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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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