More VL6.0 Wireless Connection Problems

[Martin109]

I've installed VL6.0 STD on a Compaq Evo N620c, and can connect to the internet OK with an ethernet cable using the Wicd manager.

I'm now trying to get wireless to work, and I have a Netgear WG111v2 usb device (0846:6a00).  This needs to be run with ndiswrapper, which I've downloaded and installed, and uses Win98 driver files .inf & .sys, which have been installed: when I issue the command

Code:

ndiswrapper -l

I get

Code:

net111v2 : driver installed
         device (0846:6A00) present (alternate driver: rtl8187)

When I disconnect the ethernet cable and use VASMCC to try and set up wireless, it finds wlan1 and offers to set this up.  I give a name for SSID and my WPA code and it tells me:

Code:

wireless interface wlan0 is configured with address 192.168.0.6

and this is the same address it connects to when using the ethernet cable.

However, I cannot connect wirelessly to the internet, only via cable.

What do I try next?  Is the essid entry critical, ie does it have to be just the same as a string held in the router memory?
 

[nightflier]

There may be a conflict with the rtl8187 driver. See if it's loaded:

Code:

lsmod | grep rtl8187

If it is, unload it with:

Code:

modprobe -r rtl8187

and try again. If it works then, blacklist rtl8187 by adding it to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

[Martin109]

There may be a conflict with the rtl8187 driver. See if it's loaded:

Code:

lsmod | grep rtl8187

If it is, unload it with:

Code:

modprobe -r rtl8187

and try again. If it works then, blacklist rtl8187 by adding it to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

The command lsmod | grep rtl8187 produced no output, so I assume there is no rtl8187 driver present.

[Martin109]

Another confusing thing is that I have a Cisco Aironet adapter available.  If I insert this, removing the Netgear USB unit, and reboot, I can get internet, but not every time.  Sometimes I boot and it's available, *even though Wicd states: 'No wireless networks found'*.  Other times,  when I boot, the Cisco unit does not connect.  The way I'm telling if it's working is looking at my Dropbox toolbar icon; if that gives me a green tick, I know I'm online, whereas Wicd states 'Not connected'!

I think that 'sometimes on, sometimes off, phenomena are the worst to understand!

[hata_ph]

Pls post the output of lspci, lsmod, lsusb with your hardware plugin...

[nightflier]

I agree that intermittent problems are hard to troubleshoot. Not sure what to suggest, but a few observations and opinions:

The vasm utility for setting up wireless looks for any IP address at the end. If you are connected using a cable, it wrongly reports success.

The essid is essential, and has to match the name of your wirleless network.

Older devices often produce flaky connections, especially when using ndiswrapper. People had to resort to ugly hacks to get them working.

The best way to view/check your net connection is at the command line:

Code:

/sbin/ifconfig
/sbin/route
cat /etc/resolv.conf
ping www.google.com

[Martin109]

Thanks, nightflier and hata_ph.

I'll back at that machine on Thursday, so will try your suggestions then.

[Martin109]

Pls post the output of lspci, lsmod, lsusb with your hardware plugin...

Having worked with this Compaq Evo laptop a bit, it seems to be getting better!  I'm using a Cisco Aironet AIR-PI21AG-E-K9 adapter.  When this was used in another laptop running Windoze XP, the green Status and orange Activity lights would flash alternately while the system was booting, but would start to flash together once the internet connection was made.

On this VL6.0 system, the adapter behaves differently.  It will occasionally flash the green Status light while booting, and will then not connect properly.  If, during the booting process, I detach the adapter briefly and then insert it again, the green Status light (only) comes on constantly, and the system will initiate an internet connection, including WAP encryption, successfully.  The orange Activity light does not come on at all when used on this VL6.0 system.

Sometimes, the adapter will turn on its green Status light while the system boots without any help from me, and connects to the internet fine.

So maybe there's some kind of connection issue on a hardware level.  I don't mind the workaround for the moment.

