Re: Fedora Core V2 Upgrade Woes

On Tue, 2004-06-08 at 00:24, Joerg Albert wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Sat, 5 Jun 2004, Mark Sansome wrote:
> 
> > Dear all,
> >
> > I have been, for many months now, happily running Fedora Core V.1
> > with 2.4.x Kernel using the at76c503-0.11 driver with my Belkin F5d6050
> > USB Wireless connector.
> >
> > In a rash moment I decided to upgrade to Fedora Core v.2 which includes
> > Kernel 2.6.5-1.358. I had hoped that the upgrade would simply leave the
> > drivers intact.
> >
> > Unfortunately no such luck - recompiling the at76c503-0.11 driver didn't
> > work either, so I started digging around and, with the help of a friend
> > got a version of at76c503a-0.12beta12.tar.gz (without Internet access I
> > couldn't obtain the latest cvs version).
> >
> > This compiles with a few warnings (I can attach the output if it helps),
> > dmesg shows the driver loaded, but unfortunately it hangs my system
> > (usually at the "probing for new hardware" stage) when I re-boot. It
> > completely freezes with no possibility (that I could find) for an
> > elegant exit - Big Red Button job!
> >
> > From there the only way to get the system working again is to go in
> > via "Linux Rescue" and uninstall the at76c503.
> >
> > Can anyone get me round this problem. A Linux system without
> > Internet access is not terribly useful...
> 
> If the USB-device is attached during boot, please boot without and attach
> it later while watching syslog on the console (check /etc/syslog.conf).
> This may give more hints.
> I don't have Fedora v2 here nor its kernel version but can use the driver
> with kernel 2.6.6.
> 
> /Jörg

Jörg + All,

You are or the right track I'm sure. Here's what I discovered - almost
by accident yesterday (before I got your mail):

I unplugged the Belkin from the USB port and tried to boot. Presto! FC2
started even with the at76c503a driver loaded.However, plugging in the
Belkin again causes an immediate system freeze.

Taking it step by step I found that if I removed the
etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0 file it would boot. This
allowed me run modprobe at76c503-rfmd (as root). At this point I could
replug the Belkin without a crash. From here (still as root) I could run
the following steps one by one:
ifconfig wlan0 up 
iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed 
iwconfig wlan0 essid any 
iwconfig wlan0 key restricted xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ifconfig wlan0 192.168.1.77 
route add default gw 192.168.1.1

At which point I had Internet access! I was able to switch to my user
account without losing connectivity.

With an Internet connection I was able to update FC2 and run the cvs
thing to make sure I had the latest version of the drivers just in case
it helped.

All is not rosy yet however. In order to have Internet access I need to
boot up and log in as root with the Belkin unplugged, run modprobe, plug
in the Belkin and then perform all those steps individually before
switching to my user account. Clumsy but not intolerable.

To summarise:

With the etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0 file in place the
system will crash if the at76c503a driver is installed;

With the Belkin plugged in at start-up the system will crash if the
at76c503a is driver installed;

With the at76c503a driver uninstalled the system will boot with the
Belkin plugged in and/or the etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0
file in place.

I guess this still points to the driver as the culprit - but why can I
get it going manually and not automagically?

I am a newbie (to Linux) and am not familiar with syslog. I will try it
when I get home - what should I look for?

Thanks for your help.

Mark