LinuxQuestions.org - All I want is wireless to work!

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All I want is wireless to work!

I've lost count of how many threads and mini-tutorials I've gone through trying to get this work.

(I can do little more than navigate the filesystem in terminal... just so you know how much I know.)

I have a Linksys wpc54g ver 3, and am running the latest Debian (kernel version is 2.6.18-5-686).

I first thought that I was going to have to use ndiswrapper to get this to work, so I got to reading. After multiple failures, I found out that since some version a while ago, the driver was included in the package.

Okay, so I slide my wireless card in, it lights up. I go into the Network Admin, and put in my ESSID and activate the card (eth1). I deactivate my wired LAN and try to surf... nada. I right click on the connection icon near the clock and it says I have no signal (but I'm typing this on a PC right next to this laptop which uses that same network).

Here's my ifconfig...

Code:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:08:74:94:D0:85

          inet addr:192.168.1.108  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          inet6 addr: fe80::208:74ff:fe94:d085/64 Scope:Link

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:36038 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:21746 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

          RX bytes:48152545 (45.9 MiB)  TX bytes:1938062 (1.8 MiB)

          Interrupt:11 Base address:0x2c00



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:91 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:91 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0

          RX bytes:7084 (6.9 KiB)  TX bytes:7084 (6.9 KiB)

And my iwconfig...

Code:

iwconfig eth1

eth1      IEEE 802.11b/g  ESSID:"machouse"  Nickname:"Broadcom 4318"

          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Invalid

          RTS thr:off  Fragment thr:off

          Encryption key:off

          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0

          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0

          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0  Missed beacon:0

Also, I try to click the drop down for the available wireless networks, but it's empty! I ran a "iwlist eth1 scan" and this was my result...

Code:

eth1 Interface doesn't support scanning : No such device

I feel totally lost. Before, when I tried to learn Linux, I got so frustrated, I threw that other OS back on. Now, I have no choice, as I can no longer find the license key, and I'm poor. :(

If you've gotten this far, I appreciate your time.

I don't know Debian never used nor seen it. From what I can see the problem is this

Code:

iwconfig eth1

eth1      IEEE 802.11b/g  ESSID:"machouse"  Nickname:"Broadcom 4318"

          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Invalid

          RTS thr:off  Fragment thr:off

          Encryption key:off

          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0

          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0

          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0  Missed beacon:0

On my system (Slackware 12) there is a /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless.conf file where I configure the aspects of the wireless. In a terminal do a ifconfig eth1 (if eth1 is your wireless card and write down the MAC address) then in the Debian equevillent of /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless.conf add something like

Code:

00:08:74:94:D0:85) (MAC Address you wrote down)

  ESSID="machouse"

  MODE="Managed"

  CHANNEL="1" (Must match Access Point)

;;

What I would also look into is the security your Access Point is using, as a test you can make it wide open security and test it. you may be using WEP/WPA/WPA2 if the security on the Access Point is anything above WEP you will need to be using wpa_supplicant package to get WPA or WPA2 working.

Sorry I don't know Debian but hope the information I have supplied helps.

Okay, last night I could at least see the wireless connection when I right-clicked on the network icon near the clock. Now, when I activate the wireless card, that doesn't happen, and when I press OK to exit Network Admin, when I come back, the changes have been reverted!

Do I need to give more info? What am I doing wrong?

KrazyKanuk: I had rc#.d directories, but none of them had an rc.wireless.conf. Also, now that activating the card no longer really happens (the Network Admin tool seems to be lying to me), ifconfig doesn't show eth1, but iwconfig does.

I have never had good luck with GUI tools I ALWAYS use a terminal window either at the terminal or through a SSH connection. OK we know that you have the right modules and drivers for the wireless card and it is working or iwconfig eth1 would show nothing but an error. If you do a ifconfig -a it will show all network cards ifconfig eth1 will just show the eth1 device. It had me wondering what the difference was between Debian and Slackware as far as the /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless.conf goes you don't have it but I bet you have a /etc/network/interfaces (I googled it can send me a check later :D). What I don't know is if you get your address from your access point by means of DHCP or if you have a static address, as well as security of your access point if you have WEP/WPA/WPA2. The site I saw that gave me the location of the wireless file was http://www.quietearth.us/articles/20...t2500-wireless
it also used ra0 as the device name not sure if that matters or not.

