Re: Thinkpad T20 wireless troubles - revisited
Wayne Topa wrote:
> Sjoerd Hiemstra(shiems146@kpnplanet.nl) is reported to have said:
> > On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 Chris Brotherton wrote:
> > > I just recent got an old T20 and I am attempting to use Debian on
> > > it. I am using a PCMCIA orinoco wireless card. Here is the crazy
> > > part. The card is recognized by the installer. The installer
> > > asks me for my essid and my WEP key. After I input the
> > > information, the wireless card get its ip address over dhcp and
> > > then works flawlessly. The trouble comes when I finish the
> > > install and boot the machine. Once the machine comes up, I
> > > cannot get the wireless card to work. iwconfig shows that it has
> > > all of the correct information, but it cannot get an ip address.
> > > I have tried both 4.0r1 and a testing snapshot. Both have the
> > > exact same problem.
> > >
> > > Can anyone help?
> >
> > I just recent got a Thinkpad T30, and now I'm having the same
> > problem, after installing Lenny on it, using a netinstall cd.
> > During bootup I noticed these messages, and there are comparatively
> > long pauses between them:
> >
> > DHCPDISCOVER on wifi0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
> > DHCPDISCOVER on wifi0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12
> > DHCPDISCOVER on wifi0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 14
> > DHCPDISCOVER on wifi0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
> > DHCPDISCOVER on wifi0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12
> > DHCPDISCOVER on wifi0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
> >
> > No DHCPOFFERS received.
> > No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.
> > Done.
> >
> > During other bootups, those interval numbers vary.
> > Personally I have no idea what to make out of this, but could it
> > shed some light on it for others?
>
> You don't give enough information to really help troubleshooting these
> problems. ie Gome or KDE or standard wireless setup. Any useful
> answer depends, at least, on knowing which you are using to connect to
> your AP.
When I purchased the T30, it came with Windows XP pre-installed. Before
I wiped that, I took a look at the way its wireless connections work.
My router is set to WPA-PSK encryption by default, and after entering
the WPA-PSK key the connection was OK. Then again, the laptop had a
label saying 'Designed for Windows XP'. I wonder if the manufacturer
violated standards while adapting to XP.
The Lenny installer only knows WEP encryption, as far as I could see.
So I configured the router to WEP, the installer detected the
connection automatically, and installation from the internet went well.
The installer saw three connection systems in the laptop:
- wireless connection with interface wifi0
- wireless connection with interface eth0
- ethernet connection with interface eth1.
Odd enough, only eth0 worked, not wifi0 as one would expect.
After booting the first time, the connection was lost.
Wireless is new to me, and I understand from your words that I'd better
make a study of standard wireless setup, and possibly try to get the
wired connection working in order to do an 'aptitude install kde' and
explore the possibilities that KDE offers.
Until now, I've only used Gnome's tools to try to re-establish the
connection.
> As I only use /etc/network/interfaces and dhclient to connect to an
> AP, all I can offer is, let us see what that file look like.
Contents of /etc/network/interfaces:
| # The loopback network interface
| auto lo
| iface lo inet loopback
|
| # The primary network interface
| allow-hotplug wifi0
| iface wifi0 inet dhcp
| network 81.207.239.0
| broadcast 81.207.239.255
| # wireless-* options are implemented by the wireless-tools package
| wireless-mode managed
| wireless-essid SX551559148
| wireless-key1 s:1234567890abccba0987654321
| # dns-* options are mplemented by the resolvconf package, if installed
| dns-nameservers 195.121.1.34 195.121.1.66
| dns-search sh
| wireless-key s:1234567890abccba0987654321
|
| iface eth0 inet dhcp
| wireless-essid SX551559148
| wireless-key dde1fefdtc007b83e6ada40098
|
| auto wifi0
s:12345... etc. is the WEP key.
dde1... etc. is the WPA-PSK key.
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