# Wireless config... [solved]

## Zzormpas

Ok, I'm stumped. I've been all over the place looking at wireless install howtos, wikis, forum posts, etc. and am stuck.

Output from iwconfig:

```

eth1      IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:""  Nickname:"Prism  I"

          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Bit Rate:11 Mb/s   

          Sensitivity:1/3  

          Retry short limit:8   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off

          Encryption key:off

          Power Management:off

          Link Quality=0/92  Signal level=-68 dBm  Noise level=-122 dBm

          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0

          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

```

eth0 is removed at this point. There should be PLENTY of signal strength as I'm about 10 feet away from an airport extreme - and a *cough*XP*cough* box works fine.

Can someone give me a CLUE as to what I need to do next. It took me 2 weeks to get this far!

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## Cryptix

have you set up either wpa_supplicant or wireless-tools to manage your access on wireless?

wpa_supplicant is currently pretty popular, as it supports WPA as well as WEP. also if you have a static address you will need to configure that in /etc/conf.d/net

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## Zzormpas

Wireless tools is installed, and I can use DHCP....

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## jexxie

Are you able to use the network connection to access the 'net, resolve domain names, etc?

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## Zzormpas

No. I should have said in the above post "I *want* to use DHCP"!

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## Cryptix

post your /etc/conf.d/net

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## Zzormpas

Sorry this took so long, it probably reveals my TOTAL cluelessness:

```

Code deleted, see subsequent post below!

```

Essentially the "stock" net file, with the 'wireless.example' appended to it, with some attempt at configuration by yours truely.

Additional information: I have one of those MODEM/Ethernet combo PCMCIA cards that works fine, I have to unplug it and install the wireless card - which doesn't work.

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## swimmer

Sigh - a stripped version what have been nicer to read :-/

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## thecooptoo

instead of posting the conf.d/net file as you have , post the output of 

#grep   ^[A-Za-z] /etc/conf.d/net

ie the lines that start with a letter

if you have spaces as well then its 

#grep   ^[A-Za-z\ ] /etc/conf.d/net

(much easier to read )

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## FcukThisGame

or the confcat script, which is really useful to have: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=160179

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## Zzormpas

Ok - thanx to all for the help for the clueless noob. You're right, a LOT easier to read! Here it is!

```
config_ESSID=( "dhcp" )

dhcpcd_ESSID="-t 5"

dhcp_eth0="release"

essid_eth1="any"

mode_eth1="auto"

adhoc_essid_eth1="WLAN"

channel_eth1="3"

iwconfig_eth1=""

iwpriv_eth1=""

iwpriv_ESSID=(

sleep_scan_eth1="1"

associate_timeout_eth1="5"

```

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## albright

pardon me if you've tried this suggestion already, but

my advice is to forget about /etc/conf.d/net and try

to make the wireless network work via manual configuration.

Which is easy, first the command

```
iwconfig eth1 essid "your essid" key s:your_key
```

After that try iwconfig to see if you have a signal; if you

do try

```
dhcpcd eth1
```

and see if you get an address

As I said above, if you know all this and are just worrying

about conf.d setup, my apologies.

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## Zzormpas

This is one of the things that has been confusing me from day one. I know my essid, but I haven't a clue about the value of "my_key". How do I find out?

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## FcukThisGame

my_key is just your wireless network password. If you don't know it, you're either

A.) trying to bum off your parents' or somebody else's wireless network

B.) you got it used

C.) you've got a weird router

what kind of router do you have?

Chances are you need to just log into your router (most likely 192.168.1.1 with username admin and password admin)

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## Zzormpas

Ok, no signal found with iwconfig. I know there's one present from the airport extreme that is about 10 feet away, plus it "used to work" on this same laptop with the same wireless card with an old installation of RH 9.

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## ocean

I am trying to connect to my router as well, I had disabled the security but it just wouldn't work for some reason, I'm pretty sure that I have my wireless card driver installed, what should I do?  Thanks.

