I'm running Mepis Linux 3.3 on a Gateway 450SX4 notebook. It's got a miniPCI wireless card that uses the orinoco_cs driver. I can connect with the wireless card to a known access point with iwconfig, but I can't scan for networks that I don't know about.

iwlist always returns this error:

I'm running kernel 2.6.10 and I have heard that the orinoco drivers in this kernel don't support scanning. Is this true? If so, how do I go about integrating some newer drivers into this kernel? Did I mention I'm a ?

I have seen some other topics similar to this, but none of them have enough info for me to proceed. Thanks.

run as root and you'll be fine.
Cheers
Chris

Tried that, no luck. Eventually I found that the orinoco drivers included in the 2.6.10 kernel don't support scanning mode. I applied a patch to them that will enable monitor mode, which will allow me to use kismet. I still can't scan for networks with iwlist, but kismet does the job.

Sweet. Read your first post too fast and didn't see the part about the orinoco driver. Thought I'd nailed it too. Damn.

I am in a similar quandary about scanning; I'm using Mandrake 10.1 with an Orinoco Gold PCMCIA card, trying to get wlassistant to run, and no scanning luck... Can anyone walk me through patching the kernel modules to get scanning to work?

Would appreciate it a lot..

Thanks.

Okay, figured it out... you have to download orinoco-0.15rc2.tar.gz (I think that's the one), untar it, go to the directory it makes, run "make" (no quotes), then gzip the .ko files it makes, su to root, and copy and paste those .ko files (now .ko.gz files) in your /lib/modules subtree (usually /lib/modules/(kernel version)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless).
Then, when you reboot (the safest way to figure it out) you should be running the 0.15rc2 version, which DOES support scanning! AND you dont have to go through the hassle of messing with pcmcia_cs! I just figured this one out today, not bad eh?
Oh, and verify that you are running the orinoco driver you just installed with "dmesg" (again, dont type the quotes).

Hope I was even a little bit helpful, since everyone on this board is always helpful to me!