wpa and 2.17 are a no go? problem not a 2.17 issue, sorry

[tempestuous]

the other thing that was changed is that i'm running 3.00 retro
...
using the puppy package manager i installed rtl8187-k2.6.18.1.pet

Yes, Puppy 3.00-retro has the old 2.6.18.1 kernel used in Puppy 2.12-2.16.

i don't see any reason why this should miss working with other versions of puppy and the wg111v2 device

It's due to different versions of the Realtek wifi driver. The driver you are using successfully is the proprietary version, compiled from source code from here
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/

Unfortunately, development of this driver has stalled, and it will not compile under modern kernels.
So more current Realtek source code is needed from here -
http://rtl-wifi.sourceforge.net/wiki/Main_Page
and this driver has mixed results.

I just contributed 2 variations of this driver for Puppy 3.00 here -
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 470#144470
there is the rev62 version, which is the most recent which will compile under Puppy 3.00's 2.6.21.7 kernel,
and the older rev52 which is claimed to be stable.

there is some issue with the newer kernel and redirecting login pages

Forum member DonT reports that the "browser redirect to login page" problem is solved by using the old dhcpcd-1.3.22
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 430#144430
I understand that Puppy 3.00 (final) has this version of dhcpcd, but if not, you can get it from here -
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 656#143656

[Vettephil]

Disclaimer: I'm a newer than new Linux user, so please forgive my complete lack of understanding. If you have suggestions, I'll need very basic steps to follow to produce any results.

Okay, on to the situation: Trying to get the Netgear WG111v2 Wireless USB adapter to work with Puppy 3.00 Live-CD (data stored locally). I'm connecting to my home Netgear Wireless router, so can make changes to its config if needed.

I followed the instructions above after adding the modules from here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 470#144470

I was able to load the USB and have it recognized by the Network wizard.

I was able to scan for my network and have the wizard find it.

As soon as I tried to acquire and IP address via DHCP, it seemed like the whole OS locked up and I was forced to hard re-boot. On my laptop, the Caps lock and Scroll Lock keys were flashing and the Xorg interface was completely locked.

My hardware: Dell Latitude D610, Pentium M, 1Gig RAM, 40Gig HDD. This is a work-issued laptop, so I cannot make any perm. changes, and it did not come with the internal wireless card from Dell.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

-PHIL
Greener than green, but already loving Puppy!

[laptopnewbee]

Disclaimer: I'm a newer than new Linux user, so please forgive my complete lack of understanding.

being new to something is a natural part of life, no need to apologize.

Trying to get the Netgear WG111v2 Wireless USB adapter to work with Puppy 3.00 Live-CD (data stored locally).

would that be 3.00 final, if so then you have the correct driver, but you are working with the version that is giving me trouble too.

As soon as I tried to acquire and IP address via DHCP, it seemed like the whole OS locked up and I was forced to hard re-boot. On my laptop, the Caps lock and Scroll Lock keys were flashing and the Xorg interface was completely locked.

i found the same problems since i last posted, i just had to get away for a while so i was unable to add more since.

My hardware: Dell Latitude D610, Pentium M, 1Gig RAM, 40Gig HDD. This is a work-issued laptop, so I cannot make any perm. changes, and it did not come with the internal wireless card from Dell.

huge machine next to mine(433 mhz, 192 mb). this makes it clear that i'm not likely to be trying to push mine too hard. now, i have a question, does it have a pc (otherwise known as pcmcia) slot? if so try a wifi card, maybe one with the athros chipset (like the netgear wg511u [known by me to work]) that should work for you, and if your usb is 1.1 the pc wifi card will be much faster.

now if there is no pc slot then you may want to use the retro version of 3.00, and download the .pet compiled for it as in one of the links above.

[Vettephil]

now, i have a question, does it have a pc (otherwise known as pcmcia) slot? if so try a wifi card, maybe one with the athros chipset (like the netgear wg511u [known by me to work]) that should work for you, and if your usb is 1.1 the pc wifi card will be much faster.

now if there is no pc slot then you may want to use the retro version of 3.00, and download the .pet compiled for it as in one of the links above.

