Wireless dreams

[Silvine]

Atheros AR5005G wireless card problems on Fedora Core 5. I recently did a fresh install of Fedora Core 5 on my laptop today and after running Software Update I believe to be on the 'latest' kernel 2.6.18

So far, I have tried ndiswrapper and madwifi for opening a wifi connection to my router and failed.

My router has no security features, just a SSID name and is transmitting on channel 11. I disabled WEP to make life easier during the FC5 wifi configuration.

I first followed online instructions to use yum to install madwifi for me. This worked, but there were problems, so many so, that I rpm -e madwifi

I could go on to explain my exploits with ndiswrapper and ifconfig and iwconfig - both very useful tools but the fact that iwconfig fails to work with ndiswrapper (only worked slightly with madwifi) that I finally gave up - it has been since 6am and now it is 12;49pm and I am really tired and bored of trying to get wifi to work.

Does anyone know now how to fix this technological nightmare?

[Duli]

Originally Posted by Silvine

Atheros AR5005G wireless card problems on Fedora Core 5. I recently did a fresh install of Fedora Core 5 on my laptop today and after running Software Update I believe to be on the 'latest' kernel 2.6.18

So far, I have tried ndiswrapper and madwifi for opening a wifi connection to my router and failed.

My router has no security features, just a SSID name and is transmitting on channel 11. I disabled WEP to make life easier during the FC5 wifi configuration.

I first followed online instructions to use yum to install madwifi for me. This worked, but there were problems, so many so, that I rpm -e madwifi

I could go on to explain my exploits with ndiswrapper and ifconfig and iwconfig - both very useful tools but the fact that iwconfig fails to work with ndiswrapper (only worked slightly with madwifi) that I finally gave up - it has been since 6am and now it is 12;49pm and I am really tired and bored of trying to get wifi to work.

Does anyone know now how to fix this technological nightmare?

Hey, man, I don't know how to help you. I'm just writing to say I share your frustration.
Duli

[Brian1]

Things to post. This is a generic list and all may not apply.
Post distro and version.
If updated post using what? Yum, Apt, Uptodater
Post kernel version. Can be using the command ' uname -r '
Brand, model number, and version of the wireless nic. Also if pcmcia, pci, or usb connected.
Output of the command ' /sbin/lspci ' and ' /sbin/lsmod ' and ' /sbin/ifconfig ', and ' /sbin/iwconfig '.
If a pcmcia or usb device plug in the nic and post the last 20 lines of the command ' dmesg '
If installed madwifi how? rpm, deb, or compiled source yourself. Post name of file and where located on the net or if it came preinstalled with distro. Post version of it if so.
If installed ndiswrapper? rpm, deb, or compiled source yourself. Post name of file and where located on the net or if it came preinstalled with distro. Post version of it if so.
If installed wlan-ng? rpm, deb, or compiled source yourself. Post name of file and where located on the net or if it came preinstalled with distro. Post version of it if so.
Now if compiled from source do you have the kernel source installed?
Was there any errors during the build or install?

Now things to do to the router to make as basic as possible.
Turn off wep, wpa, mac filtering, ip filtering, any other security features. If others are disabled list them.
Set it to do dhcp even if you are doing static connection. Once connection is up you can disable dhcp.
List info of the lan side of the router. Lan IP, Netmask, Dhcp IP range.
List brand, model, and version of the router.

Now some distro specifics.
Redhat/Fedora
Contents of /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-***. Replace *** with like eth0, eth1, wlan0, ath0. This depends on the module driver used.

Brian

[Silvine]

Thanks Brian for the help - I am just wondering if the NIC is even supported or if there is a known problem with this card?

At this point in time I have given up in my attempts to get the card working. Especially after my os crashed miserably on load (and during re-installation) after posting details here.

In spite of this fact, any information pertinent to getting my WNIC online is greatly appreciated.

[Brian1]

The card should be able to use the ndiswrapper since it uses the inf driver from windows.

Brian

[Silvine]

Brian1,

Actually, I did not know what *.inf file in XP referred to my wireless card so I just used the atheros (madwifi?) driver I downloaded off the net to 'open up' my wireless card for network scanning.

I dunno - it said some errors were present - but basically, if you tell me what the name of the *.inf file is under windows XP home to use with Ndiswrapper - I may have another bash at installing wireless under FC5.

[Brian1]

It is the file for the nic from the install cd. I do not know the name of it.

Brian

[cmcx]

hellow, form my expirience ndiswrapper dosen't work well with xp drivers. You should try tu use a win98/Me driver instead. Another advice, try to find a tool that extracts the firmawre from a driver and place the frimware in /lib/firmware, if so the kernel module should automaticly load the firmware

[nonstopin98]

2 days ago I down loaded and installed FC6 on a compaq evo N610 and I love it!!! I had a bit of "fun" with ndiswrapper but I was able to get my Limksys PCMCIA card working. I first tryed the winXP .inf which crashed my kernel over and over but when I swapped it out with the win9x .inf it worked great, even loads on boot up (on it right now). If I can help just let me know, but I do think ndiswrapper is the way to go for all windows drivers. Good luck!

[Tuxic]

I see you have an Atheros card, well I wrote an extensive How To for Atheros cards using Fedora Core 5 & 6, you might want to take a look at it (link in my sig), it looks like your best chance for getting things to work

Tuxic