I really hope someone can help me. I have been banging my head against this problem for two weeks now, and I'm no further along. Well, ok... I've learned a lot about Linux.

I just migrated from Windoze to Linux. I have Fedora Core 3, and 2.6.11-1.27 kernel. I had my Linksys WMP11v4 wireless NIC working just peachy on my Windows network, but it's not happening with Linux. I've learned that these cards are notorious, so if I have to get a new one I will, but this is my last ditch effort before I give up. I will try to provide all the info I think might be needed, but Im new to this, so please bear with me if I forget something.

I tried ndiswrapper first, and when that didnt' work, I tried Linuxant. But in both cases, I am unable to get an IP address from DHCP. I've read up a little on dhcpcd, and it sounds like it might help, but I can't seem to get that installed properly.

My obvious preference is to get ndiswrapper working, since it's free. But I'm willing to pay for Linuxant if needed.... but so far it doestn' work any better.

The best I've had so far is a "weak" connection, but I have never been able to get an IP address. Normally I am able to get it to connect to the network, but right now it's not even finding any wireless networks at all. Here is what I have right now...... more info readily available, please ask.

IFCONFIG:
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0F:66:3E:07:9E
inet6 addr: fe80::20f:66ff:fe3e:79e/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Memory:f4009000-f40097ff


IWCONFIG:
wlan0 IEEE 802.11b ESSIDff/any
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Bit Rate:1 Mb/s Tx-Power:17 dBm
RTS thr:2347 B Fragment thr:2346 B
Encryption keyff
Power Managementff
Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:56/154 Noise level:0/154
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:464 Missed beacon:0

I know things were better at one point, but I can't seem to get back to that "almost good" stage...iwconfig was getting the ESSID and the AP, but no longer.....and yet never have I been able to get an IP which seems rather crucial! So if there is anything anyone can do to help, I will be very grateful.

Thank you,
Marci

PS Yes, I've searched this forum, and the rest of the known cyber universe for a solution. I have tried just about everything suggested, and some things have brought me closer to resolving this, but.....I'm still wired insteaed of wireless.

Try

# iwlist scan wlan0

to make sure you can see your AP. If you can see it, then

# iwconfig wlan0 essid <whatever>

Then check iwconfig to see if it's picked it up. If it has, then try

# /sbin/dhclient wlan0 (or /sbin/dhcpcd, depending on which is installed)

Hopefully it'll work. This card should work well with ndiswrapper - did you check the HCL?

Cheers

Thanks very much for the speedy reply! You jogged my memory on a few things I did before but couldnt' remember to repeat them. I followed your instructions, and here are the results:

[root@ds9 marci]# iwlist wlan0 scanning <--- this is how it works on mine
wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:0C:41:B7:5F:64
ESSID:"odaffer"
Protocol:IEEE 802.11b
Mode:Managed
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
Quality:0/100 Signal level:-58 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Encryption keyn
Bit Rate:1 Mb/s
Bit Rate:2 Mb/s
Bit Rate:5.5 Mb/s
Bit Rate:11 Mb/s
Extra:bcn_int=100
Extra:atim=0

So that seemed successful, so I did this:

[root@ds9 marci]# iwconfig wlan0 essid odaffer

But then this doesn't show the ESSID or the AP:

[root@ds9 marci]# iwconfig wlan0
wlan0 IEEE 802.11b ESSIDff/any
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Bit Rate:1 Mb/s Tx-Power:17 dBm
RTS thr:2347 B Fragment thr:2346 B
Encryption keyff
Power Managementff
Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:56/154 Noise level:0/154
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:752 Missed beacon:0

(And note it says Encryption key is off -- but it's not)

Just for kicks I did this too, as I figured I'd get the same error message I've gotten all along, and indeed I did. It might be helpful.............

[root@ds9 marci]# /sbin/dhclient wlan0
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.1
Copyright 2004 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/products/DHCP

Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:0f:66:3e:07:9e
Sending on LPF/wlan0/00:0f:66:3e:07:9e
Can't bind to dhcp address: Address already in use
Please make sure there is no other dhcp server
running and that there's no entry for dhcp or
bootp in /etc/inetd.conf. Also make sure you
are not running HP JetAdmin software, which
includes a bootp server.


Thank you again and in advance for your help!
Marci

I think you're probably close. The fact that you've seen your AP and essid before is a good sign.

Try setting the key first

# iwconfig wlan0 key restricted XXXXXXXX

Note that you may have to set the key to "open" and not "restricted" depending on your setup

then

# iwconfig wlan0 essid odaffer

then

# iwconfig (to check the wlan0 configuration)

Cheers

Ok I'm making progress.....

