Trouble with wireless

[shanep]

Lets just say I am very newbie with linux.
Lets also say that I am using Suse 9.2
And, lets say that my USB wireless adaptor is compatible with suse 9.2
(Netgear FA111)

Can someone give me steps to setting it up?

Ive tried to set mine up and it feels like ive done everything with the settings to try and get it working. I have it to the point where if you unplug it from USB and use the super mode terminal command

#ifconfig wlan0

It will say device not found. When plugged in it shows the specs, but without a MAC address. All zeros. So I know it at least sees the device.

It doesnt feel like yast is doing anything at all. It says its configuring my network, but it has never asked me for drivers or modules or whatever it takes. When I plug the device in it doesnt look for channels or anything.

To make a long story even longer:

when I try to ping my router it says network unreachable. If I ping 192.168.0.0 however, it works.

Im sick of WinDOZE, Im sick of the big M and all I need is the internet to LOOVE linux!!! Please help!

Also, Ive tried many of the instructions already given on other postings and forums. None of them seem to work, or i am missing a big part of the network setup in linux. DO you need to setup more than the device to get things working? Perhaps the firewall, or some other networking wizard?

[swemic]

It will say device not found. When plugged in it shows the specs, but without a MAC address. All zeros. So I know it at least sees the device.

This message tells me that the adapter is not compatible with Linux. What I suspect is that you'll need to download/install NdisWrapper on your system to have this working as it should.

[spencerf]

it sounds to me that your card is configured you are just not connected. First : You need to connect to your wireless router: You do this by typing: iwconfig wlan0 essid "nameofyourrouter" then try one of these commands: dhcpcd wlan0 or if that doesn't work dhclient wlan0. Do all of this as root.

hopefully this will connect you then try pinging and stuff.

to scan available routers use this command: iwlist wlan0 scan

[shanep]

Ive tried ndiswrapper, still didn't work for me. My USB is fine because I plugged my cigar drive into it without a problem. But the network card seems to be there. Will I get a little icon in the bottom right that shows my signal and everything? I just really feel like its not doing anything but lighting up.

Also--

My regular network card shows no workgroups and seems to do nothing as well. I swear I am just missing the push of a button. IN windows you setup the network seperatly from the device. Is this true for linux?

[shanep]

So I reinstalled suse 9.2 and was watching the bootup process a little closer. at one point it says

Waiting for mandatory devices .... (it also displays what looks like a MAC address so I can only assume it has something to do with the network)

then it counts down

and says that it failed. Then it says something like

"starting network services...." and fails.

Perhaps this could be my problem?

It then states that network something or other is disabled? I cant quite read it at this point because it moves too quickly.

[swemic]

Can you issue these commands and send in the output here:

ifconfig -a
iwconfig 
lspci
lsusb

[shanep]

PRYJON:/tmp/windrivers # ifconfig -a
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0F:1F:0D:13:97
inet6 addr: fe80::20f:1fff:fe0d:1397/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:18 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:18
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:10692 (10.4 Kb)
Interrupt:7

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:118 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:118 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:8284 (8.0 Kb) TX bytes:8284 (8.0 Kb)

sit0 Link encap:IPv6-in-IPv4
NOARP MTU:1480 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:00:00:00:00:00
BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

PRYJON:/tmp/windrivers # iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

sit0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 no wireless extensions.

PRYJON:/tmp/windrivers # lspci
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 03)
0000:00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corp. 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB 2.0 EHCIController (rev 02)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 82)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL (ICH4/ICH4-L) LPC Bridge (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL (ICH4/ICH4-L) UltraATA-100 IDE Controller (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 02)
0000:02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T (rev 01)
0000:02:04.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1510 PC card Cardbus Controller

PRYJON:/tmp/windrivers # lsusb
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0846:4110 NetGear, Inc.
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 1915:2220
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

[swemic]

Ok! From your print outs above here now, your USB WLAN adapter is not recognized by your linux, however, the USB adapter is. But yet not as a WLAN adapter. I beleive that your only help here is that you install NdisWrapper and install the driver within it. I.e. you'll install the Windows drivers into NdirWrapper.
The reason why I still state that your adapter is not recognized, is that your MAC address is set to 00:00:00:00:00, which it by default is set to when Linux does not know how to communicate with the adapter.

[shanep]

I tried the ndiswrapper. It installed but when I use the -l switch to see the connections It shows something to the effect of

netma111 Device NOT connected

+ iwconfig and ifconfig still show the same things.

I downloaded the driver from the ndiswrapper website for the exact model which they claimed worked.

I am using the winxp one. Will it make a difference if I use another? Like win98?

[shanep]

I will give ndiswrapper another try. Here are the steps I am following. Please correct me if I am wrong.

install ndiswrapper

get winxp drivers for device and store them in tmp/windrivers

open terminal in that directory

become a super user

# ndiswrapper -i netma111.inf
Installing netma111...
$ ndiswrapper -l
netma111 Device NOT connected (even though it is)

Is this correct? Because this is the answer I get.