[SOLVED] wlan0, wifi0 seem to be working, but no network...

[yoyology]

I'm trying to get wireless working on a Toshiba Satellite with a Netgear MA401 PCMCIA card. It looks like Puppy is finding the card okay with hostap_cs as a module. It can see my home network, and I get all the way through the DHCP step with everything fine.

But I have no access. I can't ping my wireless router (get "Sendto: Network is unreachable." error) or get anything in the browser.

I have two blinky icons. One for wlan0, one for wifi0. Both indicate that data has been sent, but not received.

I've gotten this far with reading the forums and my 15-year-old UNIX experience from college, but I'm stumped. What's my next step?

[wallywest]

I am having a similar problem and any help would be appreciated.

[VK6FUN]

what do get when you type "route" at the command line?
can you ping your gateway?

cheers

Pete

[VK6FUN]

To answer my own dumb question probably nothing.

have a look in dmesg and /var/log/messages for clues

Pete

[yoyology]

Strangely, on reboot, Puppy recognized the wireless card as eth1 instead of wlan0 or wifi0. EDIT: Also, it's using the orinoco_cs module now.

"route" results in:

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Kernel IP Routing table
Destination  Gateway  Genmask  Flags Metric Ref  Use Iface
169.254.0.0  *     255.255.0.0  U      0      0     0    eth1

"ping 192.168.0.1" (my DLink router's IP) results in:

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PING 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1): 56 data bytes
ping: sendto: Network is unreachable

"dmesg" gives me a whole lot I don't understand, but the last several lines seem significant:

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eth1:New link status: Connected (0001)
eth1:New link status: AP Changed (0003)
eth1:New link status: Disconnected (0002)
eth1:New link status: Connected (0001)
eth1:New link status: AP Changed (0003)
eth1:New link status: Disconnected (0002)
...

None of that makes much sense to me, other than it seems it's trying repeatedly to connect, but isn't making it. Sorry for my newbieness.

As for /var/log/messages, I'm not really sure what I'm looking for. I see some stuff that implies that it's having trouble getting through the dhcpcd step.

FWIW, my wife has no trouble connecting to this same wireless router using her Dell laptop running Vista. I can reach the router from another desktop if I need to change any DHCP settings on it.

[VK6FUN]

OK lets try

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iwconfig

and
[/code]
cat /var/log/messages |grep dhcp

[/code]

and

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dmesg | grep orinoco

please post the output of these

Pete[/quote]

[VK6FUN]

OK lets try

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iwconfig

and

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cat /var/log/messages |grep dhcp

and

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dmesg | grep orinoco

please post the output of these

Pete

[yoyology]

Okay, forgive me if this looks ugly. I can't see an easy way to copy and paste the text in question, so I'm typing by hand.

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# iwconfig
lo     no wireless extension.

eth0   no wireless extensions.

eth1   IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:""  Nickname:"Prism  I"
       Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: 00:1C:10:3E:42:8C
       Bit Rate:11 Mb/s   Sensitivity:1/3
       Retry short limit:8   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
       Encryption key:off
       Power Management:off
       Link Quality=28/92  Signal level=-95 dBm  Noise level=-145 dBm
       Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
       Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0  Missed beacon:0

To make this one easier to type, I'm stripping out the date/time and other repeated info.

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# cat /var/log/messages | grep dhcp 
info dhcpcd 3.1.8 starting
info hardware address=00:09:5b:4c:05:c9
info broadcasting for a lease
debug sending DHCP_DISCOVER with xid 0x5c6794e7
debug waiting on select for 20 seconds
debug sending DHCP_DISCOVER with xid 0x5c6794e7
  {above line repeats five more times, at 3-second intervals}
err timed out
info trying to use old lease in `/var/lib/dhcpcd/dhcpcd-eth1.info'
err lease information file `/var/lib/dhcpcd/dhcpcd-eth1.info' does not exist.
info probing for an IPV4LL address
debug sending ARP probe #1
debug sending ARP probe #2
debug sending ARP probe #3
debug sending ARP claim #1
debug sending ARP claim #2
warn using IPV4LL address 169.254.12.208
info adding IP address 169.254.12.208/16
debug no dns information to write
debug writing /var/lib/dhcpcd/dhcpcd-eth1.info
debug exec "/etc/dhcpcd.sh" "/var/lib/dhcpcd/dhcpcd-eth1.info" "new"
debug forking to background
debug waiting on select for 10 seconds
info exiting
...

then it redoes the same thing with a different xid (0x3286298e).

