Suse 10.0 and Linksys Wireless setup
 

Hi people,

After the final straw with windoze I've done the sensible thing and installed Linux Suse 10.0 today.

However, I can't get the internet working. I have a Linksys WUSB11 V1.0 usb wireless network adaptor and it was recognised fine when installing linux, but it doesn't seem to be connecting to the router.

I am connected wirelessly to the router on my windows laptop as I type so I know the router's working ok!

I have downloaded the linux drivers for the WUSB11 from Linksys but can't get it to work. I have managed to uncompress the download and run "make config", answering n to all the questions except the "Build Prism2.5 USB (_usb) driver" one.

I can't work out what to put when it's asking for the Linux source directory. I tried "/usr/src/linux-2.6.13-15-obj" but that didn't work...

I don't know if I'm on the right track but any help would be appreciated, particularly if it's as simple to understand as possible, seeing as I'm a noobie by about 3 hours!

Thanks again

Matt

I do not have a USB wireless adapter, but I understand that they can be problematic in Linux. If the device is properly identified by SUSE, the standard wireless card configuration tool that comes with SUSE 10.0 may work. (It works fine with the PCI wireless adapters I have used.) If you have not used it already, here are the steps to get to the tool:

1. Select K Menu --> Control Center --> YaST2 Modules --> Network Devices --> Network Card.
2. Click on the Administrator Mode button and enter your root password. Highlight your network card and click "Edit."
3. Click "Next." You are there.

Hi Cogar,

Thanks for the reply. I've been to the configuration tool as above and followed through all the settings. I've left it to use the setup method of DHCP and the only thing that I entered was to put in the name of my wireless network. The network is unsecured so no passkey etc is needed.

However, it still doesn't seem to be connecting to the router. Does anyone know what settings I might need to change to get this to work?

Thanks again

Matt

You are welcome. When you say it is not connecting to the router, does that mean that you cannot connect to the Internet, or you cannot even connect to the router?

If the wireless connection is configured correctly, but you cannot seem to connect to the Internet, it could be a DNS problem. I wrote a brief guide at another forum showing how to work around that problem. Look here --> link.

If it is a configuration problem, let me make a couple suggestions regarding common problems.

1. If you are using a router, chances are that you have an external modem connecting to the Internet. In that case, you want to configure SUSE for connecting to a LAN. In other words, you are connecting to a device on your LAN that connects to the Internet. Some people try to set up SUSE as a DSL modem, and that configuration would not work with such a setup.

2. Some people also choose the wrong operating mode (Ad-Hoc/Management/Master, etc.). Read the documentation in the wireless card configuration tool page to give you an idea regarding which is appropriate for your situation.

Let me also add an unsolicited comment: Most modern wireless routers support WEP and WPA (preferred) encryption. SUSE 10.0 supports both WEP and WPA encryption pretty much out of the box. So does Windows, although you may need to use a driver from the USB wireless adapter manufacturer to put WPA into use. I suggest setting up your network to use encryption. If you have anything resembling sensitive data on your computer, you probably do not want to allow easy access to your machine. It also reduces the likelihood of someone tapping into your network and using it to broadcast spam.

I should probably add that you would consider setting up encryption after you solve your connectivity problem. No reason to complicate an unsolved problem. :)

Cogar,

I'm also interested in configuring a Linksys wireless notebook card and getting it running; I don't have the SuSe 10.0 dist and at the moment (for other networking difficulties) can't connect and upgrade through the Novell site.

Can you help with Qs re drivers (if needed) under SuSe 9.3 for use with a
Linksys wireless G 2.4 for (802.11g)model WPC545GS version 2 ? Please see my introductory post in the new member forum for some of my system's specs and post any questions you may have about the current hardware/software I have here in the forum thread.

The Linksys customer support I've dealt with claims that they know of no drivers for use with this card on a Linux system. I assume I need a driver. Yes? Is one already on SuSe 9.3? If so, can you help me find/install it?

In my most recent attempts to use Yast2, at one point where I was prompted to insert "DVD 1" in the reader bay, the program did not recognize the disc ( error message read (I'll have to go back for a full quote of it but the gist was that) the disc does not contain an src file; i.e. not accepted as the DVD disc; though it was, of course.) So, I have another problem simply in getting the Yast program to recognize and accept my system CDs/DVDs.

These don't "expire" do they?

Thanks.

PS

my issue here doesn't concern recognition of any router of my own; I'm "simply" trying to get the wireless notebook adapter card recognized and working on my laptop so that it can connect to public WiFi nodes.

Hi bricoleur. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with the intricacies of SUSE 9.3 although I can state that many hardware manufacturers (or the people we seem to talk with) are seemingly clueless regarding Linux. Most wireless cards can be run successfully in Linux using a program called ndiswrapper. It basically adds a wrapper around the Windows drivers so they can be used in Linux. As I recall, YaST will use ndiswrapper if it cannot find a specific Linux driver for the card. Using a procedure similar to the one I mentioned above should give you results in SUSE 9.3 (assuming not too much has changed during the upgrade to version 10.0--the version with which I am familiar).

If you have more than one DVD drive, you might try the other one. I have noticed that YaST sometimes chooses the optical drive you least expect. (Or the drive I least expect anyway.)

I will also add that nothing expires, although you or anyone else using the computer may have updated the kernel so that it does not work properly with the binaries (program files) on the DVD.