# Can't get Orinoco gold working (8470 WD, 802.11b/g)

## ZeroFill

I've tried the different suggestions when searching though the forum but none of them actually brought up eth1, the orinoco device. My laptop has a builtin realtek 10/100 ethernet that works fine (eth0). Is there something special i have to do to get the b/g card working differently than the regular b cards?

the closest i've gotten was doing lsmod and it showed orinoco in the list and "cardctl ident" showed

Socket 0:

 product info: "proxim, Corp.", "802.11g Wireless Upgrade Kit.", "CIS REV 1.2", "Copyright 2003"

 manfid: 0x0126, 0x0013

 function: 6 (network)

Socket 1:

 no product info availableLast edited by ZeroFill on Sat Sep 13, 2003 9:26 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## Lord Tocharian

Sounds like I have the exact same problem.  I have the silver card and I can setup the drivers a bunch of different ways but I never get an eth1.  Just detected by cardctl.  Maybe the orinocos aren't as supported as everyone says.

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## hulk2nd

this is how i got my dell 1150 minipci wlan card working with pcmcia-cs. it is an orinoco (gold, i think):

first i made my kernel with no pcmcia support and wlan support (*) but no drivers.

then i merged pcmcia-cs and added pcmcia to runlevel default.

then i added eth1 to /etc/conf.d/net (eth0 is my normal ethernet)

then i made 'cardctl ident' to get the manfid of my wlan card (in my case it is 0x0156, 0x0002)

then i renamed /etc/pcmcia/wlan-ng.conf to /etc/pcmcia/wlan-ng.conf.old and created a file /etc/pcmcia/wlan-ng.conf.

then i looked at http://www.paulparadise.com/Inspiron4000/hermes.conf

i searched for an entry with my manfid.

i copied 

```
device "orinoco_cs"

  class "network"

  module "hermes", "orinoco_cs"

card "Intersil PRISM2 11 Mbps Wireless Adapter"

  manfid 0x0156, 0x0002

  bind "orinoco_cs"
```

to /etc/pcmcia/wlan-ng.conf, rebooted and it worked.

i hope i forgot nothing and maybe (hopefully) this will work for you too.

greetz,

hulk

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## Paradigmbreak

Are you sure that the card is supported even at 'b' levels?  I was unaware that there were any drivers available for that.  

http://www.linux-wlan.org/docs/wlan_adapters.html

Did you purchase this card having checked that it was supposed to work?

Also what are the content of your full lsmod?  

Could also be a kernel issue.  Is pcmcia support enabled in the kernel? It shouldn't be use emerge pcmcia-cs. 

FYI-Personally, I have the truemobile 1150 which is b only and is an orinoco.

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## Paradigmbreak

Are you sure that the card is supported even at 'b' levels?  I was unaware that there were any drivers available for that.  

http://www.linux-wlan.org/docs/wlan_adapters.html

Did you purchase this card having checked that it was supposed to work?

Also what are the content of your full lsmod?  

Could also be a kernel issue.  Is pcmcia support enabled in the kernel? It shouldn't be use emerge pcmcia-cs. 

FYI-Personally, I have the truemobile 1150 which is b only and is an orinoco.

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## ZeroFill

i'm testing out hulk2nd's suggestion atm and disabled my modules.autoload stuff as it doesnt look like he had any.

arg! my card isn't in the list. before buying it, i thought i saw some successful posts of getting the b/g card to work in their machines--guess i was wrong. the 8470 isn't even in the list. a weird thing is that they have an 8471 which is a g-only card. i thought all g cards were backward compatible with b the network.

[edit]

that didn't work too well..trying what Lord Tocharian did

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## hulk2nd

@ZeroFill

yes, i dont have to add modules to modules.autoload. the pcmcia init script loads all the modules automatically.

@Paradigmbreak

did you managed to get the 1150 working without pcmcia-cs, only the kernel drivers? if yes, how did you do that?

thanks in advance,

greetz, hulk

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## Paradigmbreak

Hulk, no. Spent days trying different combinations and reading posts on the subject and it seemed to require pcmcia-cs.  I think it has something to do with the somewhat uncommon nature of mini-pci (over my head).  I couldn't even get it to appear let alone work.

zerofill, I believe that backwards compatability refers to the transmission standards and not how the chipset communicates.  Sorry.  There are some really cheap 802.11b cards by US Robotics on sale at tigerdirect.com if you are in the US.

