wireless linux
 

i'm fairly new to linux and I am wondering about how to get wireless to work. I have gentoo linux and madwifi has been emerged. I don't understand what I'm supposed to do next. I I did have ath0 up at one point, but don't remember the command I used to get it and it for some reason isn't in bash history. I still didn't know what to do with the interface once I had it up. It didn't have any dhcp info or anything.

Here's what I got.
# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

eth1 no wireless extensions.


# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 08:00:46:E8:1B:4A
inet addr:192.168.1.102 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:761 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:734 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:616948 (602.4 Kb) TX bytes:158697 (154.9 Kb)
Interrupt:3 Base address:0x9000

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: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)
Help!
Thanks

su
root
(passwrd)
ifup ath0


I don't know gentoo, so i don't know what you have as far as admin tools, but there should be one that lets you configure this, as well as Knetworkmanager (what i use) makes it as simple as a start/stop button and configuration.

yeah that's not workin, thanks anyway.

you need to do it as root. as user you get the 'command not found'. if you have iwconfig and iwlist you have wirelestools installed, so ifup/ifdown is there.
#su
#root
#(password)
$ifup ath0

try looking at (at a terminal) #man ifup
that gives some help.. gotta love the 'man'

The command for Linux and for Gentoo is 'ifconfig ath0 up' to bring up a network device but only if the require module is loaded. Suse is proprietary that does not use the same commands as a normal Linux setup.

I must not have the module loaded. I've had ath0 up before, I just forgot what I typed.

Yes, i'm in root. # = root..

ahhhh, we never stop learning!

btw, it's "OPEN"Suse so not proprietary. It's distro specific. :-) they no longer include ANYHING proprietary.

i gotta start playing with other distros on my spare lappy...