Dell Vostro A860 Wireless, Ubuntu 8.10

[arielby]

How to set it up? I can't find that madwifi-hal*.gz file.

[D-cat]

Can you please open a terminal window, then type the following and post the output:

lspci | grep -i net

[arielby]

09:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 02)
0c:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)

[D-cat]

Yeaaa Atheros!

Have a look at this link, let us know what happens:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...Driver/Atheros

Especially that first sentence.

Note, you have intrepid, so the correct entry in your /etc/apt/sources.list file is:

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu intrepid-backports main universe multiverse restricted

[arielby]

I did what was written. Executed sudo shutdown -r now, and still no wireless.

Do I have to set up something?

[D-cat]

Please show us the output of

lsmod | grep ath

[arielby]

ath5k                 116612  0
lbm_cw_mac80211       215856  1 ath5k
lbm_cw_cfg80211        46744  2 ath5k, lbm_cw_mac80211
led_class              12164  1 ath5k

[D-cat]

Hmmm, the correct module is loaded. It should be working now. Maybe the interface changed names (can happen when you change modules)?

Please list the ouputs of

ifconfig

iwconfig

Thank you.

[arielby]

ifconfig:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:21:70:90:05:83  
          inet addr:10.0.0.3  Bcast:10.0.255.255  Mask:255.255.0.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::221:70ff:fe90:583/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:6040 errors:0 dropped:1060923125 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:6762 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:4973897 (4.9 MB)  TX bytes:1344785 (1.3 MB)
          Interrupt:220 Base address:0xc000 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:106 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:106 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:7328 (7.3 KB)  TX bytes:7328 (7.3 KB)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:17:c4:4f:a8:36  
          UP BROADCAST 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 00-17-C4-4F-A8-36-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00  
          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)

iwconfig

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wmaster0  no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:"Feldbau"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.457 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Tx-Power=27 dBm   
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2352 B   
          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

pan0      no wireless extensions.

Hey, why the only wireless network is the Feldbau's (our neighbors)? I have a wireless router a yard from the laptop.

I know the router is working as this is not my computer, and my brother managed to set up wireless on another computer of the same type (and, naturally, forgot how he did it).

[D-cat]

Your wireless will automatically connect to the strongest unsecured wireless signal. For a secured connection, you have to specify the AP and the key.

To find AP's in range, use iwlist wlan0 scanning

Then to connect to your AP, use

sudo iwconfig wlan0 essid (Your_AP) key (Your_Key) [1]

Note: the "[1]" is the index number (1-4), the brackets are necessary when using it, but it also may be optional, depending on your AP's setup.

Sometimes, you also have to run sudo dhclient wlan0 to get the network set up right, depends if the current network setup is valid or if the system realized the AP change and ran it for you (sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't).