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# dmesg | grep orinoco
orinoco 0.15 (David Gibson <hermes@gibson.dropbear.id.au>, Pavel Roskin <proski@gnu.org>, et al)
orinoco_cs 0.15 (David Gibson <hermes@gibson.dropbear.id.au>, Pavel Roskin <proski@gnu.org>, et al)
eth1: orinoco_cs at 0.0, irq 3, io 0x0100-0x013f

[VK6FUN]

Notice the line in iwconfig that says encryption key is off.

I like to watch

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tail -f /var/log/messages

while I am setting up my network with the wizard.

Are you putting in your key?

watch the messages file closely as you press "use this profile"

If this gets you nowhere try configuring it by hand like this

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iwconfig eth1 essid <YOUR WIRELESS APs NAME> key <YOUR KEY>

watch the log in another window

I think he dhcp is not working because the wifi card can't talk to the access point (no key) and is therefore homeless.

cheers

Pete

[yoyology]

Hmm. Two things.

When I did as you describe, I saw a line that read:

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...user.warn kernel: Clocksource tsc unstable (delta - 71922986 ns)

just before it began the DHCP process.

When I attempted the iwconfig command you indicated, I got:

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Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
    invalid argument "<my13letterkeyhere>"

I have the wireless access point set up with a 128bit ASCII key. Should I change to a hex key?
EDIT: Hang on. I just read the manpage for iwconfig and saw the switch (s:) to enter an ASCII key. I did that and ran iwconfig with no arguments again, and it does now have an Encryption key listed - 26 hex digits grouped in fours. Trying DHCP again...

That looks good! I watched the messages file while doing DHCP, and packets were being exchanged.

Route gives me a gateway, and I can ping murga-linux.com!

Thank you so much!

[yoyology]

I'm posting this from the browser on my Toshiba laptop! Pete For The Win!

Thank you very much. This is wonderful.

Should I add a reply to the "cards confirmed to work" sticky about this card?

[VK6FUN]

You worked it out yourself mate. RTFM is not dead!

It would be good to make log and dmesg watching more newbie-friendly.

Most problems can be solved by recourse to them.

enjoy!

Pete

[yoyology]

This continues to work great, but I have to redo it every time I boot the PC. Is this a bug or a feature?

In other words, is there a way to set it up to automatically connect to my home wireless network?

[geodescent]

I have a similar problem using a Netgear MA401 rev. D card in an hp omnibook xe4100 running the latest version of Macpup Opera.

Things to note:
* Macpup auto-loads hostap_cs.
* If I actually go so far as to edit /etc/rc.d/MODULSCONFIG and put hostap_cs in the SKIPLIST, Macpup auto-loads orinoco_cs.
* My router's wifi connection is WPA encrypted with an 8-digit key that starts with a number.
* If, when orinoco_cs is loaded, I attempt to go through the network connection wizard, I am advised that WPA is not supported with orinoco_cs.
* If I insert the PCMCIA card after the system is booted, it does not light up at all. I don't think Macpup is monitoring the PCMCIA slot at all for hotplugging.


So I load the wizard wizard and enter the network configuration.
Then, I click Wireless.
Next, instead of scanning, I load my profile, which has everything left at the default aside from the fact that encryption is set to WPA/TKIP.
I click "Use this profile"
Okay so here's the output of tail -f /var/log/messages when I click Use this profile:

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Jul 3 22:51:49 (none) user.debug kernel: wifi0: LinkStatus=2 (Disconnected)
Jul 3 22:51:49 (none) user.debug kernel: wifi0: LinkStatus: BSSID=44:44:44:44:44:44

At this point I get a dialog stating that Puppy is "scanning." After 30 seconds, it times out and the following additional output from tail -f /var/log/messages appears:

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Jul 3 22:52:24 (none) user.debug kernel: wifi0: CMD=0x0121 => res=0x7f, resp0=0x0004
Jul 3 22:52:24 (none) user.debug kernel: wifi0: hfa384x_set_rid: CMDCODE_ACCESS_WRITE failed (res=127, rid=fc48, len=2)
Jul 3 22:52:24 (none) user.debug kernel: wifi0: LinkStatus=2 (Disconnected)
Jul 3 22:52:24 (none) user.debug kernel: wifi0: LinkStatus: BSSID=44:44:44:44:44:44
Jul 3 22:52:24 (none) user.debug kernel: wlan0: Preferred AP (SIOCSIWAP) is used only in Managed mode whn host_roaming is enabled

Then I get a dialog saying "Unable to establish WPA connection."
When I click Details the dialog says:

Under connection info:

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Access Point: None

Then, under Output of 'wpa_cli -i wlan0 status

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wpa_state=SCANNING

I get nowhere attempting an Auto-DHCP after that.

