ianw1974

Something worth bearing in mind. My wireless units now no longer get firmware updates. Solved this though with DD-WRT :)

Everytime I buy something now, will look for support from DD-WRT because I have so much more functionality. The Netgear WG602v3 now has much more functionality than it ever had. So does the ASUS WL-330GE. And it's Linux :)

And don't worry about WPA. TKIP is encrypted 128 bit. WPA2 with AES is CCMA, but still 128bit encrypted and not 256bit like everyone thinks because it's AES. WPA2 is better, it's now the standard, and to get a WIFI logo on a device now requires support for this. WPA with TKIP is effectively being dropped for WPA2. Devices still have support for older hardware so that they can connect.

With WPA, when someone is attempting to hack, it's not so simple. Was reading on this yesterday. Yes there is a shared password, but it's not like WEP. If someone attempts to hack into it, the router provides it's own mechanisms and generates a new key. The router will also generate a new key at a determined period as well. Mine are now doing it every 3600 seconds. But if an attack is detected, it will generate a new key. The password is used as part of this process to generate a new key. The difference is with WEP the password is sent in cleartext before the encryption is then made. With WPA, everything is already encrypted so nothing is sent cleartext. So even though a shared password, someone is unlikely to be able to brute-force because of the way WPA works be regenerating new keys when an attack is detected.

We're all still here. You know, you don't just have to come here and post about problems. Everyone can come here and chat too. Posting comes in fits and bursts, usually when a new version comes out and people have problems. That has happened. Then there is the lull.

Come and join in, post, chat, doesn't just have to be about problems :)

If you're machine isn't running all the time, you can also install anacron which will mean that as soon as you power it up, any scripts that were meant to run will run.

But I expect that you're script isn't executable, or alternatively at the beginning of the file you've forgotten to add this:

#!/bin/bash

would have to be on the first line.

The firmware would be required for sure. Is that a 64 bit windows you have? No access to a 32 bit one?

You could always write to them about your particular card, maybe they would be able to suggest something to get it working for you?

You could bridge two routers together providing they have the bridging capabilities via wireless, or, one as a wireless client of the other main router with the dsl connection. With the PC's connected to the router via cable. That way also, no wireless cards to worry about.

Experience is good, it always comes in handy :)

I installed Ubuntu 10.04, although from what I remember it was all in a GUI. The alternate CD was text based.

It shouldn't be a text-based install for Ubuntu, Kubuntu, etc, because they all allow you to install in GUI mode. Normally the LiveCD had an installer which you launched once in KDE/Gnome and it was all GUI-based. The same for the last few installs I did by booting directly for install, was all GUI mode without having to launch the installer from the desktop. It's been like this for a while now. I'm not sure how you managed to get the text-based installer. Admittedly I use the Ubuntu CD, rather than Kubuntu, but they should be the same. Ubuntu is Gnome-based, but even after an install with this, I can get KDE simply enough.

MAC filtering on it's own isn't going to stop them, but it stops them connecting by default. First they'd have to do some scanning which is easy enough, collect some traffic and identify a MAC address. Haven't done it, so don't know exactly, and it doesn't interest me so much.

But the biggest barried is the encryption. WPA is the one to use. WEP can be easily cracked, so once they have a MAC and cracked WEP, they are in.

Maybe there are some module conflicts, I remember when reading the info, that you have to unload some modules, before you modprobe the new module that you compiled for your wireless device. Perhaps this is why it's unclaimed and unusable? Can you confirm?

Nothing is embarassing, we've all been there and done that :)

You could attempt using ndiswrapper and the Windows drivers. Your model isn't listed on the ndiswrapper website, but that's not to say it won't work.

More info here:

http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/ndiswrapper/index.php?title=Main_Page

From the link you posted, where does it say that the wireless is not active? To me it looks like it could work, I don't see anywhere that the wireless doesn't work. Unless I'm blind :) but I read the README and it seems your card will work.

A word on MAC filtering though, it is useless.

Not necessarily useless, but does make life a lot harder for them than if it wasn't used at all. It'd keep the majority of people out. Of course, a MAC can be generated, but they'd have to scan to get a MAC address that has been allowed access via the wireless in the first place. You wouldn't generally use an app to generate one - since the wireless router will only be allowing mac addresses that are in it's allowed list - and they will be the MAC addresses you added to the list.

Hi John,

Just check the list of kernels available in Mandy 2010.2, there are some newer ones there, even to 2.6.34 from what I was checking the other day on the internet, so you should find something.

You can quickly filter with:

urpmf --name kernel

from the console, but in MCC you can also filter packages to install with kernel in the name, and find something suitable. No need to go to extremes with cooker kernels.

Sweet Paul,

Never knew about that config file thing, but using it now, works a treat

The external Netgear USB sticks I've used that came with a Netgear WG602v3 that I bought ages ago. Worked with Linux, without any ndiswrapper or anything, last time I remember trying. Netgear stuff generally expensive but good. Most of my stuff is netgear, except the ASUS that I last bought as a cheaper access point because nothing else was available at the time. And yes, with the ASUS thing you'd need one for each computer to connect to the WLAN Router as a client - not exactly a bridge as such - only a bridge between the ASUS Wireless to the ethernet port of the card it's connected to. Similar in how a DSL modem would bridge to the ethernet port it's connected to.

