Just can't figure this out (wireless)...

[marinebro0306]

Hi,
I finally started running Knoppix Live CD, and everything works great with one exception: I can't connect to the internet. I tried everything, but to no avail. This is wireless, and the router is a D-Link DL-624, and the thing in the recieving end is a Linksys PCI card (B). I ran ifconfig, and this was the result:



eth1
Link encap: UNSPEC HWaddr 00-01-08-00-20-01-39-08-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
inet addr: 192.168.0.1 B cast: 192.168.0.255 Mask: 255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MILTICAST MTU: 1500 Metric: 1
RX packets: 0 errors: 0 dropped: 0 overruns: 0 frame: 0
TX packets: 102 errors: 8 dropped: 8 overruns: 0 carrier: 0
collisions: 0 txqueuelen: 1000
RX bytes: 0 (0.0 b) TX bytes: 3672 (3.5 KiB)

eth2
Link encap: Ethernet HWaddr 00:01:08:01:08:6A
inet addr: 192.168.0.1 B cast: 192.168.0.255 Mask: 255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MILTICAST MTU: 1500 Metric: 1
RX packets: 0 errors: 0 dropped: 0 overruns: 0 frame: 0
TX packets: 0 errors: 0 dropped: 0 overruns: 0 carrier: 0
collisions: 0 txqueuelen: 1000
RX bytes: 0 (0.0 b) TX bytes: (0.0 KiB)
Interrupt: 16 Base address: 0xec00

lo
Link encap: Local Loopback
inet addr: 127.0.0.1 Mask: 255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope: Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU: 16436 Metric: 1
RX packets: 406 errors: 0 dropped: 0 overruns: 0 frame: 0
TX packets: 406 errors: 0 dropped: 0 overruns: 0 carrier: 0
collisions: 0 txqueuelen: 0
RX bytes: 29007 (28.3 KiB) TX bytes: 29007 (28.3 KiB)


I've tried several different things, but nothing works. Can someone please give me a step by step tutorial as to what do do?

Thanks in advance!

Specs:
Dell Dimension 8200
Knoppix 5.0.1 CD
2x hard drives
512 MB ram

[ockham23]

You cannot assign the same IP address (192.168.0.1) to two different network adapters. What's the output of
ifconfig -a
iwconfig

[marinebro0306]

OK I did those two, and these were the results: (and for the sake of my hand while copying it down a lot is abbreviated, but understandable)

ifconfig -a


eth0:
Link encap: Ethernet HWaddr 00:06:25:1B:AD:5C
Broadcast multicast mtu: 1500 metric: 1
RX packets, errors, etc: all 0
TX: all 0
collisions: 0 txqueuelen: 1000
RX+TX bytes: 0
interrups: 9 base address: 0x4000

eth1
same as eth0, except:
HWaddr 00:01:08:01:08:6A
interrupt: 16 base addr: 0x2c00

eth2 -00
same as eth0 except:
Link encap: unspec
HWaddr: 00-01-08-00-20-01-39-08-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
TX errors, dropped are 4
no line for interrupt/base addr

lo
Link encap: local loopback
inet addr: 127.0.0.1 Mask: 255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope: host
up loopback running MTU: 16436 Metric: 1
RX+TX packets 62, all else 0
coll.+txqueu: 0
RXbytes: 4300 (4.1 KiB), same with TX

sit0
Link encap: IPv6-in-IPv4
NOARP MTU: 1480 Metric: 1
RX+TX all 0
coll+txqueu: 0
RX+TX byes: 0

And for iwconfig:


lo: no wireless extensions

eth0: IEEE 802.11b ESSID:off/any Nickname: "Broadcom 7301"
Mode: managed access point: invalid Bitrate=1 MB/s
RTS thr: off Fragment thr: off
Link quality, signal level, noise level: 0
RX invalid nwid, crypt, frag: 0
TX excessive retries, invalid misc, missed beacon: 0

eth1, eth2, sit0: same as lo

Keep in mind that this was after a reboot.
Thanks.

[ockham23]

access point: invalidThis doesn't look good, but we can give it try. Log in to the router and disable encryption (we can deal with that later).

su
ifdown eth1
ifdown eth2
iwconfig eth0 essid "mynet" mode Managed channel X
dhclient eth0
mynet= ESSID of your WLAN
X=numeric value for channel

By the way: You don't have to type, just use copy & paste.

