# Questions before installing wireless

## pottzie

A few questions before I go about getting wireless working with Gentoo.  I've used both Network Manager and WICD in different distros. Any suggestions about one over the other-or can I install both and chose between them?

 The next question is more about how Gentoo works. I generally start  with a generic "G" type, usb wireless receiver that's recognized by the kernel, and works well without having to do anything...in standard distros. In Gentoo I had to specify what wireless drivers were to be included in the kernel (if I understood things from the kernel configuration).  So I'm a little "fuzzy" with the details with that.

  THEN, just to add to the problem, I LIKE to go with an "N" type receiver (faster), but so far, none that I have tried work with a standard kernel, so I have to use ndiswrapper to get them going.  Without fail, every time I get an "N" receiver working, I upgrade the kernel, it kills the "N" type, and I can't get it to work with the new kernel, no matter what I do.  

 If you're still with me after all that, I read that kernel 2.6.38 is going to have a bunch of new drivers, and MIGHT work right out of the box with some "N" devices-so I'm hoping that I won't have to use ndiswrapper to get wireless working.

 But what does a standard kernel and Gentoo have in common? And how hard is it to get drivers working that weren't included in the kernel configuration when I installed Gentoo?

----------

## cach0rr0

 *pottzie wrote:*   

> A few questions before I go about getting wireless working with Gentoo.  I've used both Network Manager and WICD in different distros. Any suggestions about one over the other-or can I install both and chose between them?

 

my personal preference is wicd, mainly because it is NOT networkmanager. NetworkManager just seems to try and completely take over your system, monopolize configuration, and do things in a far less-than-transparent manner, so if something breaks, or you want to do something atypical, you're pretty well screwed. You don't really configure networkmanager so much as you hope and pray its automagic works. 

[quote="pottzie"\The next question is more about how Gentoo works. I generally start  with a generic "G" type, usb wireless receiver that's recognized by the kernel, and works well without having to do anything...in standard distros. In Gentoo I had to specify what wireless drivers were to be included in the kernel (if I understood things from the kernel configuration).  So I'm a little "fuzzy" with the details with that.[/quote]

so, the Gentoo kernel is realistically just like any other. There may be a handful of patches in gentoo-sources that are distro-specific, but none that I've seen have been related to network drivers or anything of the sort. For all intents and purposes, none of this is distro-specific. What you DO find in "less manual" distros, is that they are fairly static environments, so a lot of other distros will just "figure out" different wireless cards' little quirks and adjust accordingly FOR you. For example, maybe you have a wireless card that only really works well with ndiswrapper - Ubuntu may already know this, and may automagically conigure ndiswrapper for you - gentoo will not.  But it is not that one distro's kernel supports wireless any better than another's, the kernel is the kernel is the kernel. 

In general, wireless under linux is composed as such:

Kernel Support

-make sure all of the needed wireless interface stuff is selected under Networking Options=>Wireless (cfg80211 and mac80211 for everything but broadcom-sta users and ipw2200/ipw2100 users- the latter will want cfg80211 and lib80211)

-make sure you select the right driver for your card

-(for some cards) add the needed firmware. Most common firmware is available through portage, and can be installed simply via emerge. Other more esoteric cases you might have to manually download and extract firmware from the vendor's site

The above steps, when done correctly, will give you a functioning network interface (normally named wlan0). Next is the "getting it to connect" phase

If you can modprobe the driver, and 'ifconfig wlan0 up' without issue, then the kernel side is fine. 

Connectivity

-association with an AP: can be done from the command line manually, or, can be handled by wpa_supplicant (which some tools will use/call in the background automagically)

-authenticating with an AP: for WEP/WPA/WPA2 networks, you need to authenticate. This too, is handled by wpa_supplicant on the backend. 

-obtaining an IP address: the best dhcp client at the moment is dhcpcd. Once you have associated and authenticated to a wireless Access Point, you can fire off a DHCP request to get an IP, DNS info, and other stuff. 

All of the above will get you connected, associated, authenticated, then give you an IP. They can all be done from the command-line - for example, I just broke my wicd, so I had to run wpa_supplicant in a screen session, and fire off dhcpcd wlan0 by hand in another terminal tab. 

