# Need help installing and configuring my new wireless card

## kahlil88

I just bought an Airlink AWLH5025 wireless PCI card (uses Ralink RT2600 chipset) and can't figure out how to get it installed and configured. I compiled my kernel with the Ralink drivers but not really sure what to do next. I tried following the Gentoo Documentation, but just got lost.

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## alienjon

Check out this doc site (not sure if this is the one you've been looking at)  If you don't know whether to go with wireless_tools or wpa_supplicant (and the documentation says to go with whatever you want) I'd recommend wpa_supplicant.

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## kahlil88

I managed to install the drivers and firmware, but after I ran net-setup wlan0 it still wouldn't connect...

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## alienjon

Are you getting any error messages?

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## kahlil88

Well the driver is installed and I can connect to my wireless network with the instructions provided by Gentoo Wiki's article on Wireless Networking. Unfortunately, I can't get connected with NetworkManager - launching it kills my connection, and even though it finds my network it won't connect to it.  :Sad: 

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## alienjon

Have you looked through the network manager documentation as well?  I use that program in Kubuntu (for my laptop) but had problems setting it up for my desktop.  I ended up just not using it, as I didn't really need it anyway for a computer that always connected through one wireless network.

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## kahlil88

I'm reading the NetworkManager article now. I've added the runlevels and everything else up to the "Start NetworkManager" section, which is where I'm now running into bumps. I stopped xdm, but when I try to restart dbus, it hangs forever saying "hald: waiting for xdm"

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## alienjon

Are there any errors/warnings in your /var/log/Xorg.0.log?

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## kahlil88

 *alienjon wrote:*   

> Are there any errors/warnings in your /var/log/Xorg.0.log?

 

$ grep -e "(EE)" -e "(WW)" /var/log/Xorg.0.log

(WW) Open ACPI failed (/var/run/acpid.socket) (No such file or directory)

(WW) Warning, couldn't open module freetype

(EE) Failed to load module "freetype" (module does not exist, 0)

(WW) RADEONHD(0): rhdAtomAllocateFbScratch: FW FB scratch area 536850432 (size: 20480) extends beyond available framebuffer size 268435456

(WW) RADEONHD(0): Option "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps" is not used

(WW) RADEONHD(0): Option "Composite" is not used

(WW) RADEONHD(0): Option "AIGLX" is not used

(EE) config/hal: NewInputDeviceRequest failed

(EE) config/hal: NewInputDeviceRequest failed

(EE) config/hal: NewInputDeviceRequest failed

(EE) config/hal: NewInputDeviceRequest failed

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## alienjon

Hmm.  I don't think the freetype error is something to be too concerned about (although I don't know if X will start with errors - maybe try to comment out that line in your xorg.conf?)  As for the other errors (and the rhdAtomAllocateFbScratch warning), I'm not sure what they're complaining about but I've never seen them before, either, so this may be contributing to why XDM isn't starting.  I'd say to look around for these errors and see what you come up with.  (I'll try to help looking as well, but I'm a bit busy right now so I may not get to looking until later)  This may be a dead end, but is likely worth looking into anyway.

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## alienjon

```
(EE) Failed to load module "freetype" (module does not exist, 0) 
```

Looks like an upgrade of xorg-server might get rid of this error, but I don't think it's related to your problem.

As for the input device error, I think it's too generic to really pinpoint what it's talking about.  I'm guessing that there's something odd in your mouse/keyboard/other input configuration.  If this is the same Xorg.conf you had when X worked, then I'm betting that this also isn't related to network manager.  As the network manager does mention Hal in the error as well, maybe there's an extra hal entry for an input device?  Maybe look through your HAL rules to see if everything is where it's supposed to be?

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## kahlil88

Someone on this forum had a signature that caught my eye, and I wound up reading this Xorg 1.5 Upgrade Guide. I changed my INPUT_DEVICE to "evdev" instead of "keyboard mouse" and removed (well...renamed anyway) my xorg.conf (since it recommended doing so) and rebooted. Everything seems to work just as well as before, but now I have a different set of Xorg.0.log errors: *Quote:*   

> (EE) Unable to locate/open config file
> 
> (WW) Open ACPI failed (/var/run/acpid.socket) (No such file or directory)
> 
> (EE) module ABI major version (1) doesn't match the server's version (4)
> ...

 

I would be surprised if Xorg had anything to do with my network issue. I do get errors with nm-applet though: *Quote:*   

> $ nm-applet
> 
> ** (nm-applet:20786): WARNING **: <WARN>  hal_net_physdev_cb(): dbus returned an error.
> 
>   (org.freedesktop.Hal.NoSuchProperty) No property net.physical_device on device with id /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/net_00_14_a5_33_9d_5a
> ...

 

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## alienjon

Wow, this is getting interesting.  I agree that Xorg doesn't necessarily have anything direct that would affect network manager, but since HAL gave an error on starting because it was waiting for XDM, I was hoping the two were connected (The Unable to locate/open config file in your Xorg.0.log is still troubling, but you're right, thats another beast)

It seems (from the nm-applet error) that we keep seeing things about HAL.  Did you ever find anything odd in the HAL rules (I think before I had mentioned it in reference to an input device, but maybe there's another issue around as well)

Also, does your dmesg display anything out of the ordinary?

(I'm sorry that I keep suggesting shots in the dark here, but I'm not all that familiar with network-manager nor the innerworkings of HAL   :Confused:  )

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## kahlil88

I think it would be best if I created a new thread with a more specific topic (i.e. Switching to NetworkManager), but here is the output of dmesg | grep wlan:

 *Quote:*   

> [    8.290877] wlan0 (rt61pci): not using net_device_ops yet
> 
> [   46.854495] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
> 
> [   48.350045] wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:06:25:e9:fa:0b
> ...

 

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## m_gustafsson

 *Quote:*   

> (EE) Unable to locate/open config file
> 
> (WW) Open ACPI failed (/var/run/acpid.socket) (No such file or directory)
> 
> (EE) module ABI major version (1) doesn't match the server's version (4)
> ...

 

Even though I don't think that it has anything to do with the wireless problem of yours, I think that you can remove "Vesa" from your xorg.conf and just specify the correct driver in /etc/make.conf in the constant VIDEO_CARDS. As far as I understand it you should also re-emerge your video driver after upgrading xorg-server.

After upgrading xorg-server to 1.5 I only specify the "Monitor" and "Screen" sections in xorg.conf for computers that need a "special" screen resolution, on other machines I have removed xorg.conf.

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## kahlil88

 *m_gustafsson wrote:*   

> Even though I don't think that it has anything to do with the wireless problem of yours, I think that you can remove "Vesa" from your xorg.conf and just specify the correct driver in /etc/make.conf in the constant VIDEO_CARDS. As far as I understand it you should also re-emerge your video driver after upgrading xorg-server.
> 
> After upgrading xorg-server to 1.5 I only specify the "Monitor" and "Screen" sections in xorg.conf for computers that need a "special" screen resolution, on other machines I have removed xorg.conf.

 Right now I don't have an xorg.conf - I followed an Xorg 1.5 upgrade guide that recommended removing it because Xorg is supposedly really good at auto-detecting hardware now, but I will create a new one with "Monitor" and "Screen" sections as you suggested. My /etc/make.conf already has VIDEO_CARDS="radeonhd radeon" - I specified both because I'm not sure which is better (I hope this doesn't create any problems).

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## m_gustafsson

Strange that your log complains about "vesa". Have you rebuilt the driver?

I don't think that you need to set up a new xorg.conf with "monitor" and "screen" sections. I only need it for my external monitor with my laptop.

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