How the heck to get this Linksys card working - WPC54G

Message

goofeyfoot · #1 Post by **goofeyfoot** » Thu 04 Oct 2007, 10:15

Am kind of new to this Linux.

I put the card into the computer. Someone on this site said to load a "bcX43XX" or something like that driver. It is a broadcom driver native to the wireless Gui in Puppy.

I loaded it in the gui.

OK. So, that driver worked for about twenty minutes and never worked again.

So I tried a ndiswrapper one. This is lsbcmnds or something to that effect. The driver looks like it is loading in lsmod. It also shows up as loaded in the wifi gui.

But of course, nothing works.

Now going back to look at lsmod I see that BOTH the broadcom and the lsbcmnds are loading.

Also, looking at the wifi gui I see that BOTH the broadcom and lsbcmnds are loading.

That can't be a good thing, I shouldn't think. How can two drivers be trying to work the same hardware?

So I tried blacklisting the Broadcom one in the Menu thing. But for some reason, the sucker keeps loading. I can't make it stop.

So two questions.

If you try a driver, and it doesn't work, how can you kill it both in the load and in the Wifi Gui where it keeps rearing its ugly head.

Secondly, a more general question. How can I get this wireless working without going completely out of my mind?

Thanks for reading gents and ladies.

Michael

goofeyfoot · #2 Post by **goofeyfoot** » Thu 04 Oct 2007, 10:38

OK:

Let me give you an update.

Out of frustration, I modprobe -r 'd the bs43xx driver to get rid of it.

And that seemed to rid me of it. I ran lasmod and voila the sucker was gone.

So now in the wifi gui I look, and it is shown as unloaded there. So far, so good.

But of course now in the gui I don't even see the adapter.

So I tried to reload the nswrapper driver which was called lsbcmnds or something. No go, that driver didn't work at all.

So out of desperation, I went back and put the bs43xx driver back in. Guess what! It sees the network and signs right in.

So, I guess I have to figure out how come the bs43xx driver works for awhile, and sometimes it can't even scan the network two feet away. Also have to figure out how to make some permanent changes so that this thing always works.

Well, thanks for reading boys and girls.

Michael

goofeyfoot · #3 Post by **goofeyfoot** » Thu 04 Oct 2007, 10:56

OK here's the latest.

After the last post I rebooted the computer and again, the card can't even scan the network.

So, what do you think about that?

Thanks.

Michael

goofeyfoot · #4 Post by **goofeyfoot** » Thu 04 Oct 2007, 13:27

It's me again with the latest concerning my wifi debacle.

If I want the wifi to work I have to unload the driver like this "modprobe -r bcm43xx" Then I have to reload the driver like this "modprobe bcm43xx." At that point, everything works perfectly.

So the question is how to get this to work without this hassle?

Oh, and I should tell you something else.

I ran that "dmesg" command. I don't know what that is all about but it seems to show you a whole bunch of stuff that didn't go right maybe when the machine was booting.

Anyway, looking around in there I noticed that there were a whole bunch of entries which showed radios being turned off and just general weirdness - all of which had to do with the bcm43 thing.

Coincidence? I don't think so. So it looks like the card isn't right from the get-go when you turn this machine on.

So, same question, is there a way to stop all this stuff so I can get onto the internet without typing a bunch of junk?

Well thanks again for reading.

Michael

cruzin · #5 Post by **cruzin** » Thu 04 Oct 2007, 15:03

I have a wireless card for my notebook that I use when not home and once in a while at home. This is what I do.
I made 2 small script files, one to get the card running the other to shut it down.
the file to make it run is like this.

modprobe ath_pci
ifconfig ath0 up

the script to shut it down is this

ifconfig ath0 down

I make these files into scripts and place them on my desktop and when I want the wireless to work I just press on the up one and when Im tired of the rf floating around and want it down I click on the script file to shut it down, I dont know what your exact file should say but thats how I get my netgear WG511T working in my thinkpad t21. Hope this helps. You may have to read up on making a script file but its real easy. Make the files with a editer and save them and drag them to the desktop or leave them in root.

raffy · #6 Post by **raffy** » Thu 04 Oct 2007, 16:41

and right-click on the file to change permissions (make it eXecutable).

goofeyfoot · #7 Post by **goofeyfoot** » Sat 06 Oct 2007, 00:29

Gents:

Isn't there some way to automate the load of the wireless so that when you boot up everything is up and running?

I know it sounds like a petty thing, but when I start up I want to get stuff done not configure things.

Thanks and best regards.

Michael

jonyo · #8 Post by **jonyo** » Sat 06 Oct 2007, 01:57

Wifi should be good to go & fully auto load on boot if setup right. Doesn't always work out when setup with gui only even after clicking correct save boxes.

Dunno how to fix

if the gui doesn't work out myself & it often hasn't. Might help someone else to provide pup vers?

laptopnewbee · #9 Post by **laptopnewbee** » Sat 06 Oct 2007, 02:27

goofeyfoot wrote: Isn't there some way to automate the load of the wireless so that when you boot up everything is up and running?

I know it sounds like a petty thing, but when I start up I want to get stuff done not configure things.

open /etc/rc.d/rc.local and add the lines needed to it, that is your personal configuration file and is intended for just such automation.

and i don't see it as a petty thing at all.

jonyo · #10 Post by **jonyo** » Sat 06 Oct 2007, 02:41

laptopnewbee wrote: open /etc/rc.d/rc.local and add the lines needed to it, that is your personal configuration file and is intended for just such automation.

and i don't see it as a petty thing at all.