So where does that leave us? In a position of automating both of these tasks. With something like wicd, it will actually call wpa_supplicant and dhcpcd in the background. NetworkManager does this as well, sort of, the ins and outs of how it does this are fairly cryptic. 

 *pottzie wrote:*   

> 
> 
>   THEN, just to add to the problem, I LIKE to go with an "N" type receiver (faster), but so far, none that I have tried work with a standard kernel, so I have to use ndiswrapper to get them going.  Without fail, every time I get an "N" receiver working, I upgrade the kernel, it kills the "N" type, and I can't get it to work with the new kernel, no matter what I do.  
> 
> 

 

Your enjoyment of wireless under Linux depends entirely on the card you choose, what chipset it is, what driver that chipset uses, and how well that driver performs under Linux. If you pick a card that's well-supported (e.g. mature, stable driver), your wireless experience will be great. If you don't, you'll have to jump through considerable hoops. 

 *pottzie wrote:*   

> 
> 
>  If you're still with me after all that, I read that kernel 2.6.38 is going to have a bunch of new drivers, and MIGHT work right out of the box with some "N" devices-so I'm hoping that I won't have to use ndiswrapper to get wireless working.
> 
>  But what does a standard kernel and Gentoo have in common? And how hard is it to get drivers working that weren't included in the kernel configuration when I installed Gentoo?

 

Figure out the drivers in advance, BEFORE you buy a card. Gentoo has any drivers available to it that any other Linux distribution has. We ARE using a standard kernel, for all intents and purposes, even if there are a handful of patches. As far as the wireless goes, no difference. 

If you want a good guide for seeing what drivers work well under Linux, see here: http://www.aircrack-ng.org/doku.php?id=compatibility_drivers

rule of thumb - if aircrack works on a card under linux, that's because the card works well under linux. 

The one exception to that, I disagree with their endorsement of Broadcom cards. I simply can't recommend anyone on LInux *ever* go with a Broadcom card. 

For wireless-N, the Intel drivers and Atheros drivers are very stable. I personally have used both, and both work exceptionally well. The Intel drivers require a separate firmware package be installed, in addition to the kernel module, but this is fairly easy to do. The Atheros cards do not, and should just use the ath9k driver (older wireless-G cards will use ath5k)

if you look at their USB dongle section, there are a number that use the Ralink rt73 driver. I have no personal experience with this, I can't say how well it works, but if you search for 'rt73' on the forums, and thumb through a few threads, you should be able to get an idea. 

Most importantly, we need to make sure that any issues you run into are ones where we on the forums can help, and not issues that are simply the result of limitations on the card, or lack of Linux support for the card, because it really sucks being told "welp, you  just have to wait and hope support gets included or improved in the near future!"

----------

## pottzie

Thanks. Just emerged wicd. Now to find out what it takes to get it working

----------

## cach0rr0

 *pottzie wrote:*   

> Thanks. Just emerged wicd. Now to find out what it takes to get it working

 

make sure your user is added to plugdev and dbus groups

/etc/init.d/wicd start

logout of X, log back in

fire up wicd GUI

then just configure the basics in wicd (e.g. 'what's your wireless interface name?' - probably wlan0, wired probably eth0, done and done) 

default settings should work for everything else.

----------

## pottzie

Just tried "useradd -m -G plugdev dbus" and my username, to check. Bash returns "group plugdev does not exist."  This from going back to the install guide http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-amd64.xml?full=1#book_part1_chap8  and attempting to redo it with udev and plugdev.  When I did useradd during the install, I think I went with everything but floppy and games, but udev isn't shown.  I'd use nano to check, but not sure what file it's in.

 Just to see what happened, I unplugged the Ethernet cable and tried to run ifconfig and iwconfig. I got "no wireless extensions," (before logging out of X) and when I plugged the ethernet cable back in so I could Google answers, the Ethernet wasn't recognized- I had to "ifconfig" again (all this as "root") to get it working. So do I need to verify that dbus and plugdev are listed, and how do I do that?

----------

## pottzie

Where I'm at:

 "make sure your user is added to plugdev and dbus groups."- sorta tried, vague on the process.

