# Almost got this wireless pcmcia thing down

## scum

Man, if it weren't for some scattered posts on these boards I'd be really frustrated right now.  Anyways, here's the story:

Basically, did what was stated in this post.  Edited /etc/wlan/wlan.conf, wlancfg-random (my ESSID) and /etc/pcmcia/network.opts with my relevant info.  My Linksys WPC11 is on, can ping the gateway but won't resolve hostnames.  /etc/resolv.conf has my correct nameservers as does /etc/pcmcia/network.opts.  ifconfig shows wlan0 as up and running.  

Now, I did NOT compile the kernel with Wireless Lan (non-hamradio) support so there are no wireless extensions.  Do I need to go back, recompile wireless lan into the kernel, recompile linux-wlan, re-emerge pcmcia-cs just so I can resolve hostnames? Accord. to Jean Tourrilhes, wireless extensions should be compiled in the kernel.  Should the card work at all without these?  

 I haven't touched /etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts yet as iwconfig won't work w/o the wireless extensions.

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## scum

Well, I figured it out.  Forgot something very simple.

route add -net default gw **** netmask **** metric 1

Works great now (no switching cat 5 back and forth).  But I'm still curious about no wireless extensions and the wireless tools.  Anyone know what the lack of these will do?  I guess I'll recompile and re-emerge everything later but it's no longer a priority.

Thanks for being there.   :Very Happy: 

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## krt

[quote] But I'm still curious about no wireless extensions and the wireless tools. Anyone know what the lack of these will do? I guess I'll recompile and re-emerge everything later but it's no longer a priority.

 [/quote]

For starters, if you're using a prism2 based card, I highly suggest grabbing the hostap driver (its awesome for clients too!).  Its not in portage yet, but works nicely!

you can find hostap here:

http://hostap.epitest.fi/

as for wireless tools and extensions, a lot of "Extra" programs, such as wavemon, require them.  Not having wavemon with wireless is a shame!

unlike hostap, wavemon -is- in portage.  Check it out!

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## bps7j

I am using a Cisco Aironet 350 series and also want a standard 3com to work without any contortions. I was able to get the aironet to work for me during installation but then had trouble getting it to be recognized after reboot into my new system. I hope this helps someone: 

The cisco and the 3com cards are *both* supported by pcmcia-cs and you don't need to bother with wlan or anything; and also, they will show up as eth* not wlan* which is nice. But note that when you emerge pcmcia-cs, *it checks your kernel config* to tell how it should be built (I assume -- why else would it do that?). Thus you must have your kernel properly configured before you emerge pcmcia-cs. 

When you DO emerge pcmcia-cs, note the output says some things about how to properly configure your kernel! This usually scrolls right by and you miss it, so try running

```
emerge pcmcia-cs | tee > someFileYouWantToReadLater
```

and then you can look at the output later. Basically it says

 *Quote:*   

> PCMCIA/CardBus support under General Setup is off and Wireless LAN (non-ham radio) is on but no modules or drivers turned on under Network Device Support if you have wireless

 

This worked for me, post a reply if you want more details or send mail to me at yahoo.

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## bps7j

http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/ftp/SUPPORTED.CARDS

for a list of cards that are supported by pcmcia-cs

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