Hello all,

I'm a newbie to Debian (just installed it today), but I've run SuSE Linux
for about seven years. SuSE has let me down in the wireless networking
department, so I decided to give Debian a try.

I installed Debian and, of course, quickly discovered that not much of
anything was installed. One thing I did notice, though, was that when it
was time for me to configure networking, Debian didn't seem to even know
that my (PCI) wireless card existed. So I didn't have a connection to the
Internet, which in itself was no big deal.

The card is in /proc/pci with interrupt 10, but there's no interface for
it. I felt rather lost at the command line, since I don't know my way
around Debian, so I went ahead and installed X and got that going (I also
have keyboard issues, but I'll deal with that later; and was very pleased
that it defaults to Gnome rather than KDE, but anyway) and tried the
Networking tool under System Administration, but when I added a wireless
interface in there, I couldn't activate it, and sometimes the Networking
tool would freeze when I tried.

So what the heck do I need to do to get a working wireless network
interface in Debian?

PS I managed to run "make xconfig" just to see what was already
configured, and yes, wireless networking is configured in the kernel.
However, I didn't see support for my chipset (Atheros). Perhaps I should
move up from the default 2.4.27 kernel to a 2.6 kernel?

Best,
Tim

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Tim Kynerd wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I'm a newbie to Debian (just installed it today), but I've run SuSE Linux
> for about seven years. SuSE has let me down in the wireless networking
> department, so I decided to give Debian a try.
>
> I installed Debian and, of course, quickly discovered that not much of
> anything was installed. One thing I did notice, though, was that when it
> was time for me to configure networking, Debian didn't seem to even know
> that my (PCI) wireless card existed. So I didn't have a connection to the
> Internet, which in itself was no big deal.
>
> The card is in /proc/pci with interrupt 10, but there's no interface for
> it. I felt rather lost at the command line, since I don't know my way
> around Debian, so I went ahead and installed X and got that going (I also
> have keyboard issues, but I'll deal with that later; and was very pleased
> that it defaults to Gnome rather than KDE, but anyway) and tried the
> Networking tool under System Administration, but when I added a wireless
> interface in there, I couldn't activate it, and sometimes the Networking
> tool would freeze when I tried.
>
> So what the heck do I need to do to get a working wireless network
> interface in Debian?
>
> PS I managed to run "make xconfig" just to see what was already
> configured, and yes, wireless networking is configured in the kernel.
> However, I didn't see support for my chipset (Atheros). Perhaps I should
> move up from the default 2.4.27 kernel to a 2.6 kernel?
>
> Best,
> Tim



Definitely upgrade to the 2.6.11 kernel. The default 2.4.27 kernel has
no optimizations. If you have a single Pentium Pro/Celeron/Pentium
II/Pentium III/Pentium 4 it's:

apt-get update
apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.11-1-686

if you have a single Duron/Athlon/AthlonXP or newer it's:

apt-get update
apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.11-1-k7



The method of installing a wlan depends on who makes the card. There are
three major ways of installing a wireless card in Linux. What kind of
card is it? (ie Netgear WG311v2)

RK

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 12:35:21 -0400, Russ wrote:

> Tim Kynerd wrote: 
>
>
>
> Definitely upgrade to the 2.6.11 kernel. The default 2.4.27 kernel has no
> optimizations. If you have a single Pentium Pro/Celeron/Pentium II/Pentium
> III/Pentium 4 it's:
>
> apt-get update
> apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.11-1-686
>
> if you have a single Duron/Athlon/AthlonXP or newer it's:
>
> apt-get update
> apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.11-1-k7
>
>
>
> The method of installing a wlan depends on who makes the card. There are
> three major ways of installing a wireless card in Linux. What kind of card
> is it? (ie Netgear WG311v2)
>
> RK

Good guess! :-) It's a Netgear WG311T (i.e., the PCI version).

"E: Couldn't find package kernel-image-2.6.11-1-686"

All I have is what's on the DVD images I downloaded from debian.org and
burned (no access to the 'Net on that machine; I'm posting this from my
PowerBook). But there's a 2.6 kernel on the DVDs that I'll try installing.
Thanks for the info; that (upgrading the kernel with apt-get) is much
easier than I thought it would be.

PS I downloaded the DVDs this weekend, so it's 3.1 (Sarge) r0a.