" /etc/init.d/wicd start"- Looks good from here, bash had no problem.

"logout of X, log back in "- best I came up with from Google was Ctrl^Alt^Backspace. That didn't work, so I rebooted.

"fire up wicd GUI"- no luck getting the gui up yet.

----------

## cach0rr0

 *pottzie wrote:*   

> iwconfig. I got "no wireless extensions," (before logging out of X) and when I plugged the ethernet cable back in so I could Google answers, the Ethernet wasn't recognized- I had to "ifconfig" again (all this as "root") to get it working. So do I need to verify that dbus and plugdev are listed, and how do I do that?

 

ignore the plugdev deal, shouldn't be an issue (i think that may be an old memory of mine from the HAL days?)

as far as iwconfig goes

iwconfig == old hat, expects the old wireless extensions to be there

iw == new and shiny, works with nl80211

```

emerge net-wireless/iw

```

then, for example

```

iw dev wlan0 scan

```

should show you the available networks. Note that wicd will do all of this for you on the backend, if you tell it to use the NL80211 interface

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> "make sure your user is added to plugdev and dbus groups."- sorta tried, vague on the process. 
> 
> 

 

```

gpasswd -a dbus <youruser>

```

If you don't have the plugdev group, don't worry about it. Like I said, I thought that was required, may not be. 

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> logout of X, log back in "- best I came up with from Google was Ctrl^Alt^Backspace. That didn't work, so I rebooted. 
> 
> 

 

There should be an option to logout graphically, no strange keystrokes required. On KDE you just click the "K" menu thingy (like a start menu), look for an option that says "Leave", then "Log Out"

CTRL+ALT+Backspace is disabled in newer Xorg for some reason, BUT, you can always use ALT+SysRq+K (sysrq is normally on the same key as printscreen)

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> "fire up wicd GUI"- no luck getting the gui up yet.
> 
> 

 

Does it throw an error? Is it not visible/selectable when you fire up whatever you normally use to run an app? Again, on KDE, it's just the "K" start menu thingy. 

If you click it but it doesn't run, I'd imagine it's hitting an error somewhere. Easiest way to find out where? Run it from a terminal (I forget its name - i think it may just be 'wicd-gui', but if you type 'wicd' and hit Tab twice, it should show you available options)

----------

## pottzie

Sorry about the late reply, I've been busy. The "emerge net-wireless/iw" went OK.  "iw dev wlan0 scan" returned "No such device."  "gpasswd -a dbus <me>  came back "dbus. No such animal" (I'm stretching a bit, this is after logging out and back in. That, at least, worked OK.)

 And I still can't get wicd to show up. It gave me something about "wicd-curses," and when I ran it I got:"dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.wicd.daemon was not provided by any .service files" 

  I gave "whereis wicd" just to see what happens:"wicd: /usr/sbin/wicd /etc/wicd /usr/share/wicd /usr/share/man/man8/wicd.8.bz2"

 Just doing "wicd" shows command not found.

 Just retried to see what it shows:" # iw dev wlan0 scan 

command failed: No such device (-19)"- This with both the wireless and ethernet cable plugged in.

 According to this, "wicd-curses" should work. http://wicd.sourceforge.net/features.php   Maybe a GTK thing, and I may have "-gtk"  set as a use flag.

----------

## cach0rr0

```

mkdir -p /etc/portage/package.use/

echo "net-misc/wicd X gtk dbus" >> /etc/portage/package.use/wicd

emerge wicd

/etc/init.d/dbus start

```

i went into the other room and looked, the program is called wicd-gtk

however, if you're getting "no such device" when doing 'iw dev wlan0 scan', i would like you to 

```

cat /proc/net/dev

```

and post what it shows. 

so that we can be sure you have the drivers you need, i would also like for you to post this 

```

lspci -n

lsusb

```

lspci is part of pciutils

lsusb is part of usbutils

if either says "command not found" or anything of the sort, just emerge whichever of the two aforementioned packages are missing

If  you DO have the driver, you should be able to modprobe drivername and the device should show up in /proc/net/dev

If it doesn't, either a)you're missing the driver, or b)you have the driver, but your card requires a separate firmware package (usually this doesn't stop it from loading entirely, and just makes it barf when you try to bring the interface up)

Either way, if we know what driver(s) you need, we're in a really good position to help.

