[ltp] Re: Configuring Wifi in a T30 with a RaLink RA-2500 cardbus/miniPCI

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 09:49:36 -0600

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--------------080801030803020106010801
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

I have a T20 with a ConnectGear wireless card, which uses the RA-2500 
chip. I run OpenSuSE 10.1. I have not had success using the "Network 
Manager" method, although I did not work with it very much. I used the 
"traditional with ifup" method with some mixed success. Even then, 
though, I had to run some additional (or interspersed) commands, perhaps 
because I use WP-ASK encryption to communicate with my access point. 
Here's what I had to do:
ifconfig ra0 up
iwconfig ra0 channel 5
iwconfig ra0 essid <my essid>
iwpriv ra0 set AuthMode=WPAPSK
iwpriv ra0 set EncrypType=TKIP
iwpriv ra0 set WPAPSK="my password"
ifup ra0

Most of that stuff was already specified in Yast when I configured the 
card, but it didn't seem to "take" for whatever reason. Also there seems 
to be some redundancy in the commands: I think I even had to, at one 
point, enter "ifup ra0" before the above string of commands. Also, I had 
to do all this each time I woke up the laptop from RAM suspend.

You should check out the support site for the RA chipsets, at 
http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/. There are discussion forums, driver 
releases, news, etc. I got some help
there, on the forum. However, the most recent advice to me was to build 
the driver with "make debug", then "make install". This last command 
corrupted my system severely, wiping out the contents of my 
/lib/modules/<linux version>/kernel directory, and requiring that I 
reinstall. It's hard to believe that a "make install" would do that, and 
I'll look at the make file, but in the meantime, be advised. The regular 
"make install" didn't cause me any problems.

Since rebuilding my system, I have found the following commands to work 
in setting up the card each time upon boot or wakeup from RAM sleep:
ifconfig ra0 10.0.1.205 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
route add default gw 10.0.1.1
iwconfig ra0 channel 5
iwconfig ra0 essid <my essid>
iwpriv ra0 set AuthMode=WPAPSK
iwpriv ra0 set EncrypType=TKIP
iwpriv ra0 set WPAPSK="my password"

I'm not using DHCP in this configuration. This sequence starts the card 
quite reliably. I configured it with Yast to start manually, using ifup, 
so that should work, but it doesn't.
By the way, I have found that "pccardctl eject" allows me to keep the 
card in the slot and still put the laptop to sleep.

I hope all this helps. I'm sure there's a better and more automatic way 
of doing all this, and I'm no guru. I'm just passing along what works 
for me.

Frank Huddleston

--------------080801030803020106010801
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
 <meta content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
I have a T20
with a ConnectGear wireless card, which uses the RA-2500 chip. I run
OpenSuSE 10.1. I have not had success using the "Network Manager"
method, although I did not work with it very much. I used the
"traditional with ifup" method with some mixed success. Even then,
though, I had to run some additional (or interspersed) commands,
perhaps because I use WP-ASK encryption to communicate with my access
point. Here's what I had to do: 
ifconfig ra0 up 
iwconfig ra0 channel 5 
iwconfig ra0 essid &lt;my essid&gt; 
iwpriv ra0 set AuthMode=WPAPSK 
iwpriv ra0 set EncrypType=TKIP 
iwpriv ra0 set WPAPSK="my password" 
ifup ra0 
 
Most of that stuff was already specified in Yast when I configured the
card, but it didn't seem to "take" for whatever reason. Also there
seems to be some redundancy in the commands: I think I even had to, at
one point, enter "ifup ra0" before the above string of commands. Also,
I had to do all this each time I woke up the laptop from RAM suspend. 
 
You should check out the support site for the RA chipsets, at
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/">http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/</a>. There are discussion forums, driver
releases, news, etc. I got some help 
there, on the forum. However, the most recent advice to me was to build
the driver with "make debug", then "make install". This last command
corrupted my system severely, wiping out the contents of my
/lib/modules/&lt;linux version&gt;/kernel directory, and requiring that
I reinstall. It's hard to believe that a "make install" would do that,
and I'll look at the make file, but in the meantime, be advised. The
regular "make install" didn't cause me any problems. 
 
Since rebuilding my system, I have found the following commands to work
in setting up the card each time upon boot or wakeup from RAM sleep: 
ifconfig ra0 10.0.1.205 netmask 255.255.255.0 up 
route add default gw 10.0.1.1 
iwconfig ra0 channel 5 
iwconfig ra0 essid &lt;my essid&gt; 
iwpriv ra0 set AuthMode=WPAPSK 
iwpriv ra0 set EncrypType=TKIP 
iwpriv ra0 set WPAPSK="my password" 
 
I'm not using DHCP in this configuration. This sequence starts the card
quite reliably. I configured it with Yast to start manually, using
ifup, so that should work, but it doesn't. 
By the way, I have found that "pccardctl eject" allows me to keep the
card in the slot and still put the laptop to sleep. 
 
I hope all this helps. I'm sure there's a better and more automatic way
of doing all this, and I'm no guru. I'm just passing along what works
for me. 
 
Frank Huddleston 
 
 
 
 

</body>
</html>

--------------080801030803020106010801--