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## albright

long ago, you said that an XP box worked; so if you can,

go into the devil's playground and check the wireless

configuration. It should tell you the essid and the key

(on second thought, will it show the key??).

You could also emerge kwifimanager and see if it

can scan the area for wireless networks?

Probably, you are not far from getting this working ...

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## wxqc11h

Sorry for of topic but my question is too short to start a new topic and its related in some way.

How to force iwconfig to change radio off to on status ??

At the moment im using kwifimanager to switch it bt its sick!  :Smile: )

cheers!

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## albright

 *Quote:*   

> How to force iwconfig to change radio off to on status ?? 

 

the iwconfig man page says

```
iwconfig ethX power on
```

does that not work?

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## wxqc11h

Oh holly man!  :Smile: 

it doesnt work

```
kuba-lap syfon # iwconfig eth1 power on

Error for wireless request "Set Power Management" (8B2C) :

    SET failed on device eth1 ; Connection timed out.

```

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## albright

oops, I think that command only turns power

*management* off or on   :Embarassed: 

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## Zzormpas

Ok, getting LOTS closer. The kwifimanager has now allowed me to find the wifi network, and the network card is now "attached" to the network. Unfortunately, I cannot ping anything, or otherwise access the net - I'm so close I can feel it, it must be something simple. I checked with our IS dept to confirm that our wifi network isn't encrypted - it isn't.

What am I still missing? Output of iwconfig now is:

```

eth1      IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:"XXXXX WiFi"  Nickname:"Prism  I"

          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.457 GHz  Access Point: 00:11:24:27:F3:24   

          Bit Rate:11 Mb/s   Sensitivity:1/3  

          Retry short limit:8   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off

          Encryption key:off

          Power Management:off

          Link Quality=68/92  Signal level=-28 dBm  Noise level=-143 dBm

          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0

          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

```

I suspect the system's still looking for a network connection at the unplugged eth0, but dunno how to "switch" over....

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## thecooptoo

whats the output of 

ifconfig ( ie show active cards) compared to ifconfig -a ( show all cards) 

and route

ie show the routing table

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## albright

often enough, I have to run

```
dhcpcd ethX
```

after kwifimanager connects ...

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## Zzormpas

Ok, ifconfig seems to be pretty happy with the wireless card installed - although it shows nothing is being transmitted:

```
eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:02:6F:37:4D:CC  

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:75 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 

          RX bytes:13994 (13.6 Kb)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

          Interrupt:3 Base address:0x100 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  

          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 

          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

```

route is quite unhappy:

```

Kernel IP routing table

Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface

loopback        *               255.0.0.0       U     0      0        0 lo

```

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## Zzormpas

 *albright wrote:*   

> often enough, I have to run
> 
> ```
> dhcpcd ethX
> ```
> ...

 

This WORKS!!!

Oh happy day!

Ok, now the two followup questions:

1) Is it possible to have kwifimanager connect automatically when the wifi card is installed? I have the tick box checked for "load on startup" in kwifimanager - but still need to go in and manually click "activate".

2) Is there a way to automate startup of "dhcpd eth1"? either with or without automation of the above item #1?

And a third: I'm now off to get VPN (client) working - any quick tips?

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## albright

If you know the essid and key (if any) of the access point you 

can set up /etc/conf.d/net to connect automatically (now  that

you know wireless works).

Here is the relevant section of my net:

```

# wireless section

mode_eth1="auto"

modules=( "iwconfig" )

essid_eth1=( "myessid" )

config_eth1=( "dhcp" )

```

Of course, replace "myessid" with your essid ...

Add the key if you need one (I don't) as set out

in /etc/conf.d/wireless.example.

I don't know if you can get kwifimanager to issue the dhcpcd command

when it connects ...

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## Zzormpas

Actually, it turns out that I don't need to connect with kwifimanager - if I issue the dhcpcd command, it will connect. So I put 'dhcpcd eth1' in /etc/conf.d/local.start and it works great. Of course it barfs behind the scenes if I'm not using wireless, but I don't think I care.

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