----------

## pottzie

Had some hiccups:

  ocalhost pottzie # mkdir -p /etc/portage/package.use/ 

mkdir: cannot create directory `/etc/portage/package.use/': File exists

localhost pottzie # echo "net-misc/wicd X gtk dbus" >> /etc/portage/package.use/wicd 

bash: /etc/portage/package.use/wicd: Not a directory

 But wicd went OK. Next:

cat /proc/net/dev 

Inter-|   Receive                                                |  Transmit

 face |bytes    packets errs drop fifo frame compressed multicast|bytes    packets errs drop fifo colls carrier compressed

    lo:    1200      24    0    0    0     0          0         0     1200      24    0    0    0     0       0          0

  sit0:       0       0    0    0    0     0          0         0        0       0    0    0    0     0       0          0

  eth0: 6684808   11983    0    0    0     0          0         0  1779161   11941    0    0    0     0       0          0

 And:

 lspci -n 

00:00.0 0600: 10de:00e1 (rev a1)

00:01.0 0601: 10de:00e0 (rev a2)

00:01.1 0c05: 10de:00e4 (rev a1)

00:02.0 0c03: 10de:00e7 (rev a1)

00:02.1 0c03: 10de:00e7 (rev a1)

00:02.2 0c03: 10de:00e8 (rev a2)

00:05.0 0680: 10de:00df (rev a2)

00:06.0 0401: 10de:00ea (rev a1)

00:08.0 0101: 10de:00e5 (rev a2)

00:09.0 0101: 10de:00ee (rev a2)

00:0a.0 0101: 10de:00e3 (rev a2)

00:0b.0 0604: 10de:00e2 (rev a2)

00:0e.0 0604: 10de:00ed (rev a2)

00:18.0 0600: 1022:1100

00:18.1 0600: 1022:1101

00:18.2 0600: 1022:1102

00:18.3 0600: 1022:1103

01:00.0 0300: 10de:00f2 (rev a2)

 lsusb 

Bus 001 Device 007: ID 050d:7050 Belkin Components F5D7050 ver 1000 WiFi

Bus 001 Device 006: ID 058f:6366 Alcor Micro Corp. 

Bus 001 Device 004: ID 1a40:0101 TERMINUS TECHNOLOGY INC. 

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

 The Belkin is what I have for wireless.   Should i just "modprobe Belkin"?  Don't sound right to me.

----------

## cach0rr0

 *pottzie wrote:*   

> Had some hiccups:
> 
>   ocalhost pottzie # mkdir -p /etc/portage/package.use/ 
> 
> mkdir: cannot create directory `/etc/portage/package.use/': File exists
> ...

 

ah right. so, you have a package.use *file* (which is ok), instead of a package.use *directory*

in such a case 

```

echo "net-misc/wicd X gtk dbus" >> /etc/portage/package.use

emerge wicd

```

However that alone will do nothing except give us wicd-gtk, which will be pointless since the card isn't even showing up (we need to get the driver sorted before the card will show up - see below)

 *pottzie wrote:*   

> 
> 
> cat /proc/net/dev 
> 
> Inter-|   Receive                                                |  Transmit
> ...

 

ok. This shows the driver is either not present, or it hasn't been loaded yet. 

lo == loopback

sit0 == for funneling ipv6 within ipv4

eth0 == your wired interface 

If the driver was loaded, we would expect to see another entry there, normally named wlan0

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> 00:00.0 0600: 10de:00e1 (rev a1)
> 
> 00:01.0 0601: 10de:00e0 (rev a2)
> ...

