# Baffling wireless card problem

## cwizman

I've poured over tons of relative material and I still can't get my wireless card to work.  I have a Dell Inspiron 8200 with a TrueMobile 1150 wireless card.  My home network uses eth0.  I've tried and followed all kinds of postings here and tips and guides elsewhere.  At one point, it would actually give me 2 high beeps -- It doesn't even do that any more.  I'm at a complete loss, any help would be greatly appreciated.

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## Sven Vermeulen

First make sure that all your pcmcia-configuration scripts/files are back how they were before. There have been too much occasions that ppl first try to solve their problems on their own (which is good) but forget the changes they made and thus made it impossible to have it working again.

Second, make sure the PCMCIA bus is detected. It should be noticeable in dmesg, or in /proc/bus/pcicard. Also make sure you have cardmgr running. This is the daemon that will notice that the pcmcia-card is inserted, and will load the appropriate module.

You can run cardmgr by just issuing it. It will automatically go in the background.

Insert the WLAN-card. If cardmgr doesn't find the appropriate module, it should emit a high-pitch beep and a low-pitch one. If it does find the appropriate module, 2 high-pitch beeps will be emitted.

If this doesn't happen (as you mentioned) try loading the wlan-module for your card manually. Checkout google.com/linux or other sources to know what the module is actually called.

If this doesn't help: what are the error msg's you get (anywhere)? What PCMCIA driver version are you using (cardctl -V)?

And with errors, not only the ones produced on the terminal/console, but also those in the logfiles (/var/log/messages depending on how you configged your syslogger) and dmesg.

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## cwizman

How can I revert my scripts/files to their original state?

As for dmesg, 

Linux PCMCIA Card Services 3.2.3

kernel build: 2.4.20 unknown

options:  [pci] [cardbus] [apm]

cs: memory probe 0xa0000000-0xa0ffffff: clean.

init_module: prism2_cs.o: 0.1.16-pre7 Loaded

init_module: dev_info is: prism2_cs

prism2_cs: CardServices release does not match!

p80211.o: 0.1.16-pre7 Unloaded

By the way, my wireless card is built-in.  I have tried using the wlan drivers, but that hasn't helped me any either.  Also, how do I know what I should be using for nameservers, I'm trying to use wireless with dhcp.

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## heijs

Did you compile PCMCIA in the kernel or as a kernel module or did you use the PCMCIA-cs modules?

If you did one, try the other modules

I hope this helps...

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## cwizman

The PCMCIA bus is detected and cardmgr is running.  I've even gone so far as to reinstall Gentoo; I still get the same problem.  I have tried manually loading each module that can work with my card - wavelan_cs, wvlan_cs, and orinoco.  I am using PCMCIA driver v3.2.3.  I don't have PCMCIA compiled in the kernel.  Also, when cardmgr starts, it seems to load hermes, orinoco, and orinoco_cs.

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## CrimsonScythe

cwizman:

I had a very similar problem, and read my a$$ off to find a remedy. My problem, however, turned out to be a rather strange one: as a last try, I swapped the antenna cable to the other connector on the card and voila, it worked!

Anyway, hopefully you have the 1150 card (there are no drivers for the 1180 card). To check if you in fact have the 1150 card, as root do this:

```
bash-2.05b# lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset Host Bridge (rev 04)

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset AGP Bridge (rev 04)

00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM USB (Hub #1) (rev 02)

00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM USB (Hub #3) (rev 02)

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BAM/CAM PCI Bridge (rev 42)

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801CAM ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 02)

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801CAM IDE U100 (rev 02)

00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM AC'97 Audio (rev 02)

00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM AC'97 Modem (rev 02)

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV17 [GeForce4 440 Go] (rev a3)

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905C-TX/TX-M [Tornado] (rev 78)

02:01.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI4451 PC card Cardbus Controller

02:01.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI4451 PC card Cardbus Controller

02:01.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCI4451 IEEE-1394 Controller

02:03.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1410 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
```

You should have 3 entries saying "CardBus bridge". If it does, you should use eth1 and the modules that you already have loaded: hermes, orinoco, and orinoco_cs. Then just follow one of the pcmcia wireless-card tutorials here.

