Re: Newbie questions

Vikram,

Two possibilities I can think of:

1. The firmware for your card isn't getting downloaded to the card 
properly. I had this problem with my USB-based card. You can tell 
whether this is the problem by running ifconfig: if the firmware has 
been downloaded correctly, the MAC address for the card will be 
correctly displayed:

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:09:5B:B2:2A:77

If not, it will be displayed as

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:00:00:00:00:00

2. The other possibility is that the card can't find any wireless 
networks in range. To test whether this is the problem, create a new 
wireless config file in /etc/wlan (/etc/wlan/wlancfg-ESSIDNAME), and 
update the following line:

IS_ADHOC=y # y|n, y - adhoc, n - infrastructure

This will setup and ad-hoc (peer-to-peer) wireless network instead of an 
access-point based network. This will allow the wireless card to 
activate even if there isn't a network for it to find.

Regards
David

Vikram KAUL wrote:

>David, others
>
> Thanks for the response.
> I do have ifcfg-wlan0. But that is only for setting up the IP 
>configurations once the wlan setup works fine. I have a problem with the 
>setup itself. Notice what I get
>
>#iwconfig wlan0
>
>  wlan0 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:""
>  Mode:Auto Channel:0 Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
>  Bit Rate:2 Mb/s Tx-Power:2346 dBm
>  Retry min limit:8 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
>  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
>
>See the values for Channel, AP, Tx-Power. What does a channel of ZERO 
>mean. What is a Tx-Power of 2346 dBm ?
>
>But given this configuration, scanning works fine.
>
>Also, if I were to use the same card (linksys WCF12 Compact Flash with 
>PCMCIA adapter), but use the orinoco_cs driver instead (which will be used 
>if the prims2_cs is not loaded), then the card works well. It maps to the 
>nearest AP, and if I config it in the ad-hoc mode, it does it and 
>communicates with peer nodes over ad-hoc
>
>The question is why the card does not even get initialized properly. 
>
>Has anyone successfully made a linksys WCF12 card work with the driver.
>
>Are there some prism2_cs cards that work without absolutely any problem 
>with the linux-wlan driver ? I don't have to stick with the linksys. It 
>was the only one I could get my hands on, but I can switch if I have to. 
>
>Any help would be welcome. I can send in more details if desired.
>
>regards..
>Vikram
>
>On Sat, 5 Nov 2005, Gee, David wrote:
>
>david>Date: Sat, 05 Nov 2005 00:10:11 -0600
>david>From: "Gee, David" <[email protected]>
>david>To: Vikram KAUL <[email protected]>
>david>Cc: [email protected]
>david>Subject: Re: [lwlan-user] Newbie questions
>david>
>david>Vikram,
>david>
>david>Is your wlan0 interface configured to come up at boot? Check
>david>/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0 ...you may find that this file
>david>doesn't exist - when I installed my prism2_usb card I had to create this
>david>file for my card. You can either use your ethernet connection's file as a
>david>template (ifcfg-eth0) or use mine below - you'll have to tweak it with
>david>your MAC address, preferred IP settings etc. Pay particular attention to
>david>the ONBOOT line - that controls the state of the interface at boot time.
>david>
>david>DEVICE=wlan0
>david>BOOTPROTO=static
>david>BROADCAST=10.255.255.255
>david>IPADDR=10.255.255.1
>david>NETMASK=255.255.255.0
>david>NETWORK=10.255.255.0
>david>ONBOOT=yes
>david>TYPE=Ethernet
>david>USERCTL=yes
>david>PEERDNS=yes
>david>IPV6INIT=no
>david>DHCP_HOSTNAME=malvern.allpowerfuldave.com
>david>
>david>Regards
>david>David Gee
>david>
>david>
>david>Vikram KAUL wrote:
>david>
>david>> 
>david>> Hi Folks,
>david>> 
>david>> New here. Downloaded 0.2.2 version of the driver for a Fedora Core 4
>david>> (2.6.11.1_1369) kernel. Compiled and installed well. I am currently
>david>> using a linksys Compact Flash card (Model WCF12) with a Compact Flash
>david>> adapter on the PCMCIA slot in the IBM T-41
>david>> 
>david>> When I insert the card the "prism2_cs" module loads up. But even if I
>david>> have used the SSID_wlan0="" (so that it could associate with any AP), it
>david>> doesn't do that. In fact, the card shows a solid green light, but
>david>> iwconfig shows wlan0 has no wireless extensions (not up). Why is that ?
>david>> Is there something I am not doing right ?
>david>> 
>david>> Additionally, I then execute the following command (although, it was
>david>> noted in the README that this was only for pci usage)
>david>> 
>david>> wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_ifstate ifstate=enable
>david>> 
>david>> This brings up wlan0 with wireless extensions, and the green light now
>david>> blinks, but iwconfig reports the following:
>david>> 
>david>> #iwconfig wlan0
>david>
>david>> wlan0 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:""
>david>> Mode:Auto Channel:0 Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
>david>> Bit Rate:2 Mb/s Tx-Power:2346 dBm
>david>> Retry min limit:8 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
>david>> Encryption key:off
>david>> Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
>david>> Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
>david>> Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
>david>> 
>david>> The strange thing is that scanning works. I have changed the ESSID and
>david>> Address in the following cut-n-paste
>david>> 
>david>> # iwlist wlan0 scan
>david>> 
>david>> wlan0 Scan completed :
>david>> Cell 01 - Address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
>david>> ESSID:"A name LAN3"
>david>> Mode:Master
>david>> Encryption key:on
>david>> Channel:1
>david>> Quality:13/92 Signal level:-75 dBm Noise level:-88 dBm
>david>> Cell 02 - Address: yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy
>david>> ESSID:"A name LAN2"
>david>> Mode:Master
>david>> Encryption key:on
>david>> Channel:2
>david>> Quality:17/92 Signal level:-73 dBm Noise level:-90 dBm
>david>> 
>david>> 
>david>> My question is why is the interface (wlan0) not coming up right away ?
>david>> Why do I have to run the wlanctl-ng command ? It was recommended for
>david>> PCI, but without that, I can't get the card working.
>david>> 
>david>> I have numerous other questions about not being able to get into ad-hoc
>david>> mode, but I will reserve those for later.
>david>> 
>david>> Thanks in anticipation for any help/pointers that anyone can provide
>david>> 
>david>> regards...
>david>> Vikram
>david>> _______________________________________________
>david>> Linux-wlan-user mailing list
>david>> [email protected]
>david>> http://lists.linux-wlan.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-wlan-user
>david>
>david>
>  
>

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