Here's what happens if, after this, I try to manually connect via terminal. Keep in mind that I do not really know or remember the steps required to connect via terminal, so there's a good chance I am missing a few commands, but here we go anyway:

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# iwconfig wlan0 essid yimmy key s:7xxxxxxx
# dhcpcd wlan0

Then my tail spits out a bunch of stuff that I cannot get to in order to retype here (rvxt should be banned) because new messages indicating that association failed for wifi0 kep appearing, even if I kill any dhcpcd processes. Additionally, the following shows up in my rvxt winow in which I issued dhcpcd wlan0:

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Error, wlan0: timed out
Error, wlan0: lease information file `/var/lib/dhcpcd/dhcpcd-wlan0.info' does not exist
Warning, wlan0: using IPV4LL address 169.254.221.185

I'm really at a loss here.

[tempestuous]

If, when orinoco_cs is loaded, I attempt to go through the network connection wizard, I am advised that WPA is not supported with orinoco_cs.

Yes. The orinoco_cs Linux driver definitely does not support WPA encryption. So the author of the Network Wizard (Dougal) was correct to generate that warning.
Obviously if you want to use WPA encryption, you must un-blacklist the hostap_cs driver, which DOES support WPA encryption.

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iwconfig wlan0 essid yimmy key s:7xxxxxxx

That command is only relevant for WEP encryption. The iwconfig utility cannot be used for WPA encryption.

If you want to configure your wifi connection at the commandline, WPA instructions are here -
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 336#159336

[geodescent]

Thanks for your input. The forum link you gave was of immense help.
Given the newfound info, here is what is happening.

• Removed hostap_cs from SKIPLIST and rebooted.
  Removed encryption from my wireless AP and successfully connected and browsed after going through Puppy's network wizard.
  Re-enabled encryption and rebooted.
  Used Geany to open /etc/network-wizard/wireless/wpa_profiles/wpa_supplicant.conf
  Changed ssid variable to my AP (yimmy)
  Changed psk variable to my WPA password and saved file.
  Launched rxvt and issued the following (output is included)

