So here is my problem I am an grey haired ultra newbie and have just managed to get Debian running quite well on a Tecra 8100 Toshiba laptop. I can get a network connection with a network cable but cannot get my Proxim Orinco Wireless card model 8420_WD to work
After reading many posts and following many broken links I am close to giving up. This is my last attempt and my first post. Following stickys advice I show below the output from various utitlities. I dont know how to find out which chipset is installed in the card :-

uname 2.6.18-6-686


ifconfig :-
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:560 (560.0 b) TX bytes:560 (560.0 b)

pccardctl :-

Socket 0:
no product info available
Socket 1:
product info: "Agere Systems", "Wireless PC Card Model 0111", "", ""
manfid: 0x0156, 0x0003
function: 6 (network)




lsmod :-

Module Size Used by
nls_iso8859_1 4256 1
isofs 32540 1
udf 73124 0
savage 28448 2
drm 61332 3 savage
rfcomm 34712 0
l2cap 21760 5 rfcomm
bluetooth 46020 4 rfcomm,l2cap
ppdev 8676 0
lp 11012 0
button 6672 0
ac 5188 0
battery 9636 0
dm_snapshot 15552 0
dm_mirror 19152 0
dm_mod 50232 2 dm_snapshot,dm_mirror
loop 15048 0
snd_ymfpci 57472 1
gameport 14632 1 snd_ymfpci
snd_ac97_codec 83104 1 snd_ymfpci
snd_ac97_bus 2400 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm_oss 38368 0
snd_mixer_oss 15200 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 68676 3 snd_ymfpci,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_opl3_lib 9920 1 snd_ymfpci
snd_hwdep 8836 1 snd_opl3_lib
snd_page_alloc 10184 2 snd_ymfpci,snd_pcm
snd_mpu401_uart 8064 1 snd_ymfpci
snd_seq_dummy 3844 0
snd_seq_oss 28768 0
snd_seq_midi 8192 0
snd_seq_midi_event 7008 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
tsdev 7520 0
snd_seq 45680 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
floppy 53156 0
pcmcia 34140 0
firmware_class 9600 1 pcmcia
snd_timer 20996 4 snd_ymfpci,snd_pcm,snd_opl3_lib,snd_seq
snd_rawmidi 22560 2 snd_mpu401_uart,snd_seq_midi
parport_pc 32132 1
snd_seq_device 7820 6 snd_opl3_lib,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi
parport 33256 3 ppdev,lp,parport_pc
psmouse 35016 0
rtc 12372 0
serio_raw 6660 0
snd 47012 15 snd_ymfpci,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_opl3_lib,snd_hwdep,snd_mpu401_uart,s nd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device
pcspkr 3072 0
donauboe 14560 0
irda 162588 1 donauboe
i2c_piix4 8268 0
soundcore 9248 1 snd
i2c_core 19680 1 i2c_piix4
yenta_socket 24460 4
rsrc_nonstatic 11840 1 yenta_socket
crc_ccitt 2240 2 donauboe,irda
intel_agp 22204 1
agpgart 29896 2 drm,intel_agp
pcmcia_core 36852 3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
shpchp 33024 0
pci_hotplug 28704 1 shpchp
evdev 9088 1
ext3 119240 1
jbd 52456 1 ext3
mbcache 8356 1 ext3
ide_cd 36064 1
cdrom 32544 1 ide_cd
ide_disk 14848 3
generic 4868 0 [permanent]
piix 9444 0 [permanent]
uhci_hcd 21164 0
usbcore 112644 2 uhci_hcd
ide_core 110504 4 ide_cd,ide_disk,generic,piix
thermal 13608 0
processor 28840 1 thermal
fan 4804 0

lspci :-

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03)
00:05.0 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
00:05.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
00:05.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
00:05.3 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 03)
00:07.0 Communication controller: Agere Systems 56k WinModem (rev 01)
00:09.0 IRDA controller: Toshiba America Info Systems FIR Port Type-DO
00:0b.0 CardBus bridge: Toshiba America Info Systems ToPIC100 PCI to Cardbus Bridge with ZV Support (rev 20)
00:0b.1 CardBus bridge: Toshiba America Info Systems ToPIC100 PCI to Cardbus Bridge with ZV Support (rev 20)
00:0c.0 Multimedia audio controller: Yamaha Corporation YMF-744B [DS-1S Audio Controller] (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: S3 Inc. 86C270-294 Savage/MX-MV (rev 11)


lspcimia :-

Socket 0 Bridge: [yenta_cardbus] (bus ID: 0000:00:0b.0)
Socket 1 Bridge: [yenta_cardbus] (bus ID: 0000:00:0b.1)
Socket 1 Device 0: [-- no driver --] (bus ID: 1.0)


Any help or advice much appreciated

Best wishes

Tony

Wireless is always a pain. Just to start you off, there's
http://madwifi.org/wiki/Compatibility/Proxim
which doesn't list your card, as per your posted serial, but it might work anyway.

Personally, I have found ndiswrapper
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ndiswrapper/
to be helpful on other wireless cards. You might want to check this out as well.

I had the same problem with Toshiba equium and ubuntu -- couldnt get the Atheros chips to work for wifi

I eventually bought an EDIMAX EW-7718UIN 300 Mbps USB adapter and installed Kubuntu -- it works like a dream!!

The whole thing cost £17.00 -- I am a 73 year old newbie and love Kubuntu 12.04 it makes wireless setup a doddle


Good Luck and Be Safe !!!

Ivan

Hi,

ivank4554, you might want to look at the thread/post date before responding.

Your solution worked for you and hopefully someone may garnish from your reply.

The output of ifconfig shows that you don't have the card's driver loaded. lsmod seems to confirm this (it's long: I may have missed something.)

I used to have a similar card. I believe you need to load orinoco_cs.ko . run 'modprobe orinoco_cs'

If you don't have it you need to reconfigure your kernel to build it. If you don't build your own kernel you need to find it somewhere. Use your distribution's tools to find it; it's in the kernel-modules package of Slackware, a required package; I suspect you have it.

That's the first step. When loaded ifconfig will return the status of the device it adds, something like eth0. When you get that working come back for the next step - if you need to.