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Re: problems with deXlan (Intersil) wifi pcmcia card

J.Keßler wrote:


Hello Bernard,
I'm not a complete expert since I got my WLAN stuff working via GNOME tools I suggest you try the instructions which can be found here: 

http://wiki.debian.org/WPA
Since we don't know which version of Debian you use, you have to decide yourself which instructions will suit your problem best.
Even though it is an old machine (Thinkpad 600), I have recently installed Debian Etch (4.0) on it, with kernel 2.6.18
Also it would be helpfull to write which commands and settings you alread executed and set. Also in which files.
I have not executed and set much, since most things were already installed with the distro. I went to the wiki/debian/wpa doc, where it is suggested to use 'wext' together with wpa_supplicant. However, I don't have 'wext' on that system. I have 'wext' on my Desktop on Debian Sarge, but not on my laptop with Debian Etch, and I can no longer find any wext package, since it does not seem to belong to the Etch system and the Sarge files are no longer available, or if they are, I don't know where to get them from. In any case, even with the 'backports' options, apt-cache search wext gives nothing. However, if I write, in my /etc/network/interfaces file : 

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
   wpa-driver wext
   wpa-ssid Livebox-46db
   wpa-psk 7795.......
a /etc/init.d/networking restart does not seem to complain about non existing 'wext' package. Here is what I get: 

Reconfiguring network interfaces... SIOCDELRT: No such process
There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.wlan0.pid with pid 4218
killed old client process, removed PID file
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.4...
wifi0: unknown hardware address type 801
wifi0: unknown hardware address type 801
Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:02....
Sending on LPF/wlan0/00:02....
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 6
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 15
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 14
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 9
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 10
No DHCPOFFERS received
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping
done.



Johannes

Bernard schrieb:


Hi to Everyone,
I have given up any further attempts to get my router 'fonera' to work in a client mode to wirelessly connect to various networks. Instead, I am now 
trying to get a wifi card working.

I got a 'deXlan' pcmcia 802.11b card. It seems to get reckognized right
away, as 'pccardctl ident' says:

Socket1
product info: 'INTERSIL" "HFA384x/IEEE" "version 01.02
manfid 0x0156, 0x0002
function 6 (network)
MAC: 00026F...
FCC ID: NI3-2511CD-PLUS

#iwconfig

lo    no wireless extensions

irda0    no wireless extensions

wifi0    IEEE 802.11b ESSID: "test"
    Mode:Master Access Point: Not Associated Bit Rate:11 Mb/s
    Sensitivity=1/3
    Retry min limit:8 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
    Encryption key: off
    Power Management: off

wlan0    IEEE 802.11b ESSID: "test"
    Mode:Master Access Point: Not Associated Bit Rate:11 Mb/s
    Sensitivity=1/3
    Retry min limit:8 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
    Encryption key: off
    Power Management: off
    Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
    Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
    Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

*****************************
I suppose that the interface that interrests me for my purpose is wlan0 (I don't know what irda0 and wifi0 are for ; I don't have anything like that 
on my desktop: just one interface ra0).

In my system, I have hostap and hostap_cs modules loaded. These are
said to be proper drivers for my pcmcia wifi card. But I still don't
know how to get that card to wirelessly connect to my DSL box. To do so, I have tried to use commands similar to those in the 'interfaces' file on my 
Desktop, but this does
not work, and some commands are not reckognized :

******************
/etc/network/interfaces :

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp

****************
with this above abreged 'interfaces' file,
if I run ifup wlan0, I get :

wifi0: unknown hardware address type 801
wifi0: unknown hardware address type 801
Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:02....
Sending on LPF/wlan0/00:02....
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 20
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 17
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
No DHCPOFFERS received
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping

*********************

Now, I knew that my wifi card could not connect to my DSL box that way,
since there is no mention of ssid or keys in my interfaces file, and
that, of course, my DSL box is not set to open. But then, if I add those
mentions as they figure in the config file of my desktop, I get a reply
saying that such commands are unknown :

the following line, added to the 'interfaces' file:

pre-up iwpriv wlan0 set AuthMode=WPAPSK
etc...
generate the following error : 'invalid command SET'. If I remove 'SET', I 
get 'invalid command AuthMode'...

I wonder if 'wpasupplicant', which appears to be installed on my system,
does intervene in this process, and if it would be wise to wonder if and
how I should modify a config file in there

I have found no doc concerning the hostap driver and daemon, there is no
man page and no doc or readme file installed.

Thanks in advance for any useful input

Bernard
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