cisco aironet 350 and Redhat 8
 

I am trying to configure cisco 350 with redhat 8. It seems the card was detected but It is not working, I got this message from /var/log/messages saying:

Jan 25 17:48:10 Emperor cardmgr[551]: executing: 'modprobe airo_cs'
Jan 25 17:48:10 Emperor kernel: airo: Probing for PCI adapters
Jan 25 17:48:10 Emperor kernel: airo: Finished probing for PCI adapters
Jan 25 17:48:11 Emperor kernel: airo: Max tries exceeded when issueing command
Jan 25 17:48:11 Emperor kernel: airo: Max tries exceeded when issueing command
Jan 25 17:48:11 Emperor kernel: airo: MAC could not be enabled
Jan 25 17:48:11 Emperor kernel: airo_cs: RequestConfiguration: Operation succeeded
Jan 25 17:48:12 Emperor cardmgr[551]: get dev info on socket 0 failed: Resource temporarily unavailable

Could anyone help me with this. Thanks

Are you sure this card works on a different PC? It looks like a hardware problem. PC Cards should always return device information.

Yes the card works on windows. The pcmcia modules are loaded if I type /sbin/lsmod. However if I plug the pcmcia card it gives me high pitch sound and then low pitch sound.

Been ages since I did anything with PCMCIA and it was mostly Windows stuff but if I remember right the high beep/low thud (that low pitched sound) means the driver didn't load right. Have you looked for an updated module from cisco or checked to see if your card is supported by the module in the kernel?

(Sorry if you already know this: In Linux the drivers are called modules, most are included with the kernel, and they get probed to start which basically means that it automatically loads anything else it needs, that's the 'modprobe airo_cs' line you saw in your logs)

Also, do other PC cards work? It could even be that the PCMCIA socket modules aren't working right, what modules are loaded for it? What type of laptop is it and does the laptop manufacturer have any info that says their PCMCIA sockets work or don't work in Linux?

FYI great info in your posts, sounds like you have the right troubleshooting ideas looking at /var/log/messages and lsmod.

Ok I got it to work. The problem wasn't in the pcmcia socket module but in the firmware. The solution was quite simple, I download the newest firmware from cisco and update it =). Now it works fine.
Thanks a lot for the help. I really appreciate it.

Hi all.
I am also using cisco aironet & redhat 8.0 and its default drivers.
I use it in adhoc mode to communicate with other cards.
Everything works fine except
WHEN I SET ENCRYPTION MODE ON(by command iwconfig eth0 key on), it goes into ENCRYPTION MODE OFF by "itself" after sometime. I have to again give command to set encryption on...
Please help me out, how to solve this problem !!
Thanks in advance...hits

I am also seeing similar errors in the messages file. Can you tell me what firmware version you are using?

I have updated the firmware on a WIN system. I think the version is 5.x.x

I also can't get the acu utility that is part of the driver package to run. It quits and states "no radio found"

how can I check the current firmware version without this utility?

It seems that the latest Cisco drivers for Windows also upgrades the Aironet firmware to version 5.x, which isn't compatible with Linux. Try downgrading your firmware to a 4.x version.

I don' t know how to check the firmware version if the card isn't recognized. I checked mine on a Windows PC.

John

I had the same issue with RedHat 9. I loaded an older firmware on a windows box (4.25.something) and the issues you described in the first post went away.

Hope this helps.