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## ZeroFill

 *Paradigmbreak wrote:*   

> <snip>
> 
> zerofill, I believe that backwards compatability refers to the transmission standards and not how the chipset communicates.  Sorry.  There are some really cheap 802.11b cards by US Robotics on sale at tigerdirect.com if you are in the US.

 

the reason for chosing this card, other than its rep and forward-compatibility, is that my school uses LEAP authentication. orinoco and cisco cards are the only wifi cards i know that support LEAP. i hope a b/g driver comes out soon  or i have an $85 paperweight  :Embarassed: 

btw, i upgraded from a pita dlink-650+

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## ZeroFill

for anyone else watching this thread, the ppl that i PM'd who had the same card (orinoco b/g) ended up returning it   :Crying or Very sad: 

i hope some drivers are released soon.

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## dweigert

Some of these cards have the Atheros chipset.  There is linux support for those via the madwifi driver.  Yes it is in portage, but you should get the CVS version which has lots of bug-fixes.

Dan

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## ZeroFill

is there a command that i can use to find out what chipset the card uses?

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## iloventc

 *Paradigmbreak wrote:*   

> Hulk, no. Spent days trying different combinations and reading posts on the subject and it seemed to require pcmcia-cs.  I think it has something to do with the somewhat uncommon nature of mini-pci (over my head).  I couldn't even get it to appear let alone work.
> 
> 

 

the reason it requires the pcmcia-cs module is because "mini-pci" in dell's words is essentially another pcmcia socket. if you use the default setup with pcmcia enabled (i did it in the kernel) on the bootup screen you'll see somethign like "pcmcia-cs is watching 3 sockets"

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## PacketCollision

There are web pages, like http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Linux.Wireless.drivers.html which have detailed discriptions of many cards.

The "orinoco" card you got from proxim does not use the original lucent chipset, and therefor does probably not work with the orinoco drivers.

from the site I mentioned 

"So, if the Proxim Orinoco card doesn't have a big square antenna and do support 802.11a or 802.11g, you can be sure it's not a true Orinoco."

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## bluud

Hello.. 

I have a proxim orinoco 11bg card, 8470-WD, works great under windows with my proxim ap-200, its a 802.11b access point...

Under linux i have emerged the last madwifi drivers.. with CVS has given me an error while putting the card up..

i have configured the essid, wepkey, channel, rate, ap mac.. all stuff seems well configured.. i put the card up.. the lights start to blink.. but then i can't get to ping anything.. 

does anyone here as put this card to work under gentoo linux ou anyother linux distro?

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## Lnx_dork

Hello,

I don't know if this will help anyone but the Aegisc client made by www.mtghouse.com

offers LEAP authentication for non LEAP capable cards,  anyway when you download the trial version it comes with some drivers for the orinoco cards to fix a few issue so they will work with the client.  The drivers build a kernel module so I assume that they would work with out the client software running.

I have know idea if this will work, but I'm getting my orinoco silver card tonight and will be trying this out soon.  But I thought it might serve as another thing to try before returning the card.

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## arska

I have the same problem. I'm using lates CVS of MADWIFI.

Did anybody manage to set the card up?

When I try the ping I can see that the ifconfig reports RX errors:

```
ath0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:20:A6:50:1E:0F

          inet addr:10.10.10.66  Bcast:10.255.255.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:0 errors:3446 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:3446

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

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:199

          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

          Interrupt:5 Memory:e1ca0000-e1cb0000

```

It seems though it finds the accesspoint: (Netgear WGR614)

```
ath0      IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"NETGEAR"

          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.422 GHz  Access Point: 00:09:5B:C1:4E:58

          Bit Rate:1 Mb/s   Tx-Power:50 dBm   Sensitivity=0/3

          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off

          Encryption key:off

          Power Management:off

          Link Quality=41/94  Signal level=-54 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

```

I wonder why the Bit Rate is so low?

Thanx in advance.

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