Toshiba Laptop Wifi working without dock, stops working when docked

[T3KH34D]

  Hey everyone! I have a Toshiba Portege 7100 Laptop and dock. I've installed Vector Light 6 and it's running great. I have tried this with several wireless cards. I'm currently using a Linksys with a Broadcom chipset lspci says BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g]. When I boot into Vector when not docked VLwifi finds the NIC and sets up correctly,and I am able to authenticate against both WEP and WPA access points. However when I shutdown and dock the laptop the wifi card moves up a slot from eth0 to eth1. The VL wifi tool configures it correctly, but I am not able to get it to authenticate with any access points. Its really weird because it says it's connected and shows a previously bound IP address. I usually use Debian and other distro's so I'm not sure where to go to look. Does anyone have any idea what Vector uses in the VL wifi application? Does Vector have an interfaces config file where the network cards are declared? I'm thinking that the change in the interface names maybe causing the issues, but I can't find where thats configured. Any help would be great! Thanks!

[caitlyn]

I don't have an answer (my Toshiba works docked or undocked) but I do believe this needs to be in the VL6 Light beta 2 bug thread if you want the developers to see it.  You may want to post again there.  Please remember that Vector Linux Light 6.0 is still in beta and very much a work in progress.

[T3KH34D]

What version of Vector do you have running on your laptop? I'm not opposed to downgrading to a more stable version. Do you know where the interfaces config files are?  I've been looking at the rc.wireless.conf file, but it doesn't show the interface names. I've also looked at the /etc/wireless/interface.conf and it only shows the modules not the interface names.

**EDIT**

  I read in the Wifi thread that the interfaces are set via aliases in /etc/modprobe.conf I'm looking in there and an older alias from a previous card is in there. I did have an Atheros based Belkin before, but it busted. If i remove the entry for ath_pci will modprobe insert the correct module for the Broadcom?

[caitlyn]

I am running both Vector Linux Standard 6 RC4 and Vector Linux Light 6 beta 2 in a dual boot configuration.  I have a different wireless card and a different Toshiba laptop than you do so it's not an apples-to-apples comparison, unfortunately.

Yes, ethernet interfaces are defined through aliases in /etc/modprobe.conf.  On my Toshiba Satellite 1805-S204 I have:

Code:

alias eth0 e100
alias eth1 ath5k

eth1 is my PCMCIA wireless card and that is true both docked and undocked.  My wireless card is an AirLink 101 (model AWLC4030) with an Atheros 5212 chipset so the hardware is different from what you have in every respect. 

I don't know for certain if removing an invalid alias will fix your problem but it's certainly worth a try.  No sense having it in there if you no longer had the card.

[T3KH34D]

Ok I fixed it. I commented out the ath_pci listing in the /etc/modprobe.conf and it reloaded the correct module for my Linksys nic when i rebooted. Thanks for your help caitlyn.

[caitlyn]

I'm glad you got it working.  Oh, and welcome to Vector Linux, BTW!    I think you'll find that people here, in general, are friendly and helpful.

When you solve a problem please take a moment and modify the subject of your original post to include [SOLVED].

Thanks.