "xxxxxxxxxxxxx" the passphrase to connect to it.

4. Then I launched the two following commands:

Code:

$ ifconfig eth1 up
$ dhclient eth1

And that was it for me.
Thank you for your precious help

.