Thinkpad 600E VL6 Linksys WPC54G wireless card not connecting to AP

[toigwan]

Thinkpad 600E Laptop
Vector Linux 6.0 Standard

added kernel parameters: acpi=off pnpbios=off
installed Linksys 54G wireless card driver LSTINDS.INF via ndiswrapper

VLWifi is unable to obtain IP address
dhcpcd wlan0 is also unable to obtain IP address

wireless AP is WEP, using command line in terminal iwconfig wlan0 essid xx mode managed key xx
causes system to freeze.

Tested at public APs.  Wicd is inconsistent.  Sometimes will see all APs.
terminal command line iwlist wlan0 scan will see all APs.
Trying to connect in terminal still causes system to freeze.

If anyone has some suggestion to getting connected to wireless AP, it would be appreciated.
I tested laptop with Debian Lenny, Zenwalk 5.2 and Wolvix 1.1.0.  Terminal command dhcpcd/dhclient was able to obtain IP in those distros.

Thank you
B

[caitlyn]

What chipset does your Linksys card use?  Which driver?  Please post the output of lsmod and ifconfig -a. 

[toigwan]

Hi caitlyn,

Thanks for responding.  I ended up trying Xubuntu 9.04 and Zenwalk 6.0 also.  They both produced the same results.
How would I determine the chipset / driver of the wireless card?

Right now I am using VL 5.9 and everything works.  It would seem that the trouble persists with newer linux distros.  Only newer distro that worked was Debian Lenny, but that required a recompile of ndiswrapper and would hang during boot.

My only qualm with VL 5.9 is that it's not as smooth as VL 6.

And to address lsmod and ifconfig -a.

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by
3c59x                  40616  0
mii                     5376  1 3c59x
apm                    18780  2
ndiswrapper           185500  0
snd_cs4236             14252  2
snd_opl3_lib           10496  1 snd_cs4236
snd_hwdep               7812  1 snd_opl3_lib
snd_cs4236_lib         15360  1 snd_cs4236
snd_wss_lib            25088  2 snd_cs4236,snd_cs4236_lib
snd_mpu401_uart         7680  1 snd_cs4236
snd_rawmidi            19872  1 snd_mpu401_uart
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  5 snd_opl3_lib,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss            37408  0
snd_pcm                67972  3 snd_cs4236_lib,snd_wss_lib,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer              19976  4 snd_opl3_lib,snd_wss_lib,snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc          8840  2 snd_wss_lib,snd_pcm
snd_mixer_oss          15104  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd                    51492  19 snd_cs4236,snd_opl3_lib,snd_hwdep,snd_cs4236_lib,snd_wss_lib,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mixer_oss
soundcore               7008  1 snd
speedstep_lib           4740  0
freq_table              4352  0
rtc_cmos               10144  0
i2c_piix4               8592  0
rtc_core               15132  1 rtc_cmos
i2c_core               21268  1 i2c_piix4
rtc_lib                 3328  1 rtc_core
shpchp                 29716  0
pci_hotplug            27040  1 shpchp
evdev                  10144  0

ifconfig -a listed lo and wlan0, but since I could not get connected, I plugged in my 3com ethernet card (3c59x) and that appeared as eth0 or eth2.

[caitlyn]

The output of lsmod indicated you are using ndiswrapper.  That should only be used for cards not supported by Linux which, based on your result, this might very well be.  First, you need to download the Windows driver for your card.  That will have to come from the manufacturer's website.

Instructions for setting up ndiswrapper are here:
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/ndiswrapper/index.php?title=HowTos

The kernel team deliberately disabled ndiswrapper in kernel 2.6.24 and above as it is Linux Torvalds' contention that it violates the GPL.  (FWIW, he is almost certainly correct.)  There is a kernel patch to get around it but you are probably going to end up compiling a custom kernel to make this work.

Yes, we can help you get through all the steps.  Get the Windows driver, follow the how-to, and post again if and when you get stuck.  (Also post if it just works

[hata_ph]

what is the output of lspci, lspcmcia, lsusb....

[rbistolfi]

He has both, ndiswrapper and a linux driver inserted into the kernel. The device will never work with both modules inserted. You have to pick one and blacklist the other.

Code:

3c59x                  40616  0
ndiswrapper           185500  0

[caitlyn]

Um... no.  3c59x is for wired Ethernet.  I use one of those on my ancient Libretto.  Wired can be a Linux supported card and wireless can still use ndiswrapper.

I'm afraid the lack of responses may mean toigwan gave up   I hope not.

[rbistolfi]

OOps, my google fu failed
Sorry