Re: Newbie questions

I am using a Netgear MA111 usb device with driver .0.2.2 and Fedora Core 4.

Although you have a different device, you are getting exactly the same result as I did before I found a patch to /etc/wlan/shared which resolved the problem.

David suggested it might be a problem with downloading the firmware. In my situation, after the download of the firware, the device did not then switch out of the firmware download mode.

Therefore, it might be worth adding one line to the file:

In /etc/wlan/shared: 
        wlan_enable()
        .......
        nsdname=`wlan_nsdname $1`
        if ! ${nsdname}_fwload $1 ; then
                ${ECHO} "Firmware failed to load for device $1"
                return 1
        fi
        # Enable the interface
        # ADD THE FOLLOWING LINE
        $WLANCTL $1 lnxreq_ifstate ifstate=disable
        result=`$WLANCTL $1 lnxreq_ifstate ifstate=enable`
 
Then reboot and see what happens.

Regards,

Peter
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Gee, David 
  To: Vikram KAUL 
  Cc: [email protected] 
  Sent: Sunday, November 06, 2005 11:53 PM
  Subject: Re: [lwlan-user] 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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