Networking :: Setting up a Netgear WG511T wifi card.



Quote (tempestuous @ Nov. 20 2005,12:26)
It's possible that "sudo su" caused that error you describe, so don't include it in /opt/bootlocal.sh ...
but walk before you run - try this sequence of commands manually from the commandline to see if they work first, and obviously this process should be done after you have uncompressed the MADWiFi modules.

Once you have successfully loaded the MADWiFi module with "modprobe ath_pci" you still have to configure your wireless settings with iwconfig / pump / ifconfig, before making the whole process automatic.

You could refer to my info file for the ipw2200 dsl package here - http://www.ajpearce.co.uk/files/mydsl/
this explains the process for making new modules and settings "permanent".

After six weeks of not being able to find time to turn on my laptop (damn, I hate the end of year and all the associated time hogging events...), I've *finally* been able to try what you've suggested. Everything works fine until I try the iwconfig line. Entering:

iwconfig wifi0 essid MY_ESSID key 1234567890 mode managed

(with my personal settings, obviously), I get the following error:

Error for wireless request "Set ESSID (8B1A) : SET failed on device wifi0 ; invalid argument

I've entered the name of my essid using the correct case, and the key as a hexadecimal number.

Any ideas?

The new MADWiFi driver requires an extra command -
wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode sta

... as discovered by Max here - http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....6;st=20
Read the whole thread, instructions are slightly different from what you previously tried.

And Robert has revised the package, so make sure you get the latest version.

Wow, time really does race by when you're busy :P

tempestuous, thanks for all your help so far - I've just seen that DSL 2.1 has just been released, so I'll download and install that first before I try again. Having said this, once I get this, I am confident of success with the new madwifi package, as my last effort got me a lot closer to success :)

(That is, once the torrent seeding picks up, as I haven't been able to get a single byte so far... the least I can do is to contribute to torrent seeding).

*edit* Double post somehow :P
Okay, I think I've made some progress - but I'm not there yet. This what I've done:

1. I've downloaded the madwifi.dsl file and saved it in the usual spot for myDSL files on my machine.

2. Run sudo /opt/madwifi_setup.sh - this works without problem (only the GPL-related warnings). The modules are up and running and all seems to be as it should.

3. Following roberts' instructions here,  I run the usual iwconfig GUI for device ath0. After sitting there for about five seconds, a dialogue pops up with the error "connection failed". Yes, highly useful :P

'iwconfig' suggests that the card isn't working - the link quality is 0/94, and so forth.

Running wlanconfig instead seems to get me further: I enter my ESS_ID, WEP, mode as auto, channel 6,  and nothing for NWID or  the additional options at the end of the config screens.

After this, I type: sudo ifconfig ath0 up

When I type 'iwconfig', I get evidence of the card working, such as signal strength and so on - it just doesn't seem to be able to find my wireless hub. In addition, the two lights on the WG511T change their flashing pattern, and without knowing what they mean, I'd suggest that the card is trying to connect to something as not only do they flash in a seemingly meaningful way, and have transferred and received a few (<10) packets.

I cannot, however, connect to anything (or ping, for that matter) and my hub doesn't recognise the card as being connected.

Using Kismet on this machine (my desktop box), I can see that the wireless card is indeed broadcasting, but that it's not connected up to the network. So it's a configuration issue. Likewise, using iwlist on my laptop, I can see the hub (although the list digit in the MAC address is one number out from what the hub says it is... strange).

Any ideas? I'm loathe to turn off the encryption at this point, as this machine works flawlessly on the network now, so I'd prefer not to have to fiddle around with settings again. If I have to, I will - but I'd prefer not to :)

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