Senao wifi cardForum: Networking Topic: Senao wifi card started by: hseaver Posted by hseaver on Feb. 22 2006,05:11
I've just installed DSL on my old Compaq Concerto laptop (486-33 w/20mb RAM) with pcmcia slots. When I put my Senao wifi card in there, cardctl ident sees it correctly, but DSL always loads the orinoco_cs driver -- which it doesn't use, it's a prism2.5 chip. In my Ipaq, running familar, it always loads the hostap_cs driver, which I prefer. Or I could use the linux-wlan-ng driver, prism2_cs. With DSL, however, even after I rmmod the orinoco drivers, and modprobe the hostap_cs driver (or the prism2_cs, I've tried both over and over), when I do a ifup wlan0, it says there's no card. If I try netcardconfig, it also says there is "no supported card". I've even gone so far as editing the /etc/pcmcia/config and config-2.4 to add this card in there -- and also to take the orinoco_cs binding away from the INTERSIL card identity in those files. Doesn't seem to matter. So what do I have to do? And please, I need something from the command line because I don't have X working yet either, Knoppix can't seem to figure out the old Compaq video -- it needs a cpq_avga driver which I haven't found yet. Posted by hseaver on Feb. 22 2006,20:56
Well, this is weird. After editing the /etc/pcmcia/config and config-2.4 to change the Intersil cards settings from orinoco_cs to prism2_cs (I wanted hostap_cs but that got nothing at all) I now see DSL loading the prism2_cs driver (also removing it when I take out the card) but still no wifi. Now when I do ifup wlan0 (and yes I added the correct wlan0 entry to /etc/network/interfaces) I get this:SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device wlanctl-ng: no such device Failed to enable the device, exitcode=1 run-parts: /etc/network/if-preup.d/linux-wlan-ng_pre-up exited with return code=1 How can there be "no such device" when cardctl ident gives the exact identity. And why doesn't hostap_cs work at all? Posted by hseaver on Feb. 23 2006,03:46
Gee, this is getting even weirder. I just noticed that dsl is also loading ndiswrapper everytime prism2_cs gets loaded. Why in the world would they want to try to use ndiswrapper for a perfectly good linux module like prism2_cs from the linux-wlan-ng project?I grepped for ndiswrapper as many *conf files as I could and deleted the "alias wlan0 ndiswrapper" from /etc/modutils/ndiswrapper and modules.conf and /lib/modules/modules.conf, but it still won't work. Doesn't add ndiswrapper anymore, but doesn't work either. How come there's no wlan.agent in /etc/hotplug? I'm beginning to think dsl is not ready for prime-time, maybe I better install straight debian on this box. I really like the "small" idea, really just want embedded debian on this old 486, but dsl is starting to seem too much like windoze. Is there any hope for this? I know debian will work (even redhat did), it's just fat. Posted by cbagger01 on Feb. 23 2006,17:48
If you want Debian, get Debian.I am sure that you can slim it down by carefully choosing the packages for installation. Even if your final install gets too bloated, you can always apt-get remove any stuff that you want to uninstall. Posted by hseaver on Feb. 23 2006,22:22
Yes, well, I already have debian, on 3 other machines. I was hoping with dsl to have a more or less embedded version of debian for an old 486 laptop, but am finding it not working well enough for that. No docs, no editable config files for X? Posted by cbagger01 on Feb. 24 2006,00:09
That's the "Small" in Damn Small Linux.Docs and the fullsize X server have been removed to save space. You can always force them back in there by apt-get removing and then reinstalling the same package with apt-get install, but I think your best bet is to either: 1) Live with the limitations. Some of them, like the X-Server are actually BENEFITS for many people and not limitations. Why? Because the TinyX server is smaller and uses less RAM and disk space vs. full blown XFree86 or XOrg. But you need a VESA or framebuffer supported video card in order to use them. 2) Get Debian. It's probably easier to strip down Debian than it is to transmogrify DSL to look more like a stock Debian system. Good Luck. Posted by hseaver on Feb. 24 2006,01:18
Yes, I understand that it's meant to be small -- when I said docs, I was refering to the lack of docs anywhere -- like on the website. And I was hoping to be able to use TinyX, just very surprised that there's no configuration for it. I'll have to get XF86_SVGA I guess for this mono LCD. So anyway, do you have any idea how to get the wifi working? I can't use apt-get or anything else until I get that working. I've not had much problem getting it to work before. Posted by hseaver on Feb. 24 2006,03:39
I am quite willing to live with its limitations -- but first of all, it has to work. If there's no X and no network, that's not limitations, that's dysfunctional. For this machine, I want a very small linux, otherwise being a 486 with only 20mb ram it's pretty much useless. I've been trying to get the uclibc and buildroot stuff to work for an embedded system, but so far that has only compiled with just the base system for me -- no pcmcia, no X, no hostap.
Posted by cbagger01 on Feb. 25 2006,06:21
Unfortunately, I don't have a wireless card, so I can't help you there.However, you can still manually install Debian packages without a network. You can either burn them to a CD or use some other storage medium to transfer the files over to your computer. I think you can even add the cd drive mountpoint to your debian repository search list in /etc/apt/sources.list If not, you can still manually install them by doing: sudo su dpkg -i name_of_file.deb You can manually restore the dpkg configuration by downloading the dsl-dpkg.dsl extension from the mydsl repository and install it with: sudo -u dsl mydsl-load dsl-dpkg.dsl Also, it is fairly easy to extract/install Slackware packages because they are essentially tarballs, ie *.tag.gz So you might be able to get the vga server from a slackware package and extract it. Otherwise, you may need to swap the hard drive into a network-capable computer and do an installation and then swap it back to your original PC. Or you can temporarily install a wired LAN card into your original PC. Good Luck. |