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Re: Airport support in 2.4.x kernel



On Fri, Mar 16, 2001 at 09:46:55PM -0800, thus said Alan DuBoff:
> Bingo! A million thanks for posting that response Tuomas!!!!!!! I went into
> the kernel configuration and saw the auto mount option set to yes, set it to
> no, recompiled and I've just boot for the first time with the 2.4.3-pre3
> kernel.

Whee :) It's always nice to see replies like this! 

> > For the airport stuff, I try to share what I know so far:
> 
> You have set me on the right track here. I have the module now, and was able
> to insmod it, but I don't see any wireless interfaces, so will go to the links
> you gave and RTFM and see if I can get it started.

It is "airport", not eth0 or wavelan0. So you can "ifconfig airport blah
blah"

> I do have the wireless-tools package installed and have iwconfig, just need to
> read up and learn how to use it (assuming similar to ifconfig, but for
> wireless;-).

It is not. It is not for setting the ip and stuff, you use ifconfig for
that, but instead it is for setting the low level hardware stuff, like
frequency and such. Something to get you started again:

# iwconfig airport

airport   IEEE 802.11-DS  ESSID:"Helix"  Nickname:"HERMES I"
          Frequency:2.442GHz  Sensitivity:1/3  Mode:Managed  
          Access Point: XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
          Bit Rate:11Mb/s   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off   
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link quality:31/92  Signal level:-62 dBm  Noise level:-93 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  invalid crypt:0  invalid misc:28480

So here you see the card has a link (the ESSID is showing the network name).
You really want to have some kind of wireless stats applet (or cat
/proc/net/wireless) - freshmeat.net should have lots of wireless stats
stuff, pick your favourite :) I use the plugin for gkrellm system monitor
that shows a nice graph for the wireless signal stregth.

So how iwconfig works? Some examples:

# iwconfig airport essid foobar 

	Sets the network name to something else, you need to use this if
	your base station is using the "private network" setting, so the 
	essid is not visible to everyone.

	This is pretty much the only command you need.

# iwconfig -h 
Usage: iwconfig interface [essid {NN|on|off}]
                          [nwid {NN|on|off}]
                          [freq N.NNNN[k|M|G]]
                          [channel N]
                          [sens N]
                          [nick N]
                          [rate {N|auto|fixed}]
                          [rts {N|auto|fixed|off}]
                          [frag {N|auto|fixed|off}]
                          [enc NNNN-NNNN]

This shows the options you can do with it. Basically the frequency and stuff
should be working without messing around.

> > Anyway, I hope this was useful. Feel free to ask if you have questions,
> 
> Very much so!!!!! Thanks again for the help, you've put me on the right path
> to the wireless promised land...<g>

Yea. And I'm afraid there is no point of return :) It's very convenient to
move to the lawn on summer instead of hacking inside.. The only sucking part
is there is no wireless electricity :^)

Best wishes,

Tuomas

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