Wireless Issues

[kkbanala]

Hi All,

let me describe my situation.

I am dual booting RHEl 5.2 with vista. That part i have done successfully after i struggle.

My wireles card is not detected.
i checked the forum and tried to fix it.first i will post output of few commands.

lspci | grep -i ethernet

02:00.0

Ethernet controller : atheros communications Inc AR242X 802.11 abj wireless PCI express adapter(rev02)

0c:00.0 ethernet controller : realtek semiconductor Co Ltd., RTL 8111/ 8168 b PCI express gigabet ethernet controller(rev02)


uname -a

linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.18-92.el5xen
i will ontinue description in next posts

[kkbanala]

now i have downloaded realtek drivers from the net.
I need heptrying to install the drivers.

i have unziped the files.

i have these files :

make file makefile_linux24x r8168_asf.h r8168_asf.c r8168.h r8168_n.c

I tried to execute the instructions given in readme file.

when i try the command # make clean modules it gives me an error.

rm -rf *.o *.ko *~core* .dep* .*.cmd * .mod.c *.a *.s .*.flags .tmp_version Module.ymvers Modules.symvers *.order

make -C /lib/modules/2.6.18.92.el5xen.build SUBDIRS=/r8168-8.011.00/src/src modules

make: *** /lib/modules/2.6.18-92.el5xen/build : No such file or directory.Stop

make:*** [modules] Error 2

please advise me hpw do i proceed next.


let me know f u want to see the out of any other commands [ dmesg etc]

[MikeTbob]

Hello and Welcome.
Check this thread for help on getting your wireless to work, post back all the info that you can and we'll see what we can do.
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/wir...tart-here.html

[waterhead]

Because of the older kernel that RHEL uses, it is very difficult to get the wireless to work. If you don't really need RHEL, I would recommend using the latest Fedora instead. Fedora is the test bed for RHEL releases. RHEL 5 was based on Fedora 6, and the latest Fedora release is version 10. There have been a lot of updates in between, especially in the wireless area.

If you must stay with RHEL, you will have to install the drivers from source. On my Eee Pc 900, which has a AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01), I had to use a driver from the Madwifi testing repository. I would recommend trying the latest stable release, then the subversion release.

UserDocs/GettingMadwifi - madwifi-project.org - Trac

If neither of those work, then try a testing version.
snapshots.madwifi.org

I ended up using the madwifi-hal-testing.

You need a few things installed to compile kernel drivers:

kernel-headers
kernel-devel (kernel source)
gcc
make

If not already installed, you can install them from the installation DVD

Then to connect to wireless networks, i recommend disabling NetworkManager, in the Services section. Then download and install Wicd.

wicd - home

[MikeTbob]

Wicd is the bees knees and I use it myself on Gentoo. Sure simplifies a lot of things.

[kkbanala]

Because of the older kernel that RHEL uses, it is very difficult to get the wireless to work. If you don't really need RHEL, I would recommend using the latest Fedora instead. Fedora is the test bed for RHEL releases. RHEL 5 was based on Fedora 6, and the latest Fedora release is version 10. There have been a lot of updates in between, especially in the wireless area.

If you must stay with RHEL, you will have to install the drivers from source. On my Eee Pc 900, which has a AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01), I had to use a driver from the Madwifi testing repository. I would recommend trying the latest stable release, then the subversion release.

UserDocs/GettingMadwifi - madwifi-project.org - Trac

If neither of those work, then try a testing version.
snapshots.madwifi.org

I ended up using the madwifi-hal-testing.

You need a few things installed to compile kernel drivers:

kernel-headers
kernel-devel (kernel source)
gcc
make

If not already installed, you can install them from the installation DVD

Then to connect to wireless networks, i recommend disabling NetworkManager, in the Services section. Then download and install Wicd.

wicd - home

how do i install these

kernel-headers
kernel-devel (kernel source)
gcc
make

[MikeTbob]

You mightbe able to find some of them on the Install CD/DVD or you might find some at rpm.pbone
RPM Search

[waterhead]

how do i install these

kernel-headers
kernel-devel (kernel source)
gcc
make

Have you tried the "Add/Remove Software" application found in the main menu?

[waterhead]

I don't know how you are doing with this, kkbanala, but I wanted to provide a little more info.

I just did an update on my RHEL-5.3-server trial, and it is more than 31 days since I installed it. I don't recall the exact day I installed it, but my oldest folders are from January 31. Now the 31-day period starts when you first connect to the update repository, so I may have waited a few days to do that.

One problem with the update is with getting updated kernels. Since I had to manually install both LAN and wireless drivers, they didn't work after the update. I had to manually re-install them, again.

This can be done by saving the original folder that you installed the driver from. After the first time you run the make and make install commands, you run this command, as a regular user.

make clean

You can then re-compile it when you install a new kernel.

I have found one problem after the update. The Network GUI (system-config-network) no longer works. After installing the new network drivers, I couldn't use it to make sure that they were configured correctly. Luckly, they still work. (I am posting from it)

Do you really want to submit yourself to these kind of problems? I again urge you to use CentOS or Fedora 10. It will be a lot less trouble!

[Felarin]

RHEL is an enterprise distribution for businesses. They don't really cater to wireless use on servers for business environments.

No one should, in fact, at least not yet.

I'd suggest using a proper desktop distribution that caters. If not, you'd have to add epel repo/dag and probably end up compiling it still.