Best,
Tim

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 23:01:58 +0200, Tim Kynerd wrote:

>
> Good guess! :-) It's a Netgear WG311T (i.e., the PCI version).
>
> "E: Couldn't find package kernel-image-2.6.11-1-686"
>
> All I have is what's on the DVD images I downloaded from debian.org and
> burned (no access to the 'Net on that machine; I'm posting this from my
> PowerBook). But there's a 2.6 kernel on the DVDs that I'll try installing.
> Thanks for the info; that (upgrading the kernel with apt-get) is much
> easier than I thought it would be.
>
> PS I downloaded the DVDs this weekend, so it's 3.1 (Sarge) r0a.
>
> Best,
> Tim

No luck. The kernel sorta seems to recognize the card and all -- at least
there's an interface in the kernel now called "ath0" -- but I can't even
activate it in the "Networking" tool. When I activate it, it is
immediately deactivated again. :-(

I've found /etc/network/interfaces and am going to try to make sure I have
all the options in there that I need, but my feeling is that something
more fundamental is wrong -- there actually doesn't seem to be any
connection between interface ath0 and the hardware (the card). Does that
make any sense?

Best,
Tim

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Tim Kynerd <tim@tram.nu> wrote:
> On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 23:01:58 +0200, Tim Kynerd wrote:
 

I don't know this card but will try to help a bit anyway.
[vbcol=seagreen]
> No luck. The kernel sorta seems to recognize the card and all -- at least
> there's an interface in the kernel now called "ath0" -- but I can't even
> activate it in the "Networking" tool. When I activate it, it is
> immediately deactivated again. :-(

I'm not sure what "Networking" tool you mean. I guess it is something
found in KDE or GNOME - right? Although you said you're not too fond of
the commandline, this is the way to go if we want to figure out what's
going on.

Issue a few commands in the shell and let us know what they say - then
someone may be able to nail down your problem:

lspci

lsmod

ifconfig -a

iwconfig

dmesg   (well - only lines that seem related to the wlan card)

ifconfig ath0 up

> I've found /etc/network/interfaces and am going to try to make sure I have
> all the options in there that I need,

just as a hint - this is what my /etc/network/interfaces has for wlan:

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
pre-up modprobe ndiswrapper
post-down rmmod ndiswrapper
wireless-essid mynetwork
wireless-nick wpc54g

Of course your situation may be quite different - my card needs ndiswrapper.
.

> but my feeling is that something
> more fundamental is wrong -- there actually doesn't seem to be any
> connection between interface ath0 and the hardware (the card). Does that
> make any sense?

Possible, but given that the system seems to know about ath0 in some way
I think the driver is there and something is just misconfigured.

cu
Philipp

--
Dr. Philipp Pagel                           Tel.  +49-89-3187-3675
Institute for Bioinformatics / MIPS         Fax.  +49-89-3187-3585
GSF - German National Research Center for Environment and Health
http://mips.gsf.de/staff/pagel

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Tim Kynerd wrote:
> On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 23:01:58 +0200, Tim Kynerd wrote:
>
> 
>
>
> No luck. The kernel sorta seems to recognize the card and all -- at least
> there's an interface in the kernel now called "ath0" -- but I can't even
> activate it in the "Networking" tool. When I activate it, it is
> immediately deactivated again. :-(
>
> I've found /etc/network/interfaces and am going to try to make sure I have
> all the options in there that I need, but my feeling is that something
> more fundamental is wrong -- there actually doesn't seem to be any
> connection between interface ath0 and the hardware (the card). Does that
> make any sense?
>
> Best,
> Tim
>

Ahhh...   The WG311T using the Atheros chipset with Super G technology,
I assume? You will need ndiswrapper to get it going.

I assume that you installed the wireless-tools package and that you are
using iwconfig, yes? If so, good.

Well, disable all encryption for now in your AP or Router. It is far
easier to get a wireless card going without it.

Copy the latest Windows XP drivers from Netgear's site to a known
directory and insert your DVD.

