Wireless laptop?
 

How is the wireless connectivity support on Zenwalk 2.8? Problems? Easy?

What card? I am going to write a small Howto on installing the rt61 on kernel 2.6.17.6 which is Zenwalk 2.8 defualt kernel. Once I got my card up and running it was working with no problems whatsoever. Stayed online for 3 hours straight.

I have a netgear wg-511 (made in taiwan) which uses the prism54 module on kanotix or ubuntu.

don't have my laptop in front of me but Will check tonight. I think Zenwalk has support for prism54 built right in.

I'm currently installing on my old sony vaio. Should be done in about an hour and will post results.

alright, just let us know what you need help on.

Finished install, ZW runs well, but wireless Netgear card not found, wifi-radar shows up blank. When I boot ubuntu the card is found. More later.

Look in your /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net or /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net/wireless you should see a folder that says prism54. It may be a folder also.

prism54 is there, with prism54.ko in it, and modprobe prism54 shows no error. How do I bring up the card? Should I add prism54 to modprobe.conf or some such?

what does iwconfig say. mine brings up lo and some other things and ra0 which is the interface name that is give by ralink.

ifconfig just shows
'lo'

iwconfig. It is for wireless.

I am using grub from another install. Do I need a modifier to enable networking that would have been set up if I had installed lilo?

shouldn't. Why does it say command cannot be found with iwconfig.

Sorry, iw not if.....

iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.
eth0 no wireless extensions
eth1 NOT READY! ESSID:off/any Nickname:"(none)"
Mode:Managed Channel:) Access point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=31 dBm Sensitivity=0/200

everything else 0.

Odd that there is no light on the card. Usually at least they flash during boot.

try
All interfaces are coded differently. So your wireless might be eth1. I thought it would have been wlan0.(But they may be what Ndiswrapper uses.)

I just connected to my network using a cable on eth0, and now networkconfig shows the following out put in the terminal:

# networkconfig
**** /sbin/dhcpcd: not running
**** /sbin/dhcpcd: not running
dhcpcd: MAC address = 08:00:46:2f:a9:ab
dhcpcd: your IP address = 192.168.1.100
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory
/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1: eth1 is 'Any ESSID'

SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory
/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1: eth1 is 'Any ESSID'
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory
/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1: eth1 is 'Any ESSID'

I have seen the SIO... message during boot up also.

Here's the iwconfig output:

# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

eth1 NOT READY! ESSID:off/any Nickname:"(none)"
Mode:Managed Channel:0 Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=31 dBm Sensitivity=0/200
Retry min limit:0 RTS thr=0 B Fragment thr=0 B
Encryption key:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0


I'm going to do a netpkg upgrade-all to see if something changes.

Thanks for trying.....

what do you get when you try dhcpcd eth1.

dhcpcd eth1 returns to the prompt, no output.

There are no lights on the card, which leads me to believe it is not being detected.

What happens when you try to get on the internet then. When using my USB dlink it would not always flash the lights but would work.

There is no wireless. Eth0 works. When I "modprobe prism54", dmesg shows "eth1: could not upload firmware ('isl3890')

what does lspci -v show.

Last entry is the relevant one, I guess:

00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8363/8365 [KT133/KM133] (rev 03)
Subsystem: Sony Corporation Unknown device 80f6
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 8
Memory at f0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Capabilities: [a0] AGP version 2.0
Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2

00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8363/8365 [KT133/KM133 AGP] (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00009000-00009fff
Memory behind bridge: e8100000-e9ffffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 38000000-380fffff
Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2

00:07.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super South] (rev 40)
Subsystem: Sony Corporation Unknown device 80f6
Flags: bus master, stepping, medium devsel, latency 0
Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2

00:07.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
Subsystem: Sony Corporation Unknown device 80f6
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0
I/O ports at 1c40 [size=16]
Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2

00:07.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 1a) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Sony Corporation Unknown device 80f6
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 9
I/O ports at 1c00 [size=32]
Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2

00:07.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 1a) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Sony Corporation Unknown device 80f6
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 9
I/O ports at 1c20 [size=32]
Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2

00:07.4 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super ACPI] (rev 40)
Subsystem: Sony Corporation Unknown device 80f6
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 9
Capabilities: [68] Power Management version 2