With the system running and connected, the output of command lspci is:

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to I/O Controller (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to AGP Controller (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 83)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500]
02:06.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6933/711E1 CardBus/SmartCardBus Controller (rev 01)
02:06.1 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6933/711E1 CardBus/SmartCardBus Controller (rev 01)
02:0e.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5705M Gigabit Ethernet (rev 01)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5212/AR5213 Multiprotocol MAC/baseband processor (rev 01)

The output of command lsmod is:

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by
ndiswrapper           185372  0
snd_seq_dummy           3716  0
snd_seq_oss            31872  0
snd_seq_midi_event      6912  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                48368  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device          7436  3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss            37408  0
snd_mixer_oss          15104  1 snd_pcm_oss
speedstep_lib           4740  0
acpi_cpufreq            7948  0
freq_table              4352  1 acpi_cpufreq
arc4                    2688  2
ecb                     3584  2
crypto_blkcipher       16516  1 ecb
irtty_sir               5888  0
cryptomgr               3712  0
sir_dev                11780  1 irtty_sir
rtc_cmos               10144  0
irda                  108984  1 sir_dev
rtc_core               15132  1 rtc_cmos
crc_ccitt               2688  1 irda
ath5k                 119048  0
rtc_lib                 3328  1 rtc_core
snd_intel8x0           29980  2
snd_ac97_codec         99492  1 snd_intel8x0
tg3                   119940  0
ac97_bus                2432  1 snd_ac97_codec
mac80211              155548  1 ath5k
led_class               4484  1 ath5k
libphy                 16640  1 tg3
snd_pcm                67972  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec
cfg80211               23688  2 ath5k,mac80211
serio_raw               6020  0
snd_timer              19976  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
i2c_i801                9616  0
snd                    51492  14 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
i2c_core               21268  1 i2c_i801
soundcore               7008  1 snd
snd_page_alloc          8840  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
iTCO_wdt               10916  0
shpchp                 29716  0
pci_hotplug            27040  1 shpchp
parport_pc             35908  0
parport                31724  1 parport_pc
video                  17040  0
output                  3456  1 video
wmi                     6568  0
joydev                 10048  0
evdev                  10144  6

The output of command lsusb is:

Code:

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

The ndiswrapper module was installed because I was going to try using the Netgear usb adapter I had on another machine, but this is not now connected.

The Wicd Network Manager reports 'No Connection', even when it's all working fine.

[Martin109]

The best way to view/check your net connection is at the command line:

Code:

/sbin/ifconfig
/sbin/route
cat /etc/resolv.conf
ping www.google.com

The output of command /sbin/ifconfig is:

Code:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:08:02:d8:07:a6 
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 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:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
          Interrupt:11

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:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

wlan2     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:40:96:a8:de:fd 
          inet addr:192.168.0.4  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:16663 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:9683 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:23536057 (22.4 MiB)  TX bytes:945855 (923.6 KiB)

wmaster0  Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-40-96-A8-DE-FD-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00 
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 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:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

The output of command /sbin/route is:

Code:

Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
192.168.0.0     *               255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 wlan2
loopback        *               255.0.0.0       U     0      0        0 lo
default         192.168.0.1     0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 wlan2

The output of command cat /etc/resolv.conf is:

Code:

# Generated by dhcpcd for interface wlan2
nameserver 192.168.0.1

The output of command ping www.google.com is:

Code:

PING www.l.google.com (209.85.146.106) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from bru01s01-in-f106.1e100.net (209.85.146.106): icmp_seq=1 ttl=54 time=27.3 ms
64 bytes from bru01s01-in-f106.1e100.net (209.85.146.106): icmp_seq=2 ttl=54 time=35.4 ms
64 bytes from bru01s01-in-f106.1e100.net (209.85.146.106): icmp_seq=3 ttl=54 time=31.7 ms
64 bytes from bru01s01-in-f106.1e100.net (209.85.146.106): icmp_seq=4 ttl=54 time=50.4 ms
64 bytes from bru01s01-in-f106.1e100.net (209.85.146.106): icmp_seq=5 ttl=54 time=32.8 ms

--- www.l.google.com ping statistics ---
6 packets transmitted, 5 received, 16% packet loss, time 5006ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 27.353/35.568/50.483/7.903 ms

[nightflier]

According to the network outputs, everything seems to be in order.

In wicd, under Preferences > General Settings > Wireless Interface, does it say wlan2?

[Martin109]

According to the network outputs, everything seems to be in order.

In wicd, under Preferences > General Settings > Wireless Interface, does it say wlan2?

Thanks, nightflier, it said wlan0, until I changed it to wlan2.  Now working fine, and showing the other networks in the neighbourhood,as well as the one I'm using at home!