[ltp] Cisco Aironet wireless mini pci card w/ Mandrake 10 and linux kernel 2.6.7

James Ryan linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org
Fri, 25 Jun 2004 20:42:22 -0400


I'm glad you're making progress...
As for the mode 3 command, that's specific to Athlon chips (switches
between 802.11a, b and g.  The ippriv command basically sends "private"
(i.e. proprietary) calls to the wireless driver, so they'll be different
for each driver.
Managed mode should work for all drivers (this is a standard 802.11
setting for AD-HOC or Managed/Associated mode).  Your card should
default to AUTO so this is not a big deal either.
The man page for iwconfig is detailed and easy to read, and should get
you sussed.
As for your error log, it sounds like the DHCP script isn't working
probably because you've set things up manually and the DHCP srcipt uses
the ifcfg_wifi0 config file, also used by the ifup and ifdown scripts.
I suggest you use a static IP address for now, and set it with the
ifconfig command, i.e.:

ifconfig 192.168.1.x netmask 255.255.255.0 up

Then you'll need to manuall set the default gateway:

route add default gw 192.168.1.1

Finally, edit /etc/resolv.conf to make sure your DNS server is in
there.  There should be a line like:

nameserver 210.55.102.87

That should get you going for now.  It's a bit "hands on" but guaranteed
to work, like a lot of things in Linux ;-)

-jr

On Fri, 2004-06-25 at 14:32, shawv@comcast.net wrote:
> Hi James,
> 
> > Can you set the essid with the following?
> > iwconfig ath0 essid MyESSID
> 
> I'm only now getting comfortable with the wireless tools which is probably why I haven't gotten this working yet.   Yes, I'm able to set the ESSID with iwconfig.
> 
> Thanks for including your setup commands.  I will give this a go shortly.  I guess I don't need the ath-hal/pci modules for the Cisco mini-pci, that should be taken care of by the airo driver.  Changing to mode 3 or managed does not work for the Aironet, again I'm guessing that this card does not have power management?  Or is my card acting funky?
> 
> I sure would like to get the dhcpclient working as the computer will be traveling to and from work.  I will study up on the wireless tools, try some more configurations and post my progress.   My questions will be better informed then, I hope.
> 
> After a ifconfig wifi0 up, /var/log/messages now gives:
> 
> dhclient: wifi0: unkown hardware address type 801
> dhclient: Listening on LPF/wifi0/
> dhclient: Sending on LPF/wifi0/
> dhclient: Sending on Socket/fallback
> dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on wifi0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
> kernel: airo: BAP setup error too many retries (what does this mean?)
>  ..
> 
> Thanks a lot for your post,
> Shaw
> 
> 
> > Can you set the essid with the following?
> > iwconfig ath0 essid MyESSID
> > 
> > If you get an error, you may need to issue a proprietary command using
> > iwpriv.
> > 
> > I strongly suggest that you forget about using the ifup/ifdown utils and
> > write a shell script that issues the required iwconfig and ifconfig
> > commands.  I've never managed to get wireless cards to work with
> > ifup/ifdown.  My script is below.  Note it is a bit quick and
> > sloppy...but it works.  Whenever I need to change locations, I just edit
> > the file.  I suppose I could put command line arguments, add DHCP
> > support, etc...maybe someday.
> > 
> > #!/bin/sh
> > #
> > # wlan  This shell script takes care of starting the
> > #               wireless interface.
> > #
> > # Author:       James Ryan
> > # Date:         20 May 04
> > #
> > # chkconfig: 2345 80 30
> > # description: Starts or stops the wireless LAN interface
> > # processname: ath0
> > #
> > #
> > 
> > # Source function library.
> >  . /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions
> > 
> > # Source networking configuration.
> >  . /etc/sysconfig/network
> > 
> > RETVAL=0
> > 
> > # See how we were called.
> > case "$1" in
> >   start)
> >         # Start wlan
> >         echo -n "Starting WLAN interface as ath0: "
> >         modprobe wlan
> >         modprobe ath_hal
> >         modprobe ath_pci
> >         iwpriv ath0 mode 3
> >         iwconfig ath0 mode managed
> >         iwconfig ath0 essid BigJimWLAN
> >         iwconfig ath0 enc FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
> >         iwconfig ath0 txpower auto
> >         iwconfig ath0 rate 54M
> >         ifconfig ath0 up
> >         ifconfig ath0 192.168.102.161 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
> >         route add default gw 192.168.102.1 ath0
> >         RETVAL=$?
> >         echo
> >         ;;
> >   stop)
> >         # Stop wlan
> >         echo -n "Stopping WLAN interface on ath0: "
> >         ifconfig ath0 down
> > 	iwconfig ath0 txpower off
> >         RETVAL=$?
> >         echo
> >         ;;
> >   restart|reload)
> >         $0 stop
> >         $0 start
> >         RETVAL=$?
> >         ;;
> >   status)
> >         iwconfig ath0
> > 	ifconfig ath0
> >         RETVAL=$?
> >         ;;
> >   *)
> >         echo "Usage: ath0 {start|stop|restart}"
> >         exit 1
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > On Fri, 2004-06-25 at 00:44, Shaw Vrana wrote:
> > > Hello All,
> > > 
> > > I'm having some problems getting the aironet wireless mini pci card to work 
> > > with the 2.6.7 kernel in my ThinkPad T30 and would appreciate a point in the 
> > > right direction.  The airo driver is successfully loaded at boot time but the 
> > > wifi0 interface is unable to be brought up.
> > > 
> > > >From /var/log/messages directly after boot:
> > > 
> > > kron kernel: airo:  Probing for PCI adapters
> > > kron kernel: PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 0000:02:02.0
> > > kron kernel: PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 0000:00:1d.2
> > > kron kernel: PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 0000:00:1f.1
> > > kron kernel: airo: MAC enabled eth1 0:2:8a:fc:f1:3f
> > > kron kernel: airo:  Finished probing for PCI adapters
> > > kron kernel: airo: BAP setup error too many retries
> > > kron last message repeated 7 times
> > > ...
> > > kron dhclient: wifi0: unknown hardware address type 801
> > > kron dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on wifi0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
> > > kron dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on wifi0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
> > > kron dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on wifi0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
> > > kron dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on wifi0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
> > > kron dhclient: No DHCPOFFERS received.
> > > kron zcip[1480]: libnet_open_link_interface("wifi0"): unknown physical layer 
> > > type 0x321
> > > kron ifup:  failed.
> > > kron network: Bringing up interface wifi0:  failed
> > > 
> > > (this works just fine for eth0..)
> > > 
> > > >From  /proc/driver/aironet/eth1/Status :
> > > Driver Version: airoDevice: 350 Series
> > > Manufacturer: Cisco Systems
> > > Firmware Version: 5.20.17
> > > 
> > > I have been unable to change the SSID by echoing a string to SSID or Config..?
> > > 
> > > Any information that you could provide would be greatly appreciated!
> > > 
> > > Thanks,
> > > Shaw
> > > 
> > 
> > -- 
> > The linux-thinkpad mailing list home page is at:
> > http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-thinkpad