WLAN Card: Driver loaded, where is access point?!

[Steve Scrimpshire]

It is better, but it is still not seeing the access point. The reason we changed the line in /etc/modules.conf is that you can have only one alias and adding the alias for the last module to load will automagically load the other two that it needs first. This is done at boot and is different from just trying to modprobe ath_pci manually, where you have to manually load the other drivers first. Don't ask me why/how it gets done at boot automatically. :)

After you boot, can you do the scan thingy again and see if there are any results? also do an ifconfig and a iwconfig and see if there is anything interesting there. Sometimes it'll say 'failed' when bringing up the link even though it didn't really fail. If you don't see the correct MAC address for the AP, try bringing it up manually with the WLAN MAC address.

[Andrewski]

Thanks for the reply. Seems you were right; iwconfig gave me a result:

root:andrew$ iwconfig
ath0      IEEE 802.11-DS  ESSID:""  Nickname:"localhost"
         Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.442GHz  Access Point: FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
         Bit Rate=1Mb/s   Tx-Power:off   Sensitivity=0/3
         Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
         Encryption key:off
         Power Management: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

This madwifi FAQ suggests I configure the card in the following order:

iwconfig ath0 key XXXXXXXXXX
iwconfig ath0 ap XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
iwconfig ath0 channel X
iwconfig ath0 essid foobar
iwconfig ath0 rate XXMB

I am ignoring the rate setting because I'll let that be picked up automatically. Here were my results:

root:andrew$ iwconfig ath0 ap 00:06:25:DA:B7:6C
root:andrew$ iwconfig ath0 channel 6
root:andrew$ iwconfig ath0 essid linksys
root:andrew$ ifup ath0
Determining IP information for ath0... failed; no link present.  Check cable?

[sigh]

When I do each of those four steps, my gkrellm shows activity on ath0, transmitting something quickly what seems like 10 times. Maybe it's trying to scan automagically for an AP?

[Relic2K]

No, I hadn't and it didn't work.

 

Wouldn't I have to get the driver loaded before I could do that?

Do you have wireless-tools installed ? This package is critiacal for wireless devices. It contain commands such as "iwconfig". ?

 

NEVERMIND :) I can see it now, I just work up and can't seem to delete this post now ?

Edited December 17, 2003 by Relic2K

[Andrewski]

OK, so what's the plan now? The card will "load" but not work when I do it manually, and it won't load but will be there on boot. What's the problem?

 

Oh, and I emailed the madwifi list again (I did that before I came here) and no one responded... so, thanks for the prompt help here!

 

Edit: Does anyone know anyone else I can email/contact?

Edited December 19, 2003 by Andrewski

[Andrewski]

Can anyone give me word on this, even if just to say that you don't know what's going on?

 

Edit: I (finally!) got a response from someone on the madwifi mail list. He said:

It could be one of a few things:

1- Mandrake 9.2 - I had problems with this and it worked first time on suse 9.0

2- Make sure that it is set to the proper 802.11 mode using iwpriv mode [0,1,2,3]

I assume the card works in Windows (I know.. But I had to ask!).

 

Oh, I hope it's not Mandrake... I don't know enough about the way Linux works to say whether or not it's even possible to pinpoint the problem to Mandrake itself. So, I'm assuming I should try iwpriv. The man page wasn't very helpful, so I simply have to assume that the modes 0-3 are something like auto, 802.11a, b, and g... or something?

 

Here are my results from each:

root:andrew$ iwpriv ath0 mode 0
<mapping sub-ioctl mode to cmd 0x8BE0-2>
root:andrew$ iwpriv ath0 mode 1
<mapping sub-ioctl mode to cmd 0x8BE0-2>
Interface doesn't accept private ioctl...
mode (8BE0): No such device or address
root:andrew$ iwpriv ath0 mode 2
<mapping sub-ioctl mode to cmd 0x8BE0-2>
root:andrew$ iwpriv ath0 mode 3
<mapping sub-ioctl mode to cmd 0x8BE0-2>
root:andrew$ iwconfig
ath0      IEEE 802.11-OFDM  ESSID:""  Nickname:"localhost"
         Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412GHz  Access Point: FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF  
         Bit Rate=1Mb/s   Tx-Power:off   Sensitivity=0/3  
         Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
         Encryption key:off
         Power Management: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

Edited December 19, 2003 by Andrewski

[Andrewski]

OK, so I upgraded to the CVS version of madwifi; it was recommended. Just to confirm I'm doing this correctly, here's what I did:

checked out the CVS

make (I didn't need to edit any of the makefiles)

make install

 

Then, I edited my 'network', 'modules', 'modules.conf', and 'ifcfg-ath0'

files listed on a few FAQs/wikis/tutorials, namely

=http://www.mattfoster.clara.co.uk/madwifi-faq.htm,

http://madwifiwiki.thewebhost.de/wiki/Ath0OnMandrake92, and

http://madwifiwiki.thewebhost.de/wiki/NetgearWG311. The output is

listed below:

