I am having problems with installing my wireless internet

kwlim27 · 08-21-2006, 04:55 AM

I have recently downloaded the Fedora Core 4 to use Linux.

After installing the Fedora Core 4, I have found that it can't find my ethernet card.

Skipping that, I decided to connect my wireless internet first, so I went to the madwifi.org and downloaded some devices that are needed to install the wireless internet.

I downloaded some "madwifi-ng-r1" series, and did exactly the following.

1. I went to the terminal, and logged in as root.
2. I installed the madwifi driver, using make and make install.
There were no problems in this.
3. After the install, I did modprobe ath_pci. Nothing showed up, so I guess it worked fine.
4. Then I did iwconfig, then I found that the sit0 and the wifi0 did not appear!!
5. I tried to change some configurations, but whatever I did, the sit0 and the wifi0 did not appear.

Can anyone tell me why this problem occurs? I hope someone can teach me the exact procedures to fix this problem.

The wireless internet I am trying to use is 3com 11 a/b/g Wireless PCI adapter.

unSpawn · 08-21-2006, 06:38 AM

First of all welcome to LQ, hope you like it here. You're new here and obviously you didn't read the LQ Rules. We don't like to see you post duplicate threads about the same topic, please don't do that again. Note I haven't checked the LQ HCL if the device is supported but since you D/Led Madwifi you probably know it is.

2. I installed the madwifi driver, using make and make install.
Can you make sure your current running kernel has the modules installed?
Use something like "find /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/ -iname ath_\*" to check.

3. After the install, I did modprobe ath_pci. Nothing showed up, so I guess it worked fine.
Please check with "lsmod" or "grep ath /proc/modules" to make sure. If loaded it should return four or five ath modules depending on what authentication etc, etc you use. If insmod /path/to/module.ext or modprobe modulename don't return anything you might want to add the "-v" flag for more verbosity and or check your systems logs.

4. Then I did iwconfig, then I found that the sit0 and the wifi0 did not appear!!
Did you check if the device was up or bring it up with ifconfig?

jtshaw · 08-21-2006, 11:59 AM

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Linux - Networking -> Linux - Wireless Networking and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

kwlim27 · 08-21-2006, 10:43 PM

Firstly, thank you for your help and advice.

I tried the commands you told me, (the find /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/-iname ath_/*)
and this returned
"iname no such file or directory"
"ath no such file or directory"

Does this mean that the module has not been installed properly?

What I did with installing is...
1. I went to the snapshots.madwifi.org
2. I downloaded the madwifi-ng-current.tar.gz
3. I tried to make this, but it threw an error. So I couldn't make install.
4. I went to the madwifi-ng directory and downloaded the older versions of it. These worked fine in make and make install.

Is there something wrong in what I did?
Or do you predict that something else went wrong?

unSpawn · 08-22-2006, 07:59 AM

Firstly, thank you for your help and advice.
Whaaaat? I didn't do nuttin already yet! ;-p

"iname no such file or directory"
You left out the single space between "/" and "-iname". No problem, we'll tackle this below.

2. I downloaded the madwifi-ng-current.tar.gz
3. I tried to make this, but it threw an error.
What error? If it's a configure error then try to run the configure with the arguments you use and add at the end (no quotes, they're just for keeping stuff together): " 2>&1 | tee configure.tee". If it's a make error then try the same but name the output file "make.tee" instead of "configure.tee". Then post the error part.

4. I went to the madwifi-ng directory and downloaded the older versions of it. These worked fine in make and make install.
Maybe it does make sense to try the older version first. OK. If the modules installed correctly (then we assert "make install" ran depmod correctly and) so you can try running modprobe like this: "modprobe -lv ath_pci |grep ath| tee modprobe.tee". Post the contents of modprobe.tee.

kwlim27 · 08-22-2006, 10:47 PM

I tried the two commands you told me to do, and here are the results.

The error part of the make.tee

Code:

/root/Desktop/madwifi-ng-r1702-20060810/net80211/ieee80211_wireless.c:1740: warning: ISO C90 forbids mixed declarations and code
/root/Desktop/madwifi-ng-r1702-20060810/net80211/ieee80211_wireless.c:1766: warning: ISO C90 forbids mixed declarations and code
make[3]: *** [/root/Desktop/madwifi-ng-r1702-20060810/net80211/ieee80211_wireless.o] Error 1
make[2]: *** [/root/Desktop/madwifi-ng-r1702-20060810/net80211] Error 2
make[1]: *** [_module_/root/Desktop/madwifi-ng-r1702-20060810] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving Directory '/usr/src/kernels/2.6.11-1.1369_FC4-i686'
make: *** [modules] Error2

This is the contents of the modprobe.tee

Code:

/lib/modules/2.6.11-1.1369_FC4/net/ath_pci.ko

unSpawn · 08-23-2006, 07:28 AM

warning: ISO C90 forbids mixed declarations and code
Looks like somebody at Madwifi made a booboo declaring stuff in the middle of code.
If this is madwifi-current try picking up a -stable release and if it's madwifi-stable try swapping it for -current ;-p

kwlim27 · 08-24-2006, 09:26 PM

I downloaded the stable version and tried installing that.
'make' worked fine, and 'make install' worked fine as well, without throwing any errors.
But just like the older versions, 'modprobe ath_pci' did not work.

unSpawn · 08-25-2006, 07:08 AM

But just like the older versions, 'modprobe ath_pci' did not work.
Strange. Let's go for something completely different (any thoughts of Larches should be considered involuntarily but proper reflexes), if the wireless card is a PCMCIA, what's the output of "cardctl ident"?, elif it's PCI, what's the output of "lspci|grep -i eth"?

kwlim27 · 08-27-2006, 09:02 PM

The wireless card I am trying to install is a PCI card, so I tried the command "lspci|grep -i eth"
This gave me no output at all.
( I tried ath instead of eth and that didn't do much better)

unSpawn · 08-28-2006, 12:37 AM

The wireless card I am trying to install is a PCI card, so I tried the command "lspci|grep -i eth"
This gave me no output at all.
"lspci|grep -i eth" should get you all devices with string "ethernet controller", so that means it's not recognised. Check your syslog messages for info bootup wrt hardware?

( I tried ath instead of eth and that didn't do much better)
That only works if your card matches ath, and that would mean having an Atheros chipset.

kwlim27 · 08-28-2006, 09:47 PM

My professor concluded that the chipsets in the motherboard isn't fit for linux, so we decided to just change the motherboard.

The current motherboard must have compatibility problems with Linux. I tried installing wireless card on my home computer, and it worked fine. I think this motherboard is the problem....

Thank you for the help so far, and I will try to set the card up with the new motherboard. I hope that you can help me if I have further problems with the new motherboard.

unSpawn · 08-29-2006, 02:24 AM

My professor concluded that the chipsets in the motherboard isn't fit for linux, so we decided to just change the motherboard.
Most people have to contend with man pages, some HTML and maybe a spurious F1 or a Clippy lookalike...
And you got a professor for that? Sheesh. Rich kids ;-p

I hope that you can help me if I have further problems with the new motherboard.
I'm confident LQ can indeed.

kwlim27 · 08-29-2006, 09:49 PM

I am working at a laboratory and the professor who is in charge of the lab couldn't wait anymore...;;
He needed me quickly for testbedding, and there were some jobs to be done before the start of new semester.
I don't know what's happening, I'm just following what he tells me to do;;;

It's sort of funny there are 11 people in my lab and none of them can help me with this..-.-;