Re: Debian Sarge + madwifi : cannot bring up interface ath0
It sounds like the driver for the wireless card is not loaded or that
the card you are using is not a Atheros based card. I am using several
Atheros based cards with those kernels. Try typing "modprobe ath_pci"
before typing "ifup ath0". If it works, you may need to at ath_pci to
the /etc/modules file.
Robert
On Tue, 2005-05-31 at 12:52, Dominique Orban wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am running Debian Sarge on a Pentium 4 laptop with kernels
> 2.6.8-2-386, 2.6.8-2-686 and 2.6.8-2-686-smp. My difficulties with
> wireless networking are identical with all three kernels. I apologize
> in advance if this message is a bit long; I hope to provide useful
> diagnostics.
>
> I have a Netgear WG511T PCMCIA wireless adapter. It has an Atheros
> chipset and thus I use madwifi. I am having difficulties bringing the
> interface up. I initially had the ethernet port eth0 defined as 'auto'
> in /etc/network/interfaces. If the laptop is not connected when I
> boot, I endlessly receive the message:
>
> r8169: eth0: Reset RTL8169s PHY
>
> which is annoying (the built-in ethernet controller is a RealTek
> RTL-8169 Gigabit Ethernet). I thus edited /etc/network/interfaces and
> commented out the 'auto eth0' (is there a bette way around this?). Now
> I just bring eth0 up or down using ifup/ifdown---this is great.
>
> Regarding the wireless card, I installed the madwifi drivers, loaded
> the modules, but 'ifup ath0' gives:
>
> % ifup ath0
> Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1A) :
> SET failed on device ath0 ; No such device.
> Internet Software Consortium DHCP Client 2.0pl5
> Copyright 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 The Internet Software Consortium.
> All rights reserved.
>
> Please contribute if you find this software useful.
> For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/dhcp-contrib.html
>
> sit0: unknown hardware address type 776
> eth1: unknown hardware address type 24
> ath0: ERROR while getting interface flags: No such device
> sit0: unknown hardware address type 776
> eth1: unknown hardware address type 24
> Bind socket to interface: No such device
> exiting.
> Failed to bring up ath0.
>
> % dmesg | grep 'ath0'
> (nothing)
>
> % lsmod | grep 'ath'
> ath_pci 63104 0
> ath_rate_onoe 8840 1 ath_pci
> ath_hal 148592 1 ath_pci
> wlan 121308 2 ath_pci,ath_rate_onoe
>
> % lsmod | grep 'yenta'
> yenta_socket 21728 0
> pcmcia_core 70868 2 ds,yenta_socket
>
> % lsmod | grep 'hotplug'
> pci_hotplug 34640 2 shpchp,pciehp
>
> and the wireless card doesn't show up in 'lspci'. Similarly, 'cardctl
> status' says there is no card in the socket (there is!). 'cardctl
> stop/insert' doesn't help.
>
> A couple questions:
>
> (a) What are these interfaces eth1 and sit0 with unknown addresses?
> (b) Is the pcmcia and/or hotplug modules at fault?
>
> My /etc/network/interfaces is as follows;
>
> ----------------------------------------
> % cat /etc/network/interfaces
> # The loopback network interface
> auto lo
> iface lo inet loopback
>
> # The primary network interface
> #auto eth0
> iface eth0 inet dhcp
>
> # PCMCIA wireless adapter
> iface ath0 inet dhcp
> wireless-essid <my-essid>
>
> # Get the wireless adapter to hotplug
> mapping hotplug
> script grep
> map ath0
> ----------------------------------------
>
> Only one led is blinking on the wireless adapter.
>
> Now if I have the wireless adapter inserted before I boot and if 'auto
> eth0' is enabled, the card is powered, the interface comes up, it
> picks up the correct ESSID, but I never receive any IP address via
> DHCP from my home wireless router (which is configured with dhcp). I
> see messages witnessing attempts from DHCPDISCOVER to receive an
> offer, which never happens. I disabled WEP and WAP, so access should
> be wide open.
>
> I don't have ifplugd, netenv, waproamd or wap_supplicant. (should I?)
> Documentation doesn't seem to help, but I may very well have missed
> something.
>
> What am I missing here? Why can't I hotplug the card?
> I very much appreciate any help. Thanks in advance,
> Dominique
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