# Wireless Lan without pcmcia-cs?

## silex

Does anybody get the Wireless lan PC card to work without pcmcia-cs? Since there's already support for PCMCIA and Wireless LAN in the Kernel, what's the good using pcmcia-cs?

I have a Orinoco silver card by Lucent, but I cannot get it to work, neither by the kernel driver nor pcmcia-cs. The card works fine in windows.

And a question about the post that seems to work for other people. 

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=26716

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> Since we're using pcmcia-cs, we don't need the kernel's specific pcmcia modules, so make sure they're deselected:
> 
> Code:
> ...

 

and

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> Code:
> 
> # /etc/modules.autoload:  kernel modules to load when system boots.
> ...

 

I think the author means to load the i82365 and ds modules. But i82365 is in the sub-level of PCMCIA/CardBus support in the kernel configuration, so if I deselect PCMCIA, I can no longer select i82365 as a module. So of course it will not be found on boot. (and I don't know where "ds" is, it cannot be found too. )

Could anyone help me? Thanks a lot!!

----------

## delta407

Build PCMCIA support as a module (producing pcmcia_core.o and ds.o) as well as the required host bridge. Then, build support for your wireless card as a module as well (be sure to get orinoco_cs.o), update your configuration, and you'll be set.

----------

## silex

 *delta407 wrote:*   

> Build PCMCIA support as a module (producing pcmcia_core.o and ds.o) as well as the required host bridge. Then, build support for your wireless card as a module as well (be sure to get orinoco_cs.o), update your configuration, and you'll be set.

 

Thanks, I've did this now .....  But I would be grateful if you could give some more detailed instructions on configuration. I did this:

```
/etc/init.d/pcmcia start

modprobe orinoco
```

But when I plug in the card. The light on it does not even flash.

Sorry this question may be very elementary.

----------

## oniq

Do you hear any beeps?  Two high pitched beeps means that your card works and a driver was recognized.  Check out your dmesg after you put it in..

----------

## silex

I cannot here any beep, and found this in dmesg:

 *Quote:*   

> unloading Kernel Card Services
> 
> Linux Kernel Card Services 3.1.22
> 
>   options:  [pci] [cardbus] [pm]
> ...

 

Though I'm sure I built pcmcia support, it still cannot start:

 *Quote:*   

> azure root # /etc/init.d/pcmcia start
> 
> /lib/modules/2.4.20/kernel/drivers/pcmcia/ds.o: init_module: Operation not permitted
> 
> Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters.
> ...

 

----------

## oniq

Just compile the PCMCIA into the kernel, if you don't want to do that make sure you did make modules modules_install, and that you have loaded the pcmcia module before running cardmgr.

----------

## silex

A strange thing. I tried this card in Mandrake. 

Mandrake automatically selected wvlan_cs.o, instead of orinoco_cs.o. Is that what I should use? But in the kernel configuration, it was said that wvlan_cs.o was not for 802.11b PC Card.  8  :Confused: 

----------

## humpback

I have a orinoco gold card.

To get it to work i had to remove pcmcia support in kernel, and activate wireless network support but i did not select any driver.

I then just emerged pcmcia-cs .

After that i did

insmod pcmcia_core

insmod i82365 (the pcmcia hardware controller)

insmod ds

And then i start cardmgr:

/etc/init.d/pcmcia start

The modules for your pcmcia card have to be loaded by cardmgr and will not work if loaded by hand (dont know why it just is).

I had alot of problems with the card and after some time i found that the problem was with a file in /etc/pcmcia , so i just did:

cd /etc/pcmcia

mkdir old

mv * old

emerge pcmcia-cs

One of the files in this directory has the "signatures" so that cardmgr knows what modules to load for a particular card. 

Also know my system gives two diferente beeps when i insert the card. This means that it did not recognize the card, but it works ok, just do a ifconfig -a after inserting the card to see if it is there.

----------

## rlyacht

silex, I think you will find the following thread useful:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=26716

It is admittedly kind of confusing that the preferred method of doing this involves compiling a kernel without wireless support.  I have used orinico cards with no trouble using this setup.  pcmcia-cs will give you the orinoco drivers as well as the card manager daemon.  You may also want to emerge wireless-tools.

Hope this helps ...

----------

## silex

Thanks for all your kind help.

I get it working now. I emerged pcmcia-cs. But after each boot I have to manually type:

```
cardmgr -f

iwconfig eth1 essid 'some id'

dhcpcd eth1
```

But it seems other people do not have to do this. Anyway I'm quite comfortable with these few commands as long as it works.

Thanks a lot.

----------

## rlyacht

Did you add pcmcia to your default runlevel like so (as root):

```

rc-update add pcmcia default

```

This will cause the execution of the command /etc/init.d/pcmcia start at startup; it will start cardmgr.

Also, edit /etc/conf.d/net to do what you want. In your case, I think that everthing would be commented out, except for this line:

```

iface_eth1=dhcp

```

----------

## silex

 *rlyacht wrote:*   

> Did you add pcmcia to your default runlevel like so (as root):
> 
> ```
> 
> rc-update add pcmcia default
> ...

 

Thanks  :Very Happy: . Yes I didn't add pcmcia to my default runlevel. Do you know how to specify the SSID automatically too?

----------

## silex

 *rlyacht wrote:*   

> Did you add pcmcia to your default runlevel like so (as root):
> 
> ```
> 
> rc-update add pcmcia default
> ...

 

Thanks  :Very Happy: . Yes I didn't add pcmcia to my default runlevel. Do you know how to specify the SSID automatically too?

----------

## rlyacht

I'm not at home so I can't check, but I think that the ssid is in /etc/conf.d/wireless.opts (it might be /etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts).  It's also possible that it defaults to "ANY" meaning that it will hook up to any ssid it finds.

----------

