iB::Topic::Where to config wifi card?

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Topic: Where to config wifi card?

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hseaver

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Posts: 40
Joined: Feb. 2006

Posted: Mar. 26 2006,15:14

I've got a prism2 wifi pcmcia card that works great in other linux systems, with both hostap and linux-wlan-ng drivers. I put it in my laptop running the latest DSL, however, and although the card light comes on, and DSL immediately loads drivers (the wrong ones, however, orinoco_cs, orinoco, and hermes) but wlcardconfig says there is no wifi card. Cardctl ident correctly identifies the card as an Intersil network card.
If I try to manually run ifconfig wlan0 up or iwconfig or ifup wlan0, it always answers "no device". I rmmod the orinoco and hermes drives, and modprobe either prism2_cs or hostap_cs, both load fine with no errors, but still no joy, whether I try to run the DSL menu thing for prism2, or wlcardconfig or do it manually with ifconfig, etc.
So what is the problem? I've even tried editing the /etc/pcmcia files to correctly load the prism2 drivers or the hostap drivers instead of the orinoco ones, and that then works correctly -- but still no joy.
Where is this being configured incorrectly? Also, how do you restart pcmcia in DSL since there isn't any /etc/init.d/pcmcia?
I'm really mystified by this, I've been running linux and unix systems since 1988 and have never before been unable to get a device to work if I had the correct drivers.

hseaver

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Posts: 40
Joined: Feb. 2006

Posted: April 14 2006,20:23

So there is nobody on here knowledgable enough to even know what to look for in a misconfigured wifi card? Who are the developers for DSL anyway? Don't they ever look at these forums to try to see what needs fixing?
The wifi stuff on DSL has got to be the most badly designed of any linux distro ever, you'd sure think somebody would want to fix it.

roberts

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Posts: 4983
Joined: Oct. 2003

Posted: April 15 2006,00:57

I guess you expect that we have every possible wifi card that comes on the market.
That would be like trying to catch the last train out of Philadelphia.
There are extra and newer drivers in the repository.
Then there is ndiswrapper.
Those will have to be the catch all for now.

hseaver

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Posts: 40
Joined: Feb. 2006

Posted: April 15 2006,01:30

I guess you really didn't read my original post. This is a prism2 card. On any other distro, it works just fine with either prism2 or hostap drivers. Why in the world would you need ndswrapper? Why wouldn't the stock prism2 driver in dsl not work? This is not a very new card, and that, actually, is totally irrelevant, since it is a prism2, and works with that driver elsewhere. And with hostap.
Not only that, but cardctl identifies this card correctly, but then DSL loads orinoco drivers. Duh! So then I rmmod them and modprobe either prism2 or hostap -- still doesn't work, although both of those drivers load okay, meaning they see the card and like it. Still, DSL doesn't see it.
So the question is --- where is the problem? Doesn't anyone here actually know how to manually configure a network card? I'm a long time unix admin, been running linux ever since the first release, started before that with solaris, xenix, irix, and others --- why is dsl so hard to configure? Graphic config is great for windoze weenies, but where is the command line config? Simple stuff, eh?

roberts

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Posts: 4983
Joined: Oct. 2003

Posted: April 15 2006,03:38

Being such an experienced sysadmin, then I would think you might know the module(s) required for your particular chipset. If not maybe google it? Any experienced admin would know how to do an insmod. Pretty easy so far? Then try the wlanctl-ng commands.
Need an example? Try looking at the /usr/local/bin/prism2.sh
Without actually having this card, I would be shooting in the dark.
I do use a prism2 based netgear card that I used to create these scripts and GUI. It works great!

20 replies since Mar. 26 2006,15:14

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Damn Small Linux Board » MyDSL Extensions » System » Where to config wifi card?