Would anyone be willing to list programs loaded in networking using fedora 8 with cutter not NDISwrapper. I found out on a different machine. less is more while getting printers working. I want just bare minimum may be it will work. I have been messing with this for weeks now.

Will removing any not needed programs affect the firmware loaded in b43-cutter?
Thank you

Maybe I'm not understanding your post, but none of the various fwcutter programs are needed for day-to-day functioning. All these programs do is create firmware files from Windows drivers. Once those firmware files are created and put in /lib/firmware, then you can remove fwcutter.

What I am asking is what is the needed programs to make my wifi work. I have a ton of network programs on this laptop and I am wondering if it is confusing the situation.
Example I was trying to get my sons computer to print to the two printers in my house it was getting complicated nothing was working, so I removed all cups packages just loaded minimal and the computer found the printers and I was done. I am hoping for the same thing here. I tried to copy and paste but I can not do that from yumex or add/remove. But there are a ton.
By removing any unneeded will it remove the firmware installed by cutter.

Obviously that depends. Just having a ton of things installed isn't a problem. Having a ton of things running could very well be a problem.

That sounds more like a problem with the original CUPS install than anything else.
OK, I think we need to back up here a bit. It sounds like you're just doing stuff without understanding what you're trying to do. All the GUI garbage that distros come with are really just front ends for the iwconfig console command. Once you've booted up, open a console and type iwconfig (you may need to be root). If the various fields look right, then look at the output of ifconfig and see if you have an IP address.


Unless the firmware is part of a package you installed (which I seriously doubt because of licensing issues), then removing fwcutter shouldn't cause a problem.

IWconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=0 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thr=2352 B
Encryption keyff
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

ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0B:CD:79:A6:23
inet addr:192.168.11.5 Bcast:192.168.11.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::20b:cdff:fe79:a623/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:564 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:652 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:306928 (299.7 KiB) TX bytes:110916 (108.3 KiB)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0x6000

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:4757 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:4757 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:3120012 (2.9 MiB) TX bytes:3120012 (2.9 MiB)

iwlist [interface] scanning [essid NNN] [last]
[interface] frequency
[interface] channel
[interface] bitrate
[interface] rate
[interface] encryption
[interface] keys
[interface] power
[interface] txpower
[interface] retry
[interface] ap
[interface] accesspoints
[interface] peers
[interface] event
[interface] auth
[interface] wpakeys
[interface] genie
[interface] modulation
I do not understand exactly what I am doing, however I am trying to learn and people like you get me one step closer to understanding. Thank you
It did connect once on Friday everything timed out. I disconnected tryed to get back on and then it couldn't even find the connection with networking and WL assistant I seem to be in a endless loop of asking me my password for wpa try to connect and repeat. yes I installed wpa_sup. can you please help

This is from your iwconfig output. Basically, whatever software you're using isn't configuring the card.

Lets try this the old-fashioned way. Open up your wpa_supplicant.conf file in a text editor and add something like this:

Then save it and re-start wpa_supplicant. Check your iwconfig output again and see if you now get real information in your iwconfig output.

Just to check, you are root when you run your wireless assistant, aren't you? Also, if you really want a GUI, I've had good luck with wifi-radar.

would you please tell me how to access wpa_supplicant.conf. I am having no luck appareantly wl assistant is the gui for wpa and I can not get to a gedit screen from there either.

Your wpa_supplicant.conf file is most likely in your /etc directory. It is just a plain text file, so gedit should be able to open it, however you may need to be root in order to edit it since it is a system file.

/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf no such file or directory as root and not

Well, that might be part of the problem. When wpa_supplicant is started, part of the command is pointing to the wpa_supplicant.conf file. Can you post some details about how you start wpa_supplicant?

