D-Link DWL-650 rev. P with DSL RC1

Forum: Networking
Topic: D-Link DWL-650 rev. P with DSL RC1
started by: noabody

Posted by noabody on Mar. 24 2005,09:33

I'm posting this so I can remember how I got this to work. I'm a computer geek - primarily an advanced Microsoft user - which makes me a novice but capable Linux user.

First off I'm using a hard drive install of DSL RC1 on a P133 laptop with PCMCIA (real deal 16-bit PCMCIA, not 32-bit cardbus). Since DSL uses Linux kernel 2.4.26, I downloaded it from < ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/linux-2.4.26.tar.bz2 > into /tmp. I used the commands:
sudo su
mkdir /usr/src
tar jxvf /var/linux-2.4.26.tar.bz2 -C /usr/src
cd /usr/src
ln -s linux-2.4.26 linux

Then I downloaded the pcmcia-cs 3.2.2 source although I don't think it is necessary. I downloaded it from < http://www.monolith81.de/wireles.....tar.gz > into /tmp. I used the commands:
mkdir /usr/src/modules
tar zxvf /tmp/pcmcia-cs-3.2.2.tar.gz -C /usr/src/modules

Then I downloaded gcc and kernel patches for DSL < ftp://ibiblio.org/pub....cc1.dsl > and < ftp://ibiblio.org/pub....rce.dsl > into /tmp. I opened up emelfm as root and double clicked on the files to install them. I used the command:
cd /usr/bin
ln -s gcc-3.3 cc

Then i downloaded the wlan-ng driver from < ftp://ftp.linux-wlan.org/pub....tar.bz2 > into /tmp. I used the command:
mkdir /home/dsl/temp
tar -jxvf linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1-pre25.tar.bz2 -C /home/dsl/temp
cd /home/dsl/temp/linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1pre25
make config (used defaults)
make all
make install

At this point the drivers were installed. I have a wireless router so I'm in infrastructure mode using 128 bit WEP encryption and a shared key. I chose to use static I.P. addresses in my network. Because of this a number of files have to be edited. First we have to get the wlan0 alias right in the file /etc/modules.conf . Mine looked like this after I was done:
# Uncomment the line corresponding to the type of prism2 device you have.
#alias wlan0 prism2_pci
#alias wlan0 prism2_usb
alias wlan0 prism2_cs
#alias wlan0 prism2_plx

Next set the static I.P. settings in /etc/pcmcia/network.opts.
IPADDR="192.168.0.2" (insert your I.P.)
NETMASK="255.255.255.0"
NETWORK="192.168.0.0"
BROADCAST="192.168.0.255"
GATEWAY="192.168.0.1 (insert the I.P. for your router)

Next I set the wireless site I.D (SSID) in /etc/wlan/wlan.conf.
SSID_wlan0="mysite"
ENABLE_wlan0=y

I used these commands:
cd /etc/wlan
cp wlancfg-DEFAULT wlancfg-mysite

Finally I set up my wireless settings in /etc/wlan/wlancfg-mysite.
lnxreq_hostWEPEncrypt=true
lnxreq_hostWEPDecrypt=true
dot11PrivacyInvoked=true
dot11WEPDefaultKeyID=0
dot11ExcludeUnencrypted=true
dot11WEPDefaultKey0=01:02:03:04:05:06:07:08:09:10:11:12:13 (obviously insert your private wep key here)
AuthType="sharedkey"

One reboot later and the card was working like a champ. The supplied Microsoft drivers for this card had a minimum hardware requirement of a 300Mhz processor and 64M of ram along with a minimum operating system requirement of Windows 98 SE. My hardware is an Omnibook 5500CT laptop with 133Mhz processor and 24M of ram. Just running the wireless card was choking the machine. Granted I bought what is essentially the Winmodem of wireless cards since it has no onboard firmware.

Keep in mind that it took me about a week to figure this out. The previous week was spent in search of the perfect Linux distribution for this old machine. DamnSmallLinux was the best!

On a final note I tried using the very latest wlan-ng driver which is pre26 but i had trouble compiling it so I droped back to pre25 and it worked.

Posted by noabody on Mar. 28 2005,03:51

Two final notes. If you are using static I.P. addresses for a PCMCIA network card - be it wired or wireless, I've found that it is best to add the parameters to /etc/pcmcia/network.opts. At boot time DSL and Knoppix both try to autoconfigure the network device via DHCP which will cause headaches for a static configuration. As a result you should edit /etc/lilo.conf and add the keyword "nodhcp" to the "append=" line. Save and run the command liloconfig with defaults.

And finally, as the note says in /etc/modules.conf, the file should never be edited by hand. To change the wlan0 alias, edit /etc/modutils/linux-wlan-ng and then run the command update-modules.

I realize this is all n00b stuff but every Linux and Windows user alike is a n00b until just after the first time they accomplish something.