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# ifconfig wlan0 up
# rm /var/run/wpa_supplicant/*
# rm: cannot remove `/var/run/wpa_supplicant/*': No such file or directory
# wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -D hostap -c /etc/network-wizard/wireless/wpa_profiles/wpa_supplicant.conf -dd
Initializing interface 'wlan0' conf '/etc/network-wizard/wireless/wpa_profiles/wpa_supplicant.conf' driver 'hostap' ctrl_interface 'N/A' bridge 'N/A'
Configuration file '/etc/network-wizard/wireless/wpa_profiles/wpa_supplicant.conf' -> '/etc/network-wizard/wireless/wpa_profiles/wpa_supplicant.conf'
Reading configuration file '/etc/network-wizard/wireless/wpa_profiles/wpa_supplicant.conf'
ctrl_interface='/var/run/wpa_supplicant'
ap_scan=1
update_config=1
Line: 5 - start of a new network block
ssid - hexdump_ascii(len=5):
       79 69 6d 6d 79                     yimmy
scan_ssid=1 (0x1)
PSK (ASCII passphrase) - hexdump_ascii(len=8): [REMOVED]
proto: 0x1
key_mgmt: 0x2
pairwise: 0x8
group: 0x8
PSK (from passphrase) - hexdump(len=32): [REMOVED]
Priority group 0
     id=0 ssid='yimmy'
Initializing interface (2) 'wlan0'
EAPOL: SUPP_PAE entering state DISCONNECTED
EAPOL: KEY_RX entering state NO_KEY_RECEIVE
EAPOL: SUPP_BE entering state INITIALIZE
EAP: EAP entering state DISABLED
EAPOL: External notification - portEnabled=0
EAPOL: External notification - portValid=0
SIOCGIWRANGE: WE(compiled)=22 WE(source)=18 enc_capa=0xf
      capabilities: key_mgmt 0xf enc 0xf
Added alternative ifindex 5 (wifi0) for wireless events
Own MAC address: 00:09:5b:4a:c4:c2
wpa_driver_hostap_set_wpa: enabled=1
ioctl[PRISM2_IOCTL_PRISM2_PARAM]: Operation not supported
Driver does not support WPA.
wpa_driver_hostap_set_key: alg=none key_idx=0 set_tx=0 seq_len=0 key_len=0
wpa_driver_hostap_set_key: alg=none key_idx=1 set_tx=0 seq_len=0 key_len=0
wpa_driver_hostap_set_key: alg=none key_idx=2 set_tx=0 seq_len=0 key_len=0
wpa_driver_hostap_set_key: alg=none key_idx=3 set_tx=0 seq_len=0 key_len=0
wpa_driver_hostap_set_countermeasures: enabled=0
wpa_driver_hostap_set_drop_unencrypted: enabled=1
Setting scan request: 0 sec 100000 usec
Added interface wlan0
RTM_NEWLINK: operstate=0 ifi_flags=0x11043 ([UP][RUNNING][LOWER_UP])
Wireless event: cmd=0x8b06 len=8
RTM_NEWLINK: operstate=0 ifi_flags=0x11003 ([UP][LOWER_UP])
RTM_NEWLINK, IFLA_IFNAME: Interface 'wlan0' added
RTM_NEWLINK: operstate=0 ifi_flags=0x1003 ([UP])
RTM_NEWLINK, IFLA_IFNAME: Interface 'wlan0' added
RTM_NEWLINK: operstate=0 ifi_flags=0x1003 ([UP])
RTM_NEWLINK, IFLA_IFNAME: Interface 'wlan0' added
State: DISCONNECTED -> SCANNING
Starting AP scan (specific SSID)
Scan SSID - hexdump_ascii(len=5):
      79 69 6d 6d 79                  yimmy
Trying to get current scan results first without requesting a new scan to speed up initial association
Received 0 bytes of scan results (0 BBSes)
Scan results: 0
Selecting BBS from priority group 0
Try to find WPA-enabled AP
Try to find non-WPA AP
No suitable AP found.

wpa_supplicant then goes on to search all AP's repeatedly until I CTRL+C. It seems that the issue is with the following output:

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ioctl[PRISM2_IOCTL_PRISM2_PARAM]: Operation not supported
Driver does not support WPA.

So I pull the card out of the PCMCIA slot and carefully study it. It is definitely a 16-bit 802.11b PCMCIA MA401 Rev.D v2.5, which according to extensive googling should support WPA, as opposed to the MA401RA version, which uses the orinoco chipset and only supports WEP.

Would it be worthwhile to try the official puppy distro instead? I can only try small distros because the DVD-ROM drive has major problems reading burned discs so typically distros larger than 200MB won't install correctly (seems the laser won't work the farther out it gets, I dunno.)

[geodescent]

Ah yes, here's the best part. I read on another forum that someone discovered their card was bad by trying it in different PCs. So I went ahead and plugged the card into my Dell Inspiron 600m running Windows XP and was promptly informed that the card is a MA401RA!

Thus, only WEP can be used I believe.

[sindi]

Two laptops (200 and 333MHz), two wireless cards (airo pcmcia and ath_pci wireless), both identified and modules loaded, wireless scan finds several networks, I choose the strongest (signal strength 58/70), and auto DHCP assigns some irrelevant IP number (169...?). Netgear router is 192.168.0.1, in the neighbor's house and I am on her deck. Manual assignment of IP number does not let me ping her. Inside my own house I can connect to my own Netgear network (not internet-equipped) which is signal strength 70/70, and it assigns the correct IP number and I can ping or access the router via browser. The same laptops (with airo) both connect just fine on the deck with another OS (basiclinux). What is puppy doing differently that it refuses a weak connection? Can I change some setting? The connection with basiclinux and airo does cut out sometimes but is far better than dialup (on average). I can't easily post details since I cannot get online with puppy while attempting to connect on the deck but I could set up both laptops and type them in.

[sindi]

Puppy connects on the same hardware to the library network, identifed as not encrypted, with 41% signal strength (and 600K/s download speed). The neighbor's network is misidentified as encrypted when it is not (I connect to it with another OS without encryption). I cannot use it.

airo_cs and ath_pci cards work fine in here but a known good MN-520 orinoco_cs is identifed as hostp_cs and does not find a network. I manually loaded orinoco_cs and it also did not work. What next?