[marinebro0306]

access point: invalidThis doesn't look good, but we can give it try. Log in to the router and disable encryption (we can deal with that later).

su
ifdown eth1
ifdown eth2
iwconfig eth0 essid "mynet" mode Managed channel X
dhclient eth0
mynet= ESSID of your WLAN
X=numeric value for channel

By the way: You don't have to type, just use copy & paste.

Few questions: How do I log into the router and disable encryption?
How do I determine the ESSID?
How do I determine the value for my channel?
And all 5 of those lines are seperate entries, right?

I'm not an idiot when it comes to computers, I'm just used to the automation of Windows, and how it determines all this automatically. Bear with me, this is all new to me.
Also I can't copy and paste cause I'm writing this on a different computer...and I would do it on the one with Knoppix on it, but I cant connect to the internet and it takes to long to constantly switch OS's.

Thanks again for your patience.

[rusty]

If the OP could give a bit more info on the hardware setup, for example the output of: lspci -v
, we could get a better idea of whats going on, Also the output of lsmod, to see if drivers for a wireless device have been installed.

[ockham23]

Also I can't copy and paste cause I'm writing this on a different computer...and I would do it on the one with Knoppix on it, but I cant connect to the internet and it takes to long to constantly switch OS'sDo you have a USB thumb drive?

[marinebro0306]

Also I can't copy and paste cause I'm writing this on a different computer...and I would do it on the one with Knoppix on it, but I cant connect to the internet and it takes to long to constantly switch OS'sDo you have a USB thumb drive?
Yeah, didn't think of that.

[ockham23]

Few questions: How do I log into the router and disable encryption? You need a network cable to connect to it and a password to log in.

How do I determine the ESSID? After login, you can retrieve the router's settings.
How do I determine the value for my channel? Same as above.

And all 5 of those lines are seperate entries, right? Yes, each line is a separate command.

[marinebro0306]

If the OP could give a bit more info on the hardware setup, for example the output of: lspci -v
, we could get a better idea of whats going on, Also the output of lsmod, to see if drivers for a wireless device have been installed.
OK I did those two. The outputs were rediculously long, so they are condensed. I will remember to put them on a thumb drive from now on :)

Here is lspci -v

intel corp 82850 850 (tehama) chipset host bridge
intel corp 82850 850 (tehama) chipset asp bridge
intel corp 82850 850 (tehama) chipset pci bridge
intel corp 82801 (tehama) chipset ISA bridge
Intel corp 82801BA IDE U100
intel corp 82801/BAM USB
intel corp 82801/BAM smbus
vga compatible controller: nvidia nv36 geforce fx 5700 le
broadcom corp bcm4303 802.11b wireless lan controller
cirrus logic cs 4614/22/24
3com corp. modem division 56k fax modem model 5610
hint corp hb6 universal pci-pci bridge
realtek semiconductor co, ltd. rtl-8139/8139c/8139c+
texas instruments tsb43ab23 ieee-1394a-2000 controller
nec corp usb
nec corp usb
nec corp usb

And for lsmod:

ipvb
sworks_agp
nvidia_agp
ati_agp
amd_k7_agp
ali_agp
af_packet
dm_mod
fuse
tsdev
hy_random
snd_cs46xx
gameport
snd_rawmidi
snd_seq_device
snd_ac97_codec
snd_ac97_bus
snd_pcm_oss
snd_mixer_oss
snd_timer
shpchp
8139too
mii
8250_pnp
intel_agp
pci_hotplug
snd
i2c_i801
i2c_core
parport_pc
parport
serio_raw
bcm43xx
ieee80211softmac
ieee80211
ieee80211_crypt
8250_pci
8250
serial_core
soundcore
snd_page_alloc
agpgart
ide_floppy
evdev
usbhid
pcmcia
firewire_class
yetna_socket
rsrc_nonstatic
pcmcia_core
video
thermal
processor
fan
container
button
battery
ac
unionfs
cloop
sbp2
ohci1394
ieee1394
usb_storage
ohci_hcd
uhci_hcd
ehci_hcd
usbcore

[marinebro0306]

Few questions: How do I log into the router and disable encryption? You need a network cable to connect to it and a password to log in.

