WG511T and MadWifi problems on Fedora 8

[Gilmore_tj]

After completing a clean installation of F8 without fault. I am attempting to get a Netgear Wg511T wireless network PCMCIA card working using the MadWifi driver.

I have followed a number of similar instructions that have involved the compilation of the ath_pci, wlan & ath_hal KO files (such as http://madwifi.org/wiki/UserDocs/FirstTimeHowTo). The installation had to be completed manually with the relocation of the .ko files to the net folder for modprobe to collect and insert them into the kernel. However, attempting to create interfaces the system reports 'No such device'.

Booting up with the nic inserted results in a irqbalance failure but without the nic inserted the system reports wlan - device not found.

[nyjetshead]

Assume you updated F8 after installation.
Various issues with irqbalance were fixed by updates.

Need to blacklist ath5k

echo "blacklist ath5k" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

[Gilmore_tj]

Thanks nyjetshead for the advice but unfortunately this has not resolved either issue. We have wiped the machine and completed a fresh install with the wireless card inserted into the PCMCIA slot. This appears to have enabled us to proceed further with the MADWifi install than we had previously managed but does not enable us to establish a connection.

The report we get now is that no IP address can be obtained. The connection information including the WEP key are consistent with other (Windows-based) systems we have.

IRQBalance still reports a failure on shutdown. On startup we also get a report that IRQ 11 is disabled 'but nobody cared'. This is followed by the error report 'Bringing up Interface wlan0: Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06): SET failed on device wlan0; Invalid argument.'
It then goes on to report, unsurprisingly, "Determining IP info for wlan0 failed".

[nyjetshead]

The other thing I forgot to mention was to be sure that the bios on the machine is up todate.

Did you install madwifi by using yum install kmond-madwifi?

Can you run wired and does the error occur this way?

[Gilmore_tj]

1) The machine is quite old (circ. 2000) but the Bios is upto date.
2) The machine can connect to my home network via a wired PCMCIA card.
3) We downloaded madwifi from the official website. Extracted it to the harddisk, built and installed it as per the instructions. First attempt was followed by the first item on this thread. Second time followed receipt of your advice.

Thanks for your help.

[nyjetshead]

Try this...

Delete wlan0 interface from System> Administration>Network

Reboot and try connecting using network manager.(assumed you have it installed)

The boot error should away, Network manager will now control the the wireless connection.

You should get a request for the keyring password. If not set suggest setting it to the same as your login password.
After the password is entered network manager will ask for your wep key enter it without delimiters.

[Gilmore_tj]

Latest Update - still unresolved

After obtaining a copy of the Fedora 8 Bible, which included an installation DVD, we rebuilt the Dell Inspiron 7500 with the Netgear WG511T wireless network card inserted. Once installed we downloaded Madwifi and installed it (not using yum).

The network card is not recognised as Atheros, local wireless networks are visible including our own through the Wireless Assistant but we cannot connect to our network. We have attempted to connect through a variety of WEP keys and other settings but without joy.

We do not see and IRQ faults and the 'UNRECOGNISED SETTING' fault appears to be related to the way the card obtains its connection settings. Setting it to managed after entering the settings by hand appears to work.

[nyjetshead]

Stuff in the books can be stale...
Which chipset do you have? /sbin/lspci

[Gilmore_tj]

Problem Resolved - Thanks for all your help.

On the issue of the DVD in the F8 bible: The book was new out Jan 2008 and as far as I can tell has the same distro as I took from the FC8 website just before Xmas.

That said, the latest change was to correct the WEP key by changing an 'S' to a '5' in the hex code (simple transcription error) and 'presto' we have wireless connection.

I think the knack is the ensure you have the correct verison of MadWifi and have it correctly installed. The latest DVD had it already as part of the Distro so work OOTB.