Thanks for the info and kind words! I am in the market for a PCMCIA card and will give that a shot once I've bought one. I will also try the 3.00 retro version and see how that goes in the meantime.

I'll report back my finding when available.

Cheers!

-PHIL

[Vettephil]

I'll report back my finding when available.

Success! Here's what I did:

1) Booted Puppy 3.00 Retro Live CD.
2) Downloaded RTL modules for Retro from here: http://dotpups.de/dotpups/Wifi/drivers- ... 2-to-2.14/
3) Ran modprobe commands as stated in readme file
4) Ran network wizard to configure and connect to unencrypted wireless network.

I also successfully completed steps 2-4 after downgrading my HDD install of Puppy to 3.00 Retro as well.

Next challenges will be WPA security and PCMCIA card once purchase.

Thanks Laptopnewbee!

-PHIL

[laptopnewbee]

Thanks Laptopnewbee!

thanks for the honor, but i have been working from the advice of others (like tempestuous) who are more knowledgable than i, they deserve the real kudos.

i haven't been posting lately because i have been tied down with work and haven't gotten to work on solving my encryption issues, so if you get wpa working please post the process here.

[Vettephil]

A quick update to my previous posts:
PCMCIA card has been ordered and should arrive this week.
Haven't tackled WPA yet.
Scripted the connection info/commands for my Netgear Wireless USB adapter which makes connecting a breeze:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
modprobe r8187
sleep 5s
ifconfig wlan0 up
sleep 10s
iwconfig wlan0 essid PWB
iwconfig wlan0 key off
iwconfig wlan0 mode managed
rm /etc/dhcpc/*.pid
dhcpcd -t 30 -h puppypc -d wlan0
ifconfig
iwconfig

Original post with info:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=22469

Cheers!
-PHIL

[laptopnewbee]

A quick update to my previous posts:
PCMCIA card has been ordered and should arrive this week.
Haven't tackled WPA yet.

when the card comes in you may be able to use it just fine with wpa and the network wizard, i did with my card as stated in my latest post to this thread:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 5&start=15

by the way, do you know which chipset it will have?

[Vettephil]

by the way, do you know which chipset it will have?

You'll have to help me out - I don't know how to determine the chipset. The PCMCIA card I bought is a D-Link DWL-G650. I have been able to get it loaded and configured using the NDISWrapper option of Connection Wizard and DHCP.

Last step will be to activate WPA and then re-install the whole setup on my new (used) Dell C600 which I bought to be a dedicated pup.

Updates to follow...
-PHIL

[setecio]

by the way, do you know which chipset it will have?

You'll have to help me out - I don't know how to determine the chipset. The PCMCIA card I bought is a D-Link DWL-G650.
-PHIL

This site is good for that

http://linux-wless.passys.nl/query_alles.php?

[Vettephil]

Alas, they have older versions listed, but not my exact model. I'll drop the admin an email and hope that he updates the list.

Thanks for the link!

[Vettephil]

FINAL UPDATE:
New (used) Dell Latitude C600 P3 / 256 mb RAM / 20 gig HDD / D-Link DWL-G650 PCMCIA wifi card..... Success! Installed from the NDISWrapper as before and I now have wifi with WPA security to my home router. Automatically loads and connects on boot. Puppy 3.00 Retro.

Thanks to all who contributed and offered support!

