# no interface to wireless card  [SOLVED]

## edward_scott

I recently installed a wireless network card, as a wired internet connection is no longer convenient. wireless-tools is installed, but I cannot use the tools because the wireless card is not showing up. since I have both a regular ethernet card and a wireless ethernet card I expect to see two cards listed -- eth0 and eth1 -- when I run ifconfig -a. instead I get just one:

 *Quote:*   

> eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:13:D4:F8:1C:4F  
> 
>           BROADCAST NOTRAILERS MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
> 
>           RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
> ...

 

lspci indicates that my card is there:

 *Quote:*   

> 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 945G/GZ/P/PL Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 02)
> 
> 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 945G/GZ/P/PL Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 02)
> 
> 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 01)
> ...

 

but a dmesg | grep eth yields only one ethernet card:

 *Quote:*   

> e100: eth0: e100_probe: addr 0xfcffe000, irq 20, MAC addr 00:13:D4:F8:1C:4F

 

running a cat /proc/net/dev also shows just the one ethernet card:

 *Quote:*   

> Inter-|   Receive                                                |  Transmit
> 
>  face |bytes    packets errs drop fifo frame compressed multicast|bytes    packets errs drop fifo colls carrier compressed
> 
>     lo:       0       0    0    0    0     0          0         0        0       0    0    0    0     0       0          0
> ...

 

so I am lost. I think that the presence of eth0, and the lack of an eth1, have something to do with udev, but this is beyond my limited knowledge. can anyone give me a hand and get me started here? if it is of any consequence I am usince a linksys wireless-g pci adapter, model WMP54GS.Last edited by edward_scott on Tue Dec 05, 2006 6:34 am; edited 2 times in total

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## madey

Try to run:

```
iwconfig
```

from wireless-tools package.

It will work if you have installed driver.

And read wireless howto on http://gentoo-wiki.com

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## edward_scott

I'm not sure you read my post.

when I run iwconfig, all I get is:

 *Quote:*   

> net.lo	no wireless extensions
> 
> net.eth0	no wireless extensions

 

net.eth0 is my landline ethernet card. there is no net.eth* interface for my wireless. or at least, there does not appear to be.

I went ahead and read the howto in the wiki. i created a symbolic link from /etc/init.d/net.eth1 to /etc/init.d/net.lo (although then both net.eth0 and net.eth1 are pointing to the same thing, which doesn't seem right). I configured /etc/conf.d/net, and ran /etc/init.d/net.eth1 start and got the following:

 *Quote:*   

> Starting eth1
> 
> Configuration not set for eth1 - assuming DHCP
> 
> Bringing up eth1
> ...

 

I am aware of the wikis and how to use them -- what I don't understand is how to create the network interface to my wireless card. I'm beginning to wonder if it is something to do with my kernel. I used genkernel -- could I have missed a vital package? if so, how do I get back into genkernel and reinstall that package without recompiling my entire kernel?

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## sonicbhoc

Google that chipset and see if other linux users have got it running, and with which kernel modules. I always google stuff before I buy it, just to make double-sure it works.

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## pathfinder

there may be a module to load, a driver to know...

my wifi card is a conceptronic 54MBps,  so i modprobe rt2570 and i also emerged rt2570

i mean you should find the driver you need for this card.

once loaded, you should see your card.

does it make sense?

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## madey

Of course you have to install drivers, that what I tried to tell you before.

You can find some information here:

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Gateway_6020#Wireless_.28Broadcom_BCM4318.29

and here:

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Wireless

I have the same hardware and it works perfectly with ndiswrapper (piece of software which makes your system capable to use Win$ drivers) but there are also new, native drivers for this card in kernel. I haven't tested them yet but it is worth to try. Search the gentoo-wiki, there is plenty HOWTO's about this hardware. It is very popular.

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## edward_scott

cool... this wiki page helped a lot. thanks for the pointers. I now have an interface to my wireless card, and it is mostly working, though I can't get it to use my encryption key properly. I get the following errors when I start net.wlan0:

 *Quote:*   

> Starting wlan0
> 
>   Configuring wireless network for wlan0
> 
>   wlan0 does not support setting keys
> ...

 

I'm not sure what is wrong. I don't have access to the contents of my /etc/conf.d/net right now, but I'll post those shortly.

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## edward_scott

ahha! still not working, but I do now have internet access through someone else's unprotected wireless network. this will make things much easier.

/etc/conf.d/net:

 *Quote:*   

> key_MYESSID="s:password enc open"
> 
> preferred_aps=("MYESSID")

 

obviously, replacing MYESSID and password with the appropriate values. I'm not sure the format of key_MYESSID is correct. but then, regardless of what format I try, it doesn't seem to make any difference.

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## madey

Have you read this:

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=4&chap=4#doc_chap2

don't forget to use proper encryption method. I saw in your previous post that you use WEP so this part:

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=4&chap=4#doc_chap3 is suitable for you.

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## edward_scott

I have read those pages, and it doesn't seem to help. I don't know what I am missing.

since this is a distinct problem from that which I started this thread with, I am moving it to its own thread. the initial problem presented here has been solved, so I am going to mark this thread solved. please go to the new discussion to see more details about my current problem with setting the wireless key.

and thanks for the help so far. you guys rock. I'd be lost without you.

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