[ltp] Trouble with Cisco Aironet Wireless 802.11b on R40

[Björn Lindström]

I'm having some trouble getting this card
(http://thinkwiki.org/wiki/Cisco_Aironet_Wireless_802.11b) to work
with Debian on my ThinkPad R40.

I have tested this with the latest version of the 2.6 kernel at this
point, 2.6.15.3.

It seems to find my card alright.


# iwconfig
eth0      no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth1      IEEE 802.11-DS  ESSID:""  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.417 GHz  Access Point: FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF   
          Bit Rate:11 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   Sensitivity=0/65535  
          Retry limit:16   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=100/100  Signal level=-10 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:1371  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:9459   Missed beacon:0

wifi0     IEEE 802.11-DS  ESSID:""  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.417 GHz  Access Point: FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF   
          Bit Rate:11 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   Sensitivity=0/65535  
          Retry limit:16   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=100/100  Signal level=-10 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:1371  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:9459   Missed beacon:0


I can also find my router:


# iwlist eth1
eth1      Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:15:F2:3D:68:22
                    ESSID:"dreaming"
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                    Quality=100/100  Signal level=-34 dBm  Noise level:-95 dBm
                    Encryption key:off
                    Bit Rate:1 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:2 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:5.5 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:11 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:18 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:24 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:36 Mb/s
                    Bit Rate:54 Mb/s


Now, I think, is where it gets weird:


# iwconfig eth1 mode managed essid dreaming key off
# iwconfig eth1
eth1      IEEE 802.11-DS  ESSID:""  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.417 GHz  Access Point: FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF   
          Bit Rate:11 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   Sensitivity=0/65535  
          Retry limit:16   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=100/100  Signal level=-10 dBm  Noise level=-96 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:1381  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:12821   Missed beacon:0


It doesn't seem from iwconfig that the ESSID of the card is
set.

Now, the page on thinkwiki.org suggests that my firmware is a bit old,
5.41 according to /proc/driver/aironet/eth1/Status. Should I try to
upgrade it? (That might be a bit tedious, since it seems to require
Windows, which I have completely removed).

Any other suggestions on what to try?


Thanks in advance,
Björn