Hi guys, I created a similar thread last week in the networking section but only got one response. I was hoping to get a little more help here as this forum helped me tremendously to partition my hard drive safely. That was over a week ago, and ever since then I have been struggling with setting up my network. Here is what I have done.

Basic set up with netconfig. I selected DHCP and followed the directions on the screen.

ifconfig -a shows eth0 with no RX or TX packets at all, but at least it showed me information. If it was not detecting my card (which is compatible with linux), it would have said no device found. correct?

dhclient eth0 just hangs there for half a minute until I can add a command again.

dhcpcd eth0 times out.

I read (in slackbook chaper 5.2.1) that the correct kernel module may not be loaded. So I opened rc.modules with pico and went to the netdevice section. In slackbook it said to find my device and uncomment it.... but I cant find it! (I have an atheros ar9285 in my stock compaq CQ61 laptop) I also opened rc.netdevice and it was empty..

It seems like the more I learn about the network, the more lost I get. I keep hearing that configuring a network on slackware is easy, am I just missing some simple step?

Also, whenever I startx, akonadi gives me an error. I also get another error saying that it could not parse XMS file. Is that just due to my lack of an internet connection at the moment?

What version of slackware? Did you edit /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf? If so, what changes did you make? Are you attempting a wired ethernet connection or a wireless one?

The version I have is 13.1 and I am trying to get a wireless connection. I dont think I edited /etc/rc.d/rc.init1.conf either. I just tried to open it with pico and it shows nothing inside.

Well, that would be /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf.

What does /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules contain? It probably contains at least one line identifying your wireless card, which is probably named wlan0 or some such. Certainly not eth0. (edit: 70-persistent-net.rules should contain a line identifying your ethernet card, which is probably eth0. I meant to say that "eth0" is probably not your wireless card's name.)

Oh! Ok, sorry about that. Yes I did edit /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf! Under eth0 I set USE_DHCP[0]="yes" and I set DHCP_HOSTNAME[0]="SLACKWARE". I didnt give any information for eth1, eth2 or eth3, but I did set my default gateway. Down farther it has an example configuration for wlan0. Should I just uncomment them? Here is what it looks like:

#IFNAME[4]="wlan0"
#IPADDR[4]=""
#NETMASK[4]=""
#USE_DHCP[4]="yes"
#DHCP_HOSTNAME[4]="icculus-wireless" (I could change this to whatever I wanted, correct?)
#DHCP_KEEPRESOLV[4]="yes"
#DHCP_KEEPNTP[4]="yes"
#DHCP_KEEPGW[4]="yes"

/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules shows:

# PCI device 0x10ec :0x8136 (r8169)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="c8 :0a :a9 :48 :7e :$

# PCI device 0x168c :0x002b (ath9k)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="c4 :17 :fe :bb :87 :$

Umm, you cut off an important part of your 70-persistent-net.rules file when you pasted. At least we can see that your machine recognizes the wireless card (I think the ath9k is the one in question). There's a NAME="something" part that you didn't paste. I'm going to assume that it is "wlan0".

I can lead you through this, but I'd be regurgitating what Alien Bob has already written.

If this is a notebook and you intend to connect to other wireless networks as needed, you should consider installing wicd (it's part of extras on the Slackware DVD/CDs) and allowing it to manage your wireless/wired connections. (It's more flexible than managing rc.inet1.conf and /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf changes, IMO.)

Yes it is called wlan0. And how would I install wicd? I am totally new with slack if you couldn't tell..

It's in the extra directory of the slackware CD/DVD. You'd use the installpkg command as root to install it. Or you can get it from the web here or here. If you get it from the web, you'll still have to run installpkg as root to install it.

ok, would it be wise to set up my internet by editing /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf first?

Hi,

Configuring your network in Slackware should be able to help you to configure the network for the machine.

Thanks for the link guys! Would I be able to set it up with wicd instead? Also, what version of wicd comes with the extras in lack 13.1? I would have to use installpkg wicd (version) right?




Edit: Ok I think I have failed as a slacker, I have followed the instructions on Alien Bob's wiki and I STILL do not have a working internet connection... I fear that I have edited something incorrectly and will never get it working.

Wireless is aways a bit of PITA to set up the first time.

What did you do and what did you see when you tried to get things to work? (When you post your config files, make sure that you remove any ESSIDs and passwords/passphrases from them.)

Well, after reading through Alien Bob's wiki, I decided to use /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf because it can be used as the sole configuration file for all network parameters. After some tinkering today (and its possible I might have messed something up before by trying to configure this without any help) this is what I have (minus the explanation at the top):

I suspect it may have something to do with how I have things commented/uncommented, yet am not sure.

So what does your 70-persistent-net.rules file give as the wireless device's name?

Does your access point have encryption turned on? You'd have to look at its configuration to figure that out.

My 70-persistent-net.rules shows the first device (named in my reply above) as eth0 and the second (within that same post, right below the other one) is named wlan0. As for encyption, my router says my wifi protected setup is enabled/configured and it has a WEP security mode. (I hope that is was you were asking for.)