Newbie with wireless problem

[chrisgt28]

I installed suse 10.2 today on my notebook and it does not detect any networks to connect to. Do I need to install a driver for my wifi chipset. If so I found one, and it tells me to log in as root, which I have no idea how to do. That's how blind I am, maybe it does see a network, under network places it shows a windows network, but nothing I can do to configure the settings. I am using Kinternet and it shows nothing available by just displaying a plug. Please help.

[chrisgt28]

okay, I figured out how to log in as root, duh, lol. It still leaves me staring at a driver package that I don't know how to use. I've insalled the files from the driver package in a directory and when I try to install it using various methods described from various sources, it asks for kernel information, in fact the read me files elude to the fact that there seem to be several steps involved. Having no knowledge of kernels and the path where my wireless device is, in relation to that kernel, or if I have to make a kernel has me at a dead stop, this should be so much easier than it sounds.

[gogalthorp]

Without the exact errors it is hard to tell what is going wrong.

Just a guess though it most likely requires that you have the kernel-source installed and this is not installed by default. Also you will probably need the gcc compiler. If you installed via DVD they should be available from it. If not you will need to get them from the Suse repository.

From your menu look for a program called Yast (administrator settings)
run it, it requires that you enter the root password.

Select Software-Software Management
search for kernel-source check it then search for gcc check it then tell the program to install selected packages.

Now you should be able to follow the instruction from the driver package.

Note you do not have to log in as root. Just open a Konsole window and type
su <enter key>
the root password <enter key> note the password does not echo to the screen so don't think it is broken su stands for Super User ( ie root)

Now you temporarily have root privileges and can proceed to install the driver.

If you need more help tell use about the hardware and driver you are trying to install.

[chrisgt28]

I installed the programs you suggested and for a minute I thought it was going to work, but I got errors that were unspecified, but it actually tried to install which is better than the results I had been getting.
The device is an Atheros AR242x 802.11 abg wireless PCI express adapter. The driver I am trying to install is madwifi version 9.4. I don't really know what the errors were because they didn't give explanations, just numbers, error 1 was one example. Thanks for your help so far

[gogalthorp]

Looks like that driver is not working

Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI - openSUSE Forums

note only the first 2 posts are in German

Seem like you best bet is to use

ndiswrapper

Instructions can be found here
Ndiswrapper - openSUSE

[chrisgt28]

Thank you for the info. I installed the driver via the ndiswrapper. It seemed to go well. After install I typed ndiswrapper - l it told me it was an invalid driver, and I know why, I'm running the 64 bit version of suse, and the driver is 32 bit, at least that is what it appears to be. Odd because the documentation on the website of my laptop says the driver would work in 64 bit versions, now they offer a .exe file to download, however that obviously won't work, I need the 64 bit .inf file. Doing some research, it appears there is no 64 bit driver. The only option I have is to install the 32 bit version or obtain a usb wireless device that is Linux compatibale, does anyone know of one, or have another solution? with madwifi and compat-wireless versions I keep getting module errors. I tried hardwiring the computer and installing madwifi via yast, that seemed to work but blue led light still doesn't come on.

[chrisgt28]

I got it working, I had to modify a line in the code of the madwifi driver. Woohoo

[MikeTbob]

Please do explain so that others may benefit too. Thanks

[chrisgt28]

Sorry for the lack of explanation on my fix. My first mistake was just downloading the latest version of the madwifi driver. You need to be kernel specific when picking a version to install. here are the instructions i found and followed;


- Download snapshots.madwifi.org: madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6...
- Go into YaST->Software->Software Management remove all packages start with "madwifi"
- Make sure to install C/C++ compiler as well as kernel header file. Best is just select Pattern in Filter & Install "C/C++ Compiler & Tools" option
- Reboot the system
- tar -xvzf madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3816-20080724.tar.gz
- cd madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3816-20080724/net80211
- use any editor to edit file "ieee80211_crypto_ccmp.c"
- go to line 343

Line 343 will look like this

crypto_cipher_encrypt(tfm, &sg_dst, &sg_src, AES_BLOCK_LEN);

Change line 343 to by add "//" in front of the line

// crypto_cipher_encrypt(tfm, &sg_dst, &sg_src, AES_BLOCK_LEN);
Then save file

(Without doing so during compilation in next action will fail assume you do not need this feature)

- go back to root directory of madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3816-20080724
- issue command "make" it should complete without any error
- then follow by "make install"
- edit /etc/init.d/boot.local
- add new line with "modprobe ath_pci" without the open/close quote symbol, then save file.
- you can just issue command "modprobe ath_pci" or just reboot system

It was that simple. It's my ignorance of Linux that made it a hassle. Thanks for the help. Now I need to figure out why my desktop computer won't load the GUI upon boot. I have two 8800GTS graphics cards running in SLI and I think that may be the problem, not sure, but I haven't taken the time to research it yet, but having my laptop up and running is great.