00:07.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
Subsystem: Sony Corporation Unknown device 80f6
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 5
I/O ports at 1000 [size=256]
I/O ports at 1c54 [size=4]
I/O ports at 1c50 [size=4]
Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2

00:07.6 Communication controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 30)
Subsystem: Sony Corporation Unknown device 80f6
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 5
I/O ports at 1400 [size=256]
Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 2

00:0a.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1420
Subsystem: Sony Corporation Unknown device 80f6
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 168, IRQ 9
Memory at 38100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=05, sec-latency=176
Memory window 0: 30000000-31fff000 (prefetchable)
Memory window 1: 32000000-33fff000
I/O window 0: 00002000-000020ff
I/O window 1: 00002400-000024ff
16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001

00:0a.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1420
Subsystem: Sony Corporation Unknown device 80f6
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 168, IRQ 10
Memory at 38101000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Bus: primary=00, secondary=06, subordinate=09, sec-latency=176
Memory window 0: 34000000-35fff000 (prefetchable)
Memory window 1: 36000000-37fff000
I/O window 0: 00002800-000028ff
I/O window 1: 00002c00-00002cff
16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001

00:0e.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB12LV26 IEEE-1394 Controller (Link) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Sony Corporation Unknown device 80f6
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 9
Memory at e8004000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 1

00:10.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
Subsystem: Sony Corporation Unknown device 80f6
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 10
I/O ports at 1800 [size=256]
Memory at e8004800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage Mobility P/M AGP 2x (rev 64) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Subsystem: Sony Corporation Unknown device 80f6
Flags: bus master, stepping, medium devsel, latency 66, IRQ 5
Memory at e9000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
I/O ports at 9000 [size=256]
Memory at e8100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at 38000000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [50] AGP version 1.0
Capabilities: [5c] Power Management version 1

06:00.0 Network controller: Intersil Corporation ISL3890 [Prism GT/Prism Duette]/ISL3886 [Prism Javelin/Prism Xbow] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Netgear WG511 Wireless Adapter
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 80, IRQ 10
Memory at 36000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 1

Are you sure your card is a prism54 card?

also one thing I saw was that your system was showing a lot of unknown devices.

looking on the Ubuntu and Kanotix partitions I see /lib/hotplug/firmware/isl3890...
Perhaps I need to netpkg hotplug?

I would try that and also see if isl3890 is in /lib/modules/2.6.17.6/kernel/driver/net or /lib/modules/2.6.17.6/drivers/net/wireless

I did some checking and the taiwan model listed as prism54, but I'm not sure. I assumed (!!).

Since it is trying to load isl3890, maybe hotplug is the answer. Is that an option in zen?

Yes it is. Might look under System for system config. I was looking through the menus and found service manager. might try there to see if it is already installed. Looking into your card now. Can you give me more information about it.

I did a locate isl3890 and it only show in ubuntu and kanotix.

The locations are /lib/firmware/[kernel version]/ and /lib/hotplug/.

Okay found out you want to use the PrismGT driver. According to this. http://www.linux-wlan.org/docs/wlan_adapters.html.gz . I am still looking for the interface name that prismGT uses.

Netgear WG511 54mbps wireless PC Card ew-bit CardBus WG511 with the "Made in Taiwan" label. It's not new, somewhat dated.

Do you have the prismGT module?

no, only prism54. I think the lack of the isl3890 firmware, maybe due to a newer version of the islsm software, might be the problem. The prism54.org website has some info.

yeah I looked through their site. They had some pretty good information. http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_...g.html#Prism54
may be of some use for you also.

Here's a discouraging post:

http://prism54.org/punbb/viewtopic.php?id=1656

maybe I'll have to wait for a fix, eh?

could just be something he is doing wrong. I would give it a try. What is the worst that could happen. It doesn't work currently. S

i don't know for your card but it might be the same thing as ipw2*00 (like the centrinos' ones):
kernel module is compiled BUT firmware isn't included in Zenwalk because zenwalk doen't have rights to distribut it.

So you have to download the firmware, uncompress, and install/copy it in the good directory (/lib/firmware/ most of time).

Could be, but it works in Ubuntu and Kanotix.

I'm going away for a few days, but will return early next week and continue. Thanks all.

i don't know for kanotix, but ubuntu come with ipw2*00 firmware already installed (some distrib can some other can't, depend of licence, money, ....)

Maybe ndiswrapper is a solution ?