I picked up the SUSE 10 bible today in hope that it would help me with my wireless network problem. I started reading the chapter on setting up a wireless network and it says the first thing to do is use the "iwlist" command to find wireless network. When I do this I get "bash: command: iwlist not found."

I YaST'd ndiswrapper as the book suggested, but did not get the windows drivers. My wireless card already works, I just have problems accessing a secure network.

I've also found that traceroute gives "bash: command: traceroute not found."

Is there another YaST package I need to install that has these commands?

System:
IBM X40 Laptop
Onboard wireless NIC
Dual booting WinXP and SUSE10.0

I have no wireless problems in XP & with SUSE I can connect via wireless to open networks. but if I try and connect to my encrypted network I can't.

You could either search for programs in yast, or use the rpm command:

> rpm -q --filesbypkg --all | grep iwlist
wireless-tools /usr/sbin/iwlist
wireless-tools /usr/share/man/man8/iwlist.8.gz

I searched in YaST and came up with file not found. I'll try rpm (I am still very new to command line and have never had any luck with rpm, thanks for the verbatim).

Ok, I got iwlist working. Now I'm having a problem with iwconfig.

I am doing:
linux:/usr/sbin> ./iwconfig ath0 essid FETTSPOT
and get:
SET failed on device ath0 ; Operation not permitted.
I am guessing I need root logged in. How do I get root privlidges in terminal?

Try >sudo /usr/sbin/iwconfig ath0 essid FETTSPOT
A regular user isn't allowed to set values, just to read them.

You can also set all of your values in yast when you configure the the wireless device.

I've tried using YaST and if I have encryption on I can't connect to the router. I can using WinXP, but not SUSE. I can connect using SUSE if I turn off my encryption.

Here are some screen shots of me setting things up in YaST.

This is a shot of my wireless router settings.
http://lordfett.com/linux/router.jpg

Then this is YaST.
http://lordfett.com/linux/wnetyast1.jpg
http://lordfett.com/linux/wnetyast2.jpg
http://lordfett.com/linux/wnetyast3.jpg

I also tried operating mode in master and managed
http://lordfett.com/linux/operatingmode

This is my iwlist scan.
Cell 04 - Address: 00:14:6C:3E:0E:9E

• ESSID:"FETTSPOT"
  Mode:Master
  Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
  Quality=60/94 Signal level=-35 dBm Noise level=-95 dBm
  Encryption keyn
  Bit Rate:1 Mb/s
  Bit Rate:2 Mb/s
  Bit Rate:5 Mb/s
  Bit Rate:6 Mb/s
  Bit Rate:9 Mb/s
  Bit Rate:11 Mb/s
  Bit Rate:12 Mb/s
  Bit Rate:18 Mb/s
  Bit Rate:24 Mb/s
  Bit Rate:36 Mb/s
  Bit Rate:48 Mb/s
  Bit Rate:54 Mb/s
  Extra:bcn_int=100

You have WEP on the router, and are configuring WPA

Thanks, I need it would end up being something stupid simple I missed. I normally have it set to WEP but since I can't connect to my router I use one of my neighbor's unsecured signals and have to turn that all off. Before I got iwlist working I had the operating mode set as managed (since the router doesn't say) but with the report from iwlist I can see it is master. I guess since I remembered to change that I forgot about the WEP.

Is there a way to set up multiple wireless connections? So if I leave the house with my laptop and go to a friends house, can I connect to his wireless without having to reset all of my stuff?

I'm not sure if he's got WEP or WPA on. Encryption on just reports if there's encryption or not.

If you want wpa to work, its pretty easy on Suse 10. You just have to go to Yast and install WPA_Supplicant. Then browse to Control Center/ Yast Modules/ Network Devices/Network Card and then configure your card with your wireless essid and encryption key. That'll make it easy for you to connect to your router and your friend's router if needed. Unfortunately I havent found a nice GUI to support changing networks with a couple clicks, but I know there are some in the works and hopefully soon on Suse. Netapplet and Knemo work well for Suse. Netapplet lets you turn on/off your wlan0 or eth0 or whatever and Knemo just gives you the status of the connection.

Hope this helps!

Oh and btw, dont use WEP, it can be cracked in a few minutes

The links he provided showed one being WEP and the other being WPA.

The easiest way to change configurations on the fly, may be to save your /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-wlan0 file somewhere else. Perhaps /root/ifcfg-wlan0-home. Then do the same after configuring a connection with yast on your other location. Lets say /root/ifcfg-wlan0-work.

Remember that your key is contained in this file, so make sure that they are only readable by root. Then write a script that copies over your current config with a new one, and restarts the interface.

code for homenet:code for worknet:Then you could run "sudo homenet" or "sudo worknet" to reconfigure your network settings.

If you wanted to you could write a single script that takes an argument such as --home or --work and copies the correct file based on which argument you use.

On my network, I used the "dd" command to copy 32 random bytes from /dev/random, with I piped through "od -t x1" to convert these raw bytes to 64 hexidecimal characters, and piped that through sed to get rid of the addresses, spaces and newlines. Then I cut and pasted the hexidecimal string into both the yast configuration and the router's configuration. Someone is less likely to guess a maximum length random key then a short mnemonic one.