I ran the commands you said, and now iwconfig gets:

root@ds9 marci]# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:"odaffer" Nickname:"ds9.localdomain"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:0C:41:B7:5F:64
Bit Rate=11 Mb/s Tx-Power:17 dBm
RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr=2346 B
Encryption keyff
Power Managementff
Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:-57 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:199 Missed beacon:0

sit0 no wireless extensions.


The odd thing here is that it still says encryption key off, but mine is set. I did
iwconfig wlan0 key open XXXXXXXXX
because my network is not set to restrict access to certain MAC addresses. (hence "open") Is that correct? Or should it be restricted, just because tehre is a WEP key? (somewhere I read the former, but I am not assuming anything here )

So now I'm close, but if config still gives me no IP:

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0F:66:3E:07:9E
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Memory:f4009000-f40097ff

Interestingly, a friend was helping me over IM and because of the dhclient error message, he suggested this:

netstat -lnp

which produced this (in part):

udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:32768 0.0.0.0:* 3980/rpc.statd
udp 0 0 192.168.1.100:137 0.0.0.0:* 4369/nmbd
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:137 0.0.0.0:* 4369/nmbd
udp 0 0 192.168.1.100:138 0.0.0.0:* 4369/nmbd
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:138 0.0.0.0:* 4369/nmbd
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:7741 0.0.0.0:* 4380/lisa
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:68 0.0.0.0:* 4455/NetworkManager
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:5353 0.0.0.0:* 4147/mDNSResponder
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:111 0.0.0.0:* 3960/portmap
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:631 0.0.0.0:* 4176/cupsd
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:764 0.0.0.0:* 3980/rpc.statd
raw 272 0 0.0.0.0:1 0.0.0.0:* 7 4380/lisa

and he told me to kill 4455 and try running dhclient again, and this is what I got

Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:0f:66:3e:07:9e
Sending on LPF/wlan0/00:0f:66:3e:07:9e
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 18
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 13
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 15
No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.

Of course that completely killed my wired internet connection as well.

So I rebooted, and ran your commands above, and that is where I'm at!

Thanks again, I do hope this can be resolved.
Marci

OK, so you've just got to get the encryption key set properly. If it's not set in the output of iwconfig, then you won't be able to get wlan0 to connect to the internet and obtain an IP. Just keep on trying to set it. Enter the wep key exactly as it is set on the router, just the numbers and letters. If you still can't get it to tie in to iwconfig, then disable the wep at the router, and retry with # /sbin/dhclient wlan0. Note that you may have to disable any other connections using dhcp first - ie ethernet - to get dhclient to work.
Good luck!

Well this is amazing! Something is working... almost. THis is the closest I've ever gotten. Turns out that unplugging eth0 (wired) and rebooting was a huge key..... on boot, wlan0 was "OK" for the first time ever!! And, I'm getting an IP address in ifconfig now for the first time EVER. So that is great news. I can see my buddies on GAIM, but they don't seem to hear me when I talk. Maybe that's just coincidence at this point. I juts can't see to get the encryption key to read properly. It's been there before, but not now.

Question: what options do I have in the command?
If I have WEP disabled, then what do I put in the iwconfig command?


Sometimes

iwconfig wlan0 key open

gets an error, sometimes not

If I say restricted XXXXXXX then I get an error sometimes, sometimes not.

So close!!!!
marci

if you have the wep disabled, you don't have to enter anything into iwconfig for the key.

For the wep key, just keep messing about with it, you'll get it to work eventually. You just have to be really carerul when entering the key that you don't make a small mistake.

In terms of command line, there's iwconfig, dhclient (FC uses this by default rather than dhcpcd if I remember right) and ifconfig. Check out the man pages for these commands for more details.

The fact that you can see your AP, and you have an IP address, means you're most of the way there. Post back if you're still having problems.

Cheers

Ok I'm close again! Yesterday I lost everything somehow. Is there something I need to do to make settings "stick"??

Anyway, I'm at a point now where I have an IP address. I did:

# modprobe ndiswrapper
# iwconfig wlan0 essid odaffer
#iwlsit wlan0 scanning

-- now I can see wlan0 with a hardware address and ssid --
-- Encryption key is OFF --

# ifconfig wlan0

-- shows NO IP address --

# dhclient wlan0

-- WAHOOO now it reports it was acknowledged by the router and has been bound to an IP of 192.168.1.105 --

#ifconfig wlan0
EVERYTHING LOOKS GREAT
no errors, no dropped packets, looks super.


ANd suddenly GAIM connects itself and I can see all my buddies! And Tbird connects and I can send and receive email!! HURRAY!

