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jh2858
09-30-2008, 02:15 AM
I've got an interesting problem here with My MacBook running the Knoppix 5.3.1 DVD. The wireless card is definitely recognized, but I can't get an IP address.

First things first... when I do an ifconfig fresh after boot only the loopback adapter is shown. So I select "Network/internet configuration" and click the wlcardconfig option. This brings up the "Wireless Configuration" dialog which shows "network card: ath0 (AR5418 802.11abgn Wireless PCI Express Adapter)".

When I click on ESSID, I see a list of nearby wireless networks, and mine is on there so I select it. Then I enter the WPA2 shared key (note: this end result is the same when I select an open network instead of an encrypted one that doesn't require a password). Then I click "IP: Set/Connect". This produces a popup with "ath0 Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5418 802.11abgn Wireless PCI Express Adapter) Obtain address automatically (DHCP)?" I click yes.

The dialog sits there for a minute, then I get "No answer fro DHCP server." and the Wireless Configuration dialog appears again. Click Quit. The Network-Check dialog works again for a minute, then I get "Automatic reconnect to the Internet using WLAN (wireless) setup? Hit Skip for manual setup." I hit "Yes".

This produces the following with ifconfig... notice my wireless card hardware is listed twice, as both ath0 and wifi0. The wifi0 device is actively receiving and transmitting (though I don't know to where!). Does anyone have any ideas here? Thanks much!

ath0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:17:f5:e2:a2:ac
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:6 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:468 (468.0 B)

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:14 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:14 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:700 (700.0 B) TX bytes:700 (700.0 B)

wifi0 Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr 00-17-F5-E2-A2-AC-6C-6F-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:3129 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:409
TX packets:1690 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:195
RX bytes:362819 (354.3 KiB) TX bytes:77286 (75.4 KiB)
Interrupt:17

rusty
09-30-2008, 07:09 PM
A couple things to try:

1. Familiarize yourself with iwconfig, the command line tool for wireless configuration. You can post the output of iwconfig with no options here if you want to and it might give us a clue as to whats going on.

2. Since it appears wifi0 is up , try as root: dhclient wifi0 , from a command line and see if it will obtain an address.

My experience with wireless in linux is that the GUI shells don't often work very well, and the drivers for the cards throw unpredictable results.

Good Luck.