This is the debian way:

1)Open a console as root
2)Type in "apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils ndiswrapper-source
wireless-tools wireless-tools-udeb module-assistant" ... wait until done
3)type in module-assistant and go to step 4 or type in m-a update ; m-a
a-i ndiswrapper ; echo Enjoy! and go to step 11
4)Select UPDATE and hit enter.... wait until done
5)Select PREPARE and hit enter... wait until done
6)Select SELECT and hit enter... Scroll down to ndiswrapper and check it
and hit enter
7)Select GET and hit enter
8)Select BUILD and hit enter
9)Select INSTALL and hit enter
10)Utilize the menu system to exit back to the console prompt
11)Type in "modprobe -i <driver.inf>"
12)type in "modprobe ndiswrapper"
13)configure your card via iwconfig, enable WEP and all that
14)edit your /etc/network/interfaces so that the card will work on
bootup. Look in the wireless-tools docs for more parameters. Mine as an
example:
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
name Netgear WG311V2
wireless_mode managed
wireless_essid NETGEAR
wireless_key1 C13ACD5067D93435D44FDB7D5E
wireless_key2 C13ACD5067D93435D44FDB7D5E
wireless_key3 C13ACD5067D93435D44FDB7D5E
wireless_key4 C13ACD5067D93435D44FDB7D5E
wireless_defaultkey 1
wireless_keymode restricted
14)When everything is good, type in ndiswrapper -m

Enjoy!!

RK

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Hi Russ and Philipp,

I just wanted to say that I'm *not* ignoring you. :-) I'm going to try
ndiswrapper tomorrow evening, but tonight I need to go get some of the
sleep I haven't been getting the last several days because I've been
messing with this stuff. I'll let you know how it goes.

Best,
Tim

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 09:39:27 -0400, Russ wrote:

> Tim Kynerd wrote: 
> Ahhh...   The WG311T using the Atheros chipset with Super G technology, I
> assume? You will need ndiswrapper to get it going.
>
> I assume that you installed the wireless-tools package and that you are
> using iwconfig, yes? If so, good.
>
> Well, disable all encryption for now in your AP or Router. It is far
> easier to get a wireless card going without it.
>
> Copy the latest Windows XP drivers from Netgear's site to a known
> directory and insert your DVD.
>
> This is the debian way:
>
> 1)Open a console as root
> 2)Type in "apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils ndiswrapper-source
> wireless-tools wireless-tools-udeb module-assistant" ... wait until done

wireless-tools-udeb is not on the DVDs.

The Debian machine has no Internet connectivity.

Suggestions?

But I went on anyway....

> 3)type in module-assistant and go to step 4 or type in m-a update ; m-a
> a-i ndiswrapper ; echo Enjoy! and go to step 11 4)Select UPDATE and hit
> enter.... wait until done 5)Select PREPARE and hit enter... wait until
> done 6)Select SELECT and hit enter... Scroll down to ndiswrapper and
> check it and hit enter
> 7)Select GET and hit enter
> 8)Select BUILD and hit enter
> 9)Select INSTALL and hit enter
> 10)Utilize the menu system to exit back to the console prompt 11)Type in
> "modprobe -i <driver.inf>"

FATAL: Module WG311T13.inf not found

I recalled that by default, the working directory is not in your $PATH
(especially root's!), so I tried to rectify that:

FATAL: Module ./WG311T13.inf not found

Above, when you told me to copy the driver to "a well-known directory,"
did you mean a SPECIFIC directory? If so, which one? (Aren't modules
supposed to live somewhere specific? But I don't recall where.)

Or is this due to the lack of wireless-tools-udeb?

-rest snipped-

Best,
Tim

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 18:29:41 +0200, Tim Kynerd wrote:

> On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 09:39:27 -0400, Russ wrote:
> 
>
> wireless-tools-udeb is not on the DVDs.
>
> The Debian machine has no Internet connectivity.
>
> Suggestions?

I just now wired my Debian machine to my PowerBook (where I'm writing
this) to give it Internet connectivity. I then ran apt-setup to add a
couple of FTP sources (ftp.se.debian.org and ftp.sunet.se) to apt. It
still says it can't find wireless-tools-udeb.

What am I doing wrong? :-)

Best,
Tim

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

On Fri, 17 Jun 2005 18:59:34 +0200, Tim Kynerd
<tim@tram.nu> wrote:
>
> I just now wired my Debian machine to my PowerBook (where I'm writing
> this) to give it Internet connectivity. I then ran apt-setup to add a
> couple of FTP sources (ftp.se.debian.org and ftp.sunet.se) to apt. It
> still says it can't find wireless-tools-udeb.
>
> What am I doing wrong? :-)
>
> Best,
> Tim
>
To get udeb files, I think you need to add "main/debian-installer" to
your sources.list.


--
I cannot believe that God plays dice with the cosmos.
-- Albert Einstein, on the randomness of quantum mechanics

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