Haven't had a look but could you give an example? I use wep 64 hex 1234567890 manged setup.

laptopnewbee · #11 Post by **laptopnewbee** » Sat 06 Oct 2007, 04:17

jonyo wrote: Haven't had a look but could you give an example? I use wep 64 hex 1234567890 manged setup.

that looks to me like something that only requires a couple of mouse clicks (unless you are required to manually enter the key as a security measure), i was refering to things like the startup script that cruzin offered.

untill i was introduced to the network wizard i had "modprobe ndiswrapper" in my /etc/rc.d/rc.local file so i didn't have to open xterm, and enter it with each bootup.

jonyo · #12 Post by **jonyo** » Sat 06 Oct 2007, 05:40

My understanding is wifi can be setup without using a gui in linux. Read up quite a bit on it but still wouldn't know how to go about it today & mostly voodoo to me.

I'm mostly at the mercy of how well the gui works with the gear I have & use in diff pup vers. Gui doesn't work, or save settings & I'm left with whatever instructions I may understand in the forums from info provided which to this day..I still don't get much..

Using only the gui's available in pups from 2.12 to .17 & the same wifi
gear, I've only managed to boot straight into wifi in vers 2.15 & even there, the gui has to be setup or parameters setup in a specific way that I lucked into one time, otherwise some x-tra steps were required after boot. Wasn't a big deal for me cos I was thrilled just to be able to run a linux.

I'd say that anyone'd have the same problem coming over to linux cold, or not knowing much about linux, from win like I did. Dunno why but this saving parameters for wifi using the gui has been a prob for some time here across many vers. Despite that, It does very well at getting that connection & was the first linux one I figured out.

goofeyfoot · #13 Post by **goofeyfoot** » Sat 06 Oct 2007, 12:57

I sort of understand what has been said about amending the rc.local file. But the problem is a little more complex, though only slightly so.

For some unexplicable reason, I always have to unload the driver which is bc43xx or something to that effect. Then I have to reload the driver -ie. the very same one.

If I do those two things, then the wireless works great.

So there are really two steps. First to unload the driver and secondly to reload it.

That is what I am trying to do.

So is that possible in the rc.local thing and if so, exactly what should the text say?

Thanks again.

Michael

cruzin · #14 Post by **cruzin** » Sun 07 Oct 2007, 08:24

I did what laptopnewbee suggested with the /etc/rc.d/rc.local file and added my modprobe ath_pci
ifconfig ath0 up
and it worked like a charm.
thanks for the good and easy to do stear!
I appreciate it. now when I fire up the notebook the file gets the wireless ready...and I left the 2 script files on my desktop, because I dont like the uhf floating around me when I am not using it so I just run the script to shut the wifi down when not needed.
When I took my ham radio studys there is a whole chapter about 1.2ghz and above and the harmfull effects...cant see why the cordless phones keep going up in freqs.
thanks again

goofeyfoot · #15 Post by **goofeyfoot** » Sun 07 Oct 2007, 12:26

Would it be possible to post the exact text of the lines that were added by laptopnewbe to the local file?

I was planning on copying those to my local file and try them. I assume that all I have to do is change the name of my driver, right?

Thanks for the advice.

Michael

goofeyfoot · #16 Post by **goofeyfoot** » Sun 07 Oct 2007, 13:21

Hello guys:

Since my last post I wrote this thing. I don't know whether you call it a script or what but I made it executable:

modprobe --remove bcm43xx
modprobe bcm43xx
ifconfig ath0 up

What that seems to do if you run the script is shut the driver down, reinstall the driver, and one other thing which is the ath0 up. Don't know what that does.

But anyway, I have automated the driver install to where the script works pretty good for that.gets the driver up and running.

But I still have to reload the wireless profile with the WEP settings and stuff. I have to use the GUI to do that.

So two questions.

One, how would I get the security profile to run itself so that I don't have to go through that GUI for the connection each time?

Second, how could I get this script included in the start up routine so that all this junk would be done once I hit the desktop?

Thanks again for the ideas.

Michael

cruzin · #17 Post by **cruzin** » Sun 07 Oct 2007, 16:53

Did you try a search for the type of card you have may be someone else has covered it and can give you the text line.

#this file called from rc.local0
#you can edit this file
#When firewall is installed, will append lines to this file...
modprobe ath_pci
ifconfig ath0 up

the above is what I did, the bottom 2 lines is what I added for my specific card

laptopnewbee · #18 Post by **laptopnewbee** » Mon 08 Oct 2007, 14:06

here you go:

Code: Select all

modprobe ndiswrapper
ifconfig wlan0 up

if you aren't using a windows driver in ndiswrapper then replace ndiswrapper with your driver name. if your wireless interface isn't wlan0 then replace wlan0 with the name of your interface (ath0, etc...).

if you have to unload your driver and reload it just place

Code: Select all

modprobe -r yourdrivername

first in the group

hope this helps.

edit: in the case of using ndiswrapper, yourdrivername=ndiswrapper

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

How the heck to get this Linksys card working - WPC54G

How the heck to get this Linksys card working - WPC54G

permissions

thanks for the tip laptopnewbee