I got a Linksys WMP11 Wireless PCI Card and i am getting a little problems installing it under Red Hat 8.0. I tried the linux-wlan-ng drivers in .tar and RPM but i couldn't get my WMP11 working.
My kernel version is 2.4.18-14 builded for i686.
I would appreciate if someone could give some help, thanks.

I've managed to get it installed, but I haven't gotten it to work correctly yet.

1) untar
2) as root, terminal to the folder that you untarred it to.
3) make config
Answers to the config ?s
n, n, y, n
/usr/src/linux-2.4.18-14
leave blank
/lib/modules/2.4.18-14
leave blank
n
you should get a "Configuration successful." and bring you back to #.
4)make all
5)in /usr/local, make a new folder called man
6)in /usr/local/man, make a new folder called man1
7)go back to where you untarred linux-wlan to
8)make install.

that should install it. Follow the readme to configure.

Thanks pow2k2 for your reply.

I had already solved my problem with the RPM distribution that is easyer to install, after installing the problem was configuring the device in the file /etc/wlan.conf, the ssid wasn't set. Now is working well.

hi all,

I'm in the exact same boat as you folks: RedHat 8 with the WMP11. I have installed the card physically into the machine but am not sure where to go from here...what is the RPM distribution you guys are talking about?

Thanks!

If you want to avoid using the linux-wlan.net drivers, which work well, but tend to be a pain to get running, the orinoco module set works great too:

/sbin/modprobe hermes
/sbin/modprobe orinoco
/sbin/modprobe orinoco_pci

The use ifconfig to bring the card up, assuming its eth0

ifconfig eth0 up
iwconfig eth0 essid nameofnetwork
iwconfig eth0 enc 123213213213 (assuming wep)
dhclient eth0

Some of the WMP11s don't give great transfer rates, so you might want to upgrade to the .13 version, there's a link to them in my profile.

Cheers,

Finegan

Hey Finegan,

Thanks for your quick reply...I was kinda hoping you'd find my post since it looks like you're no stranger to this problem...

Since my last post, I downloaded 3 rpm files from raleigh.nc.us They were all i586 since that's what I'm running. I'm a Redhat newbie...literally 4 days of time in this kind of environment, so forgive the string of questions that come in advance...

I placed the 3 RPMs on my "desktop" and double-clicked on'em...a la Windows. 2 out of 3 of them extracted correctly and the 3rd one did not. The one in question is called kernel-wlan-ng-modules-rh80.19.0.1.15-6.i586.rpm (this is also the kernel I'm running I assume, got that from my machine directly)

Ok so after I rebooted, I started seeing more "failures" in the login script than usual...

These aren't exact, but I get

starting wlan mudprobe: can't locate module p80211

wlan0 - prism2_pci device does not seem to be present...

determining IP information for eth0. (then it fails) delaying wlan initialization


so maybe you can tell me where to start lookin for stuff and I can report back...

lookin' forward to getting this working. let me know what other info you may need...also, perhaps you can clarify your post above about an alternative way of doing this?

thanks!

They edited your init scripts so as to install and then configure the prism2_pci modules from the linux-wlan.net project. The last RPM was the modules themselves, so the problem seems to be that you've got a keg and 40 friends, but nowhere to have a party. Forgive me, I suffer from hyper-metaphor syndrome.

You can decide to compile the linux-wlan modules from source... Post back if you want to go that way.

or open a terminal, type "su -" and be root

modprobe hermes
modprobe orinoco
modprobe orinoco_pci
ifconfig eth0 up
iwconfig eth0 essid somenetworkname
iwconfig eth0 enc 12312312321
dhclient eth0

This is assuming you are running WEP, if not, skip the iwconfig lines, also assuming you are running RH 8.0, if not, use dhcpcd eth0, also its assuming you have no other networking device in your machine that is working, if so, then subsititute eth1.

Now, here's the bad news... the orinoco modules aparently work for crap with the WMP11, but its REALLY easy to compile ones that work great... meanwhile compiling the wlan-ng modules is somewhat of a headache.

Post back if that doesn't work, you get stuck, or if the cat explodes...

Cheers,

Finegan

hey finegan,

some quick questions about your last post...and by the way, I love your use of metaphor! Always lookin' for a place to host a keg party...

when I open a terminal and become root, do I just basically copy and paste your text below?

I am assuming I have to modify "somenetworkname" Where do I get the answer to that one? Anything else below you're treating as a variable that I should change?

What is WEP?


modprobe hermes
modprobe orinoco
modprobe orinoco_pci
ifconfig eth0 up
iwconfig eth0 essid somenetworkname
iwconfig eth0 enc 12312312321
dhclient eth0

ESSID is the network ID, if you have an access point then its the ID of the desired network to connect to, if you us ad-hoc then its the name of the private network.

