Net Gear WP 121 on SuSE 8.1 - Progress and Problems
 

I've succesfully installed SuSE 8.1 (build 2.4.19) on a 586 platform. I know I
should be usinga more current build, but this is the one that I have.

I purchased a Net Gear WG121 as an inexpensive option to get around cabling
problems in this old house and am using it successfully on the Windows XP
laptop, but want to have it on the linx server instead. Since the windows
drivers from the vendor CD-ROM work correctly on the laptop, I have used them
on the SuSE system. I am a Linux newbie hesitant to compile source so have
been try to work with RPMs only. Here is what I have done:

After spending 2 days reading about configuration problems with this system, I
came across a message posted that suggested the linuxant.com/driverloader/ (sorry
I cannot post URLs) RPM would solve the issue about USB 2.0 support for Prism GT
chipsets which is the chipset that linux-wlan.org/docs/wlan_adapters.html.gz identified
for the WG121.

I used the YaST control panel for netowrks to add a new ethernet adapter and
then modified the ifcfg file to complete the channel and frequecy as follows:

BOOTPROTO='dhcp'
REMOTE_IPADDR=''
LABEL='wg121'
STARTMODE='hotplug'
UNIQUE=''
WIRELESS='yes'
WIRELESS_ESSID='emp48'
WIRELESS_KEY=''
WIRELESS_MODE='Managed'
WIRELESS_NICK='wg121'
WIRELESS_NWID=''
DHCLIENT_MODIFY_RESOLV_CONF='yes'
DHCLIENT_SET_DEFAULT_ROUTE='yes'

Note: the machine also has an internal 10/100 ethernet card which is what is allowing
this connection to work

I down loaded the driverloader from linuxant and installed it with YaST. Then
in /usr/sbin I executed dldrconfig and to the default responses to the script then
open browser to 127.0.0.1:18020/ to load inf files from the Vendor CD-ROM. This all
worked fine after a couple trial runs but the Driverloader indicates it cannot find
the device (reasonable as it was not plugged in) so I restarted the system to ensure
that all of the changes were saved. The boot came up with only one message:

mtrr: no more MTRRs available

My /var/lib/driverloader currently contains:

wg121nd5.sys
wg121nd4.inf

Now for the big test, I plug the WG121 into the USB port and lights come on and the
System freezes. I do not get a log file entry to tell me what might be going wrong.

Cna anyone give me a clue as to where to go from here? am I making (one or more) stupid newbie mistakes?

Thanks
Patrick

Yes, Yes, Yes!!!!! it is working! WD121 under a linux build.
 

After working through several issues on the SuSE 8.1 system, it became increasingly obvious that the 2.4.19 kernel would not do several of the things that I needed so I spent a little time looking at other builds and kernels. It was decided that Mandrake 10.0 would probably be the best for our purposes. I can right a lot about the difference in the builds, but this message is to say that the Net Gear WG121 is working (if fact that is what is making the connection which is allowing me to post this message) and it was not that difficult after all.. Since these forums are about Answers, I thought I would follow through.

I will post the method under a different header since it is not SuSE any longer and I would not want to confuse anyone else. For the details see:

Net Gear WG121 on Mandrake 10.0 – It really does work.