I am new to linux. I tried Knoppix, liked it and then found Suse 9.1 Personal. It installed perfectly, found all my hardware and has been problem free. Well almost.

Yesterday I added an Edimax EW-7126 wireless pci adaptor to the system. Suse detected it immediately and ran the configuration tool, correctly describing the device as Realtek, the manufacturer of the chipset. (Rtl8180). However, I have since been unable to find anywhere how to set the various wireless configurations such as SSID, Channel, WEP, etc.. Options for wireless configuration do not appear in the YaST tool for this device, although the documentation says that they should and I now suspect that Suse does not know this is a wireless device at all, simply an ethernet pci nic.

My device has the configuration name: eth-bus-pci-0000:01:06.0 (which was chosen for me automatically during the configuration process).

The contents of the two configuration files I found which appear to be related to this device are:

file:/etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-eth-bus-pci-0000:01:06.0

BOOTPROTO='dhcp'
MTU=''
REMOTE_IPADDR=''
STARTMODE='onboot'
UNIQUE='zsAr.moeRe+D9b3F'
_nm_name='bus-pci-0000:01:06.0'

file:/etc/sysconfig/hardware/hwcfg-bus-pci-0000:01:06.0

MODULE=''
MODULE_OPTIONS=''
STARTEMODE='auto'

I need some guidance on how to go about setting this card up manually, if that's what I have to do. I am a complete novice at command line action, so please bear that in mind if you have any suggestions.

Thanks in advance,

nikkkko

Oh, and I found this in another thread:
Can someone tell me what Linuxant drivers are and how to set a wireless car to HOTPLUG etc. etc.?

Thanks again

Hi
Having been through the same sort of thing about 18 months ago before wireless was really available on Linux, I can sympathise a lot with this.

Can you type 'dmesg' at the command prompt when you insert the card and post the results up here. (Just the last twenty or thirty lines pls.) Also, type iwconfig and do the same.

By the way - you asked about linuxant: http://www.linuxant.com/

Thanks for the reply.

I'm using an internal pci, so card is permanently inserted. Output of dmesg produces:

forcedeth.c: Reverse Engineered nForce ethernet driver. Version 0.25.
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:04.0 to 64
eth0: forcedeth.c: subsystem: 0a0a0:03b3 bound to 0000:00:04.0
ehci_hcd 0000:00:02.2: EHCI Host Controller
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:02.2 to 64
ehci_hcd 0000:00:02.2: irq 5, pci mem dfb90000
ehci_hcd 0000:00:02.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3
PCI: cache line size of 64 is not supported by device 0000:00:02.2
ehci_hcd 0000:00:02.2: USB 2.0 enabled, EHCI 1.00, driver 2003-Dec-29
usb usb3: Product: EHCI Host Controller
usb usb3: Manufacturer: Linux 2.6.4-52-default ehci_hcd
usb usb3: SerialNumber: 0000:00:02.2
hub 3-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 3-0:1.0: 6 ports detected
ieee1394: Initialized config rom entry `ip1394'
ohci1394: $Rev: 1193 $ Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org>
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:0d.0 to 64
ohci1394: fw-host0: OHCI-1394 1.1 (PCI): IRQ=[10] MMIO=[ef084000-ef0847ff] Max Packet=[2048]
ohci1394: fw-host0: SelfID received outside of bus reset sequence
ieee1394: Host added: ID:BUS[0-00:1023] GUID[801394ffff3e7616]
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:06.0 to 64
ACPI: Power Button (FF) [PWRF]
ACPI: Fan [FAN] (on)
ACPI: Processor [CPU0] (supports C1)
ACPI: Thermal Zone [THRM] (17 C)
NET: Registered protocol family 10
Disabled Privacy Extensions on device c03545c0(lo)
IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling driver
powernow-k8: AMD Athlon 64 or AMD Opteron processor required
powernow: PowerNOW! Technology present. Can scale: nothing.
intel8x0_measure_ac97_clock: measured 49443 usecs
intel8x0: clocking to 47466
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 [PCSPP,TRISTATE]
parport0: irq 7 detected
lp0: using parport0 (polling).
drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial support registered for Generic
drivers/usb/core/usb.c: registered new driver usbserial
drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial Driver core v2.0
Non-volatile memory driver v1.2
end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
hdc: ATAPI 32X DVD-ROM DVD-R-RAM CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
SCSI subsystem initialized
st: Version 20040318, fixed bufsize 32768, s/g segs 256
BIOS EDD facility v0.13 2004-Mar-09, 1 devices found
mtrr: 0xe4000000,0x2000000 overlaps existing 0xe4000000,0x1000000
mtrr: 0xe4000000,0x2000000 overlaps existing 0xe4000000,0x1000000
eth0: no link during initialization.
NET: Registered protocol family 17
eth0: no IPv6 routers present

I've been doing a bit more reading and it looks like I need to install ndiswrapper and then load the windows driver for this card. I still haven't got a handle on how the various devices are identified and where to find this information, but I'm working on it. It's tough being a n00b!

Since my last post I have installed ndiswrapper and loaded the windows driver.