How do I determine the ESSID? After login, you can retrieve the router's settings.
How do I determine the value for my channel? Same as above.

And all 5 of those lines are seperate entries, right? Yes, each line is a separate command.
The cable is connected to the router(downstairs computer, linux is on the upstairs one), and goes to the computer. Also, one goes to a wall outlet. How do I log in? I tried device manager (windows) but there was nothing about logging in.

One thing I noticed under network settings in the control panel is that instead of the ip beint 192.168.0.1, it was 192.168.0.101, and that the physical network address is 00-11-11-D1-76-FE. Perhaps that is relevant?

[RandomGoon]

How do I log in? I tried device manager (windows) but there was nothing about logging in.

Typically, if your router is assigning addresses via DHCP, the address of the router is the same as the gateway IP. Use this in an internet browser instead of the typical URL (instead of using http://<your address here> put in the IP: 192.168.x.x where x.x are relevant to your gateway). At this point you should be requested to input your adminstrator (of the router) account and password. From there you can determine the ESSID and chanel.

HTH,

'Goon

[marinebro0306]

The computer downstairs is my Dad's (im 15), and we recently got fiber optic DSL, as opposed to regular DSL. For this we got a new router, and he doesn't recall making a username/password for it, although it does prompt me for it.

I observed the connections via my PSP, and apparently the SSID (same thing as ESSID?) is called 'default', but it made no mention of a channel. Maybe that will help...

[ockham23]

default? Might be a Netgear router. Username for login usually is "admin", password is "password".

[marinebro0306]

Scary how you know that...
Anyway, the SSID is default, and the Channel is 6. I'll have to change the password, then try out the script you told me.

[marinebro0306]

I did the commands, but to no avail. Here were the responses:

su (nothing, obviously)
ifdown eth1 (interface eth1 not configured)
ifdown eth2 (same as eth1)
iwconfig eth0 essid default mode managed channel 6 (blank)
dhclient eth0 (command not found)

Shouldn't I do the iwconfig eth thing to eth1 though?

[ockham23]

Use "iwconfig" to find the interface that has wireless extensions and replace "eth0" with the correct label. It's "Managed" with a capital "M".
Apparently, dhclient isn't available. Once more, enter command "iwconfig" to find out whether the network adapter is "associated" with "default". If so, run "Configure network card" from the Knoppix menu and confirm "DHCP = Yes".

I use Kanotix, a distro based on Knoppix but designed for hd install. Many packages are different, apparently dhclient is one of them. I prefer Kanotix because you can easily update it to the latest kernel and wireless drivers.

[marinebro0306]

I tried iwconfig and everything after it (correctly) and it said: could not complete SET SSID operation: operation not available (or something like that).
Also, when I do configure network card and confirm DHCP=yes, it says failed after taking a few seconds to do whatever it does.

[ockham23]

could not complete SET SSID operation: operation not availablHm, this indicates a problem with either the driver or the firmware. I have two suggestions:
1. Try installing Windows drivers with ndiswrapper.
2. Download & install Kanotix-2006-Easter-RC4 and update to latest kernel. If it still doesn't work, the developers Kano, slh and kelmo will help you to get it going at http://kanotix.com.

[marinebro0306]

Hmm guess I might just stick with windows. I'll install those drivers and if that doesn't work, oh well. Thanks for the help though!

[Harry Kuhman]

Hmm guess I might just stick with windows. I'll install those drivers and if that doesn't work, oh well.
That's one approach. But if you want an installed Linux that you can install drivers to you might want to look at Debian rather than Knoppix, which is really a Live CD and not recommended for installing or adding drivers. Some other Linux distros are also known to have good wireless support, Mandirva and Ubuntu come to mind.

[marinebro0306]

I thought about Debian. But what if I wanted to revert back to windows if it doesnt work?

[Harry Kuhman]

I thought about Debian. But what if I wanted to revert back to windows if it doesnt work?
I don't understand the problem. If you have the install disc you should be able to revert anytime you want. If you want to keep your Windows system and Install a Linux hard disk distro, if you don't have the disk space, an extra hard drive is pretty cheap now. Knoppix is a great way to get your feet wet with Linux, but it's not the best tool for all users and all problems. The newest version, 5.0.1, seems to be particularly poor at wireless and even previous versions were far from ideal. If you want to try another Live CD, give Mandirva a try, i found that it supports several PCMCIA wifi nics that I have that Knoppix will not recognize. But I still prefer the mix of applications in Knoppix over other Live CDs.

