[ltp] wireless on T30?

[D. Sen]

Jody Fanto wrote:
> I'm trying to get wireless support on my T30 which is running red hat 8.0.
> 
Hi Jody,

I have wireless working reliably and superbly on my T30.
> I have three questions:
> 
> 1. Wireless mostly works using the orinocco_pci driver.  However, as others
> have noted, it occasionally freaks out and stops working.  Ben Pfaff (and
> others) suggest "removing the kernal module and reinserting it to prod it
> back into action".  Cool.  Now, how do I do that?  Where do I learn more?
> 

I dont need to do this. But if you choose to follow this route, you 
would have to `ifdown eth0; modprobe -r orinoco_pci; modprobe -a 
orinoco_pci; ifup eth0`

You could also use `rmmod` instead of `modprobe -r` and
                    `insmod` instead of `modprobe -a`

I am not sure if the hermes module needs to be reinserted...

> 2. Has anyone had positive experiences installing the linux-wlan-ng prism2
> drivers (prism2.unixguru.raleigh.nc.us)?  If so, do the drivers really work
> better than the orinocco_pci driver?  If you recommend them, do you have any
> installation tips?  My first attempt at installation didn't work.
> 

I use the prism drivers from:
http://hostap.epitest.fi

After compiling/installation, (typing `make pci; make install_pci`),
I can load the modules and start the network using a script that looks 
as follows:

ESS_ID=<your essid here>;
dev=wlan0;
PASS = "s:<your password here> [1]"

modprobe -a hostap_pci;
iwconfig $dev mode ad-hoc
iwconfig $dev sens 3
iwconfig $dev essid $ESS_ID
iwconfig $dev freq 2.457G
iwconfig $dev key $PASS
iwconfig $dev txpower 10dBm
iwconfig $dev rate 11M auto
ifup wlan0;


> 3. Are there utilities for switching between wired and wireless ethernet?
> Currently I do this by commenting out the appropriate "alais eth0" line in
> /etc/modules.conf.  Is it possible to switch without rebooting?
> 

You should never have to reboot to do anything :-) (That is unless you 
are changing the kernel or the kernel options during booting)

The way I switch between wired and wireless is to `ifdown wlan0` (to 
disable the wireless network) and '`ifup eth0` (to enable the wired 
network) and similarly the other way around.

I have no 'alias eth0 <>` in my /etc/modules.conf as it tries to 
configure the wired ethernet during boot time that way.

To get your ifup, ifdowns to work, you might have to edit the 
appropriate /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/[ifcfg-eth0|ifcfg-wlan0] 
files (to use dhcp or static addresses). These are also changeable using 
configuration utilities that come with Redhat/Mandrake....

If you choose to keep on using the orinoco_pci modules, then `ifup eth0` 
  schemes wont work as both the ethernet drivers and the wireless 
drivers will use eth0. In that case, you have to removed the module 
using `ifdown eth0; rmmod [orinoco_pci|eepro100|e100]` and then insert 
the appropriate module using `modprobe -a [orinoco_pci|eepro100|e100]; 
ifup eth0'

Good luck. Like I said, I have them working reliably. Here's to lengthy 
uptimes on your T30.

DS

>         --Jody
> 

-- 
D. Sen, PhD
http://www.auditorymodels.org/~dsen