Need help with melco pcmcia WLI-PCM-L11GP wifi.

What works, and doesn't, for you. Be specific, and please include Puppy version.
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Nevermore
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Need help with melco pcmcia WLI-PCM-L11GP wifi.

#1 Post by Nevermore »

I need to configurate my wireless network, unfortunately i've not been able to make it work!
i have a pcmcia WLI-PCM-L11GP from melco, which puppy sees as orinoco, i installed wifi-beta, but i couldn't find a way to make it work..
my network doesn't broadcast the ssid and has a web 129bit.
any idea?
Thanks
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Nevermore
Posts: 366
Joined: Sat 26 Nov 2005, 14:23
Location: Italy

#2 Post by Nevermore »

wep 128bit and i found the card is an hermes 1, so i installed the modules needed...
unfortunately doesn't connect still neither sees my ap signal...
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Nevermore
Posts: 366
Joined: Sat 26 Nov 2005, 14:23
Location: Italy

#3 Post by Nevermore »

oki i give up the idea of having this card work with puppy.
please would someone tell me which card is SURELY working with puppy with no efforts and supports G and B protocols?
or at least B.
Thanks!
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J_Rey
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#4 Post by J_Rey »

To continue/repeat our IRC discussion.... You need to determine exactly what chipset your WiFi card has. As you found out, third-party advice could be wrong or confusing. So, I found the manufacturer's web page for your model and also the GPL source for all the manuafacturer's Linux drivers.

So, you have three options:

Use ndiswrapper with your Windows drivers. Maybe even get the latest ones.

Manually install the Linux drivers already packaged for Puppy. After uncompressing the Linux source files from your manufacturer, you can literally have Puppy search the files for your model number and browse around for a related chipset or driver that you recognize.

Compile your driver from the Linux source files from your manufacturer with help from others via this forum topic.

Nevermore
Posts: 366
Joined: Sat 26 Nov 2005, 14:23
Location: Italy

#5 Post by Nevermore »

hello
by downloading the drivers for winzoze i found out the name of the drivers:
WLAGS48B, which looks like to the Lucent Agere driver..
i will try to make it work first using the original drivers for linux i found on puppy wifi collection, then, if still i can't figure it out, i will go with ndiswrapper, hoping this will help.
ok found this:
with the original puppy drivers the pcmcia turns on but doesn't connect neither sees my network, however, it does accept commands.
ndiswrapper gives me an "invalid driver" when trying to use winxp drivers..
but turns on the pcmcia and shows an eth0 interface..
however i can't connect, not in open not in WPE mode...
any idea?

New update, using backatrack linux (a slax derivative) the wifi works perfectly as well as all those features for scanning..
with the ORINOCO module..which is the default one that puppy loads..
unfortunately with puppy i had no luck

update:
dmesg tells me that my chipset is an Agere lucent one, so i installed the puppy drivers for it, unfortunately i can't set up the net neither it does scan for my network..
i might need help or maybe the card is broken..

thanks
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J_Rey
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#6 Post by J_Rey »

Well, I haven't looked at this much more yet, but I did notice that the Orinocco driver for Puppy was updated.

Nevermore
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#7 Post by Nevermore »

i tried already that one j_rey...
unfortunately doesn't work..
i think i've to concentrate on the Agere one, since every official website points towards that..
however i don't know how to set the frequency, the card one is 2.457GHz, and the one i want to have is 2.452GHz, i set it on the wag template but didn't have any effect..
im getting really tired of this card, i spent around 2 weeks to make it work and still i am unable to, it works perfectly with slax and backtrack, even has the scanning function and packet drive, but on puppy there is no way to make it work..
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Nevermore
Posts: 366
Joined: Sat 26 Nov 2005, 14:23
Location: Italy

#8 Post by Nevermore »

cardctl info 0 gives me this:
prodid 1 "melco"
prodid 2 "wli-pcm-l11"
prodid 3 "version 01.01"
prodid 4 ""
manfid 0156,0002
funcid 6

from manfid i saw that other linux are making it work with orinoco_cs..
now i start to think is a config problem..
could someone tell me step by step how to set up the wireless settings on puppy?
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Nevermore
Posts: 366
Joined: Sat 26 Nov 2005, 14:23
Location: Italy

#9 Post by Nevermore »

after checking everything and trying every single driver available, with ndiswrapper or not, i got something was deeply wrong and took the pcmcia to a friend to test it:
well, on his pc everything worked perfectly, the pcmcia was perfectly working under win Xp..
so i installed Xp on my lap just for the sake of trying..
and the pcmcia doesn't work!...
i am afraid i found the origin of the problem, is my laptop..
for reasons i don't understand it can't drive the pcmcia wifi and make it work, no problem with other pcmcia (my lan one)...
i have 2 pcmcia ports and both have the same problem, so i suppose is something serious..
i've no clue how to solve it, maybe is a voltage regulator inside the lap or whatever know what, it was working around 9 months ago, now, there is no way i can make it work..
Thanks everyone for his help, but, unfortunately, my wifi adventure ends now. :D
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cherriepuppy
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Joined: Sun 11 Dec 2005, 20:27
Location: uk

#10 Post by cherriepuppy »

hi.
dont know if it will help but on my laptop (toshiba portege 7010) in the bios i can select the controller mode. cardbus/16-bit, pcic compatible or auto. my wired lan works on any setting but my wireless card only works when set to cardbus/16-bit.

cherriepuppy

Nevermore
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Joined: Sat 26 Nov 2005, 14:23
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#11 Post by Nevermore »

hell
actually mine is a toshiba also..
but it doesnt work in any position..and that's damn strange..
do u know where i can find a bios update maybe that will help.
found the update but i've already the last one ;(

thanks
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Nevermore
Posts: 366
Joined: Sat 26 Nov 2005, 14:23
Location: Italy

#12 Post by Nevermore »

news news news
seems that my wifi card doesn't like my ap..
my ap is a dlink DWL900Ap+.
i can see other networks but mine, so is very strange..
however i ordered a wifi USB dongle from dlink, and i hope i will be able to make it work with ndiswrapper so finally i can have wifi at home too..
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