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BlueInkAlchemist 04-02-2008 09:14 PM

Fedora Core 8 Wireless Connection on Dell Inspiron 8600
 
Greetings all,

I installed Fedora Core 8 on my Dell Inspiron 8600, and so far everything is running smooth. But when it boots, it tells me that it can't find IP information for eth1, the wireless device. It gives the error "no link detected; check cable?" Do I need to re-download the drivers so Linux understands it's a wireless connection, or am I missing something essential? Thanks in advance!

wolfperkins 04-03-2008 06:13 AM

I just went through FC7 setup myself with a Linksys Wireless card and I had fun let me tell you.

What kind of network card do you have?

My card was added as ath1.

Are you sure your card is supported?

BlueInkAlchemist 04-03-2008 11:12 AM

There are two network devices in the Dell Inspiron. The Broadcom NIC is working fine. The wireless adapter is an Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG. I'm going to see if there are any specific drivers I need to get my hands on. Fedora seems to know it's a wireless connection.

BlueInkAlchemist 04-03-2008 09:12 PM

To update, I tried downloading the driver and firmware for the wireless, as well as adding Network Manager to the startup routine. I followed the instructions that came with the driver and I'm still getting the same error message. Any help would be appreciated.

petespin27 04-03-2008 09:41 PM

What is happening is that fedora is trying to activate the wireless device per instructions from system-config-network. If you have not specified anything here, you will get this error at boot. It does not have anything to do with wireless drivers. Network manager takes care of wireless configuration after you log in.

If you are able to get access with the wireless and wired network connections with network manager, try the following to disable that message at boot:

Go to system-->administration-->network (or hit alt-f2 and type in system-config-network) select eth1 in the list and press edit. In the dialog box, uncheck "Activate device when computer starts" (don't worry, the driver will still be loaded), hit OK and then hit Ctrl-S to save the settings.

BlueInkAlchemist 04-03-2008 11:28 PM

Thanks pete, got it working and I will update the cfg as you suggest.

However, now when I attempt to enter the WPA passcode, it prompts me for the default keyring password. How do I adjust that?

BlueInkAlchemist 04-03-2008 11:36 PM

Nevermind. I took care of it. Thanks again!

BlueInkAlchemist 04-05-2008 03:11 PM

All right... now I'm really confused.

Starting up my laptop this morning, it seems that all wireless options have disappeared completely from NetworkManager. All I'm seeing is my wired connection and the VPN dropdown. I restarted my laptop again, adjusting the config to load 'eth1' on startup... still no joy. I pulled the contents of the 'ifconfig' and 'iwconfig' commands, and here's what they say:

--ifconfig--
Code:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:11:43:6B:51:2E 
          inet addr:192.168.2.4  Bcast:192.168.2.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::211:43ff:fe6b:512e/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:625 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:674 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:325208 (317.5 KiB)  TX bytes:97396 (95.1 KiB)
          Interrupt:11

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:5780 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:5780 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:3131704 (2.9 MiB)  TX bytes:3131704 (2.9 MiB)

--iwconfig--
Code:

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

eth1      unassociated  ESSID:off/any  Nickname:"localhost.localdomain"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency=2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated 
          Bit Rate:0 kb/s  Tx-Power=20 dBm  Sensitivity=8/0 
          Retry limit:7  RTS thr:off  Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management: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

Any suggestions?

BlueInkAlchemist 04-06-2008 11:00 AM

To update...

Downloaded ndiswrapper and wpa_supplicant. I have an updated driver for the 2200BG and ndiswrapper loaded it with no problems. I'm currently trying to get the interface to negotiate with the AP. Still not appearing in NetworkManager.

BlueInkAlchemist 04-07-2008 04:21 PM

/bump

Should this be moved to the Wireless forum?


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