Can't figure out how to connect wifi

[lee_alkureishi]

Hi all,

I'm pretty much a linux newbie, so bear with me....

I've installed debian etch, and am trying to get my usb wireless stick to play nice. It's a WUG2400 (rebadged abocom). I struggled to find a working linux driver, so I've installed ndiswrapper and have (almost) got it working...

I edited the /etc/network/interfaces with my static IP details, and I was able to ping it from my windows XP box. I then managed to connect to it using VNC on the wireless card's IP address (it's installed on a headless machine - no keyboard, mouse or monitor attached). Then, I disconnected the ethernet cable and tried again and... it stopped working. I tried rebooting without the ethernet cable plugged in, and it still wasn't working. If I plug the ethernet cable back in, I can ping the wireless card and connect via vnc. Weird... Any ideas?

Thanks

[iwanabeguru]

type in terminal lspci and post the output here, and copy here the content of your interfaces file.

[lee_alkureishi]

lspci:
media:~# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8375 [KM266/KL266] Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8633 [Apollo Pro266 AGP]
00:09.0 Ethernet controller: ADMtek NC100 Network Everywhere Fast Ethernet 10/10 0 (rev 11)
00:0a.0 Communication controller: Conexant HSF 56k HSFi Modem (rev 01)
00:0e.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139 C+ (rev 10)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/ C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 A C97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: S3 Inc. VT8375 [ProSavage8 KM266/KL266]

interfaces:
media:~# cat /etc/network/interfaces
# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

iface eth1 inet static
address 192.168.xxx.118
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.xxx.254

auto eth1

iface wlan0 inet static
wireless-essid USR8054
wireless-key s:XXXXX *actual key replaced with xxxxx*
address 192.168.xxx.119
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.xxx.254

auto wlan0
allow-hotplug wlan0

------------------------------

Of note, the wifi stick is a usb device, but when I type lsusb, it hangs my ssh session.

Hope this helps,

Thanks again,

Lee