[marinebro0306]

I could revert anytime I want, but wouldn't all my programs and such be erased?
And space isn't an issue; I have 80 gigs left spread about 6 partitions.

[ockham23]

You can have as many operating systems on your hard drive as space permits. That's why people created "GRUB", the GRand Unified Bootloader. Linux is all about choice, Microsoft Windows is not.

[Harry Kuhman]

I could revert anytime I want, but wouldn't all my programs and such be erased?
And space isn't an issue; I have 80 gigs left spread about 6 partitions.
Well, you likely only have 2 physical partitions and then 5 logical drives in the second"extended" partition, as a drive only holds 4 physical partitions. If you have real physical partitions that you can delete then you can easily free up space. If you have all space beyond the first partition assigned to the "extended partition" then just deleting logical drives will not free up that space, it will still be owned by the logical partition, but Debian may be able to create it's partitions in the extended partition. I would suggest that you empty the last one or two (or more) partitions and that way have some free continous space (don't delete the second, foruth and sixth partition, for example). Deleting the files or moving them to another partition isn't enough, you need to delete the empty partitions so the space can be claimed for a Linux partition and a swap partition. Then install Debian and when it gets to the part where it asks about using the disk, tell it to install to availabe disk space.

[marinebro0306]

Makes sense-so I would have to move EVERYTHING in my C: and D: drive into E or others, even all of Windows?

[Harry Kuhman]

Makes sense-so I would have to move EVERYTHING in my C: and D: drive into E or others, even all of Windows?
No, just the other way around. In most cases you'll find that C is a real partition and the first partition on the disk. Then D, E and so on are logical drives in an extended partition, with D in the space closest to C and so on. I know ways to create disks that are structured differently, but in a typical setup that started with a fresh drive this is how the partitions will lay. What you want to do is create as much free space as you can, it should all be together, not segmented across the disk, But moving stuff out of C and D will be hard (and still keep Windows working). And even if you could all the space would not be together, some would be fee on the disk where C was and other space, although right next to it, would be in the extended partition and the space from D could not be simply combined with the other space from C. Better would be to move stuff out of the last partition(s), starting at G in a case of 5 partitions, and put it on C or D if you want to keep it. Then when it is empty delete the G Microsoft partition. Then same for F if you want to free more space.

Of course, if you are talking about getting rid of all of Windows then it becomes very easy, and there is even an option in the Debian installer that will let you use the entire disk (of course, that wipes out what ever was there), but I thought that was what you are trying to avoid.

As I say, I think that Debian is fine with reusing the newly free space within the logical partition and creating the Linux partition and the swap partition there. If not then you would need some tool to shrink the logical partition and get back the free space to create physical partitions, but I'm pretty sure this will not be needed.

[marinebro0306]

Well, I'm getting a new computer in a few days. So, what the heck. I'll probably wipe the drive and use just linux. A few questions though:
1. Can I run Flash 8, AutoCAD 2007 Maya and my other programs I need for school in it (via Wine?)
and 2. I'm going to back up my 15gb of music onto a DVD-that can be imported to Debian, right?

And thanks guys, you have really been a huge help. I think this will finally work.

[Harry Kuhman]

1. Can I run Flash 8, AutoCAD 2007 Maya and my other programs I need for school in it (via Wine?)
and
I don't know. Wine doesn't work for everything. Can't you try the things that you want to know about under Knoppix?


2. I'm going to back up my 15gb of music onto a DVD-that can be imported to Debian, right?
Knoppix reads the standard ISO 9660 file system used for normal data disc writing just fine. I suspect it will read any format that you could write under windows but I'm not 100% sure of that. As long as you stick to the standards though you'll be fine. I expect that you'll want to network your old and new systems together anyway, so you should be able to read anything you write under Windows and then transfer what you want to Linux.

[marinebro0306]

OK I'm actually getting it now. After crawling through the internet, I realized that I have to use ndiswrapper to make it work. I found my drivers, but I think I have some old ones installed...I just am figuring out the internet in Knoppix so I know what to do in Debian.