'ndiswrapper -l' produces 'netr8180 present'. I still haven't figured how to load the ndiswrapper module at bootup, ('ndiswrapper -m' added an alias to the config file (?) but didn't load the mod on bootup), but when I load it manually dmesg produces:

ndiswrapper version 0.6+CVS loaded
ndiswrapper adding rtl8180.sys
wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:50:fc:bd:fb:62 using driver rtl8180.sys
NET: Registered protocol family 17
wlan0: no IPv6 routers present

ifconfig produces:

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:82 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:82 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:5316 (5.1 Kb) TX bytes:5316 (5.1 Kb)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:FC:BD:FB:62
inet6 addr: fe80::250:fcff:febd:fb62/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:12 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:4000 (3.9 Kb)
Interrupt:11 Memory:ee000000-ee000024

and iwconfig produces:

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

sit0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:"" Nickname:"linux"
Mode:Auto Frequency:2.412GHz Access Point: FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
Bit Rate=11Mb/s Tx-Power:20 dBm Sensitivity=0/3
RTS thr=2432 B Fragment thr=2432 B
Encryption key: off
Power Management: off
Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:-95 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

However, when I use iwconfig to alter wireless setting, (ssid, channel etc.), the changes are not shown and iwconfig produces the same result as above, (perhaps this is normal? If so, where do I see these settings?) BTW, I do 'ipconfig wlan0 down' before doing the iwconfig changes and then 'ipconfig wlan0 up' again after but with no discernable results.

That's where I'm at, a little closer perhaps, but still no connection. What am I doing wrong?

Trying to figure how this all links up, I did

lspic
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AGP (different version?) (rev a2)
0000:00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 1 (rev a2)
0000:00:00.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 4 (rev a2)
0000:00:00.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 3 (rev a2)
0000:00:00.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 2 (rev a2)
0000:00:00.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 5 (rev a2)
0000:00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 ISA Bridge (rev a4)
0000:00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation nForce2 SMBus (MCP) (rev a2)
0000:00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4)
0000:00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4)
0000:00:02.2 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4)
0000:00:04.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Ethernet Controller (rev a1)
0000:00:05.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation nForce MultiMedia audio [Via VT82C686B] (rev a2)
0000:00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AC97 Audio Controler (MCP) (rev a1)
0000:00:08.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 External PCI Bridge (rev a3)
0000:00:09.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation nForce2 IDE (rev a2)
0000:00:0d.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): nVidia Corporation nForce2 FireWire (IEEE 1394) Controller (rev a3)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AGP (rev a2)
0000:01:06.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.: Unknown device 8180 (rev 20)
0000:02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX - nForce GPU] (rev a3)

My wireless adaptor is showing up as an unknown device. That can't be good...

Any help would be very appreciated.

Your previous post of your dmesg show that the thing is up and running. Can you ping anything?

I don't use the wrapper thing, but I store the wireless settings in /etc/sysconfig/network/ . There should be a config file representing your card. I post mine up for info:

BOOTPROTO='static'
BROADCAST='192.168.1.255'
IPADDR='192.168.1.2'
MTU=''
NETMASK='255.255.255.0'
NETWORK='192.168.1.0'
REMOTE_IPADDR=''
STARTMODE='hotplug'
UNIQUE='B35A.fB4Bfo6aTRD'
WIRELESS_AP=''
WIRELESS_BITRATE='auto'
WIRELESS_CHANNEL=''
WIRELESS_ESSID='homenet'
WIRELESS_FREQUENCY=''
WIRELESS_KEY=''
WIRELESS_MODE='Managed'
WIRELESS_NICK=''
WIRELESS_NWID=''
WIRELESS_POWER='yes'
_nm_name='bus-pci-0000:02:00.0'

Storing the info in there is equivelent to using iwconfig. As far as I remember though, SUSE set this file up for me.

L

OK, I have a file 'ifcfg-wanl0' in the same directory as you and sure enough it displays the settings I entered using iwconfig. Which is good.

Can't ping anything tho.

Sadly I have to drop this for the time being and go and do some real work. I'll get back to it next weekend. Look out for a post.

Thanks,

nikkkko

Been away, come back, still no network.

My ifcfg-wlan0 file says:

BOOTPROTO='dhcp'
MTU=''
REMOTE_IPADDR=''
STARTMODE='onboot'
UNIQUE='zsAr.moeRe+D9b3F'
WIRELESS_AP=''
WIRELESS_BITRATE='auto'
WIRELESS_CHANNEL='11'
WIRELESS_ESSID='101'
WIRELESS_KEY=''
WIRELESS_MODE='Managed'
WIRELESS_NICK=''
WIRELESS_NWID=''
WIRELESS_POWER='yes'
_nm_name='bus-pci-0000:01:06.0'

But iwconfig reports this:

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

sit0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:"" Nickname:"linux"
Mode:Auto Frequency:2.462GHz Access Point: FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
Bit Rate=11Mb/s Tx-Power:20 dBm Sensitivity=0/3
RTS thr=2432 B Fragment thr=2432 B
Encryption keyff
Power Managementff
Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:-95 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

Why doesn't iwconfig report the same values?

And the answer is because the ndiswrapper, windows driver, Edimax EW-1726 (Realtek) combination is just too tricky to make work under SuSE, (and probably anything else judging by the posts I've read). Unlike the smc2662w usb adaptor which I swapped over today and had running in about 3 minutes flat!