 

This does not show any wireless devices attached to the PCI bus. But, as I see below, you have a USB wireless dongle:

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> Bus 001 Device 007: ID 050d:7050 Belkin Components F5D7050 ver 1000 WiFi
> 
> 

 

I did a quick grep through the kernel sources at /usr/src/linux/drivers/net/wireless

```

grep -r 0x7050 *

```

and see a few contenders

```

p54/p54usb.c:   {USB_DEVICE(0x050d, 0x7050)},   /* Belkin F5D7050 ver 1000 */

rt2x00/rt73usb.c:       { USB_DEVICE(0x050d, 0x7050), USB_DEVICE_DATA(&rt73usb_ops) },

rt2x00/rt2500usb.c:     { USB_DEVICE(0x050d, 0x7050), USB_DEVICE_DATA(&rt2500usb_ops) },

```

From looking over at the Ubuntu wiki, it looks like the rt2500usb is correct for your revice

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HardwareSupportComponentsWirelessNetworkCardsBelkin#USB

I do see in my grep output that it mentions the p54usb module, and that *does* appear to match, but we'll ignore that for the time being. If things still don't work with rt2500usb, we will try prism54usb

 *Quote:*   

> The Belkin is what I have for wireless.   Should i just "modprobe Belkin"?  Don't sound right to me.

 

when you modprobe,  you are doing a modprobe of the *driver name*

So first, let's make sure you have the driver. 

```

modprobe rt2500usb

```

If that throws an error, or says the module isn't found, we need to go in and enable it. 

If it doesn't? Well then, we're in luck! You should be able to see the card under /proc/net/dev now (just cat it)

If you already have the driver, skip the pieces below. 

===========================================

Since we've identified the driver, let's make sure you have your kernel setup correctly

first

```

grep MAC80211 /usr/src/linux/.config

grep CFG80211 /usr/src/linux/.config

```

both of those should either =y or =m (I prefer =m)

Now, for the driver itself, within make menuconfig (cd /usr/src/linux && make menuconfig, or, if you use genkernel, do genkernel --menuconfig all) go to Device Drivers=>Network device support=>Wireless LAN and enable Wireless Lan (hit spacebar) if it is not already enabled. Then underneath Wireless LAN, look for something that says Ralink driver support, and make sure that  is selected. Once that's selected, drill down into *that*, and make sure you select Ralink rt2500 (USB) support. Again, I prefer doing all of these as modules (<m>) and not built-in (<*>) so that you can modprobe, rmmod, etc. 

```

Symbol: RT2500USB [=m]

  │ Type  : tristate

  │ Prompt: Ralink rt2500 (USB) support

  │   Defined at drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/Kconfig:112

  │   Depends on: NETDEVICES [=y] && WLAN [=y] && RT2X00 [=m] && USB [=y]

  │   Location:

  │     -> Device Drivers

  │       -> Network device support (NETDEVICES [=y])

  │         -> Wireless LAN (WLAN [=y])

  │           -> Ralink driver support (RT2X00 [=m])

  │   Selects: RT2X00_LIB_USB [=m] && RT2X00_LIB_CRYPTO [=n]

```

And I'll stop there for now. We'll get the driver squared away, and as soon as that's done, we can see about getting the rest of the tools (e.g. wicd, wpa_supplicant) set up.

----------

## pottzie

It's late here, so I can get as far as :

localhost pottzie # modprobe rt2500usb 

FATAL: Module rt2500usb not found.

localhost pottzie # grep MAC80211 /usr/src/linux/.config 

CONFIG_MAC80211=y

CONFIG_MAC80211_HAS_RC=y

CONFIG_MAC80211_RC_MINSTREL=y

# CONFIG_MAC80211_RC_DEFAULT_PID is not set

CONFIG_MAC80211_RC_DEFAULT_MINSTREL=y

CONFIG_MAC80211_RC_DEFAULT="minstrel"

# CONFIG_MAC80211_MESH is not set

CONFIG_MAC80211_LEDS=y

# CONFIG_MAC80211_DEBUGFS is not set

# CONFIG_MAC80211_DEBUG_MENU is not set

# CONFIG_MAC80211_HWSIM is not set

localhost pottzie # grep CFG80211 /usr/src/linux/.config 

CONFIG_CFG80211=y

# CONFIG_CFG80211_DEVELOPER_WARNINGS is not set

# CONFIG_CFG80211_REG_DEBUG is not set

CONFIG_CFG80211_DEFAULT_PS=y

# CONFIG_CFG80211_DEBUGFS is not set

# CONFIG_CFG80211_INTERNAL_REGDB is not set

CONFIG_CFG80211_WEXT=y

 Have to wait until tomorrow for the kernel

----------

## cach0rr0

okie doke

your mac80211/cfg80211 is all set up fine

we just have to get the correct driver set up in your kernel, compile, reboot, and you should be able to happily modprobe it

once the driver is squared away, if wicd is built with the gtk use flag, and wpa_supplicant is all done on the backend, you should be able to modprobe, start up wicd, fire up wicd-gtk, and connect to a network!