[craig@localhost ~]$ /etc/wpa_supplicant
bash: /etc/wpa_supplicant: is a directory
[craig@localhost ~]$ su -
Password:
[root@localhost ~]# /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
-bash: /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf: Permission denied
[root@localhost ~]#

Well from what I read wpa_supplicant is needed with wpa security router. When you utilize network manager It tells WPA_Supplicant to start up. Network manager is in a loop as well as wl assistant. By loop I mean asking me for the wpa password trying to connect and repeat

Ugh. OK, I did some googling, and it is starting to look to me like the Fedora 8 Network Manager is a complete pile of garden fertilizer when it comes to WPA. As you can read in this thread, you are not alone in having this problem. From what I can tell, people have taken two approaches to solving this problem:

1) "Downgrade" to an older verions of Network Manager
2) Disable Network Manager completely and use either straight wpa_supplicant from the console or use the combination of wpa_supplicant and wifi-radar. Using wifi-radar allows you to avoid configuring the wpa_suupplicant.conf file. Given your still new status, particularly with the command line, using wifi-radar might be the way to go.

Of course, there is always a third option: Dumping Fedora in the nearest trash can and switch to a distro that doesn't treat its users like guinea pigs. Seriously, Fedora is nothing more than a gigantic beta test and it routinely puts out buggy software or new versions of things that break systems.

OK I finally sudo gedit/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf there was nothing there added text as suggested, how suggested. This is the output from iwconfig
[root@localhost ~]# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=0 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thr=2352 B
Encryption keyff
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

I don't see any changes, and the wireless option is not in the netwrk applet any longer. It is in wl assistant it failed to connect

If you're going to do it that way, you need to start wpa_supplicant. Try something like this as root:

If you then run ps -A (also as root) you should see wpa_supplicant running.

The command did not work.Found this and this is the out put
/usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant -dd -Dwext -iwlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
Initializing interface 'wlan0' conf '/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf' driver 'wext' ctrl_interface 'N/A' bridge 'N/A'
Configuration file '/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf' -> '/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf'
Reading configuration file '/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf'
ctrl_interface='/var/run/wpa_supplicant'
ctrl_interface_group='wheel' (DEPRECATED)
Initializing interface (2) 'wlan0'
EAPOL: SUPP_PAE entering state DISCONNECTED
EAPOL: KEY_RX entering state NO_KEY_RECEIVE
EAPOL: SUPP_BE entering state INITIALIZE
EAP: EAP entering state DISABLED
EAPOL: External notification - portEnabled=0
EAPOL: External notification - portValid=0
SIOCGIWRANGE: WE(compiled)=22 WE(source)=21 enc_capa=0xf
capabilities: key_mgmt 0xf enc 0xf
WEXT: Operstate: linkmode=1, operstate=5
Own MAC address: 00:0b:cd:74:fd:7b
wpa_driver_wext_set_wpa
wpa_driver_wext_set_key: alg=0 key_idx=0 set_tx=0 seq_len=0 key_len=0
wpa_driver_wext_set_key: alg=0 key_idx=1 set_tx=0 seq_len=0 key_len=0
wpa_driver_wext_set_key: alg=0 key_idx=2 set_tx=0 seq_len=0 key_len=0
wpa_driver_wext_set_key: alg=0 key_idx=3 set_tx=0 seq_len=0 key_len=0
wpa_driver_wext_set_countermeasures
ioctl[SIOCSIWAUTH]: Operation not supported
WEXT auth param 4 value 0x0 - wpa_driver_wext_set_drop_unencrypted
Setting scan request: 0 sec 100000 usec
Using existing control interface directory.
ctrl_interface_group=10 (from group name 'wheel')
Added interface wlan0
RTM_NEWLINK: operstate=0 ifi_flags=0x1002 ()
Wireless event: cmd=0x8b06 len=8
Ignore event for foreign ifindex 3
RTM_NEWLINK: operstate=0 ifi_flags=0x1043 ([UP][RUNNING])
RTM_NEWLINK, IFLA_IFNAME: Interface 'wlan0' added
RTM_NEWLINK: operstate=0 ifi_flags=0x1003 ([UP])
RTM_NEWLINK, IFLA_IFNAME: Interface 'wlan0' added
State: DISCONNECTED -> SCANNING
Starting AP scan (broadcast SSID)
Trying to get current scan results first without requesting a new scan to speed up initial association
Received 0 bytes of scan results (0 BSSes)
Scan results: 0
No suitable AP found.
Setting scan request: 0 sec 0 usec
No enabled networks - do not scan
State: SCANNING -> INACTIVE

Is that what I want?
thank you, you have got to be getting tired of me by now. I tried wifi radar, It didn't pull the signal on its own I gave it the info I thought it needed and didn't connect.