WEP stands for Wired Equivalent Privacy, and is a protocol for wireless LANs or local area networks, basically an encryption that translates data into a code.

WEP = worthless encryption protocol

All of the wireless routers on the market (at least the home ones) ship with this turned off, you might want to think about turning it on, but wait until you have everything working on open air before you break it. Lemme guess, the Linksys or the Dlink wireless router?

If so, you can skip the iwconfig lines, you don't need to cut'n'paste really, just type in each one, one at a time.

And post back with where your laptop says: Dave, I'm sorry I can't do that Dave.

Cheers,

Finegan

I have the Linksys router...I'll type these one at a time when I'm in front of my RH machine and let you know what it says...

So I can skip the iwconfig lines since I have the Linksys router?

Yeah since its broadcast packets are unencrypted, as soon as the card is brought up with the ifconfig command, it should join the BSS just because its the loudest signal, then beg for a lease with dhclient and you should be rock and roll... oh, and I say said laptop above, meant desktop, duh, WMP11=PCI card, doi...

It should work fine, but I'm kinda worried about A) anything the 2 RPMs that actually unpacked may have done to your setup, and B) if the drivers that shipped with RH 8.0 are mature enough to handle that card... RH shipped a pretty old version of card services version for laptops... we'll find out.

Cheers,

Finegan

Funny you mentioned the 2 RPM's that DID unpack...I can't access my screensaver menu when logged in as root, (the user that unpacked them) but I can access it fine from an alternate user name...and why doesn't the third one unpack? Corrupt? How do I reverse what the RPMs did?

Regarding the "RH shipped a pretty old version..." You mention laptop again...does this carry over to RH on desktops?

yes there is a way to uninstall RPMs, but since I swore off the habit of using RPMs in 2001, I'm the worst person to ask, and who knows if the orinoco modules will work so you might want to hold onto them for now as compiling the wlan-ng ones might be a solid alternative.

To break it down:

pcmcia used to be external to the kernel, entirely, modules and everything, around 2.4.2 (a year ago plus), they started including pcmcia in the kernel, which gave distros the option of sticking with external pcmcia-cs or internal. RedHat ran with external for a long time... plus they shipped 8.0 with 2.4.18, which is near 8 months old... 2.4.19 had just come out right before they shipped... these things happen. The last 3 kernels took a loooooong time as all the focus is on the development tree, 2.5.x, where things still explode regularly.

Things take a while to get included in the kernel, not so much did they in pcmcia-cs, but when everything went in-kernel, David Hinds (the laptop ninja!) decided to slow down the release schedule of pcmcia-cs, so the drivers in there are typically older than in the kernel. Plus! the damn distros don't put much effort into laptops (not bread and butter land), so during the RH 7.1/7.2 and Mandy 8.1/8.2 early last year things were a uh... mess! And what happened during this time? The explosion of wireless devices... but now everyone seems back on track, we hope.


If I remember right, the version of orinoco_cs and _pci and _plx (for those nutjobs with an adapter card and a PCMCIA card, like me!), that shipped with 2.4.18 was v.11b, and all of the kinks with the WPC11 v3 were fixed with v.13-something, but I don't know if the WMP11 currently shipped is the same chipset as the WPC11 v3, the prism3 chipset...

Regardless, the kinks aren't fatal, they just slow stuff down, sometimes to intollerable levels, but if so, we'll sort it out.

Cheers,

Finegan

ok,
plugged in your modprobes above...all went well (nothing happened except the next command line, so I'm assumming that = no problems)

Then I got to modprobe orinoco_pci

message came back
/lib/modules/2.4.8-19.8.0/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/orinoco_pci.o: init_module: No such device Hint: ismod errors can be cause by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters.

/lib/modules/2.4.8-19.8.0/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/orinoco_pci.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.8-19.8.0kernel/drivers/net/wireless/orinoco_pci.o: failed

ok so then I kept going until I got to

iwconfig eth0 essid "I'm not sure what my options are here"

so I typed nothing, just

iwconfig eth0 essid
and I got Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1A) : too few arguments.

I'm not sure what to put for the ESSID...any help with how to determine the answer to that one?

and then I did
iwconfig eth0 enc 12312312321

and got Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
SET failed on device eth0; Operation not supported


One thing I should point out is in my Network Configuration I only see one device and it is eth1, which is my wireless device. I have a regular network card in there also, which was eth0 that I got rid of. (the card is still in there, but not the profile)

Thought that might help...as I've been typing eth0 all the time...

Thanks...