# see wireless networks but can't connect

## soomon

hey there   :Smile: 

i have to admit i am still new to gentoo.

i installed gentoo with gnome and then tried to get my wireless lan working.

my internal wlan card is an intel 3945agb so i installed ipw3945(d) and the networkmanager in gnome.

everything went fine, ipwd is loaded at system boot without any errors.

networkmanager recognizes the card (eth1) and shows all wlans.

when i try to connect to one he asks for the wlan key (which still is right),

but then nothing more happens. the connect fails.

when i do dmesg eth1 te last thing it shows: 

```

eth1: link becomes ready.

eth1: no ipv6 routers present.

```

then nothing more happens.

-

then i tried my pcmcia wireless card which has a ralink2500 chipset.

again the driver installed fine with a gentoo tutorial i found somewhere.

the card is recognized as ra0.

then i installed wifi-radar as the gnome networkmanager doesn't seem to like the card.

it starts up and shows all wlans

and again i cannot connect to any of them (wep or wpa)

dmesg ra0 shows:

```

pccard: CardBus card inserted into slot 0

PCI: Enabling device 0000:09:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:09:00.0[A] -> GSI 20 (level, low) -> IRQ 20

rt2500 1.1.0 CVS 2007071515 http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com

PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:09:00.0 to 64

rt2500 EEPROM:  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14  Channel

rt2500 EEPROM:  5  5  5  5  5  8  8  8  8  8  8  8  8  8  dBm Maximum

ra0: no IPv6 routers present

```

as this now happened with 2 cards i don't think of a driver problembut of a configuration issue,

but i am not really shure and have no clue of what to do...

my make.conf:

```

FLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -pipe"

CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

FEATURES="parallel-fetch ccache"

USE="bzip2 X slang gtk cups unicode gnome speex \

png svg jpg mjpeg jpeg jpeg2k opengl dvd \

ogg flac aac cddb mp3 stream alsa -oss win32codecs gstreamer \

-fortran java ncurses -qt3 -qt4 -kde ipv6 ipv4 hal dbus -arts -eds -esd firefox"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://linux.rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/gentoo-mirror/ ftp://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/mirrors/gentoo ftp://ftp.join.uni-muenster.de/pub/linux/distributions/gentoo ftp://ftp.wh2.tu-dresden.de/pub/mirrors/gentoo ftp://ftp.join.uni-muenster.de/pub/linux/distributions/gentoo http://ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/gentoo/ "

SYNC="rsync://rsync.europe.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"

MAKEOPTS="-j2"

```

edit: wpa_supplicant shows the following when trying to start:

```
 wpa_supplicant -i ra0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -B

ioctl[SIOCSIWAUTH]: Operation not supported

WEXT auth param 7 value 0x1 - ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Operation not supported

ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Operation not supported

ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Operation not supported

ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Operation not supported

ioctl[SIOCSIWAUTH]: Operation not supported

WEXT auth param 4 value 0x0 - ioctl[SIOCSIWAUTH]: Operation not supported

WEXT auth param 5 value 0x1 - 
```

can anyone help me please?   :Crying or Very sad: 

----------

## soomon

i just tried the original driver from the ralink homepage.

with the utility it really worked....

... till the reboot ...

now same as before.

udev loads the module, ra0 is there (ipconfig -a).

the ralink utility sais: device driver not found (even if i do modprobe rt2500).

i compiled it again but still the same result.

anyone any ideas?

thanks!!!

soomon

----------

## DawgG

i'd first be careful not to mix up some external utility with the script/drivers provided by gentoo/the kernel.

then check that your exact revision of the wlan chip is really AND fully supported

1. make sure, the kernel symlink is correct

2. if the kernel was patched somehow by the external utility, 

```
cd /usr/src/linux && make  clean 
```

and/or re-emerge the sources: 

```
emerge -vK (your sources)
```

3. make sure all relevant kernel options are selected and recompile if necessary

4. emerge/compile the module && modprobe it

if all that went well (hopefully ;) ) the device /dev/ra0 should be there

test and configure it with iwconfig, if that went well, connect it to a wlan and configure it with ifconfig. if you need it, configure it with wpa_supplicant.

after all that was successful you can automatize the whole thing with scripts (eg sth in /etc/conf.d/  ;)  ) or feed the values to gui-apps.

GOOD LUCK!

----------

## soomon

 *DawgG wrote:*   

> i'd first be careful not to mix up some external utility with the script/drivers provided by gentoo/the kernel.