 

root:andrew$ more /etc/sysconfig/network
HOSTNAME=localhost
NETWORKING=yes
GATEWAY=192.168.1.1
GATEWAYDEV=ath0

root:andrew$ more /etc/modules
scsi_hostadapter
# from http://madwifiwiki.thewebhost.de/wiki/Ath0OnMandrake92
ath_pci

root:andrew$ more /etc/modules.conf 
alias sound-slot-0 snd-emu10k1
probeall usb-interface usb-uhci
above snd-emu10k1 snd-pcm-oss
probeall scsi_hostadapter ide-scsi
alias eth0 3c59x
alias ath0 ath_pci
alias /dev/nvidia*   nvidia

root:andrew$ more /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ath0
STARTMODE=hotplug
DEVICE=ath0
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
ONBOOT=yes
WIRELESS=yes
WIRELESS_MODE=Managed
# from
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=3220174&forum_id=33958
# WIRELESS_KEY=XXXXXXXXXX
# WIRELESS_AP=XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
# WIRELESS_CHANNEL=X
# WIRELESS_ESSID=foobar
# WIRELESS_RATE=XXMB
WIRELESS_KEY=off
WIRELESS_AP=00:06:25:DB:50:5F
WIRELESS_CHANNEL=6
WIRELESS_ESSID=linksys
# WIRELESS_RATE=XXMB

Lastly, I tried running ifconfig, throwing an IP address. That was recommended on

http://madwifiwiki.thewebhost.de/wiki/Mand...IBMDualBandWifi. DHCP should pick up ath0, but I figured this would do *something*. As soon as I did so, my GkrellM showed ath0 receiving information; it's been doing so in a steady stream ever since. Here were the surprising

results from the CLI:

root:dev$ ifconfig ath0 192.168.1.103
root:dev$ iwconfig ath0
ath0      IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:"linksys"  Nickname:"localhost"
         Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437GHz  Access Point: 00:06:25:DB:50:5F  
         Bit Rate:11Mb/s   Tx-Power:off   Sensitivity=0/3  
         Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
         Encryption key:off
         Power Management:off
         Link Quality:49/94  Signal level:-46 dBm  Noise level:-95 dBm
         Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
         Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

root:dev$ ifconfig ath0
ath0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:09:5B:92:84:DD  
         inet addr:192.168.1.103  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
         UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
         RX packets:1629 errors:15390 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:7015
         TX packets:142 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
         collisions:0 txqueuelen:199 
         RX bytes:119663 (116.8 Kb)  TX bytes:6752 (6.5 Kb)
         Interrupt:10 Memory:d238e000-d239e000 

root:dev$ iwlist ath0 scan
ath0      Scan completed :
         Cell 01 - Address: 00:30:BD:C3:E4:20
                   Mode:Master
                   Encryption key:****-****-****-**
                   Quality:8/94  Signal level:-87 dBm  Noise level:-95dBm
                   Mode:Master
                   ESSID:"CANYONS"
                   Frequency:2.462GHz
                   Bit Rate:1Mb/s
                   Bit Rate:2Mb/s
                   Bit Rate:5Mb/s
                   Bit Rate:11Mb/s
         Cell 02 - Address: 00:06:25:DB:50:5F
                   Mode:Master
                   Encryption key:off
                   Quality:49/94  Signal level:-46 dBm  Noise level:-95dBm
                   Mode:Master
                   ESSID:"linksys"
                   Frequency:2.437GHz
                   Bit Rate:1Mb/s
                   Bit Rate:2Mb/s
                   Bit Rate:5Mb/s
                   Bit Rate:11Mb/s

Seems like ath0 is associated with the AP... no way! If so, why all the

errors in the received packets? I tried rebooting, but the same errors

that I've posted before happened, along with the ath0 settings being

reset.

 

Sorry this message is so long, but I just wanted to make sure I covered

everything. Oh, and BTW, I watched /var/log/messages, and didn't

receive any errors throughout this process.

[Andrewski]

Success! All I did at this point was to set my IP statically, and it started working. Strange... After New Year's or so, I hope to compile my steps for the edification of all the other Linux wlan users; is there a general repository for that sort of tutorial thing?

 

Thanks for all the help!

[Relic2K]

Success!  All I did at this point was to set my IP statically, and it started working.  Strange...  After New Year's or so, I hope to compile my steps for the edification of all the other Linux wlan users; is there a general repository for that sort of tutorial thing?

 

Thanks for all the help!

I Guess it would fall into the How To Section, I have just added my experiences to my own website, as the steps and support changes with each and every distro. The kernel support changes also effect it greatly.

[Gowator]

HOWTO

Please, please please <G>

I been meaning to do this but just never had the time to persist so each time I gave up windering if it would EVER work at all.

 

If its all working then I'd love to follow your steps....

[willy134]

Great job on getting it to work. I am running in to the same problem right now with the same card and was wondering if you would paste your scripts (ifcfg-ath0, modules, modules.conf and any others you had to put together)

 

Thanks,

 

Willy