Amigo pci wireless card problem on clean install of slackware 12.2

dru-linux · 01-29-2009, 08:08 PM

I have my CompTIA A+ and Net+, I am not a computer idiot. I am however a Linux Idiot. This is my first experience with Linux and I chose Slackware. I know its not the easiest to work with, but if I wanted the best. I believe it is the best choice for me.

My box: a Compaq 5BW220. Pentium III, 256 megs of ram, 10 gig hard drive, CDrw, onboard LAN (eth0 – not being used) and the problem – Amigo PCI wireless card (wlan0).

I did a clean install of Slackware 12.2. There are a few annoyances with the video, but it booted fine. I am not using the onboard wired lan.

After it booted I had to go to “Network Settings” and configure the Amigo wireless card. Everything worked fine and I connected to my home wireless network with out incident (no wep – its open). I surfed the internet, downloaded some themes for KDE, made some adjustments to the desktop, basically, personalized it for me. I rebooted the computer several times, and had to enable wlan0 after each boot, something I was going to fix the next day.

The next day when I went to enable wlan0, it tried for 45-60 seconds, enabled for about 2 seconds, then disabled. I worked on it for a few hours, reconfigured it rebooted several times, but no luck.

I assumed I screwed something up the night before, so I wiped the hard drive and did a clean install again. I got everything up and running including wlan0. I surfed the web, didn’t download anything this time. I rebooted several times. Other than having to enable wlan0 every time, everything worked fine. I left personalizing it for the next day.

The next day, I had the same problem again. I try to enable wlan0, it tries for 45-60 seconds, enables for about 2 seconds, then disables.

This time I went SlackBuilds.org and downloaded “Ndiswrapper”, I followed their instructions, and installed it on my machine. I followed the Ndiswrapper instructions to load my windows drivers (rt61.inf,sys). I still have the same problem.

I checked to make sure that they are installed by typing:
Ndiswrapper –l
The response I get is:
rt61 : driver installed
Device (1814:0302) present (alternate driver: rt61pci)

I still have the same problem. Help!

I apologize for the length of this, I was trying to include all the information so one you Code Warriors could help me with this.

Thank you for your time
Dru-linux

Didier Spaier · 01-30-2009, 02:02 AM

To my knowledge, in Slackware 'Network settings' (the 'netconfig' command) works only for eth0 and can't handle wireless settings such as WEP or WPA -- that you do not need for now, hopefully.

All network settings are kept in the file /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf that you can edit by hand. And, the file /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 should be made executable:

Code:

chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1

so that your computer be connected after booting.

You will find all information you need about network configuration in Slackware in this article from Alien BOB.

In a pinch, if your wireless card's interface name is wlan0 (you can check that with 'ifconfig -a' and 'iwconfig') you could use following settings in /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf (just uncomment appropriate lines):

Code:

IFNAME[4]="wlan0"
USE_DHCP[4]="yes"

Then after

Code:

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 restart

You should be connected. At next start the script /etc/rc.d/rc.M which source /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 will do a '/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 start' so you will be connected.

PS Please get rid of Ndiswrapper that you do not need, go back to the native Linux driver as it works.
PS2 I suppose your server uses dhcp protocol to allocate IP addresses. If not, set configuration parameters in /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf for static IP. I guess you know how to do that

dru-linux · 01-30-2009, 05:36 AM

Thank you for your help. Everything is working fine now, at least until I get a chance to play with it again, and I will screw it up again. Its my nature to tweak things until they cease to work.

By the way, When I said I was using 'Network settings', I was using it inside KDE, under "Control Center - Internet & Network". I assumed the changes I made there would be saved.

I had a dream that Slackware would be my Mistress. For the last few days, Slackware tried to make me its "prison wife". But you changed that back, so thanks again.

May the God's smile upon your day.

Dru-linux

Didier Spaier · 01-30-2009, 12:06 PM

I will be happy to drink a beer with you if you happen to visit Paris

On Slackware you will be better off using only Slackware tools & scripts for network configuration than KDE tools.

Some people are happy with wicd for configuring their wireless connections, but I believe that this application, available as a Slackware 12.2 "official" package, is mostly useful on a laptop for people traveling with it.

Cheers,