madwifi problem with Netgear WG511T/fedora 3
 

Hi All:

I am having probem getting my wireless card Netgear WG511T to work on a toshiba Laptop. I appreciate any suggestion, let me know if you need more info.
My config is as follow:

Linux Fedora core 3, Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.10-1.770_FC3 #1 Thu Feb 24 14:00:06 EST 2005 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
Wireless card: Netgear WG511T/ Atheros chipset
Laptop: Toshiba SA90-127 Dualboot
IP assignment: DHCP
KDE 3.4

Laptop has two interace , cable ethernet(eth0) and Netgear PCMCI card (ath0)

I have downloaded the latest madwifi drivers(05-05-05) :), built it locally with the above kernel, installed it (make install).

At boot time, I do see both interfaces being up, however on the wireless interface(ath0) I do see errors under RX packets. removing the eth0 , i do not have wireless connection to connect to the net.

Bringing the KDE Network Device Control tool up and trying to activate ath0 interface , will give me "Determining IP information...failed"

Appreciate any help..


<code>
[root@localhost log]# ifconfig
ath0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0F:B5:23:D4:8F
==> there is no inet addr: here, do i need to add it manually ?
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
==> RX packets:16 errors:3803 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:3803
TX packets:5 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:199
RX bytes:2637 (2.5 KiB) TX bytes:958 (958.0 b)
Interrupt:11 Memory:efa20000-efa30000

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:08:0D:80:F8:C8
inet addr:192.168.123.178 Bcast:192.168.123.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:832 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:932 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:542105 (529.3 KiB) TX bytes:129318 (126.2 KiB)

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:4487 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:4487 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:2927688 (2.7 MiB) TX bytes:2927688 (2.7 MiB)
<code/>
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Also:

<code>

[root@localhost net]# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

ath0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"Volek" Nickname:"localhost.localdomain"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:50:18:07:08:A0
Bit Rate:11 Mb/s Tx-Power:50 dBm Sensitivity=0/3
Retry:off RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=52/94 Signal level=-43 dBm Noise level=-95 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:6758 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

</code>

-----------------

Also:
<code>

root@localhost net]# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 01)
00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corp. 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 01)
00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corp. 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 01)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corp. 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 01)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corp. 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 83)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
01:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB PRO/100 VE (MOB) Ethernet Controller (rev 83)
01:0b.0 CardBus bridge: Toshiba America Info Systems ToPIC95 PCI to Cardbus Bridge with ZV Support (rev 33)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)

<code/>

---------------

Note bellow both ath0 and eth0 use interupt 11 isn't this a conflict ?

# cat /proc/interrupts
CPU0
0: 3344468 XT-PIC timer
1: 11219 XT-PIC i8042
2: 0 XT-PIC cascade
8: 1 XT-PIC rtc
9: 245 XT-PIC acpi
10: 0 XT-PIC uhci_hcd, i915@pci:0000:00:02.0
11: 61790 XT-PIC Intel 82801DB-ICH4, Intel 82801DB-ICH4 Modem, ehci_hcd, yenta, eth0, ath0
12: 82443 XT-PIC i8042
14: 60777 XT-PIC ide0
15: 144685 XT-PIC ide1
NMI: 0
ERR: 19
[root@localhost proc]#

---------------------------

I don't know is it possible to have 2 connections running at the same time? You might want to try with only one and later add the other (provided it's possible). You can get an IP address by using dhcpcd. You'll have to set your essid and keys first and after that run:
"dhcpcd ath0"

Thanks Darkleaf. I am not sure if I belive that you can not run tow interface at the same time. Many systems in todays world do just that. I have done it under solaris, NT. However I pulled my ethernet cable out to test the wireless card seperatly as you suggested and did the follwoing:

Logined in as user "foo" I went into Kcontrol and took option wireless Network control section. Tried to reset my options, unfortuantly the tool would not take root passwd and allow me to enter options via tool. I guess this is a KDE bug. So I restarted the Kcontrol as root, rentered my options, Operation mode: managed, etc.

Then I restarted network service, "service network restart" ,,,Wolla It worked...I did a ifconfig, and Now see Inet address , gatway, netmask all being set.
root@localhost init.d]# ifconfig
ath0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0F:B5:23:D4:8F
inet addr:192.168.123.155 Bcast:192.168.123.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:1569 errors:5938 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:5938
TX packets:1659 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:199
RX bytes:1285061 (1.2 MiB) TX bytes:298731 (291.7 KiB)
Interrupt:11 Memory:efa20000-efa30000

I rebooted to make sure, and noticed it was not workign again. So I ran service network restart..and things worked again.

So it seems somehow service network restart doenst get run at boot time....

Teh good news is , The madwifi driver works with Netgeat WG511T/fedora 3 kernel 2.6.10 :)

It's possible to do this on boot when running the "dhcpcd ath0" command. If you can find a file in /etc/network or somewhere else in /etc/ that's called interfaces it's pretty easy. You have to enter a line for your interface in there. Check "man interfaces" it'll tell you the commands and look at your ethernet config in there cause the only thing that's different is the wireless commands.

How to run those two cards at the same time I don't know. I read others who did that too. The problem is at least with getting the two working together.

wg511t
 

you might want to use ndiswrapper to get your card working you'll need the XP drivers off of your netgear CD. you'll need to extract the files you'll need netw511.inf and wg511nd5.sys . this site should help you http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/p...p/Installation and once you get the card with both lights flashing make sure you add it in your system setting/network and activate it. ndiswrapper worked great for me, anyways good luck working on it. email me if need some help MiND@email.nu