[vox-tech] Wireless card configuration

[Shawn P. Neugebauer]

Alan,

Welcome.

As a first comment, I suggest moving to RH 7.3.  If you were running it now,
I would suggest you run redhat-config-network and follow the instructions
at 
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-7.3-Manual/custom-guide/s1-network-config-wireless.html
My Orinico worked almost out-of-the-box with RH 7.3.  Part of the ease
was that I was communicating with an already-configured router.

I'll try to offer some helpful comments (possibly helpful to others).  Feel
free to follow-up in email.  Unfortunately, I'm writing this note in a place
where I am not able to verify my comments in a hands-on manner.
What you will read is a combination of notes (written by myself and
from others), memory, and a little bit of poking around.

Before proceeding, make sure you understand the configuration of your
wireless router.  I can't offer too many specifics here (I'm not familiar with
the router you are using), but you are looking for:  keys, the ESSID,
any router-specific configuration that needs to be performed to permit
a wireless device to connect, any DHCP configuration that needs to be
performed, etc.  Also, does the router supply DNS information to the
remote device?  Lots of things that might appear to be a problem
on the RH/Orinico side could actually be problems on the router side.
Make sure you have a way to get access to log info in the router.

You should not need to install software, but this might depend on the
type of installation you did (I'm not sure).  The two key packages are:
kernel-pcmcia-cs and wireless-tools.  Both should be distributed
on the RH disks, and you need only find the packages and do
"rpm -ivh <pkgname>" to install each.  You shouldn't have to build
either of these from source, although you might want to get a more
up-to-date version from the RH errata site, if available, or find more
up-to-date versions elsewhere on the net.  The kernel-pcmcia-cs
package includes basic support for PCMCIA cards, and useful
commands like cardctl (typically installed in /sbin/), good for
"cardctl eject" or "cardctl ident" or "cardctl config" etc.  The
wireless-tools package has useful commands like iwconfig, iwspy,
and iwlist.  You may become acquainted with the first command.

I also did not think you had to install an orinico driver--I thought it
was built-in (I know it is supplied with RH 7.3).  You'll know in a 
moment.

With this software installed, insert the card.  You should get 2
pleasant beeps.  The green light will start flashing--it's looking
for a base station.  The "dmesg" command should show the
right card, automagically detected.  The "lsmod" command should
should an orinico-related driver.  The light turns solid when the
card establishes an ethernet connection with the wireless router,
but you probably will not be able to connect with anything, yet.  If these
parts (all but the solid light) aren't working correctly, get them going
before moving to the rest.

Since you have one card already installed, the second card
will use the "eth1" interface (typically, the first card
picks up "eth0"--keep this in mind for later discussions).  The
"/sbin/ifconfig" command will list the active interfaces.  You
may or may not see the second interface there, yet,
depending on your configuration.

Assuming you do not see two interfaces, you've got some 
configuration to do.  Remove the card after typing "cardctl eject".

You have two options for supplying the configuration options
needed to establish the link.  First, /etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts.
Find the second for Orinico, and change what needs to be
changed, based on your investigation of the router (e.g.,
key, ESSID, etc.).  Second, you can supply this information
on the cmdline using the "iwconfig" command.  I've used
both.  The obvious advantage to the first method is automation.

You also need to supply some interface options.
In /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts, copy ifcfg-eth0 to
ifcfg-eth1.  Edit it; should look like:
  DEVICE="eth1"
  ONBOOT="no"
  BOOTPROTO="dhcp"
  TYPE="Wireless"

With these mods, the pcmcia scripts should attempt, upon
card insertion, to automatically load the correct driver (you already
established this), configure the wireless interface, and get an IP address
via DHCP.  If the system succeeds in doing these things, you
will see a second interface with ifconfig.  Furthermore, if the DHCP
server supplies DNS information, you will see that your
/etc/resolv.conf file has been replaced.  At this point, you should
be well on your way.  You should be able to ping the router, ping
another machine on the network, ping the DNS servers (probably
outside your home), do DNS lookups, etc. (roughly in that order).

I have in the past needed to run dhcpcd, the DHCP client daemon,
manually (dhcpcd eth0) to get the last bit going.  But, this should
be automated in current RH distributions, with proper configuration.

Note that in the last part, your DNS information was temporarily
overwritten by DHCP-supplied results.  Unless you do additional
work to your configuration, the act of inserting the wireless card
will cause the wireless interface to temporarily override the
wired interface.  However, the wired interface should be restored,
effectively (it was never really removed), when the card is ejected.
Since both interfaces are communicating with the same gateway,
I don't think this matters.  However, there are potential complications
in this that might need to be worked out (this is the domain of route--
routing tables, default gateways, etc.).

I think this is enough to get you going in the correct direction.

shawn.

p.s. most of the relevant links i had are out-dated, so i'm not supplying
any here.  but i know there are lots of small "how-to"-type sites out
there that discuss the combination of RH and Orinico--it's very
popular.



On Thursday 22 August 2002 02:07 pm, Alan H. Lake wrote:
> Preliminary:
> This is my first posting to this site.  I set up Evolution, hopefully,
> so that this posting is not HTML.  If it does arrive as HTML, please
> don't flame me, just inform me.
>
> --------
>
> Summary: I need to configure my Orinoco Silver wireless PCMCIA card so
> that it will talk with my Linksys router.
>
> Details:
> I connect to the Internet via cable broadband.  My cable modem is
> connected to a Linksys "Etherfast Wireless Access Point + Cable/DSL
> Router with 4-Port Switch".  This router uses DHCP assigned addresses.
> The router has attached to it (via cable) a Win98 computer and my
> laptop, which runs Red Hat 7.2.
>
> I have two PCMCIA cards for my laptop.  The first card is a Linksys
> Etherfast 10/100 + 56K modem.  I use the Ethernet cable to connect to
> the router.   Works fine.  The other card is an Orinoco Silver wireless
> network card.
>
> I have downloaded files and compiled a module to make the Orinoco card
> work.  The PCMCIA appears to function OK.  What I don't have working is
> the wireless configuration whereby the wireless card talks to the
> router.
>
> I've been struggling with this problem since April.  While doing so, I
> have managed to screw up my PCMCIA so that I had to reinstall my OS
> (because I didn't understand exactly what I was doing.)  Because all of
> my network connections are PCMCIA, I am afraid of doing something that
> will make neither card work, which means that I can't connect to the
> Internet, ask for help or anything.  (I've already done that once.)
>
> Will someone please correspond with me to confirm that both PCMCIA cards
> are indeed working correctly, then help me to examine my router settings
> and settings in /etc/pcmcia files so that I might get my wireless to
> work.  Of course, I allow that there may be a setting somewhere else
> that I also need to set.
>
> Another thing I'd like to be able to do, if it's not a big deal, is to
> set up communications from my laptop to the Win98 machine.  I have
> VMWare and have run several Windoze machines under it, including Win98.
> This means that I have messed with Samba, although I can't claim to be a
> Samba expert.
>
> Thanks, all.
> Alan
>
>
>
>
>
>
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