Hello,
im somewhat of a linux newbie, but when it comes to wifi and everything, im so lost....
i have a ibm thinkpad running slackware 9.1 with a NetGear ma401 wifi card...
i am so clueless on where to start....
i have looked everywhere for a help file with linux and an ma401 but there are none to be found....
can somene please help?
i dunno what info you guys need to help me...maybe this helps?
$uname -a
Linux Warder 2,4,22 #1 Sat Jul 17 20:57:17 UTC 2004 i686 unknown unkonwn GNU/Linux

Thank you so much to anyone who can help!

If this is a real MA401, then it is one of the cards with native linux support and should be relatively easy to get running

Once you plug the card in, what do you see in ifconfig and iwconfig? If you don't see a wireless card in iwconfig, check and see if there is an orinoco module loaded with the command lsmod. If you don't see it, try loading it with the command modprobe orinoco_cs.

hey hangdog24, thanks alot for helping me!

when i type ifconfig this is what i get

#ifconfig
lo Link encapLocal 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:414831 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:414831 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
Rx bytes:19215746 (18.3 Mb) TX Bytes:19215746 (18.3 Mb)

and this is iwconfig

#iwconfig
lo no wireless extenstions.

sit0 no wireless extenstions.

eth1 no wireless extenstions.

eth0 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"" Nickname:"Prism I"
Mode:Managed Access Point: 44:44:44:44:44:44 Bit Rate:11Mb/s
Tx-Power=t5dBm Sensitivity:1/3
Retry min limit:8 RTS thr: off Fragment thr: off
Encryption key: off
Power Management: off
Link Quality:0/92 Signal level+-68dBm Noise level:-122 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx Excessive retried:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

i dont know if this is all that you need....

and when i type lsmod

this is the liones with orinoco in it

Module Size Used by Not tainted
orinoco_cs 4276 0
orinoco 33324 0 [orinoco_cs]
hermes 5732 0 [orinoco_cs orinoco]

(it goes on passed alot of other modules running then this other orinoco line)

ds 6568 2 [orinoco_cs]
pcmcia_core 40032 0 [orinoco_cs ds yenta_socket]

i am so clueless on how to get this running...

i mean....when i type iwconfig...is my computer even seeing the wifi card?

OK, I think we're good so far. Your computer is kind of seeing the wireless card. Iwconfig can see it (which is really good) bug ifconfig can't yet.

So you need to do a couple of things. First is use iwconfig to set your wireless parameters. For example, if you use WEP encryption you should enter:

iwconfig eth0 key yourWEPkeyhere

And you'l need to set you SSID, also using iwconfig

iwconfig eth0 essid YourWAPSSID

Once you've got your SSID set up, you should run iwconfig all by itself again to see if your changes have taken hold. If they have, the next step is to request and IP address. I'm going to assume that you are using DHCP rather than assigning static IP addresses (so let me know if I'm wrong). So the command to request and IP address is

dhcpcd -t 10 -d eth0

The -t 10 shortens the timeout to 10 seconds and the -d makes dhcpcd a bit more versbose. If this gets you and IP address then bring the card up with

ifconfig eth0 up

and you should be good to go.

i did all that except the dhcpd...
i dont have the internet here yet...
i was going to try and go wardriving.....

do i have to enable wifi in my kernel or anything?
im linux newb ....
i dont know what to do!
im so lost!
how do i tell if my drivers are installed or working or what?
any help ;(

OK, in order to connect to your network, you need to get an IP address and there are two ways of doing that. The first is if your router is set up as a DHCP server (which most are out of the box). Then you need to use the dhcpcd eht0 command (PLEASE note the spelling of dhcpcd) to get your IP address. The second method is to assign your computer a static IP address and I'll tell you how to do that only if you are not running DHCP.

If you are using one of the stock Slackware kernels then you are probably good to go. The fact that iwconfig isn't throwing errors suggests that wireless is enabled in your kernel.

I told you in my previous post. If that isn't working, capture the output of the various commands and post them.

Bag this idea until you actually understand what you are doing. Wardriving is pretty boring anyways.

hangdog, youre the man (woman?:P)

the dhcpd command i havent run yet because im not by any wifi AP or any type of broadband internet, alli have here is a winmodem in this laptop and an external modem that is being a bitch tryin to get it to work in linux, i MAY be able to take my laptop to a place where there is an AP i can try and use...

and the kernel issue, i am using a kernel my friend put together because him and i where trying to get ipv6 running on this box...
anyways...its not just a stock kernel.... thats why i say it might not be enabled in my kernel....maybe that is why i get nothing?

and the WEP encryption, i dont have one so i dont touch that,
and the SSID im not sure what to put?
and i do run dhcp but like i said before....
once i get to an AP or something i will try and do that....


other than that i should be fine?

thank you somuch hangdog for puttin up with me!~

This is pretty easy to figure out. First thing to do would be to ask your friend if wireless support was enabled. The second thing to do would be to open the .config file in the kernel source directory (usually /usr/src/linux) and look for a section called Wireless LAN (non-hamradio). If you see CONFIG_NET_RADIO=y then your kernel is set for wireless.


From what you've posted so far though, it looks like you are good. However without an AP to test against, it is going to be hard to tell for sure. So basically you either need to find a friend who has a wireless rig and try to set it up there or find a place that has an open wireless network. I know frequently Starbucks will have wireless connections they let customers use.

So once you find an AP you can use, you need to set up your card with iwconfig. You can sometimes find out the info you need to set up your card with iwlist. Open a console and type iwlist eth0 scan. The output of that should show all the access points available with their ssid and mode. So then set up the card with that info like this:

iwconfig eth0 mode Managed (or whatever mode is shown by iwlist)
iwconfig eth0 essid SSID (where SSID is the ESSID from iwlist)

You may need to set the mode to Auto rather than Managed in order to set the essid.

Once you have the mode and essid set, dhcpcd eth0 should get you an IP address and you should be good to go.

By the way, if you haven't already, now would be a good time to read some man pages, mainly man iwconfig, man ifconfig and man iwlist.

omg hangdog!!!!!! you are the best!

it totally works!!! haha , i went to my local starbucks and sat down and i got access to theyre local network...wasnt able to get on the inet tho...so i went to a friends house who has wireless and dhcpd and picked up and ip and it worked!
haha..youre really are the best....

now to try and get kismet to work! ahha...damn thing already gives me problems...