Slack 6 wireless comnnection

[willgrass]

I am trying Slax 6 on iso CD on a laptop with a wireless lan card that works on all other linux OS other than Damn Small and now I get no connection with Slax. There must be away to do it and I am hoping some can please tell me.

[Freston]

I'm not familiar with Slax, but can you post the output of these commands?

lspci|grep -i wireless
/sbin/iwconfig
/sbin/ifconfig -a
dmesg|grep -i wireless

[willgrass]

Thanks for the reply.

root@slax:~# lspcilspci|grep -i wireless
-bash: lspcilspci: command not found
root@slax:~# /sbin/iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster1 no wireless extensions.

wlan1 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=26 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

root@slax:~# /sbin/ifconfig -a
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:23:54:2e:9f:eb
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS 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)
Interrupt:19 Base address:0xdead

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 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 00:22:43:23:45:3d
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS 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)

wlan1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:11:09:e7:2e:11
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS 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)

wmaster0 Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr 00-22-43-23-45-3D-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
UP BROADCAST RUNNING 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)

wmaster1 Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr 00-11-09-E7-2E-11-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
UP BROADCAST RUNNING 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)

root@slax:~# dmesg|grep -i wireless

[Freston]

root@slax:~# lspcilspci|grep -i wireless
-bash: lspcilspci: command not found

That should be:

lspci | grep -i wireless

But you may try this:
See if your device can look around for networks:

iwlist scan

If so, run this:
(with "your_essid" I mean the name of the Access Point you want to connect to)

ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig wlan0 essid "your_essid"
dhcpcd wlan0

You can change wlan0 in the above commands with wlan1, if that works better.

[willgrass]

Thanks again, I have a couple of busy days coming up but I will get to your latest advice and promtly tell you of the outcome.

[Freston]

Sure, no problem. Good weekend!

[willgrass]

This is what I am getting

oot@slax:~# iwlist scan
lo Interface doesn't support scanning.

wmaster0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

wlan0 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:1D:68:51:9A:C1
ESSID:"BTHomeHub-7D1C"
Mode:Master
Channel:1
Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
Quality=40/100 Signal level:-69 dBm Noise
level=-95 dBm
Encryption key:on
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s;
18 Mb/s
24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s;
9 Mb/s
12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
Extra:tsf=0000097d5867e64b
Extra: Last beacon: 128ms ago

eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

wmaster1 Interface doesn't support scanning.

wlan1 Scan completed :
Cell 01 - Address: 00:1D:68:51:9A:C1
ESSID:"BTHomeHub-7D1C"
Mode:Master
Channel:1
Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
Quality=54/100 Signal level:-31 dBm
Encryption key:on
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s
12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
Extra:tsf=0000097d586ab01a
Extra: Last beacon: 696ms ago

root@slax:~# ifconfig wlan1 up
root@slax:~# iwconfig wlan1 essid BTHomeHub-7D1C
root@slax:~# dhcpcd wlan1
Broadcasting DHCP_DISCOVER
timed out waiting for a valid DHCP server response
root@slax:~# ifconfig wlan0 up
root@slax:~# iwconfig wlan0 essid "your_essid"
root@slax:~# dhcpcd wlan0
Broadcasting DHCP_DISCOVER
timed out waiting for a valid DHCP server response
root@slax:~#

[Freston]

Good news, your wireless works. It can scan, it can associate, but it can't connect and get DHCP because you've got encryption.

Now I don't know Slax and what kind of graphical tools it includes for connecting to wireless networks. If you want, you can also connect from the command line to a protected network.

Copy/paste from the man page:

      key/enc[ryption]
              Used to manipulate encryption or scrambling keys and security mode.
              To  set  the  current  encryption key, just enter the key in hex digits as
              XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX or XXXXXXXX.  To set a key other than the current key,
              prepend  or  append  [index] to the key itself (this won't change which is
              the active key). You can also enter the key as an ASCII  string  by  using
              the s: prefix. Passphrase is currently not supported.
              To change which key is the currently active key, just enter [index] (with-
              out entering any key value).
              off and on disable and reenable encryption.
              The security mode may be open or restricted, and its  meaning  depends  on
              the card used. With most cards, in open mode no authentication is used and
              the card may also accept non-encrypted  sessions,  whereas  in  restricted
              mode  only encrypted sessions are accepted and the card will use authenti-
              cation if available.
              If you need to set multiple keys, or set a key and change the active  key,
              you  need  to  use  multiple  key  directives. Arguments can be put in any
              order, the last one will take precedence.
              Examples :
                   iwconfig eth0 key 0123-4567-89
                   iwconfig eth0 key [3] 0123-4567-89
                   iwconfig eth0 key s:password [2]
                   iwconfig eth0 key [2]
                   iwconfig eth0 key open
                   iwconfig eth0 key off
                   iwconfig eth0 key restricted [3] 0123456789
                   iwconfig eth0 key 01-23 key 45-67 [4] key [4]

When a dhcpc request fails, like it did before, the interface dies. I don't know why that is, but always bring it back up again.

ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig wlan0 essid "BTHomeHub-7D1C"
iwconfig wlan0 key "your_key"
dhcpcd wlan0

[waterhead]

You can try installing the Wicd connection manager.

wicd - home

If you can't install a wireless connection manager, you can still connect to encrypted connections. To connect to WPA encrypted connections, use wpa_supplicant. You will need to set up a config file with the connection information.

One other thing to check. Some wireless chips need firmware loaded before they will work properly. Without the firmware they will appear to be working, but no connection is ever made. They will even successfully scan for available networks.

Enter this command, and post the output.

dmesg | grep firmware

Instead, you could read the thread linked to below. Run the script listed at the bottom of the thread, and post the results here.

Wireless Setup _ Start Here

[willgrass]

I now have a connection thanks to the replies but now I can't save it, one problem solved only to have another. I have looked around the internet and this seems to be to be a problem for other people. You may wonder why I bother with this Slacks OS and just go to something less trouble. The thing is I export used items to West Africa and have done for years and I have some people that do my paperwork on my computers for the containers. I have used Linux for about five years and never had any virus problems, I use laptops with ubuntu and windows as guest from within ubuntu but I have this widescreen ASUS that has sis drivers and I can't get the correct resolution. I did get it but it was to do every boot. I then settled on Puppy as the resolution was not bad but if the battery runs out with Puppy it has no warning then Puppy is corrupt. This Slacks has a popup battery warning ideal for a laptop and the resolution is perfect so I must stick with it, the spellcheck is not working but I should get over that so my main problem now is saving, maybe I should start a new thead for this?