*Utter Newbie Help Required* - Wireless Internet

[andywhitehurst]

Hi there

Having just made the leap from WinXP to Fedora 3 Core, I'm having some trouble connecting to the internet (pretty vital seeing as almost every howto starts 'download this').

I've googled this topic and searched various forums but most articles I find assume a certain competency with linux that I just don't have, so I'm going to pose the question myself;

I am using a dlink DWL-G520+ wireless card to connect to the adsl router in my house. As far as I can tell, fedora hasn't detected it (nothing appears in the hardware browser) and when I attempt to add a new device, despite choosing 'wireless connection' I only get the option of ethernet adapters (which i don't have). Am I missing some vital component? Is this anywhere near enough information to help me?

Thanks

Andy

[andywhitehurst]

OK so far I've managed to determine that my wireless card requires the acx100 drivers (http://acx100.sourceforge.net/) so I've downloaded the most recent file (0.2.0.pre8_plus_fixes_50) in a .tar.gz file... unfortunately I have no idea what to do with this file...

[dickinsd]

Hi andywhitehurst

I have installed a Dlink dwl-520+ that also used the acx100 drivers/firmware, I found this page to be an invaluable source of information for devices that use this driver:

http://www.houseofcraig.net/acx100_howto.php

I also listed the basic command steps in this post:

http://www.linuxjourney.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=136&forum=6

I would definately suggest you stop by the House of Craig (http://www.houseofcraig.net/acx100_howto.php) (the first link)

Dave

[andywhitehurst]

Thanks Dave, those pages are really helpful

The only problem I have occurs when I try to verify my build environment; the command "gcc --version" returns "-bash: gcc: command not found"

Am I to understand that I am missing my gcc compiler? On my FC3 dvd, in fedora/rpms/, there are various packages called gcc**.i386.rpm - is one of these what I need to install?

Andy

[edit] I installed gcc-3.4.2-6.fc3.i386.rpm from the dvd and "gcc --version" now returns the correct output (according to craig's guide). I'll continue and see how far I get :)

[andywhitehurst]

same problem again, this time with emacs: command not found

i'm going to try installing an emacs rpm again and see where i get

[andywhitehurst]

hehe, one more problem; when running ./start_net i get Error: wlan0 failed to associate, can't use DHCP for IP address

[andywhitehurst]

ok, seeing as this is being ignored i'll plug away myself ;)

i've now got the card working but can't find any base stations using iwlist wlan0 scan and yes, my router is set to broadcast its SSID

any ideas? anyone?


[edit] one other thing: when browsing /var/log/messages/ after running ./start_net there is the message

Polling for an IRQ FAILED with 0, cmd_status 1, irqs_active 1, irqs_status 0. Bailing.
is this of any significance?