Here it is with a static address

Code:

auto eth1

iface eth1 inet static

address 192.168.1.2

netmask 255.255.255.0

broadcast 192.168.1.255

gateway 192.168.1.1

up iwconfig eth1 essid machouse

up iwconfig eth1 channel auto # or if you have specified a channel

up iwconfig eth1 key abcdef00000012345600000000

Here it is with DHCP

Code:

iface eth1 inet dhcp

up iwconfig eth1 essid machouse

up iwconfig eth1 channel auto # or if you have specified a channel

up iwconfig eth1 key abcdef00000012345600000000

If these don't work means you have WPA/WPA2 security on the Access Point and there is more to be done to configure it, if that is the case do a "apt-get install wpasupplicant" while your waiting. I can't take credit for the code listed above it was copied from the site I listed above.

Perhaps since you guys know what youre doing, you can help me. I have an old Dell Inspiron 1000 with a dell PCI wireless card and I am running Puppy from a usb flash drive. I have installed windows drivers with ndiswrapper, and I can get the "driver present, hardware present" message in the console (even though I cannot get the lights on the card to turn on). iwlist scan works and picks up our home network. The problem is that I cannot get the WPA encryption to work. I have tried modifying the wpa_supplicant.conf file to match the ones I have seen all through the web, however when I try wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -Dndiswrapper -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf the console hangs, and I have to reboot to get back into it again. Even when I try to change the ESSID on the card with iwconfig, the card still reads "ESSID: off/any". I am somewhat at a loss of what to do....I am fairly new to linux...can anyone help?

OK what location in terminal do you configure wireless on your distribution check in there for an ESSID line. If the console hangs try a CTRL c to get it back. When you do a "ndiswrapper -l" (without quotes") does it list the driver you are using? I use to call wpa_supplicant like

Code:

wpa_supplicant -dw -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -D<driver> -i<interface>

Before you edit /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf run

Code:

wpa_passphrase <your ssid> <your password for acess point>

and copy the hex key value in the file it creates for psk

My /etc/wpa_dupplicant.conf looked like this

Code:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant

ctrl_interface_group=0

eapol_version=1

ap_scan=1

fast_reauth=1



network={

  scan_ssid=0

  ssid="your ssid"

  proto=WPA

  key_mgmt=WPA-PSK

  pairwise=CCMP TKIP

  group=CCMP WEP104 WEP40

  psk="the copied hex key from above"

}

How are you getting the card to pick up the correct info for your network when the lights won't turn on, do they turn on at all like if you do it in WinBLOWEZ?

OK....that worked wonders. The card now scans and finds the network....but when I try to connect, I get two errors: "GTK cipher mismatch" and "non-WPA network not allowed". Any hints? I know that the network is encrypted with WPA1 because it says so when i do an iwlist scan, and I am sure that the password is correct (i did go and find the hex key). Soo...what progress I did make is pretty cool, but all I need is this last step...any help?

What version of wpa_suplicant are you using? The only thing I can think of is maybe you are using an older wpa_supplicant. One other thing is on occasion I get an error or two in the terminal that I running wpa_supplicant in but if I open another terminal I can ping within the LAN and also any address you can think of on the internet, are you stopping it because of the error or does wpa_supplicant stop by it's self?

Alright, Ill try that....but I am fairly certain that the comp isnt connecting at all. It seems to go into a loop where it scans, finds my network, then gives both errors that i listed above, then waits and scans again. I have tried letting it go on for a while, and it keeps on giving me those errors. Its almost like I have the password wrong...but I checked on wam, and I know its right on. Also, the card will not associate with the essid that i want when i do iwconfig wlan0 essid. Will it automatically do this If i can get wpa_supplicant to work?

The ESSID should be set before wpa_supplicant. The wpa_supplicant is like the energizer bunny it keeps going and going and going until you stop it mine has bee going since this thread has started and is still going.

Since I have been up since yesterday someone else will have to help you tonight, coffee is no longer doing the trick to keep me awake so I will be hitting the bed shortly.

Hey, thanks for your help. Its been murder, and i couldnt have gon anywhere without it.

It appears you are running the Broadcom 4318? These cards are very problematic. I have two of these in different laptops. I've had no success with the linux engineered bcm43xx driver which is included in recent kernels.

You may have to blacklist the bcm43xx and use ndiswrapper with a windows driver to get this card working properly. There should be a full tutorial at Debian for the process.

I use Pclos on both these machines because the windows driver install is mostly a no-brainer and works perfectly. But if you have the time and patience, you will succeed with a manual install.

Did you two ever get your wireless working with wpa_supplicant and the likes?

No I went back to Windows.

Vista sucks, btw.