Networking :: Wireless newbie! Any easy instructions around?

Please can anyone tell me how to preserve my wireless settings? When I backup / do a reboot iwconfig has lost all the wireless settings ( like wep key/sid e.t.c)........
Thanks a lot

i add a line in /opt/bootlocal.sh, open and edit with beaver and add the line iwconfig bla bla bla (in my case
iwconfig wlan0 essid "name of wireless workgroup" mode "managed" channel "1-14( dep of country)" key "your key wep".

Quote (roberts @ Sep. 24 2007,17:10)

You should probably boot with nodhcp so that you don't have a pump (dhcp request hanging)

You still may have in irq conflict, but lets hope for the best.

You can use iwconfig commands or the gui, if using a wep key enter as colon separated pairs, i.e., 12:34:45:99:..

Some wireless card balk at the pump command and you must use a static ip. But lets hope that using iwconfig or its gui works for you.

Robert,
I recently got an Acer Aspire 3680 notebook computer with an atheros wireless card. I have exactly output as yours using iwconfig. I followed your suggestion booting with nodhcp (along with toram and xsetup). I used the iwconfig gui (from DSLpanel), by the way this is dsl-4.0RC5, changing eth0 to ath0, and entering sid and wep key, then right upon clicking OK button, the whole system froze. So I might have irq conflict, right? I am wondering how to get the wireless to work. Thanks.

Check for irq conflict by

dmesg | grep -i irq

Look for your netcard's irq

look at irq assignments with

cat /proc/interrupts

Code Sample

dmesg | grep -i irq
<4>ACPI: IRQ9 SCI: Edge set to Level Trigger.
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs 1 3 4 5 6 7 10 12 14 15) *11
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs 1 3 4 5 6 7 *11 12 14 15)
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 1 3 4 5 6 7 *10 12 14 15)
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs 1 3 4 5 6 7 11 12 14 15) *10
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKE] (IRQs 1 3 4 5 6 7 *10 12 14 15)
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKF] (IRQs 1 3 4 5 6 7 *11 12 14 15)
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKG] (IRQs 1 3 4 5 6 7 *10 12 14 15)
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKH] (IRQs 1 3 4 5 6 7 *11 12 14 15)
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] enabled at IRQ 10
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKG] enabled at IRQ 10
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] enabled at IRQ 11
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] enabled at IRQ 10
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKH] enabled at IRQ 11
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] enabled at IRQ 11
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKE] enabled at IRQ 10
<6>PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
<4>ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
<4>ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
<6>ehci_hcd 00:1d.7: irq 11, pci mem f8b41000
<6>usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x1820, IRQ 11
<6>usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x1840, IRQ 11
<6>usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x1860, IRQ 10
<6>usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x1880, IRQ 10
<6>Yenta ISA IRQ mask 0x00f8, PCI irq 10
<6>Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI ISAPNP enabled
<6>wifi0: Atheros 5212: mem=0xd0000000, irq=11

Code Sample

cat /proc/interrupts
CPU0
0: 302063 XT-PIC timer
1: 338 XT-PIC keyboard
2: 0 XT-PIC cascade
8: 0 XT-PIC rtc
9: 1568 XT-PIC acpi
10: 0 XT-PIC usb-uhci, usb-uhci, PCI device 104c:8039 (Texas Instruments)
11: 598 XT-PIC ehci_hcd, usb-uhci, usb-uhci, wifi0
12: 10634 XT-PIC PS/2 Mouse
14: 267 XT-PIC ide0
15: 4531 XT-PIC ide1
NMI: 0
LOC: 15914
ERR: 0
MIS: 0

Looks like I do have an IRQ conflict. So I will need to reassign the IRQ for wifi0 (for the atheros card) if I would like to get it to work.

What I don't understand is from iwconfig, I got both wifi0 and ath0. Why does the same device appear twice?

Code Sample

iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

wifi0 no wireless extensions.

ath0 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Channel:0 Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Bit Rate:0kb/s Tx-Power:0 dBm Sensitivity=0/3
Retry:off RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0/94 Signal level:-95 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

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