-PHIL

[JohnRoberts]

@ tempestuous & friends:

Regarding Netgear WG111v2 operation on Puppy 2.17.1 (LiveCD), I am trying to comprehend all the necessary steps to make it work from the info found in this post and http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=21442 and taking into account recent developments and patches provided by tempestuous:

> If I got it correct one needs to fix dhcpcd (broken in 2.17.1) with the one found here: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=21177 (dhcpcd-3.1.4.pet)

>The RTL8180/8187 module to go with the kernel used (uname -r -> 2.6.21.5)
(rtl-wifi-UPDATE-k2.6.21.5.pet
as found here: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=21442

> The new network setup wizard (network-wizard-Oct07.pet) found here http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=21177

> If other 80211 modules are already present one has to remove them from /lib/modules/2.6.21.5/kernel/net/ieee80211/

>then load the necessary modules by hand

Code: Select all

# modprobe ieee80211_crypt-rtl

# modprobe ieee80211_crypt_wep-rtl

# modprobe ieee80211_crypt_tkip-rtl

# modprobe ieee80211_crypt_ccmp-rtl

# modprobe ieee80211-rtl

# modprobe r8187

# modprobe aes

# modprobe arc4

# modprobe crc32c

# modprobe michael_mic 

# ifconfig wlan0 up

> Is this still necessary (loading all modules by hand), or the new network wizard makes things simpler?

Is it now possible to use the wizard to adjust WPA/WPA2 or one is still required to do it by hand using wpa_supplicant? Instead of the manual way described using:

Code: Select all

rm /var/run/wpa_supplicant/*
wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -D ipw -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -dd

and then:

Code: Select all

rm /etc/dhcpc/*.pid
dhcpcd -t 30 -h puppypc -d wlan0

what would be the correct way (wizard allowing...)?

If it is necessary to stick with the manual way, can it be scriptable? How many steps (scripts) would it take (say one for loading modules, one for ifconfig/wpa and one for dhcpcd?)?? Or something along the lines of above code from Vettephil?

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
modprobe r8187
sleep 5s
ifconfig wlan0 up
sleep 10s
iwconfig wlan0 essid PWB
iwconfig wlan0 key off
iwconfig wlan0 mode managed
rm /etc/dhcpc/*.pid
dhcpcd -t 30 -h puppypc -d wlan0
ifconfig
iwconfig 

Is it possible to concatenate or chainlink the various pets used above as a bigger pet-file?

Many Tks

[tempestuous]

John Roberts,
In general, the (updated) Network Wizard should take care of everything, but with drivers that are known to be unreliable (such as the Realtek) it's a good idea to run all commands manually to check that things are working. Even if something fails, you will at least know at which point in the process the failure occurred ... for example:
Will the Realtek drivers load, and create an interface?
Will the wifi connection work with no encryption?
Will the wifi connection work with WEP?
Will the wifi connection work with WPA?
Will DHCP succeed?

So following this logic, refer to my wifi HOWTO here
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=22469

You should first load the Realtek modules and see if an interface has been created with "ifconfig -a" and "iwconfig".

If good so far, disable encryption at your router and see if you can establish a connection, using the commands in the first part of the HOWTO.

If successful, you can now take the next step and enable encryption. If you want to use WPA encryption, refer to PART 2 of the HOWTO. Note that the sequence of commands is now quite different, because "iwconfig" is not used at all. Instead, "wpa_supplicant" is used.
One thing I didn't mention in the HOWTO (and will probably update) is to make sure that all encryption-related modules are loaded before attempting an encrypted connection. So -

Code: Select all

modprobe arc4
modprobe crc32c
modprobe aes
modprobe michael_mic
modprobe ecb ## (forum member symx says this is necessary)

Some of these are related to WEP, some to WPA, I'm not sure which is which.

Once you know everything works, you could see if the Wizard works. It may still be necessary to pre-load some of the modules, and you could do this from the startup script /etc/rc.d/rc.local

Personally, I hate Wizards, and I would make a single script that could be run on-demand.
To be really neat, you could link this script to an icon on the desktop.

[JohnRoberts]

Many (many) thanks...I missed that how-to alltogether. Will go for the manual method.

I did install the 3 pet-s mentioned above (dhcpcd, new network wizard and rtl8187 kernel modules)...I'm writing from the resulting remastered LiveCD.
Tried the wizard after loading the modules but WPA/WPA2 is greyed out, along with a message RTL8187 does not support WPA, so only manual configuration for this one...

I will give it a try once I got an available AP (@ home my DSL connection is through a normal wired router...)