Hi,

Recently i've got a wifi PCMCIA card and i'm trying to configure it to
connect to Internet.

It's my first linux installation : Slackware 10.1 |Kernel 2.4.29. I've
found some documents explaining how to do it but i've having problems
trying to make it work :

1) First of all, after each boot i have to launch "/sbin/ifconfig ath0
up". I don't remember i had to do that at first place. Is it my fault ?
I've done some changes in rc.wireless.conf & rc/rc.inet1.conf files.

2) Automatic configuration

I have make changes in rc.wireless.conf & rc/rc.inet1.conf files to
make it work automatically at boot but it doesn't work :

In the rc.wireless.conf i've entered these informations for my
connection:

INFO="MYINFO"
ESSID="MYESSID"
MODE= "Managed"
RATE= "auto"
KEY="MYKEY"

chmod 744 /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless

In the rc.inet1.conf i've entered informations ath0:

IPADDR[0]=
NETMASK[0]=
.....
GATWAY=

** What's wrong ? or what is missing ?

When launch manuelly /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless ath0 and for check i do
"/sbin/iwconfig ath0" :

ath0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"MYESSID" Nickname:"MYNickname"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437GHz Access Point: 00:0D:88:C1:....
Bit Rate:36Mb/s Tx-Power:18 dBm Sensitivity=0/3
Retryff RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Encryption key:my encryption key Security mode:restricted
Power Managementff
Link Quality:21/94 Signal level:-74 dBm Noise level:-95 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Misses beacon:0

** For me it seems ok ! Why after boot i dont have these infos and i
have to
do it manuelly ?

When launch manuelly /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 and for check i do
"/sbin/ifconfig ath0" :

ath0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0F:...
UP BROADCAST RUNNIG MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:355 errors:2008 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:2008
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:200
RX bytes:93868 (91.6 Kb) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interruprt:5 Memory:e835f000-e836f000

** it dosen't seem ok ("RX errors:2008") ! what di you think ?

And when i consult Kernel IP routing table by doing "route -n":
there's no lines for ath0

I try manually to configure with :

/sbin/ifconfig ath0 myipaddress
/sbin/route add -net default gw mygwaddress netmask 255.255.255.0
metric 1
** when i ping to an internet ipaddress it works

But when i try in KDE with the web browser it doesn't work. An when i
check into KDE/Control center/Internet & Network/Wireless Netwrok i
don't find my config. What do i have to do ?

Thanks

lilianenb@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Recently i've got a wifi PCMCIA card and i'm trying to configure it to
> connect to Internet.
>
> It's my first linux installation : Slackware 10.1 |Kernel 2.4.29. I've
> found some documents explaining how to do it but i've having problems
> trying to make it work :
>
> 1) First of all, after each boot i have to launch "/sbin/ifconfig ath0
> up". I don't remember i had to do that at first place. Is it my fault ?
> I've done some changes in rc.wireless.conf & rc/rc.inet1.conf files.

Slackware 10.1 has no support for directly configuring network devices
whose names do not start with 'eth'.
So, for your ath0 interface you'll have to do it all manually, or edit
/etc/rc.inet1 yourself.
Slackware 10.2 will support your ath0 interface. In the meantime, you
can get replacements for your rc.inet1* and rc.wireless* scripts
here: http://sox.homeip.net/slackware/rc_scripts/ . Those are the
ones that are already in the slackware-current package tree.

> 2) Automatic configuration
>
> I have make changes in rc.wireless.conf & rc/rc.inet1.conf files to
> make it work automatically at boot but it doesn't work :
>
> In the rc.wireless.conf i've entered these informations for my
> connection:
>
> INFO="MYINFO"
> ESSID="MYESSID"
> MODE= "Managed"
> RATE= "auto"
> KEY="MYKEY"
>
> chmod 744 /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless

Don't forget to comment out this part in the beginning of
rc.wireless.conf:

*)
INFO="Any ESSID"
ESSID="any"
;;

by putting # in front of those lines.

>
> In the rc.inet1.conf i've entered informations ath0:
>
> IPADDR[0]=
> NETMASK[0]=
> ....
> GATWAY=

With the scripts I mentioned above, you'll have to add
IFNAME[0]="ath0", that is all.

>
> ** What's wrong ? or what is missing ?
>
> When launch manuelly /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless ath0 and for check i do
> "/sbin/iwconfig ath0" :
>
> ath0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"MYESSID" Nickname:"MYNickname"
> Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437GHz Access Point: 00:0D:88:C1:....
> Bit Rate:36Mb/s Tx-Power:18 dBm Sensitivity=0/3
> Retryff RTS thrff Fragment thrff
> Encryption key:my encryption key Security mode:restricted
> Power Managementff
> Link Quality:21/94 Signal level:-74 dBm Noise level:-95 dBm
> Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
> Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Misses beacon:0
>
> ** For me it seems ok ! Why after boot i dont have these infos and i
> have to
> do it manuelly ?

Looks like the wireless part of the configuration went allright.

> When launch manuelly /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 and for check i do
> "/sbin/ifconfig ath0" :
>
> ath0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0F:...
> UP BROADCAST RUNNIG MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
> RX packets:355 errors:2008 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:2008
> TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
> collisions:0 txqueuelen:200
> RX bytes:93868 (91.6 Kb) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
> Interruprt:5 Memory:e835f000-e836f000
>
> ** it dosen't seem ok ("RX errors:2008") ! what di you think ?

