Configuring a wlan0 device...
 

Hello,

I'm quite new to Linux, and i've been searching for a way to correctly configure my wireless card for my Dell Inspiron 8600. The card is an Intel Pro/Wireless 2100. My problem doesn't lie in the driver configuration, but in allowing the system to know of the device's existance. I've done searches on how to configure my card on these boards and I've used ndiswrapper to use my winXP drivers for the card. I've gotten to the point where the driver is present when I run the command ndiswrapper -l and i've added the module to the kernel using modprobe. My question now is how do I get wlan0 to show up in my iwconfig and ifconfig? I've created an ifcfg-wlan0 file in my /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts directory but when I try to activate the device, it gives an error reporting the device as being not found.

Again, i'm running a Dell Inspiron 8600 with an Intel Pro/Wireless 2100 using Fedora Core 2...any help on this would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Goo

Hi,

I am having the same problem as you. I installed ndiswrapper and when I type "ndiswrapper -l" it outputs "net8180 present". Yet, when I type "iwconfig" it outputs "lo no wireless extensions."

I am no expert in linux so it may take me a while, but if I find out how to fix the problem, I will post my results here.

Btw, I am trying to get a trendnet tew-226PC to work in Mandrake 9.2.

-peni

Well I'm in the same boat, but I have made if farther along. If you look in the INSTALL file that came with the ndiswrapper source you now need to load the ndiswrapper module into your kernel. You can do this by typing "modprobe ndiswrapper" as root. If you recieve no errors then it's loaded.. You should now be able to see the driver by executing the command "iwconfig". Mine shows up as wlan0, I have a broadcom wireless in an hp laptop. Then input "iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed". I temporarily disabled shared key encryption on my WAP to try and get this running. But when I run "ifup wlan0" I will randomly get and error message to "check my cable". This is very frustrating, and if you figure this out, please post how you got around it, and how you added encryption. The command "iwconfig wlan0 key s:Foo5Bar7!@" doesn't seem to work. After you're satisfied with your wireless configuration, you can execute "ndiswrapper -m" to install the ndiswrapper module to load on boot.

Later,
Todd

Yes, I've gotten to the point where I entered modprobe ndiswrapper, but I've not been able to see a listing for wlan0 or ndiswrapper, etc. when I run the iwconfig command...

I made a little progress. I finished all steps in the INSTALL file, all the way including typing "ndiswrapper -m".
Now, when I type "iwconfig", for eth0 it shows IEEE 802.11-DS and other information about the device. The problem is, my wireless card is an IEEE 802.11b. After searching the web, I found out that 802.11-DS is the default setting no matter what the card really is. I don't know whether that means I did something wrong or if that is the way it is supposed to be.
I still have not been able to connect to the internet. But, I feel that I am getting close.

To solve the problem I was having before, I restarted my system and started from step 1 (make install) and it worked smoothly. Sorry I don't have a better explanation but I do not understand what happened myself.

Okay, so i've made a little bit of progress...

I was getting nowhere following every instruction I could find for ndiswrapper online so I thought that I'd try switching my distribution to see if it could make a difference...so I switched from Fedora core 2 to Mandrake Community 10.0 and now I can see the wlan0 device when I do a iwconfig...and I can have my card detect my wireless network, yet I can't quite get to the point of connecting to it to get online...but i'm sure that tweaking my wlan0 config file will work...