HOWEVER....... I can't reach any websites. All I get is "whatever.com could not be found. Please check the name and try again."

Why would my http protocol not be working when everything else is? I can ping my laptop, which is on the same wireless network.

Also, KWiFi is not picking up the network. It can't locate the network when it scans. This might be due to it using the wireless extensions, I suppose?? It does warn about that in it's help manual. Maybe using ndiswrapper means I wont' see KWiFi properly?? I am not at all sure how that all works. Any light you might shed would be welcome.

Any thoughts on the http thing? I'm not touching ANYTHiNG until I hear from you! LOL

And I'd really like to know if there is something I need to do to make these settings stick. I read something somewhere about # ndiswrapper -m?? or maybe something else? I know it was -m, and it was supposed to be done when everything was set, as a final step, but I dont' know why.

Thanks!!!!!

Marci

When in doubt read the man

# man ndiswrapper

revealed that -m writes the information on this interface to the config file. So I did

# ndiswrapper -m

and got:

"modprobe config already contains alias directive"

So that part is working. And I have FTP access both directions. Hm...... why no HTTP?

I will continue my research in this vein......

Marci

(Edit: I refer to this thread any time I have trouble getting my wlan up and running. The edit was to fix a minor typo I had not seen before.)

I think this probably has something to do with iptables / firewall. Anyone? I'm not running a separate firewall from iptables.

However,

# service iptables stop

did not change anything. Still can't surf.

I can ping the other (WinXP) computers on the WAN.

Other computers on the WAN can ping the Fedora box.

I can ping computers on the internet.

So it seems to be only the HTTP protocol that isn't working properly.

Do I need to allow port 80 somehow? Or perhaps I need to re-enable encryption on my router (I need to do that anyway......)

Continuing to search..........................any thoughts or input welcome. I am tired!

Marci

To be honest, I don't really know the best way to start and stop the wlan automatically on boot-up and shutdown. I use a wireless script which is called from /etc/rc.d/, but it doesn't work very well. If you can, try and set it up through the GUI, it may be easier that way. Either that or you could think about adding a few commands to /etc/rc.local which will (hopefully) automatically activate your card on boot-up:
eg

echo "starting wlan0"
/sbin/iwconfig wlan0 essid <name>
/sbin/iwconfig wlan0 key open xxxxxxxxx
/sbin/ifconfig wlan0 up
/sbin/dhclient wlan0

Then when you shut down, you have to remember to get dhclient to release the interface:

/sbin/dhclient -k wlan0

You could do this yourself, or I suppose you could put it in with your shutdown script which should be in the /etc/rc.d/ directory somewhere - not sure where for Fedora though.

That would mean adding something like the following to the relevant file:

echo "stopping wlan0"
/sbin/dhclient -k wlan0

As for not being able to browse the web, check that all the DHCP info is correct. It should be in
/var/lib/dhcp/dhclient-wlan0.leases file

Cheers!

Thank you again! I will work on that script. At least I know now that I can repeat these steps and always get the thing working. WOW that is a huge step.

Now about the surfing part......

I checked the file you suggested, but I honestly am not sure what I'm checking for.

I do find it odd that there are three lease entries for a single interface (wlan0). The are all almost identical to this one, with the exceptions noted below:

lease {
interface "wlan0"
fixed-address 192.168.1.105;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
option routers 192.168.1.1;
option dhcp-lease-time 86400;
option dhcp-message-type 5;
option domain-name-servers 207.217.126.81,207.217.77.82;
option dhcp-server-identifier 192.168.1.1;
option domain-name "hsdl.state.comcast.net";
renew 4 2005/6/23 19:19:48;
rebind 5 2005/6/24 05:17:50;
expire 5 2005/6/24 08:17:50;
}


Exceptions:
- the other lease entries show "fixed-address 192.168.1.106" which is not the IP assigned to the fedora box.
- the renew, rebind, expire dates/times are different

The IP address of the router is correct on all of them. (192.168.1.1) assuming that should be the entry for "option routers" and "option dhcp-server-identifier".

Can I safely remove the 2 extra lease entries with incorrect IP addresses?

Marci

I've also noticed that because of my older BIOS, ACPI cannot be enabled, and acpi=force is required in grub.conf in order to force it on at boot. I've read that having ACPI disabled could cause things like wireless lan, sound and usb not to work. Could this be an issue with my wireless NIC being so difficult to configure?

Marci

Don't worry about the other 2 files, they are old lease files. Check the lease file for your ethernet connection - it should be in the same location - see if there are any major differences between that and the one for your wlan0.