# Help Needed: Linksys WPC55AG + Laptop + Gentoo

## spyder

has anyone had luck setting up this card correctly?

if so could you give me a hand?

http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=33&scid=36&prid=525

WPC55AG

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## coondog

Sorry man did my research ... thing is the only linksys card that is compatible is the WPC11 something or rather, basically the B frequency card.

If you can score one of those cheaper than MSRP 49.99 then you can just use the emerge tree and build the files from there for the support of the WPC11* card.

hope that helped

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## spyder

i heard the madwifi drivers work......can anyone back this up?

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## spyder

*bump*

just bringing to the top once more...does anyone have any suggestions?

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## loki_va

I have the WPM55AG (the mini-pci ver. of the WPC) installed in a dell Inspiron 8200 using the MADWiFi driver.  It works fine.  I had to make some changes to resolve some issues with symbols during the build process ( see this FAQ http://www.mattfoster.clara.co.uk/madwifi-faq.htm#build).

Once the driver is installed do the following:

cd /etc/init.d

ln -s net.eth0 net.ath0

edit your net script `/etc/conf.d/net `, 

iface_ath0="dhcp"  /* I'm running dhcp 

rc-update add net.ath0 default

start the card

/etc/init.d/net.ath0 start

If everything goes well you can add the module to your modules.autoload to start automagicly.  I'm very happy with this card, YMMV.   Hope this helps.

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## bruor

i was just wondering if this worked for you?

i have teh same wireless card.

after you add teh script etc,  what modules need to be loaded for it to work properly and  how do you use wep with it ?

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## Mike Staib

I use ndiswrapper which uses the binary windows drivers to get mine to work.  You can find the ndiswrapper software on source forge.  It works great and its free!

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## loki_va

The order of the modules that need to be loaded are as follows:

   insmod wlan.o

   insmod ath_hal.o

   insmod ath_pci.o

then run the steps from my earlier post.

Once the card is active you can use iwconfig to add the wep key.  To make the key settings perm. create a scheme in your wireless.opts file.  Hope this helps

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## bruor

how do you add a wep key ? 

i type in

iwconfig ath0 key xxxxxxxxxx

and it gives me this 

```
Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :

    SET failed on device ath0 ; Invalid argument.
```

any ideas?

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## coondog

I got a similar error when using a D-LINK 650_revP card ... basically its module based i believe.  Possibly because the modules your loading for your device doesn't allow it to use WEP.

can you use the wireless without WEP?

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## loki_va

Yes the driver does work w/ WEP.  I am using a 128 bit key on a SMC 7004AWBR:

iwlist ath0 scan

ath0      Scan completed :

          Cell 01 - Address: 00:##:##:##:##:##

                    Mode:Master

                    Encryption key:****-****-****-****-****-****-****-****-**

                    Quality:14/94  Signal level:-81 dBm  Noise level:-95 dBm

                    Mode:Master

                    ESSID:"My_Home_Loki_va"

                    Frequency:2.447GHz

                    Bit Rate:1Mb/s

                    Bit Rate:2Mb/s

                    Bit Rate:5Mb/s

                    Bit Rate:11Mb/s

There are issues with using the "/etc/init.d/net.ath0 start" script to get an IP address w/ DHCP.  These are the steps I followed to get my WPM55AG up and running:

  insmod wlan

  insmod ath_hal

  insmod ath_pci

  ifconfig ath0 up # This will bring the device up

  iwlist ath0 scan #  This should show your AP. See example above

  iwconfig ath0 key xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

 dhcpcd ath0 # This command will give you an IP if your AP is using DHCP

If you run ifconfig you should see an IP addr:

  ifconfig ath0

ath0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:##:##:##:##:##

          inet addr:192.168.1.123  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          inet6 addr: fe80::20c:41ff:fe16:cbfc/10 Scope:Link

          UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:23877 errors:546094 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:3703

          TX packets:660 errors:1 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:199

          RX bytes:2415472 (2.3 Mb)  TX bytes:143668 (140.3 Kb)

          Interrupt:11 Memory:f1e83000-f1e93000

Also you can run iwconfig and you should see your card up and available:

  iwconfig ath0

ath0      IEEE 802.11  ESSID:"My_Home_Loki_va"

          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.447GHz  Access Point: 00:##:##:##:##:##

          Bit Rate:11Mb/s   Tx-Power:off   Sensitivity=0/3

          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off

          Encryption key:####-####-####-####-####-####-##   Security mode:open

          Power Management:off

          Link Quality:34/94  Signal level:-75 dBm  Noise level:-95 dBm

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

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

Now for issues you should check: 

1. Make sure you are using the latest version of the Wireless-tools (at least version 26).  I am running the unstable version 27

2. Make sure you are using a valid WEP key.  You can use the random generator in LInux to create a key.  

I yanked this from the following URL: https://www.wireless.org.au/~jhecker/wepgen/index.php

Doing it Yourself

As an alternative, if you have Linux, FreeBSD or Mac OS X, cut and paste the following line and run it in a shell to generate your own keys. As it's run off your own computer it is far more secure than getting the keys off this page.

dd if=/dev/random bs=1 count=32 2>/dev/null |hexdump

You will get something like the following:

0000000 f8b8 2013 7119 3feb 501a 7f9e d310 d7e5

0000010 d926 a64c a260 9afc 4ce2 9219 a8c6 0f48

0000020

Collate the hex values (grouped in fours, not including the leading 00000x0's) and you'll have a nice random WEP key.

Set count to the following for desired keylength:

40 bits: count=5

64 bits: count=8

104 bits: count=13

128 bits: count=16

152 bits: count=19

232 bits: count=29

256 bits: count=32

If you'd like to know more about the /dev/random device in Linux, see this page. On FreeBSD see this page.

From what I can tell by scouring the web, /dev/random and /dev/urandom are supported in Mac OS X v10.1 and above.

Alternatively, run "man 4 random" in a shell. 

Hope this helps.

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## bruor

i tried to add a key once i had the card up and running...

if i try to run the scan it says that ath0 doesnt have anywireless extensions... ill check what version i am running when i get home,  hopefully thatll solve my issues  :Wink: 

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## dkaplowitz

 *loki_va wrote:*   

> The order of the modules that need to be loaded are as follows:
> 
>    insmod wlan.o
> 
>    insmod ath_hal.o
> ...

 

Hi thanks for the replies...I'm close to getting this card working in my Dell C600. Can you tell me which kernel parameters coincide with the above-mentioned modules? I have the mad-wifi drivers installed and have done your steps from the previous post, and I can even get /etc/init.d/net.ath0 to start, but whenever I run "iwconfig ath0" I get a "No such device". I'm sure I missed something in my kernel config.

Running insmod wlan.o gives me "No such file of directory"

Thanks for any tips.

Dave

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## dkaplowitz

And I'm curious to know if this matters: *Quote:*   

> According to Felipe Saint-Jean, you also need to ensure that your kernel is built with SMP (CONFIG_SMP) support off.

 

That's from the madwifi faq

I have this option enabled and I wonder if that's the problem I'm having.

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## dkaplowitz

 *dkaplowitz wrote:*   

>  *loki_va wrote:*   The order of the modules that need to be loaded are as follows:
> 
>    insmod wlan.o
> 
>    insmod ath_hal.o
> ...

 

Found this thread (1st reply) that helped me get it working:  http://forums.devshed.com/t83754/s.html

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> 5- Load module ath_pci
> 
> 6- Configure interface ath0 using ifconfig
> ...

 

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