Let us know how it goes!  :Smile: 

-- Thomas

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## cwizman

I do have three entries that say "CardBus bridge".  I have, at one point in time, been able to load the modules (hermes, orinoco, orinoco_cs), but now I can't load orinoco_cs.  Also, whenever I try to "use" eth1 or wlan0, it gives me an error about device not found.  Any information about what kind & version kernel, built-in or pcmcia-cs modules, or how you get it to "see" eth1, would be very helpfull.  Thanks!

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## CrimsonScythe

Good to hear! This is my important enabled setting in the kernel:

Network device support -> Wireless LAN (non-hamradio) -> Wireless LAN (non-hamradio) (CONFIG_NET_RADIO)

Note: I have NOT General Setup->PCMCIA/CardBus (CONFIG_PCMCIA) support enabled! That is taken care of by emerging pcmcia-cs after building the kernel. Emerging pcmcia-cs will also provide you with the hermes, orinoco, and orinoco_cs modules!

All you do next, is to include this in your /etc/modules.autoload file:

```
pcmcia_core

i82365

ds
```

Now, when you reboot, you should see this flickering by (or later by using dmesg):

```
eth1: Station identity 001f:0001:0006:0010

eth1: Looks like a Lucent/Agere firmware version 6.16

eth1: Ad-hoc demo mode supported

eth1: IEEE standard IBSS ad-hoc mode supported

eth1: WEP supported, 104-bit key

eth1: MAC address 00:02:2E:C8:41:B7

eth1: Station name "HERMES I"

eth1: ready

eth1: index 0x01: Vcc 3.3, irq 11, io 0x0100-0x013f
```

If that worked, we can now copy /etc/init.d/net.eth0 to /etc/init.d/net.eth1, and enter the desired iface_eth1 settings in /etc/conf.d/net. You can now try and start the wireless-card with "/etc/init.d/net.eth1 start". You also might have to stop net.eth0 in order for your wireless-card to work. (I had to do that, but there might be a fancy way around that.)

If you do, then you are ready to roll! Also, if you haven't already, emerge wireless-tools so that you can set the various settings on your card as for example:

```
iwconfig eth1 essid MyAccessPointsName

iwconfig eth1 key 6a89e8ba37

iwconfig eth1 rate auto
```

Note: I did not emerge pcmcia-drivers and I did load the hermes, orinoco, and orinoco_cs modules manually or with modules.autoload!

Well, that was pretty much everything I did to make mine work. Except for switching the antenna cable and write a couple of "scripts" to switch between wireless and wired networking. Good luck, and please let us know how it went. (Please excuse me if I was too detailed...)

--Thomas[/code]

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## cwizman

I've done what you suggested and found that it doesn't seem to find my eth1 at boot-up.  I looked at dmesg and found no such information as you suggested.  Also I can't seem to load orinoco_cs.  I'm completely confused!

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## CrimsonScythe

Weird! I have to say it doesn't sound good. Are you able to load other modules? (I know, stupid question.) Is the card properly snapped into the slot? What kernel are you running?

-- Thomas

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## cwizman

Every thing else (besides a second mouse via USB) works perfectly.  The card is an internal Truemobile 1150, so it should be properly snapped into the slot   :Smile:  .  I'm running the gentoo kernel 2.4.20.

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## CrimsonScythe

OK  :Smile: 

I'm running a Vanilla sources 2.4.19-r10 kernel, because the gentoo sources kernel gave me a LOT of ext3 errors. (With every reboot.)

Do you know if the cardmanager gets properly started? If not, I guess the card won't show up... And do you know if there is any chance the card or bus is damaged?

-- Thomas

(BTW, what's the problem with the mouse?)

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## cwizman

If I type cardmgr, I get a message 'device or resource busy'. If I type cardctl ident, I get a message 'TrueMobile 1150 Series PC Card ... Function: 6 (network)'.  I'm guessing that cardmanager is loading correctly, right?  Also, I've had this laptop for only 4 months, so that card shouldn't be damaged.  Plus, (awhile back), I had the card working on slackware, but I haven't got the slightest clue how I did it.  As for the kernel, a few days ago I was running vanilla 2.4.20, so I don't think it's anything specifically related to the Gentoo kernel.

As for the mouse (remember I'm running a Dell laptop), I wanted to occasionally use my USB mouse with it.  I tried to set it up as the second mouse - it didn't work.  Funny though, it works as a second mouse when I use my USB-PS2 converter!