If it's not that easy? Well, one way or another, we'll get it working, I'm fairly confident.

Post back when you're ready to take a crack at the kernel, if you need any help doing so, etc, and let us/me know where you are

----------

## pottzie

Well, this is interesting:

localhost pottzie # cd /usr/src/linux && make menuconfig,

make: *** No rule to make target `menuconfig,'.  Stop.

 I have a compiled kernel, not genkernel.

----------

## The Doctor

Try separating the commands, and if you still have trouble, su to root.

my system will not compile kernels unless it is the root account for some, probably good, reason.

----------

## pottzie

Already root.

localhost linux # cd /usr/src/linux

localhost linux # && make menuconfig

bash: syntax error near unexpected token `&&'

----------

## The Doctor

you just need to run 

```
make menuconfig
```

 the "&&" is the "and" operation. It says do this and that.

----------

## pottzie

Got it. All went well, all I had to ad was the "Ralink rt2500 (USB) support."  For some reason I had the 2800 and not the 2500 (I left the 2800 in.)

  Time to compile?  Just took a look at the installation guide;"make && make modules_install" then there's the line about "When the kernel has finished compiling, copy the kernel image to /boot"   Gonna need help with that.

----------

## The Doctor

Mount you /boot partition if it is on a separate partition, omit if it is not:

```

mount /boot

cd /usr/src/linux 

make && make modules_install

# make sure /boot is mounted! 

cp arch/x86_64/boot/bzImage /boot/<name of kernel>

```

If you decide to name the new kernel something different than you existing kernel, then you need to edit grub or lillo depending on your choice of boot loader to reflect the changes.

reboot and you will be running you new kernel

----------

## pottzie

Looks good so far. After rebooting I can modprobe the railink 2500 and no errors show. Wicd is included in the internet applications menu, and starts OK, but shows no wireless networks.  ifconfig and iwconfig don't show anything for wireless.

 When I made the line for the bootloader, I ran uname -a to find the kernel number. There was no change that I could see when it recompiled the kernel, other than saying that the module for the railink 2500 was being added.  At reboot, grub listed the same kernel option that was there before recompiling.

----------

## cach0rr0

 *pottzie wrote:*   

> Looks good so far. After rebooting I can modprobe the railink 2500 and no errors show. Wicd is included in the internet applications menu, and starts OK, but shows no wireless networks.  ifconfig and iwconfig don't show anything for wireless.
> 
>  When I made the line for the bootloader, I ran uname -a to find the kernel number. There was no change that I could see when it recompiled the kernel, other than saying that the module for the railink 2500 was being added.  At reboot, grub listed the same kernel option that was there before recompiling.

 

uname -a will show the same kernel and version if it's the same set of kernel sources 

realistically since you were just adding a module, no change would have happened to the bzImage, so even copying it over to boot might not have been necessary

and grub should have listed the same option; it only changes what it lists based on whatever you put in grub.conf (and what you actually *see* in the grub menu is designated by 'title' in grub.conf)

now, the first test

```

modprobe rt2500usb

```

do that, check /proc/net/dev

it should show up; it should now also show up under /proc/net/wireless 

if it does, then

```

ifconfig wlan0 up

```

and check dmesg for errors

no errors? Then so far so good

Now, before we expect wicd to work, let's make sure wpa_supplicant - which wicd uses behind the scenes - is functional

make a new file, /etc/wpa_supplicant/test.conf , and put this in, changing your password and ssid obviously:

```

network={

ssid="crackme"

scan_ssid=1

key_mgmt=WPA-PSK

psk="somepassword"

}

```

save that, then let's test wpa_supplicant; you're using KDE yeah? If so, fire up Konsole (it should be in the applications list under "System") and key this in:

```

wpa_supplicant -Dnl80211 -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/test.conf

```

Does it produce any errors? Does it look like it says it has associated, and/or authenticated to the AP (shorthand for "Access Point")? 

