Prism3 usb wifi in mandrake 10

[jkaero]

i just put mandrake 10 on my laptop and Ive been trying to get my usb wifi card (USB-400 Generic) to work. I know it is based on the Intersil Prism3 chipset but mandrake doesnt appear to be detecting it...at least i dont think it is.

 

Please help Im new to wifi in linux.

[liquidzoo]

Welcome

 

There is an FAQ about getting wireless to work on your laptop. In there I have a link to a very good page of drivers for Linux. Check it out here: http://www.mandrakeusers.org/index.php?showtopic=5494

 

The FAQ is written for PCMCIA, but the usb wireless cards are pretty similar. You still need to modprobe the correct driver, then configure the device.

 

If you have any further questions, let us know. We'd be happy to help you.

[jkaero]

Im having problems figuring out if linux is detecting the card...iwconfig doesnt seem to see it

[liquidzoo]

Have you loaded the module for the card? Sometimes (my PCMCIA Card, for example) the card won't be detected until the driver for it is present.

[jkaero]

If i do a dmsg, it says:

 

usb 1-1:new full speed USB device detected using address 2

prism2usb_init: prism2_usb.o: 0.2.1-pre18a Loaded

prism2usb_init: dev_info is: prism2_usb

drivers/usb/core/usb.c: registed new driver prism2_usb

 

so it looks like its finding it and loading the module

 

if i do:

ifup wlan0

i get:

failed no link present

 

what do i do now?

[liquidzoo]

Ok, it is finding it; and loading the module. Check in harddrake to see if it's listed there. It might be called something other than wlan0. If so, you should be able to configure it through harddrake. Also, I added one more reply to the FAQ I posted above that has hints on creating a new config file for your device. It might be what you need.

[jkaero]

in harddrake it is listed in unknown devices...i can goto configure mondule and i can enter things for doreset, reset holdtime, and reset settletime....currently there is nothing in any of them

 

I also tried an ifconfig -a

 

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

BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric: 1

RX Packets 0 errors 0...

TX Packets 0 errors 0...

collisions 0 txqueuelen:1000

bascially all 0's for everything

 

some more help would be appreciated as i was having a tough time trying to adapt your faq

[liquidzoo]

What driver are you using for this card? Is this one that came with the kernel-source or one from the linux wlan project?

 

What I have read is that you might have to use the drivers found here: ftp://ftp.linux-wlan.org/pub/linux-wlan-ng/

 

Make sure you read the README file as it will tell you what you need to do to install them.

 

Give those a try, or at least download and read through the README file. It might tell you if you have to make a config file and where you should put it.

 

I have read this, and seems fairly straightforward to me. There's a couple of things you will have to edit (as root) and then a reboot and everything should work out for you.

[drich70806]

For what it is worth, I have a Syntax USB-400 installed in Mandrake 10.0 Community

that works fine. I believe I installed prism2-util-0.2.1.0.pre18a.1mdk in Mandrake Control Center. I then configured the connection in Network & Internet. The motherboard is an old Via MVP3 chip and the usb ports will not allow connection of a USB drive at the same time. The connection shows up at boot as wlan0 and loads OK in the verbose listing.

 

I believe I had tried to load some drivers from the Internet unsuccessfully prior to noticing the listing in MCC install.

 

I was not expecting Mandrake 10.0 to be able to use this device. It is currently available for free (with rebate) at ecost.com.