# Looking for a  WiFi driver...

## SxN

Hi All,

Just bought an Airlink WiFi CardBus and am trying to make it work. An lspci gives me:

Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88w8335 [Libertas] 802.11b/g Wireless (rev 03)

After browsing the net, I found that there should be drivers available for Linux, as I found that OpenBSD has the malo driver inspired from a Linux driver.

But, basically,, that's all I've got.

Can anyone point me to the the appropriate driver for Gentoo?

Thanks,

SxN

----------

## John R. Graham

It's not one of the natively-supported chipsets.  You need to use ndiswrapper and the Windows drivers.   :Sad: 

- John

----------

## didymos

Well, the 2.6.22 kernel has a driver for that chipset in it.

----------

## John R. Graham

Cool.  Good to know.

- John

----------

## SxN

Thanks for the tip. I guess I'll have to upgrade as I'm now on 2.6.18

SxN

----------

## SxN

Hi again,

I upgraded to 2.6.22(-suspend2, for my laptop), and enabled the Marvel driver as a built-in.

Now what?

Thanks again and sorry to be a bother,

SxN

----------

## didymos

Here's the net section of the handbook: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=4

Also take a look at /etc/conf.d/net.example and /etc/conf.d/wireless.example.  Despite there being a separate wireless.example file, all configuration should go into /etc/conf.d/net.

----------

## SxN

didymos,

Would you mind to post your /etc/conf.d/net? Or, at least, the relevant part of it? Or, aternatively, to send it to sxn02@yahoo.com?

Thanks one more time,

SxN

----------

## didymos

It won't really help you.  I'm using a totally different wifi chipset (atheros w/madwifi drivers), plus my machine is actually the access point, with hostapd, and I'm bridging the wifi and ethernet devices.

----------

## SxN

This is what I put in my /etc/conf.d/net:

```
config_eth0=( "dhcp" )

modules=( "iwconfig" )

key_ESSID1="[1] s:yourkeyhere key [1] enc open"

key_ESSID2="[1] aaaa-bbbb-cccc-dd key [1] enc restricted"

preferred_aps=( "ESSID1" "ESSID2" )

config_wlan0=( "dhcp" )

```

Does it make any sens?

Thanks,

SxN

----------

## didymos

Well, ESSID1 and ESSID2 are just generic examples.  You need to have the actual ESSID of the AP you want to connect to.  Also, that method may not work if the AP uses WPA/WPA2 encryption instead of WEP. Plus, every chipset seems to have it's own methods of configuration, and I don't know how the Marvell driver does this.  I'm guessing it just uses wireless-tools, but I can't say for sure.  In any case, what you have now isn't going to connect to anything, unless someone in range happens to be running an access point called ESSID1 or ESSID2, and then it won't associate because the keys aren't correct/the right kind/used at all.

----------

## BeteNoire

Does the new in-kernel driver works for you?

I'm not able to make Internet connection with my card

```
02:04.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88w8335 [Libertas] 802.11b/g Wireless (rev 43)
```

thou I've enabled it in kernel.

----------

## didymos

Well, how is your networking configured?

----------

## BeteNoire

Here is the kernel config

----------

## didymos

No, I don't mean the kernel networking stuff, although it won't hurt.  I meant: how are your connections configured?  Interfaces, DHCP, that sort of thing.

----------

## BeteNoire

I do not see any interface using this driver, that's why posted kernel config.

----------

## didymos

Well, you built the driver in, but most of the wireless subsystem stuff is modules.  Check lsmod to see what's loading at boot, and also dmesg for anything about the adapter.

----------

## BeteNoire

I've tried to load all my modules, I've even had compiled Marvell Libertas USB support, and loaded its module, nothing helped, still no interface (using iwconfig and ifconfig).

```
modprobe libertas 

modprobe usb8xxx

# dmesg|tail

ieee80211_crypt: unregistered algorithm 'NULL'

ieee80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'NULL'

ieee80211: 802.11 data/management/control stack, git-1.1.13

ieee80211: Copyright (C) 2004-2005 Intel Corporation <jketreno@linux.intel.com>

usbcore: registered new interface driver usb8xxx

# iwconfig

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.
```

eth0 is a realtek wired adapter built in my laptop.

----------