Note that you should disconnect and stop your wired interface before you do this test. 

If it seems to associate and authenticate without issue, then you should be good to go. You just need to set things up correctly in the wicd GUI (wicd-gtk) and things will be lovely (for example, wicd may use 'wext' by default and not 'nl80211' - you would need to find this setting in the GUI, and change it)

If this wpa_supplicant test doesn't look too pormising, we might try the old wext interface

```

wpa_supplicant -Dwext -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/test.conf

```

and see if THAT works. 

Assuming for a moment that these wpa_supplicant tests are successful, go ahead and open up a new tab in Konsole, and fire off:

```

dhcpcd wlan0

```

If you are associated, and authenticated, to the AP, then this should get you a real IP address 

Those are the pieces in this puzzle more or less:

-wpa_supplicant handles associating with a network, as well sending authentication data if the network is encrypted (e.g. WEP, WPA, WPA2)

-dhcpcd is what, once associated and authenticated, actually makes the DHCP request so that you get an IP

If those two work, wicd should work. If either gives you problems, expect problems with wicd until that's sorted out.

----------

## pottzie

Failed when I tried to test supplicant/test.conf .  Both attempts never finished, no errors, no blinking # sign, just ran forever. Had to Ctrl^c both of them to quit.  Modprobe looked OK, didn't dmesg (forgot what to query).

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## cach0rr0

 *pottzie wrote:*   

> Failed when I tried to test supplicant/test.conf .  Both attempts never finished, no errors, no blinking # sign, just ran forever. Had to Ctrl^c both of them to quit. .

 

did either test of wpa_supplicant show *anything* ?

They're not supposed to complete on their own, you're supposed to have to ctrl+c them to kill 'em (at least for this test), but they should at least show something

if you cat /proc/net/dev does wlan0 show? 

Can't really skip a step here. 

-/etc/init.d/net.eth0 stop if you  had it running to begin with

-disconnect from wired interface 

-modprobe rt2500usb

-confirm /proc/net/dev shows wlan0

-ifconfig wlan0 up

-check dmesg for errors (namely, ones complaining about missing firmware)

-try wpa_supplicant test, report what it shows if anything

-if all of the above go smoothly, dhcpcd wlan0 should return an IP (unless, of course, it's an old build of dhcpcd that's incompatible with this new kernel)

-if all of these go smoothly, all that's left is configuring wicd from the GUI

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## pottzie

Here's the cat /proc/net/dev:

Inter-|   Receive                                                |  Transmit

 face |bytes    packets errs drop fifo frame compressed multicast|bytes    packets errs drop fifo colls carrier compressed

    lo:     400       8    0    0    0     0          0         0      400       8    0    0    0     0       0          0

  sit0:       0       0    0    0    0     0          0         0        0       0    0    0    0     0       0          0

  eth0: 1577830    2940    0    0    0     0          0         0   585027    2650    0    0    0     0       0          0

 wlan0:       0       0    0    0    0     0          0         0        0       0    0    0    0     0       0          0

 This is while it's wired. Have to disconnect to do the rest. Results in a bit.  I see the wlan0 zero, zero, zero.

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## pottzie

Neither test of wpa_supplicant showed anything, as far as I could tell. After unplugging, modprobe was OK (showed nothing, just a pound sign on the next line-normal, as far as I know.)  /proc/net/dev showed wlan0, albeit all 0's. when I ran dmesg, it spit out a ton, so I made a pastebin.

http://pastebin.com/05PAf8fn

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## cach0rr0

ok, so let's do another bit of testing

after you modprobe that driver, do like so:

```

ifconfig wlan0 up

iw dev wlan0 scan

```

and see if this shows any wireless networks.

----------

## pottzie

localhost pottzie # modprobe rt2500usb

localhost pottzie # ifconfig wlan0 up 

wlan0: ERROR while getting interface flags: No such device

----------

