Do I need a new stanza in network-interfaces to get wireless connection up?

sonichedgehog · 08-13-2009, 08:16 PM

Please bear with me, 3 new threads after a long silence! And something tells me I should be able to deal with this, but I can't find anything here or elsewhere on the web.

I'm determined to get my laptop to work wirelessly. The installers (both Ubuntu & Debian, I prefer Debian) find my network, but the os doesn't.

Here's /etc/network/interfaces:

Code:

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

That, I assume, is why I can't

Code:

ifup wlan0

and any attempt to enable wireless in gnome network admin is pointless.

So I'm guessing I need to add something to this file- ?

Thanks

scheidel21 · 08-14-2009, 08:08 AM

Well first run lspci and make sure you see your card, you should as the installer detected it but this will also tell you if there is a kernel module loaded for it and if so what module. That is important becuase if no module is loaded then no matter what you do to your interfaces file it won't show up. Second make sure you don't need anything additional for your wireless, like firmware. For instance I have an Intel 3495ABG wireless card and I needed to apt-get the firmware package for it after I installed the system. Third, yes you do need to add an interface line in your Interfaces file

Code:

allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp

Would give you the basics, and should let the ifup wlan0 work, note the interface needs to be up for network manager or anything else use it.

sonichedgehog · 08-14-2009, 03:09 PM

Here is lspci -v output:

Code:

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Device 1a3b:1026
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
	Memory at fa9f0000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
	Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
	Capabilities: [50] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit- Queue=0/0 Enable-
	Capabilities: [60] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
	Capabilities: [90] MSI-X: Enable- Mask- TabSize=1
	Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting <?>
	Capabilities: [140] Virtual Channel <?>
	Kernel driver in use: ath5k_pci
	Kernel modules: ath5k

06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Attansic Technology Corp. L2 100 Mbit Ethernet Adapter (rev a0)
	Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 1415
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 219
	Memory at feac0000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]
	Expansion ROM at feaa0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
	Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
	Capabilities: [48] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Queue=0/0 Enable+
	Capabilities: [58] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
	Capabilities: [6c] Vital Product Data <?>
	Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting <?>
	Kernel driver in use: atl2
	Kernel modules: atl2

That seems OK, but I don't know where to look in order to follow up your suggestion regarding firmware?

I have however made the change to interfaces.

Here is the result of ifup wlan0:

Code:

Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.1.1
Copyright 2004-2008 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801
wmaster0: unknown hardware address type 801
Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:15:af:5e:77:4a
Sending on   LPF/wlan0/00:15:af:5e:77:4a
Sending on   Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 4
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 10
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 21
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 14
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.

I have installed wicd from debian squeeze (I am using lenny but this does not have wicd), have not removed gnome-network-admin as it looks drastic.

Wireless network is not detected.

I looked at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=902860- not good!

Then http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi....11abg-646443/

leading to
http://www.drewwithers.com/content/d...ite-a215-s4747

This looks like 6 hours of hacking. I don't mind hacking and would like to learn how to do this, but don't have a load of time just yet. If there is a simpler fix, I'd prefer to go for that first.

Thanks for your reply, scheidel21

sonichedgehog · 08-14-2009, 03:14 PM

quick update- sorry if this is like spamming but it's useful:
http://ubuntumanual.org/posts/185/in...iver-in-ubuntu shows another way and that looks achievable, I have ubuntu on this box as well as debian. What do you think?

scheidel21 · 08-14-2009, 03:52 PM

You have the right driver loaded but you need a newer version take a look at this

http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/H...AtherosModules

perhaps just adding backports to your apt list and then getting the new kernel might work, or you can build the new version of the module against your current kernel the link has instruction on how to do that.

scheidel21 · 08-14-2009, 03:53 PM

here is a link on backports of the kernel from sid to lenny
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/H...ues.2BAC8-tips

sonichedgehog · 08-14-2009, 06:28 PM

Great! That has the "feel" of a fix.

So far I have updated sources.list and imported the key, apt-get update gave a message confirming that it had unexpectedly listed release ofa lenny backport- that seems OK.

I expect that, having updated my repository sources, I need to apt-get install something- however synaptic lists about 50 packages in response to a "backport" name search. What should I be looking for?
Thanks again.

scheidel21 · 08-14-2009, 08:14 PM

Look for the work kernel search fro it and select the kernel image you need/want.

sonichedgehog · 08-23-2009, 06:41 PM

Decided to upgrade kernel to 2.6.29. That hasn't solved the problem on its own, further googling indicated madwifi as the module package for atheros. Using m-a a-i madwifi, built OK on 2.6.26 but on 2.6.29, problems started here:

Quote:

Entering directory ▒
│ `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.29-020629-generic' ▒
│ CC [M] /usr/src/modules/madwifi/ath/if_ath.o ▒
│ /usr/src/modules/madwifi/ath/if_ath.c: In function 'ath_attach': ▒
│ /usr/src/modules/madwifi/ath/if_ath.c:478: error: 'struct net_device' ▒
│ has no member named 'priv' ↓

The "has no member named 'priv' " is recurring for the rest of the build log.

Is this something you recognize? The kernel backport build was straightforward, although not obvious at first- seems that 3 packages are needed, one with "all" in the title, then "generic" finally the big "image" file, but I thought the new kernel was preferable to the patch? Cheers

sonichedgehog · 08-26-2009, 04:30 AM

almost solved, see http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...solved-750237/