[SOLVED] Me and my messy experiments

[Bemk]

Hey,
I am doing an experiment right now, trying to make my own customised box from an Ubuntu minimal install. However, I have 1 small problem (I can still work around, no doubt), and that's that I don't have a long enough patch cable to reach all the way from the machine to my router, but do have a WLAN adapter lying around, and thought I could use that.
Here's my problem. I don't think my machine is populating the device with a driver, because no WLAN (not even the normal LAN device) show up in /dev, however when doing lsusb I get:

Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0781:5406 SanDisk Corp. Cruzer Micro 1/4GB Flash Drive
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0df6:000d Sitecom Europe B.V. WL-168 Wireless Network Adapter 54g
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 046d:c016 Logitech, Inc. M-UV69a/HP M-UV96 Optical Wheel Mouse
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

By the way, that mouse is just playing useless, because I don't have X running yet. By the way, I didn't know it was Logitech until now, It says Dell on top. (Computer with keyboard and mouse is a written of device from school, running Windows until I thought of this experiment)

Once I figure out how to get the device working, I hope I can figure it all out.

[reed9]

Please post the output of:
lsmod
iwconfig


The driver you want is the rtl8187b, and it's been included in the kernel since 2.6.27. (The ID string is the key to finding this out: ID 0df6:000d)

Linux Kernel Driver Database: CONFIG_RTL8187: Realtek 8187 and 8187B USB support

[Bemk]

Well, here is the output of lsmod:

Module                  Size  Used by
nls_iso8859_1          12032  1 
nls_cp437              13696  1 
vfat                   18816  1 
fat                    58272  1 vfat
usb_storage            82880  1 
cbc                    11648  4 
aes_i586               15744  5 
aes_generic            35880  1 aes_i586
input_polldev          11912  0 
video                  25360  0 
output                 11008  1 video
lp                     17156  0 
arc4                    9856  2 
ecb                    10752  3 
rtl8187                53376  0 
snd_intel8x0           37532  0 
snd_ac97_codec        112292  1 snd_intel8x0
mac80211              217208  1 rtl8187
ac97_bus                9856  1 snd_ac97_codec
eeprom_93cx6           10240  1 rtl8187
snd_pcm                82948  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer              29704  1 snd_pcm
ppdev                  15620  0 
dcdbas                 15264  0 
iTCO_wdt               19108  0 
iTCO_vendor_support    11652  1 iTCO_wdt
snd                    62628  4 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore              15200  1 snd
snd_page_alloc         16904  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
cfg80211               38032  2 rtl8187,mac80211
shpchp                 40212  0 
pcspkr                 10496  0 
parport_pc             40100  1 
parport                42220  3 lp,ppdev,parport_pc
intel_agp              34108  1 
agpgart                42696  1 intel_agp
usbhid                 42336  0 
e1000                 130500  0 
floppy                 64324  0 
fbcon                  46112  0 
tileblit               10752  1 fbcon
font                   16384  1 fbcon
bitblit                13824  1 fbcon
softcursor              9984  1 bitblit

and the iwconfig can't be run, because I don't have it installed, and I can't unless I get web-connection (or I will have to go through dependency hell, well, ok for this one time, if really necessary).

[reed9]

The basic wireless tools aren't included in the Ubuntu minimal install? That seems problematic. I don't think you'll be able to set up the wireless without them.

But the driver appears to be loading.

[Bemk]

But what's the 0 in the used by row?

[reed9]

As far as I know, that is the number of other modules that use or depend upon that module.

[Bemk]

I managed to install wireless tools without going through too much hell, as there was 1 library unmet which had only 1 dependency that was already met, and the tools also needed another library, which appeared to be the same as the earlier library depended upon.

here comes your output to iwconfig

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:""  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Tx-Power=0 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

EDIT:
I have also done the other command, but the relevant module remains the same.

[waterhead]

If your wireless network has no encryption, or uses WEP, you can connect using the iwconfig command.

paul@eeepc:~$ iwconfig --help
Usage: iwconfig [interface]
                interface essid {NNN|any|on|off}
                interface mode {managed|ad-hoc|master|...}
                interface freq N.NNN[k|M|G]
                interface channel N
                interface bit {N[k|M|G]|auto|fixed}
                interface rate {N[k|M|G]|auto|fixed}
                interface enc {NNNN-NNNN|off}
                interface key {NNNN-NNNN|off}
                interface power {period N|timeout N|saving N|off}
                interface nickname NNN
                interface nwid {NN|on|off}
                interface ap {N|off|auto}
                interface txpower {NmW|NdBm|off|auto}
                interface sens N
                interface retry {limit N|lifetime N}
                interface rts {N|auto|fixed|off}
                interface frag {N|auto|fixed|off}
                interface modulation {11g|11a|CCK|OFDMg|...}
                interface commit 
       Check man pages for more details.

Substitute wlan0 for "interface". If you are using WPA encryption, you will have to install and configure wpa_supplicant. It should be available from the installation DVD.

[reed9]

Once you configure the interface, you'll probably need to run dhclient.

So basic usage looks something like

sudo iwconfig wlan essid <NETWORK>
sudo dhclient wlan0

[reed9]

Other useful commands:

Bring the interface up:
sudo ifconfig wlan0 up

Scan for networks:
sudo iwlist wlan0 scan