WPA is enough, this is encrypted with TKIP. WPA2 is better, as it's encrypted with AES. You can also do MAC filtering as well if you want, but remember that if you get a new wireless card, you'll have to add the MAC before you'll be able to connect to the WLAN router. The only way you can make the wireless signal directional is by using a directional antenna. The ones by default are 360 degrees. I've got two flat panel antennas between two houses 20-30 metres apart mounted on the external walls - bit excessive for what you want inside the house though I would say. The standard antenna will be enough - and one thing to bear in mind, not all WLAN routers/access points have a removable antenna for you to remove. If that's what you want, then get a Netgear DG834GT wireless router or a ASUS RT-N10 wireless router - I have both of these and the standard antenna can be removed and connected to other antennas with the use of a cable which you'll also need to get to connect to a flat panel antenna, etc.

All it comes down to, is how much you want to pay and what you want to achieve :)

Hi Neddie,

There's a couple of ways. First, install some PCI wireless cards, but try to get some that are either Atheros or Intel chipsets. These are generally supported really well under Linux, especially the Intel ones.

Another alternative, is get an ASUS WL-330GE for your computers. This is a bit of overkill, but they are really cool. They have multiple modes, DSL modem, wireless access point and can also be used as a wireless card. Basically, you put it in this mode, connect it to your ethernet card (which you know already works fine with Linux), and you don't need to worry about wireless drivers in Linux :)

Because it gets the IP from the wireless access point that you have or wireless router, and then passes this to the ethernet card by bridging the WL-330GE to your ethernet card like a normal DSL modem would work. I have one of these as an access point, but I love the variety of ways that it can be used.

Hi John,

When I was checking this yesterday, I saw people complaining of problems and similar errors you get with a 2.6.37 kernel. They say performance was worse than in previous kernels. So, there could be one of a few possibilities.

1. Could be that you need a newer kernel for your device to work correctly - maybe it's not completely support in 2.6.33

2. Maybe the firmware, that you're going to try and update now.

There is a chance with an updated kernel yours might work better, however, I couldn't tell you if it would work good with 2.6.37 or not. Maybe it would, or maybe you would also experience problems with this kernel. I'd check the packages and see if there is a later kernel accessible in urpmi as they normally did provide some kernel-linus or something which was much much newer. It would need to be newer than 2.6.33 but maybe not exactly 2.6.37, so something in between, or newer than 2.6.37.

Try the firmware first and see if it makes a difference, but I think a newer kernel would be a good shot.

Hi John,

What kernel version? I've been searching based on your dmesg results and see problems with the 2.6.37 kernel. So just wondering what kernel you've got. From a console (sorry):

uname -r

Hi John,

I haven't any USB3 stuff, so the only thing I can suggest (no gui method I'm afraid) :(

1. Open a console window and su to root.

2. Type dmesg

3. Connect the device to a USB3 port.

4. Type dmesg again

see if anything comes up, and perhaps post the results here so we can take a look, maybe it will help.

As root, dmesg at the console will tell you if the scanner was picked up when you plug it into the USB port. If nothing shown, then this would hint at a problem with hardware detection or something.

Another might be in case the hplip stuff isn't installed. I know I had this problem once, but it can vary from one distro to another, and I also remember I was missing having something installed, just can't remember what it was now.

EDIT:

Could be a sane package missing, maybe sane-utils, or sane-hp. I don't know what's available currently in Mandy repos. Also, if running xsane as root allows you access to the device, this would mean a permissions issue, and so this was why I suggested adding the user to the plugdev group. You can try all this out and see how you get on.

I've had problems with the new googleearth seg faulting when you try to run it. I always then just download and install the previous release. Chances are if you run googleearth from the console prompt, you'll see this segfault. It's not distro-specific, and don't know why it doesn't work. Previous release is good enough for me, I've no idea what they changed in the new version that stops it working. The whole binary is self-contained with all dependencies, so it should just work.

Try this, maybe it's the same you're experiencing.

When you run xsane, does it complain about not seeing a scanner device? If so, perhaps you need to be in the plugdev group or something so that you can access it. I was having this problem once, but with another distro.

Sounds like it locked everything up including the keyboard as well. Only the ALT-SYSRQ combination or the 5 second press of the power button would help here.

Your system is now behaving how it should. There in the GUI somewhere is a setting to decide how long (10 minutes) before display switches off. When you press the keyboard or move the mouse, it should wake the monitor up. And it's now doing this for you. The only outstanding problem for you, is finding in KDE where to modify this setting of 10 minute default for switching the monitor off.

Hi John,

Sorry can't help you about KDE, as I'm not using it. However, with a desktop system, the laptop stuff wouldn't have gotten installed, so I don't expect this is the problem.

Even with desktop systems, the screensaver will work, and then in about 10 minutes the system puts the monitor in power save mode. There will be an option somewhere in KDE to sort this out - I just can't honestly tell you where as I've haven't used KDE since Mandriva 2007 or earlier.

The fact it's locking up, is hinting at something else - possibly a display driver problem. Sometimes I get it on my laptop in that the screensaver goes active, and I can't get it back to the keyboard, but I can CTRL-ALT-F2 to a console and then kill the gnome-screensaver, and then I've got access to my system again. Although I've not had it go to sleep and then not wake back up again, although maybe I had this once with Mandriva a while back, but then I had a crappy Nvidia 420 go or something that had like 16MB of memory.

Sorry I can't be any more help.

Gnome is not using that much space, you could leave it. It would account for maybe 1GB of space maybe less. You wouldn't need to reinstall to remove it, you can simple remove it easily enough. I always used to have KDE and Gnome installed at the same time.