 

yehah i have a backup which i can copy back if i made critical system changes.

 *DawgG wrote:*   

> 
> 
> then check that your exact revision of the wlan chip is really AND fully supported
> 
> 

 

yeah it is there is also a gentoo wiki entry about that.

 *DawgG wrote:*   

> 
> 
> 1. make sure, the kernel symlink is correct
> 
> 2. if the kernel was patched somehow by the external utility, 
> ...

 

the device ra0 is there.

the card is recognised.

but the ralink config tool complains about a missing driver though udev did load the module rt2500

modprobe runs without any error.

the strange thing is that the installation runs without errors and nothing wants to work :S

especially the ipw3945 driver... networkmanager even shows all wireless networks but it can't connect (see above) :S

 *DawgG wrote:*   

> 
> 
> test and configure it with iwconfig, if that went well, connect it to a wlan and configure it with ifconfig. if you need it, configure it with wpa_supplicant.
> 
> after all that was successful you can automatize the whole thing with scripts (eg sth in /etc/conf.d/    ) or feed the values to gui-apps.
> ...

 

i will try, thanks!

----------

## soomon

hey there, i read that kernel 2.6.24 will support my abg3945 (onboard)  and my rt2500 (pcmcia) network devices

so i installed 2.6.24-rc2-git6

when booting udev loads iwl3945 module but i don't have a network connection eth1...

the rt2500 card now works flaslessly.

but i still don't see my internel intel 3945agb...

anybody got an idea?

----------

## ocean

I have the same problem, I can see the access point, but I can't connect to them, except it happens after I started up my computer everytime, so it would work for a minute or so, then the connection drop dead, and I couldn't connect anymore. I have tried to restart networkmanager, restart dhcdbd, and even modules, but none of them work, except for rebooting, but that only works for a minute, then the connection drops again. I am completely clueless when it comes to setting up the internet, so I'm using the networkmanager gui. I'm also using the Intel 3945abg wireless card, can anyone help me?  Thanks.

----------

## DawgG

if you use iwconfig (and the related tools) you will get more detailed information.

you might also want to check if in-kernel and external modules are not mutually exclusive (like some intel wlan-drivers are, i think)

a couple of times i have had the experience that onboard-chips worked much worse than add-on cards: after some minutes the connection would drop because the transmission power was too low, when i jacked it up to the max with iwconfig it would work for some minutes again. once this happened with the same atheros-chip onboard (didn't work) and pcmcia (works flawlessly to this day w/out any power adjustments)

if the wlan-stuff (set up by iwconfig) doesn't work first all the other stuff on top of it (ip-adress, dhcp, ...) will fail miserably.

you might also give 

```
man iwconfig
```

 a try ;)

@soomon

 *Quote:*   

> when booting udev loads iwl3945 module but i don't have a network connection eth1...

 

of course you have to set up (and then test) all the basic stuff first.

GOOD LUCK :)

----------

## soomon

 *DawgG wrote:*   

> 
> 
> @soomon
> 
>  *Quote:*   when booting udev loads iwl3945 module but i don't have a network connection eth1... 
> ...

 

hi,

thanks for the answer, but shouldn't "ifconfig -a" show my eth1?

i have the mac8011 wlan stack and the iwlwifi module (supplied by the kernel).

even if it is not configured it should show up when i use "ifconfig -a" ?

P.S. deutsche antworten werden auch angenommen  :Smile: ))))))))

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## DawgG

 *Quote:*   

> even if it is not configured it should show up when i use "ifconfig -a" ? 

 

it might, but (obviosly) it doesn't have to. i'm not entirely sure about that, and i don't have anything around to test it on right now - maybe tonite.

 *Quote:*   

> P.S. deutsche antworten werden auch angenommen

 

how'n the world u guess my language? i speak a very little-spoken language (Bundu Dusun) with all sorts of dental t̺'s; glottal plosive ʔ's; bilabial fricative ɸ's; and a waɪd lɛɪ'əʊt ɔf sɪm'bls ðat con'fʊz pɪ'pl. ;))

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## soomon

 *DawgG wrote:*   

> how'n the world u guess my language? i speak a very little-spoken language (Bundu Dusun) with all sorts of dental t̺'s; glottal plosive ʔ's; bilabial fricative ɸ's; and a waɪd lɛɪ'əʊt ɔf sɪm'bls ðat con'fʊz pɪ'pl. )

 

Your Signature (DUMM KLICKT GUT.) sounds very germen   :Laughing: 

----------