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## CrimsonScythe

Hmm... I get:

```
bash-2.05b# cardctl ident

Socket 0:

  no product info available

Socket 1:

  no product info available

Socket 2:

  product info: "Lucent Technologies", "WaveLAN/IEEE", "Version 01.01", ""

  manfid: 0x0156, 0x0002

  function: 6 (network)
```

What do you get if you try "modprobe orinoco_cs"? What about "insmod orinoco_cs"?

Regarding the mouse, here is an snippet from my XF86Config file, which should solve your mouse problem:

```
Section "ServerLayout"

        Identifier "XFree86 Configured"

        Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0

        InputDevice    "Touchpad" "CorePointer"

        InputDevice    "Mouse" "SendCoreEvents"

        InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"

EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"

        Option "AllowMouseOpenFail"

EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

        Identifier  "Keyboard0"

        Driver      "keyboard"

        Option      "CoreKeyboard"

        Option      "XkbRules"  "xfree86"

        Option      "XkbModel"  "pc104"

        Option      "XkbLayout" "us"

EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

        Identifier "Touchpad"

        Driver   "mouse"

#       Option   "Protocol" "PS/2"

        Option   "Protocol" "GlidePointPS/2"

        Option   "Device" "/dev/mouse"

        Option   "Emulate3Buttons" "on"

        Option   "Emulate3Timeout" "50"

EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

        Identifier   "Mouse"

        Driver     "mouse"

        Option     "Buttons" "5"

        Option     "Protocol" "IMPS/2"

        Option     "Device" "/dev/usbmouse"

        Option     "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

EndSection

```

Also I load these modules for the mouse in modules.autoload (Don't mind my comments  :Smile:  They are intended for myself  :Wink:  ):

```
usbcore                 #duh

usb-uhci                #intel usb support

hid                     #human interface for usb
```

(BTW, the "hid" will not load by itself, so I had to put a "insmod hid" in my /etc/conf.d/local.start file.)

-- Thomas

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## cwizman

This is an abbreviated output for insmod orinoco_cs:

unresolved symbol orinoco_reinit_firmware

unresolved symbol __orinoco_down

unresolved symbol __orinoco_up

As for your mouse tip, I'm currently recompiling my kernel, so I'll try that later.

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## CrimsonScythe

Which pcmcia-cs is it that you have? I have 3.2.1-r3. Maybe this is a pcmcia-cs vs kernel issue?

-- Thomas

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## cwizman

My pcmcia-cs version is 3.2.3-r1.  I have also tried it with and without the pcmcia-cs-drivers.

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## CrimsonScythe

Have you tried to downgrade to pcmcia-cs 3.2.1-r3? At least just for the fun of it?  :Wink: 

--Thomas

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## cwizman

After months (literally!!), I have FINALLY gotten my wireless card to work in Gentoo!    :Very Happy:   :Very Happy: 

My problems primarily resided with configuring the kernel properly.  During the numerous times I installed pcmcia-cs, I never really paid much attention to the little message it displayed after it finished installing.  I happened to see it, so I read it and followed it carefully.  I removed the PCMCIA/Cardbus support from GENERAL, made sure Wireless Lan/Non Hamradio was on, and unchecked the modules underneath that Wireless Lan section.  (I think my problem was having either some modules "on" or having the PCMCIA turned on).  After that, it still gave me a high-beep -> low-beep.  But, I saw that it was loading prism2_cs when it loaded cardmgr.  I dug around in my "/etc/pcmcia" files and changed "prism2_cs" to "hermes", "orinoco", "orinoco_cs".  That got me two high beeps   :Very Happy:  .  The network STILL didn't work.  After about an hour of digging around and trying numerous things (won't get into that   :Wink:  ), I removed the lines corresponding to eth1 in my "/etc/conf.d/net" file except for iface_eth1="dhcp".  And, finally, the wireless network came to life!!

Thanks for all your help!

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## cwizman

I got the USB mouse to work too.  It must be my lucky day!  :Very Happy: 

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## CrimsonScythe

Good to hear  :Very Happy: 

Yeah, I mentioned that I had no pcmcia support compiled into the kernel  :Wink:  The stuff you had to do in /etc/pcmcia was done automatically on my computer, thanks god...

I also had a great day!  I had problems with a randomly crashing xfree and got it solved  :Very Happy: 

-- Thomas

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