cant get usb wireless to work

[MO9013]

Ok I started over and once again im having problems with the ifplugd.  I ran vasm and fot this

vector://home/mike
root:# vasm
sed: can't read /etc/ifplugd/ifplugd.conf.new: No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `/etc/ifplugd/ifplugd.conf': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `/etc/ifplugd/ifplugd.conf.new': No such file or directory

So then I tried this

vector://home/mike
root:# cat /etc/ifplugd/ifplugd.conf
cat: /etc/ifplugd/ifplugd.conf: No such file or directory

When i try to run it in an editor I get a blank screen. Next idea was to get it from Gslapt. opened it up and it's already downloaded so I reinstaled it and it worked.  Now I can open the file.  So I ran vasm again and I got the same readout as before. I have No idea what to do from here.  I guess i could download soho beta 3.  I was going to wait till it was finalized before I upgraded.  But thats going to have to wait 2 weeks till I get home.

[hata_ph]

What version of kernel u using now?

[MO9013]

What ever came with 6.0 kde classic.  It is 2.6.27.29.  i went to the how to kernel and typed    ls /var/log/packages/*$(uname -r)*  into a terminal.  I figured it would tell me what I had.  It gave me updates should I update things or will it not matter.

[hata_ph]

There is a update kernel for VL6. It is version 2.6.31.8, maybe u can try to upgrade it.

http://forum.vectorlinux.com/index.php?topic=11020.0

Have a try.

[MO9013]

I'm not having any luck at the moment. Up graded the kernel and it crashes. I did everything it told me to do. Oh well. I got this card because it was the only one I could find locally that was N based and was easy to get to work with only upgrading the firmware. Unless I'm putting it in the wrong spot. Without these little adventures life would be boring.

[MO9013]

ok tried ndiswrapper and didnt work.  i got an ERROR while getting interface flags: No such device.  here is the compleat read out. of the install process. 

vector://home/mike/Win2K_XP
root:# ndiswrapper -i ./dwarusb_xp.inf
installing dwarusb_xp ...
vector://home/mike/Win2K_XP
root:# ndiswrapper -l
dwarusb_xp : driver installed
        device (07D1:3A09) present
vector://home/mike/Win2K_XP
root:# ndiswrapper -m
adding "alias wlan0 ndiswrapper" to /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper .                    ..
vector://home/mike/Win2K_XP
root:# ifconfig wlan0 up
wlan0: ERROR while getting interface flags: No such device
vector://home/mike/Win2K_XP
root:# ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1b:24:92:eb:85
          inet addr:192.168.1.2  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:2363 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2402 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:1993294 (1.9 MiB)  TX bytes:448660 (438.1 KiB)
          Interrupt:20 Base address:0xa000

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:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:100 (100.0 B)  TX bytes:100 (100.0 B)

[hata_ph]

It is not going anywhere...how about you try download other distro live CD such as ubuntu to see it can detect the wireless card...

[newt]

Good news: I believe that out-of-the-box support for your DWA-160 ver A2 (ID 07d1:3a09) is not supported until kernel 2.6.32-stable which was just released in the end of January March (see: http://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/75364/). Unless we get a new kernel update your best bet will probably be compiling a new kernel with patched support for the device.  It seems that the device is technically supported in the 2.6.31.x kernel, just the device ids need to be added (see: http://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/60613/). If I were confident in my abilities to compile kernels I would apply this patch to our 2.6.31.8 kernel and pass it along as the patch is simply editing one file (minor revisions).  Hang in there. I'm sure that a more talented member of the community can compile a new kernel with the needed support to get your wireless usb dongle working.  I'll make an attempt at compiling a new kernel 2.6.31.8 with patch and will let you know if I come up with anything useful.

Cheers!
newt

Edit: I meant January not March.

[MO9013]

Thanks Newt,

I found that before but had no idea on how to do it so I went the other way and tryed to download drivers and everything else I could find. I was going to wait till the SOHO comes out with the new kernel and try that. But with the info you just showed me SOHO wont be any help since it is uses 2.6.31x not the 2.6.32 kernel. Thanks again for any help you can with compiling.

[newt]

Below is a link to the newly compiled kernel, config, and system map with the patch for your device.

You should be able to extract the contents to your /boot directory, run vliloconf (as root) and it should add the new kernel as a boot option. This kernel should use the exact same modules as 2.6.31.8 (which you said you already had installed) so there should be no problems there. After extracting to /boot and running vliloconf, try rebooting with the new kernel. After your system boots up run 'depmod -aq' as root. You will probably want to reboot once more. This kernel should have support for your device driver patched in.

Note: Make sure you installed the 2.6.31.8 module package when you updated your kernel. These modules will be used by this kernel.

Also: You will want to make sure you've unloaded ndiswrapper from starting as the two drivers (native and ndis) could possibly conflict (rmmod ndiswrapper).

http://www.mediafire.com/file/2qwmnlkyyyy/vmlinuz-2.6.31.8mod.tar.gz

[MO9013]

Got everything to work but I'm now having a problem connecting to any encrypted networks.  It never goes past the validating authentication.  Any ideas.  I'm try to get on to a WPA2 encryption and I tried both ways in the Wicd manager.

[newt]

Try the following command: iwlist <device_name> key
This should "list the encryption key sizes supported and display all the encryption keys available in the device." Based on that definition, I would expect that it would list the security methods that the card/kernel support for this device (hopefully I've interpreted the definition correctly). (source: http://www.wirelessdefence.org/Contents/LinuxWirelessCommands.htm#iwlist%20Commands: )

Another option: Do you have the ability to test a WPA or WEP secured wireless connection?  According to the patchwork thread, those two security methods *should* be working.  I think it would prove useful to ensure that those are (or aren't) presently working.

Hope this helps!

[MO9013]

I really don't get what your saying in the first part of your message. I did try to get onto two secured networks both WPA2 with no success.  The unsecured networks I have no problems getting onto. As of right now I can't play with the router encryptions to see if changing passwords or types will do anything since I'm in motels and will be for about 3 weeks for work.

With that said I did run into a problem.  If I plug the usb stick in after I have started the computer it freezes on me and I have to reboot.   

[newt]

The first part of my message was just trying to definitively determine the security encryption features supported by your device under linux. I know the device is capable of wpa2 with windows but sometimes that differs under linux, and I was hoping the command would show what exactly it supports. Unfortunately, after testing the command on my wireless laptop I do not think it will prove useful.

It's possible that the wireless modules that I compiled for the new kernel need to be updated on your system to account for the change in device ids. I've uploaded the wireless modules for the new kernel for you, here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/0zj20duzwko/wirelessmodules-2.6.31.8mod.tar.gz .  As root, you should unpack these to the following directory /lib/modules/2.6.31.8/kernel/net/wireless/ (they will overwrite the existing wireless modules).  I noticed that they include a libcrypt module so perhaps this will solve the problem with encrypted networks.  As usual, after unpacking the modules you should run 'depmod -aq' and reboot.

Regarding the freezing issue: Hopefully it's related to the wireless modules and the above package will help alleviate that problem.

Hopefully this remedies the situation.
newt

[MO9013]

OK I didn't have to add the kernel to the system.  I downloaded the updated wicd manager and now when i plug in the stick it doesn't freeze.  At the same time I opened the advance section in profiles and I still had the driver set to ndiswrapper and changed it to wext and everything is working fine.  When I tried ndiswrapper to run it I changed the driver like it told me too.   Thanks for all the help and I will probably need all this again when soho comes out since the kernel you made for me wont be included.