wifi and slackware

[zacam87]

ok i got a wireless card and i have to use it by hitting "modprobe ndiswrapper"
then it loads the module and everything and i can get to the kwifi maniger and scan for networks and pick my network up... but how the hell do i connect to it. when i hit iwconfig it gives me wireless setting and stuff... but there is no like network selector or anyhitng... anyone know how tyo accually connect to a net work? thanks. -ZAc-

[kakariko81280]

iwconfig wlan0 essid <your ssid>

I don't think you can use kWifiManager to select a network because it would need root access to change the wireless card settings.

Let us know how you get on

Chris...

[the ex]

im having the same problem with my Belkin USB adapter...

PLEASE ADVISE

[kakariko81280]

I don't mean to be pedantic, but...

If you have the same problem, then the solution is the same.

If it isn't working, then you probably have a different setup. If you give us more details (error messages, network settings, WEP? WPA?) we will help you out.

Chris...

[bidi]

After setting up iwconfig, and my experience has been that you only need to specify the ESSID (and WEP if you're using that).

In Slack, you need to get two files configured popperly if you want wireless internet (in your case 3 file): rc.inet1.conf and rc.wireless.conf are the two files that will get your internet and wireless connection working (respectively). In your case, also take a look in rc.modules to load that ndiswrapper module at startup. If rc.wireless.conf you only need to set the INFO and ESSID, and there should be some examples as well (disregard those). In rc.inet1.conf, just scroll to the second half of the file, and you will see an example for setting up wireless. What I usually do is just uncomment the lines and edit them. After that, you don't have to worry about using a front end. Everything should just work. If you want to know you IP address, use ifconfig.

Hope that's what you guys were looking for.

[the ex]

i get the USB adapter to connect to my router fine, it says its connected to the specified ESSID

BUT

it cannot get an ip and thus doesnt connect to the internet...
i know its nothing wrong with my router, because it works fine with my windows box

thanks

[luke_z3]

I got tired of typing in the same commands repeatedly, so I created a little bash script. At the time I had to enter 'route' commands (WinXP ICS through dial-up) and so I just tweaked it a little. There is no error checking (if it fails, it doesn't say so, etc.) simply because I'm not very capable at creating shell scripts...yet.

echo "Starting Wi-Fi...";
modprobe ndiswrapper
sleep 2s #Will throw an error without a short pause
ifconfig wlan0 up
dhcpcd wlan0
echo "Success! Wi-Fi is ON."
sleep 2s #not necessary, but gives a nice little pause :)
iwconfig wlan0

I saved this as /bin/wifistart and added a line to the rc script to automatically start it. I live out in the middle of nowhere, so not having a wireless encryption isn't a big threat - study the manpage for iwconfig for more info on that kind of stuff.

if this doesn't help any, give the output of "route" and maybe we can troubleshoot a little from there.

good luck.

[the ex]

oh thanks so much!

its the ifconfig wlan0 up and
dhcpcd wlan0 that did it

thank you thank you thank you

[bidi]

I got tired of typing in the same commands repeatedly, so I created a little bash script. At the time I had to enter 'route' commands (WinXP ICS through dial-up) and so I just tweaked it a little. There is no error checking (if it fails, it doesn't say so, etc.) simply because I'm not very capable at creating shell scripts...yet.

echo "Starting Wi-Fi...";
modprobe ndiswrapper
sleep 2s #Will throw an error without a short pause
ifconfig wlan0 up
dhcpcd wlan0
echo "Success! Wi-Fi is ON."
sleep 2s #not necessary, but gives a nice little pause :)
iwconfig wlan0

No offence, but if you would have read my post, there would be no need to come up with a script like that. You use rc.modules to load ndiswrapper, rc.wireless to bring up wireless and rc.inet1 to bring up dhcp. Not to mention, you wouldn't have to half-ass a script like that... and the reason I say half-ass is because if you try to load your computer without the card plugged in (which I have to do sometimes) you'll get all sort of errors, whereas the Slackware scripts account for that.

[luke_z3]

No offence, but if you would have read my post, there would be no need to come up with a script like that. You use rc.modules to load ndiswrapper, rc.wireless to bring up wireless and rc.inet1 to bring up dhcp. Not to mention, you wouldn't have to half-ass a script like that... and the reason I say half-ass is because if you try to load your computer without the card plugged in (which I have to do sometimes) you'll get all sort of errors, whereas the Slackware scripts account for that.

1 - Have you ever heard of internal wireless NICs? Yeah, so far, it has yet to fail. Especially since I never take it out.
2 - I also use live CDs. I have a (seperate) fat32 parition to keep my downloads, scripts, wifi driver, etc. in so all I have to do is run my half-ass script and my wireless "just works".
3 - I play as root. Call it kamakaze (sp?). I enjoy learning (by myself if I can) how to fix anything I might mess up - simply because somebody else is going to ask how to get something working the way it used to. This ties back into #2, because live CDs are life savers - especially when it comes to fixing lilo.

Are these good enough reasons to keep things the way they are on my laptop? Or do I have to conform to another person's ideas as to how it should work? (If I didn't have a preference of having control, I wouldn't have even tried Linux)