wifi-router connection - why not ?

[ptr]

Dear friends,

Dell Latitude 600, 1,4 GHz with a Realtek RTL-8185 IEEE 802.11.a/b/g wlan cardbus in the slot, puppy 301 installed.
I followed the wifi-wiki and the links:

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=26032 (yorkiesnorkie)
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 339#159339 (tempestuous)

When I click "connecting", I get:

eth0 ethernet tg3 (module) pci (bus) broadcom tigon3 eth.driver
wlan0 wireless rtl8180 (module) x(bus) x(description)

When I click "testing the interface": the "act"-light is blinking, but unable to connect, the "link"-light is dark
When I click "scan": no networks detected
When I click "auto dhcp": unsuccessful configuration

Whe I follow the advices of tempestuous, I get the following lines:

lsmod: modules ieee80211_rtl used by r8180
ifconfig -a: wlan0
Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:18:E7:27::C9:CF
BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TC packets:226 errors:0 dropped:0 ocerrun:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqeuelen:100
RX bytes:0 (0.0B) TX bytes:10552 (10.3Kb)
Interrupt:1 Memory:e09d2000-e09d2100
iwconfig: wlan0
802.11b/g ESSID:myessid
Mode:Managed Frequency=2.417 GHz AccessPoint:Not Associated
Bit Rate: 11 Mb/s
Retry:on Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig wlan0 essid *******
iwconfig wlan0 key off
rm /etc/dhcpc/*.pid :no such file or directory
dhcpcd -t 30 -h puppypc -d wlan0 :dhcpcd: MAC address = 00:18:e7:27:c9:cf

But no connection to the internet or the router.

The Dell (of my daughter) is running out of the box with the ethernet cable to the router, also my old machine (AMD K6, 333MHz with Puppy 301 + Win98SE).
The Dell cannot connect with the Kubuntu-Live-CD, too.

The wireless parameters of the router (D-Link DI-624) are:
wireless: on
ssid: *****
encryption: off
channel: automatically
super G-mode: off
ssid-broadcast: on
connection to the IP: dynamic pppoe with username and password
connection: on demand (when I click on the url, the connection starts)
DNS relay: off
DHCP (dynamic): on
DHCP (static): off

Is there anyone outside there who can give me a hint ? I worked some hours with the forum and the machines and I am now tired and frustrated because I have no idea, and my daily pottery work is missing me (no work no money ).

thank you very much. ptr

[yorkiesnorkie]

Hi ptr,

Yeah I found sorting out the wireless frustrating as well. It took me over a week to get it sorted out. I had to put the pc down before I chucked it somwhere...

My take on this wireless thing is that it all starts with the pcmcia card. If you arent' using the right linux driver to quote the three stooges "nuttin' happens"

I had a similar situation where the power light came on during the boot but not the link light. I couldn't scan or get anywhere at first.

I had some help from Tempestuous in which it was pointed out that the manfid or manufacturer id was somewhat different from the report I got by typing in the command "cardctl ident" in the console e.g.

Code: Select all

# cardctl ident 
Socket 0: 
  no product info available 
Socket 1: 
  product info: "Realtek", "Rtl8139" 
  manfid: 0x0000, 0x024c 
  function: 6 (network)

Try typing in the command at the console and see what gets reported back you can then run a net search on your manfid and see what turns up just to confirm that the product info is actually correct. Tempestuous posted a link in my post which you've quoted. There's also a link to card identification in the beginners stuff here. The driver I needed to use was actually in the list in the wizard, but without knowing exactly which one to use I was lost.

I'd been using ndiswrapper and a windows inf file but that didn't really work at all. I had to remove it.

In my case I needed to use "r8180" linux driver from the list in the wizard but you might turn up something completely different. I also removed all the stuff I'd added to /etc/rc.d/rc.local and the card worked without it. After I loaded the right driver in the wizard, and set up the connection, I now get the link light coming on whenever Puppy boots. That doesn't always seem to be the case for everyone when the wizard completes but I think finding the right driver is the first part of the key to the mystery. If it completes once you'll know you can get connected and work on the "every time" aspect later.

I'd be interested in hearing how you get along as I'm still on a learning curve myself. Let us know what "cardctl ident" says.

Yorkiesnorkie

[tempestuous]

The driver situation for Realtek wifi is somewhat messy. There are 2 different opensource development projects (one old, one new) plus proprietary versions of the drivers.
ptr, it sounds like the r8180 driver in Puppy 3.01 driver has successfully created a network interface, but this interface is unresponsive.
You have 2 options:
Install the development version of the r8180 driver which I provided here -
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 470#144470

Or use Puppy 2.14R, 2.15CE or 2.16, and install the rtl8185-k2.6.18.1.pet package from
http://dotpups.de/dotpups/Wifi/drivers- ... 2-to-2.14/

[ptr]

Dear yorkiesnorkie and tempestuos,
thank you very much for your replies. as soon as possible I will give it another try. Please be patient.
ptr

[yorkiesnorkie]

Dear yorkiesnorkie and tempestuos,
thank you very much for your replies. as soon as possible I will give it another try. Please be patient.
ptr

No Problem Ptr. I'm not using any encryption by the way, I've got WEP turned off at the moment.

Yorkiesnorkie

[ptr]

Hi to all of you,
I followed all the links, tried different versions of puppy and other linux-distris, read a lot of pages, many hours of work, and frustrations, with no results. It seems that this card + the Dell are not working with linux. When I welcomed the feelings of frustrations and felt them, suddenly I felt a quietness inside me and a feeling of well-being and the knowing was there: sell this card via ebay and buy a netgear via ebay
May be I did some mistakes on this long journey because I noticed my thinking and understanding does not work enough to solve this - no problem I am only a linux-user no linux-guru .
So thank you for your patience.
ptr

[yorkiesnorkie]

Hi Ptr,

I agree that the adventure is somewhat easier if you start out with a supported card. I think a lot of us come to this new Linux world with our "baggage" so to speak. In my case it was a "mystery wireless card" off of ebay. Its probably unrealistic to expect everything we own to work. In my case I got lucky, and the wizard works with the card once I was using the right driver.

Anyway good luck!

Yorkiesnorkie

[yorkiesnorkie]

Hi Peter,

I'm adding this because I read your mail again today and a few thoughts occured to me.

This link has a very similar usb wireless device to yours. You might be able to use the procedure here http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=26222 with your inf files.

I'll send you another mail message later on as I've had a few more ideas.

Greg