Slackware 13; can't access internet using wireless

[elija]

I have just installed Slackware 13 and cannot access the Internet using my Intel wireless. I can access my router over the wlan but traffic is not going to the Internet.

This feels like a firewall type issue as attempting to ping Google (by name or IP) results in Network Unreachable. I don't know where to look to see if wlan0 is being blocked from the Internet.

Cheers

[elija]

OK. Progress.

I used the command

route add default gw 192.168.0.1 wlan0

and I now have unencrypted wireless access to the Internet now to figure out wpa - phew!

Will I have to go through this every time I want to use wireless?

[elija]

wpa was easy

As root

wpa_passphrase essid passphrase

Copy the output into /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

Edit /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf and add the following to the appropriate interface

WLAN_WPA[4]="wpa_supplicant"
WLAN_WPADRIVER[4]="wext"

and then restart the interface

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 wlan0_restart

At this point I had redo the route.
So when I reboot, to use wireless I have to do the following

ifconfig eth0 down
route add default gw 192.168.0.1 wlan0
ifconfig eth0 up

How do I stop the need for this every time I reboot? (back to Google )

Why is this so much fun?

[Freston]

You do not use DHCP?

Then you can set your gateway manually in /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf
You can put all your configs there as well.

Although I must admit that I was never any good with that approach because I have different networks I need to be able to connect and I solved it by scripting.

Example:

cat /usr/local/bin/name_of_client
#!/bin/bash
ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig wlan0 essid Sitecom
dhcpcd wlan0

See, there's many ways to solve this. The official way is using inet1.conf though.

If you don't use DHCP there's a good chance you'll have to set up DNS as well. Edit your /etc/resolv.conf to taste.

Example (uses openDNS):

nameserver 208.67.222.220
nameserver 208.67.220.222

Why is this so much fun?

Ah! The control it gives you, to define everything manually and free of the fear that some daemon or autoconfig will overwrite your settings without warning or consent.

[elija]

You do not use DHCP?

Nope. Static. No DHCP server on my netowrk.

Then you can set your gateway manually in /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf
You can put all your configs there as well.

I thought I had, but I'll check again.

Although I must admit that I was never any good with that approach because I have different networks I need to be able to connect and I solved it by scripting.

Example:

cat /usr/local/bin/name_of_client
#!/bin/bash
ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig wlan0 essid Sitecom
dhcpcd wlan0

See, there's many ways to solve this. The official way is using inet1.conf though.

I won't mind some commandline-fu to connect to a different network. In fact it will make me feel smug and superior

If you don't use DHCP there's a good chance you'll have to set up DNS as well. Edit your /etc/resolv.conf to taste.

Example (uses openDNS):

nameserver 208.67.222.220
nameserver 208.67.220.222

Already done - uses my router which uses OpenDNS

Ah! The control it gives you, to define everything manually and free of the fear that some daemon or autoconfig will overwrite your settings without warning or consent.

Yeah - I haven't enjoyed computing since the Atari ST days or [shame]my delvings in to Windows back in the mid 90's[/shame].

[elija]

This is bizarre.

My Wireless works but I have to take down eth0 and restart the Wireless after booting. I have been unable to find a solution. Any ideas?

[Freston]

Sounds like a routing problem to me.

A quick test. After boot both your interfaces are 'up' right? I don't think you need a full reboot. This should do:

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 restart

With both interfaces up, ping something. Does that work?
After that try to ping something, but tell `ping` which interface to use:

ping -I wlan0 192.168.0.1   # the 'I' is a capital 'i'

If the first one didn't work, and the second one did then it's thinking your unconnected eth0 is up and prefers that. You want to solve this, but you don't want it happening the other way around when you're using a wired connection.
It's a setting somewhere. Funny you don't run into this when you're using DHCP

Can you post the output of `route`?

[elija]

Sounds like a routing problem to me.

A quick test. After boot both your interfaces are 'up' right? I don't think you need a full reboot. This should do:

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 restart

With both interfaces up, ping something. Does that work?
After that try to ping something, but tell `ping` which interface to use:

ping -I wlan0 192.168.0.1   # the 'I' is a capital 'i'

If the first one didn't work, and the second one did then it's thinking your unconnected eth0 is up and prefers that. You want to solve this, but you don't want it happening the other way around when you're using a wired connection.
It's a setting somewhere. Funny you don't run into this when you're using DHCP

Can you post the output of `route`?

Well, I've just screwed the pooch with this one. Trying to sort out my screen resolution I barfed xorg.conf.

If I can't figure out to boot to run level 3 I'm going to have to re-install

[elija]

To boot to runlevel 3 simply press tab at the Slackware screen and type Linux 3

I have been told that the reason is as follows.

eth0 is the primary device and will therefore take priority. The solution is to use DHCP to configure a specific IP for eth0. wlan0 will then take over when eth0 isn't connected.

I'm going to set up my router as a dhcp server and give it a go tomorrow. Too drunk now

I'm sure Ubuntu did the same with static IP addresses but I may be wrong

[Freston]

To boot to runlevel 3 simply press tab at the Slackware screen and type Linux 3

If you add this to /etc/lilo.conf:

image = /boot/vmlinuz-huge-smp-2.6.29.6-smp
root = /dev/hda1
append = "3"
label = Rescue

And then run:

lilo      # Don't forget this!

Then you'll have the option at boot time to boot to level 4 (Linux) or level 3 (Rescue).

eth0 is the primary device and will therefore take priority. The solution is to use DHCP to configure a specific IP for eth0. wlan0 will then take over when eth0 isn't connected.

I'm going to set up my router as a dhcp server and give it a go tomorrow.

Hohoho, that is not what I said

I said it's a setting somewhere that you don't come across when you use DHCP. So this is one question in the category 'we must look this up'. But I'll be gone this weekend.