Those are frame errors. That would be strange, and I have no explanation.

> And when i consult Kernel IP routing table by doing "route -n":
> there's no lines for ath0
>
> I try manually to configure with :
>
> /sbin/ifconfig ath0 myipaddress
> /sbin/route add -net default gw mygwaddress netmask 255.255.255.0
> metric 1
> ** when i ping to an internet ipaddress it works
>
> But when i try in KDE with the web browser it doesn't work. An when i
> check into KDE/Control center/Internet & Network/Wireless Netwrok i
> don't find my config. What do i have to do ?

It looks as if hostnames are not translated to IP addresses? You might
have to add nameserver IP addresses to the file "/etc/resolv.conf".

Cheers, Eric

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lilianenb@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Recently i've got a wifi PCMCIA card and i'm trying to configure it to
> connect to Internet.
>
> It's my first linux installation : Slackware 10.1 |Kernel 2.4.29. I've
> found some documents explaining how to do it but i've having problems
> trying to make it work :
>
> 1) First of all, after each boot i have to launch "/sbin/ifconfig ath0
> up". I don't remember i had to do that at first place. Is it my fault ?
> I've done some changes in rc.wireless.conf & rc/rc.inet1.conf files.

Well, /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 expects that the device will be one of eth1 through
eth4, and those are the names that the rest of the Slackware networks scripts
generate.

Since Slackware doesn't know ath0, it can't configure it.

How did it get to be ath0 anyway?

> 2) Automatic configuration
>
> I have make changes in rc.wireless.conf & rc/rc.inet1.conf files to
> make it work automatically at boot but it doesn't work :
>
> In the rc.wireless.conf i've entered these informations for my
> connection:
>
> INFO="MYINFO"
> ESSID="MYESSID"
> MODE= "Managed"
> RATE= "auto"
> KEY="MYKEY"

I hope that
a) you added these to the proper card (as defined by it's MAC address), and
b) you disabled the overriding 'default' value ( '*)' ) at the top of the
rc.wireless.conf script

> chmod 744 /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless
>
> In the rc.inet1.conf i've entered informations ath0:
>
> IPADDR[0]=
> NETMASK[0]=
> ....
> GATWAY=
>
> ** What's wrong ? or what is missing ?

How about the DHCP flags?
You should at least set
USE_DHCP[0]="yes"
and, optionally, set
DHCP_HOSTNAME[0]="MyHostName"

> When launch manuelly /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless ath0 and for check i do
> "/sbin/iwconfig ath0" :
>
> ath0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"MYESSID" Nickname:"MYNickname"
> Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437GHz Access Point: 00:0D:88:C1:....
> Bit Rate:36Mb/s Tx-Power:18 dBm Sensitivity=0/3
> Retryff RTS thrff Fragment thrff
> Encryption key:my encryption key Security mode:restricted
> Power Managementff
> Link Quality:21/94 Signal level:-74 dBm Noise level:-95 dBm
> Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
> Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Misses beacon:0
>
> ** For me it seems ok ! Why after boot i dont have these infos and i
> have to
> do it manuelly ?
>
> When launch manuelly /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 and for check i do
> "/sbin/ifconfig ath0" :

You /really/ customized /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1, didn't you?
FWIW, stock /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 doesn't recognize ath* at all

> ath0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0F:...
> UP BROADCAST RUNNIG MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
> RX packets:355 errors:2008 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:2008
> TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
> collisions:0 txqueuelen:200
> RX bytes:93868 (91.6 Kb) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
> Interruprt:5 Memory:e835f000-e836f000
>
> ** it dosen't seem ok ("RX errors:2008") ! what di you think ?
>
> And when i consult Kernel IP routing table by doing "route -n":
> there's no lines for ath0
>
> I try manually to configure with :
>
> /sbin/ifconfig ath0 myipaddress
> /sbin/route add -net default gw mygwaddress netmask 255.255.255.0
> metric 1
> ** when i ping to an internet ipaddress it works

Yes, because you hand assigned the IP address.

> But when i try in KDE with the web browser it doesn't work.

You probably mean when you surf using fully qualified domain names rather than
IP addresses. That's because, lacking DHCP or a statically connected DNS
server, you have no DNS server to translate FQDNs into IP addresses for you.
Either
a) properly configure your DHCP client settings (see my comments re USE_DHCP
above) and start your DHCP client when your card comes up (this is automatic,
given an eth* interface and the proper settings in rc.inet1.conf), or
b) run your own DNS server locally, and use that to resolve names.

> An when i
> check into KDE/Control center/Internet & Network/Wireless Netwrok i
> don't find my config. What do i have to do ?

KDE Control Center/Internet & Network/Wireless Network sets up the profiles
for the KDE Kwireless tool. If you don't run the kwireless tool, then these
profiles are useless. In any case, they don't reflect the initial state that
Slackware sets things up with, they reflect the final state that kwireless
modifies your wireless networking /to/.

> Thanks
>


- --
Lew Pitcher

Master Codewright & JOAT-in-training | GPG public key available on request
Registered Linux User #112576 (http://counter.li.org/)
Slackware - Because I know what I'm doing.
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