# 802.11b configuration how to

## xcable

I have searched through the forums here and searched the net and have not found a good how-to on configuration of a simple 802.11b nic on a laptop.

I have Intersil Prism2 driver running on my pcmcia d-link dwl-650 card, the card is up a running (blinking green light, solid green means a connection).

Has anyone got a good how-to on configuration?

thanks for any help

cable  :Very Happy: 

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## mcgowan

i don't have a how-to, but i feel your pain - i've been going round in circles for days.  part of the problem seems to be that there are so many choices for drivers.  the best advice i saw was to use the hostap drivers, in this thread: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=22221&highlight=hostap

for my dell latitude and a linksys wpc11-3 card this is what worked for me:

1) install pcmcia, wireless (non ham radio) into kernel, don't worry about picking a prism pcmcia driver here.  compile and install new kernel.

2) emerge pcmcia-cs (it detects that pcmcia support is in the kernel and does not make new drivers, but you need cardmgr)

3) emerge wireless-tools (you need iwconfig for hostap)

4) get the hostap package from http://hostap.epitest.fi/, make pccard, make install_pccard

(i'm a gentoo n00b, so these next steps may be ugly)

5) cd /etc/init.d/ ; cp net.eth0 net.wlan0

6) edit net.wlan0 and insert 

        iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed

        iwconfig wlan0 essid trinity

        iwconfig wlan0 key DEADBEEF00 (use your actual WEP key, of course)

after the "bringing $IFACE up" message.

7) edit /etc/conf.d/net and add

        iface_wlan0="dhcp"

8) reboot and cross fingers!

i have no idea how specific this is to my setup - hopefully it will help and not hurt your efforts.  good luck!

ian

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## ee99ee2

Did just like you said for my Prisim2 based card. Didn't work...

```
[/etc/init.d]# /etc/init.d/net.wlan0 start

 * Bringing wlan0 up...

Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :

    SET failed on device wlan0 ; No such device.

Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1A) :

    SET failed on device wlan0 ; No such device.

Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :

    SET failed on device wlan0 ; No such device.

 * Failed to bring wlan0 up                                               [ !! ]
```

What did I do wrong?

-ee99ee2

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## mcgowan

does pcmcia work?  do you see anything at boot?  need to narrow things down - is it a hardware/driver issue or configuration/wep?

if you do "ps ax | grep cardmgr" you can see where cardmgr writes the state of currently loaded cards.  i get:

guppy / # ps ax | grep cardmgr

 1042 ?        S      0:00 /sbin/cardmgr -s /var/run/stab -f

and then

guppy / # cat /var/run/stab

Socket 0: Linksys WPC11 Ver 3 11Mbps WLAN Card

0	network	hostap_cs	0	wlan0

Socket 1: empty

can you see your card loaded?

are there any error messages reported with dmesg?

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## BlackBart

try setting options in /etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts

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## HippieJoe

did you ever figure out your problem...i have followed the steps and am stuck in the same "failed to start" errors as you described above.  thanks take care.

hippiejoe

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## SPW

Check out the following Howto: http://ruslug.rutgers.edu/~mcgrof/802.11g/Documentation/

I finally got my WLAN NIC (an SMC2835W based on 802.11g) working with this. Maybe it will help someone else too.

I have disabled PCMCIA in the kernel config.

```
emerge pcmcia-cs

rc-update add pcmcia boot
```

KWifiManager is a useful tool for getting a connection with a wireless access point. Try it out. It's very intuitive

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## mpool

I got my WPC11 version 3 working by following the instructions posted by ian. The only thing I did which isn't mentioned is made certain that pcmcia was in my USE variable list in /etc/make.conf.

Thanks for the help!

Madeline

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## mpool

Hi! I posted earlier about getting my setup working using the above instructions. However, I connect to two different wireless networks so I modified my net.wlan0 file to detect where I am. Here is the code in case it is of any use to anyone else:

```

[...]

        ebegin "Bringing ${IFACE} up"

        iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed

        iwconfig wlan0 essid any

# give card time to retrieve ESSID 

        sleep 1

        wirelessnet=`iwconfig wlan0 | grep ESSID | awk -F \" '{print $2}'`

        if [ "$wirelessnet" == "your_first_ESSID" ]

        then

                iwconfig wlan0 key your_first_WEP_key

        else

                if [ "$wirelessnet" == "your_second_ESSID" ]

                then

                        iwconfig wlan0 key your_second_WEP_key

                else

                        retval=-1

                        eend -1 "Failed to find wireless network"

                        return -1

                fi

        fi

[...]

```

Madeline

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