# Wireless issues

## btrip

I've been trying for days to get my wireless working.  I'm running a 2.6.3 kernel.

relevant output of lspci is:

02:02.0 Network controller: Harris Semiconductor Prism 2.5 Wavelan ch           01)

ifconfig yeilds:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:09:6B:10:EE:83

          inet addr:192.168.0.8  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:1142 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:1136 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

          RX bytes:981870 (958.8 Kb)  TX bytes:132837 (129.7 Kb)

          Interrupt:11 Base address:0x8000 Memory:d0200000-d0200038

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:05:3C:03:82:72

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:19 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

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

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

          RX bytes:3872 (3.7 Kb)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

          Interrupt:11 Base address:0xc000 Memory:f8000000-f8000fff

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback

          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

          RX packets:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0

          RX bytes:200 (200.0 b)  TX bytes:200 (200.0 b)

and iwconfig shows:

eth0      no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth1      IEEE 802.11-DS  ESSID:"NETGEAR"  Nickname:"Prism  I"

          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.417GHz  Access Point: 00:09:5B:9D:5B:C2

          Bit Rate:2Mb/s   Tx-Power=15 dBm   Sensitivity:1/3

          Retry min limit:8   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off

          Encryption key:off

          Power Management:off

          Link Quality:64/92  Signal level:-33 dBm  Noise level:-143 dBm

          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:19  Rx invalid frag:0

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

eth1 i'm assuming is the wireless since the MAC address associated with it is the same as the wireless card.  when I bring eth1 up the kwifimanager applet detects a signal but it cannot find an ip address.  I'm connecting to a NETGEAR wireless router in my apartment.

All of these outputs were from when i had eth0 started up and eth1 brought up as well.

Someone please help i've spent way to much time on this and gotten nowhere.

Brian

----------

## matkare

if your wireless router support DHCP you could try following

```

 #> dhcpd eth1

```

now eth1 should have an ip.

I forgot one thing:

Are you sure you need a essid ?? Perhaps try without !!

```

iwconfig eth1 essid any

```

----------

## btrip

when i run dhcpd eth1 the output is:

Internet Software Consortium DHCP Server V3.0pl2

Copyright 1995-2003 Internet Software Consortium.

All rights reserved.

For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/products/DHCP

** You must add a ddns-update-style statement to /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf.

   To get the same behaviour as in 3.0b2pl11 and previous

   versions, add a line that says "ddns-update-style ad-hoc;"

   Please read the dhcpd.conf manual page for more information. **

If you did not get this software from ftp.isc.org, please

get the latest from ftp.isc.org and install that before

requesting help.

If you did get this software from ftp.isc.org and have not

yet read the README, please read it before requesting help.

If you intend to request help from the dhcp-server@isc.org

mailing list, please read the section on the README about

submitting bug reports and requests for help.

Please do not under any circumstances send requests for

help directly to the authors of this software - please

send them to the appropriate mailing list as described in

the README file.

exiting.

looking at ifconfig and iwconfig, nothind has changed.  Is it possible that the device is not configured correctly or with the wrong drivers?

----------

## matkare

Sorry, I made a little write-failure I meant dhcpcd not dhcpd

please try the following:

```

 # > ifconfig eth1 down

 # > dhcpcd -k

 # > dhcpcd eth1

```

now you should see some better results!!

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## btrip

THANKS!  It's working now! I'm very grateful for you help

Just a quick follow up question.  How would I get it to start up at boot?

----------

## TheCoop

btw, what is an essid used for? does it need one if a windows computer wants to connect to it?

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## hulk2nd

 *TheCoop wrote:*   

> btw, what is an essid used for? does it need one if a windows computer wants to connect to it?

 the meaning of an essid is to seperate between different wireless networks, for example if there is more than one axx point in your range. it is just the name of the access point.  its not secret or encrypted in any ways and isn't windows specific in any way.

greets,

hulk

----------

## matkare

first you need to make sure, that the service, which drives your wireless device starts also at boot.

for a pcmcia card you need to

```

 # > rc-update add pcmcia default

```

now pcmcia will start on boot of the system.

If you have some special modules that your hardware need to work properly. You can also let them autoload during boot. You  simply have to add them in /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.X (where X is your kernel number 2, 4 or 6).

next you have to install a proper net-skript.

```

 # > cp /etc/init.d/net.eth0 /etc/init.d/net.eth1

```

edit /etc/conf.d/net add following line:

```

iface_eth1="dhcp"

```

finally you have to add the network device to the proper runlevel

```

 # > rc-update add net.eth1 default

```

PS: This solution doesn't sets an essid. In order to get my essid set on boot I modified my boot scripts, but I think there is sure a better solution out there. 

I hope this will work for you.

good luck :)

----------

## btrip

 :Very Happy:    Awesome, it works fine.  Both wireless and hardwire internet works.

At boot when init is trying to bring up eth0 there is a long timeout.  Is it possible to change that timeout?

Thanks again so much for your help

----------

## matkare

the timeout could be due to the fact that the network for eth0 could not be found. This can have several reasons:

- eth0 is not connected with a network (no cable in RJ45 port?)

- the network eth0 is connected to is not reachable (switch is switched off?)

- eth0 is trying to grab an ip from an unreachable dhcp-server (dhcp-server not running?)

now that you have your wireless lan set up you perhaps need your hard wired eth0 no longer. In this case you can remove this service from runlevel.

```

# > rc-update del net.eth0

```

If you need to hock up to your eth0 again you can start it manually by

```

# > /etc/init.d/net.eth0 start

```

----------

## forceflow2

What if you still need to use both though and want the timeout of both devices to be set to a specific number of seconds. I believe this is done with some line being put in /etc/conf.d/net but not entirely sure what it should be

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## matkare

Yes, you are right. You can set specific Parameters in /etc/conf.d/net for dhcpdcd.

In order to set a timeout you can use '-t' which specifies (in seconds ) for how long dhcpcd will try to get an IP address. The default is 60 seconds.  dhcpcd will  not fork  into  background  until it gets a valid IP address in which case dhcpcd will return 0 to the parent process.   In a case dhcpcd times out before receiving a valid IP address from DHCP server dhcpcd will return exit code 1 to the parent process.

This is an example for eth0 in /etc/conf.d/net:

```

iface_eth0="dhcp"

dhcpcd_eth0=" -t 5 "

```

This config lines set eth0 to get it's ip from dhcp and to wait only 5 seconds for a valid IP. This should fasten your boot in case there is no dhcp-server.

----------

