Get wireless networking going?

[Lilt]

I'm trying to run Knoppix on a machine (windows HD died could get virtually nothing from it) with a DWL-510 wireless network card. Essentially: It's not working, I'll give you the various diagnostic outputs in a minute. Right now I have it connected via a cable to the motherboard's own network card, but this is causing a fair bit of clutter which I'd like to remove if possible.

The card itself has been the bane of my Linux use, as it thwarted my first few attempts to get Linux running as my primary OS back in 2000 or so. I'm thus fully willing to consider the possibility of getting a new card, if someone can name for me an exact card type that will work under Knoppix. This is partially also due to the fact that the windows drivers for the card crashed some software I used to run.

I had a look at the Networking FAQ and was a little intimidated and disheartened. Getting the drivers from the windows seems unlikely, as that drive is really quite far gone... Sometimes I can get scraps, but after a little access it just locks-up and is inaccessible until a reboot is done.

Here are what I hope are appropriate diagnostics, I don't know how much they'll help:

00:00.0 Host bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AGP (different version?) (rev c1)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 80ac
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0
Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
Capabilities: [40] AGP version 3.0
Capabilities: [60] HyperTransport: Host or Secondary Interface

00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 1 (rev c1)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 80ac
Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel

00:00.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 4 (rev c1)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 80ac
Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel

00:00.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 3 (rev c1)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 80ac
Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel

00:00.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 2 (rev c1)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 80ac
Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel

00:00.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 5 (rev c1)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 80ac
Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel

00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 ISA Bridge (rev a4)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. A7N8X Mainboard
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0
Capabilities: [48] HyperTransport: Slave or Primary Interface

00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation nForce2 SMBus (MCP) (rev a2)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 0c11
Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel, IRQ 5
I/O ports at dc00 [size=32]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2

00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. A7N8X Mainboard
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
Memory at e7087000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2

00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. A7N8X Mainboard
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
Memory at e7082000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2

00:02.2 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. A7N8X Mainboard
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
Memory at e7083000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: [44] Debug port
Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2

00:04.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Ethernet Controller (rev a1)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. A7N8X Mainboard onboard nForce2 Ethernet
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
Memory at e7086000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
I/O ports at e000 [size=8]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2

00:05.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation nForce Audio Processing Unit (rev a2)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 0c11
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 12
Memory at e7000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2

00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AC97 Audio Controler (MCP) (rev a1)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. nForce2 AC97 Audio Controler (MCP)
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
I/O ports at e400 [size=256]
I/O ports at d000 [size=128]
Memory at e7080000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2

00:08.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 External PCI Bridge (rev a3) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=32
I/O behind bridge: 00009000-0000afff
Memory behind bridge: e5000000-e6ffffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 50000000-500fffff

00:09.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation nForce2 IDE (rev a2) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 0c11
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0
I/O ports at f000 [size=16]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2

00:0d.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): nVidia Corporation nForce2 FireWire (IEEE 1394) Controller (rev a3) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 809a
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
Memory at e7084000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
Memory at e7085000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AGP (rev c1) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32
Bus: primary=00, secondary=03, subordinate=03, sec-latency=32
I/O behind bridge: 0000c000-0000cfff
Memory behind bridge: e3000000-e4ffffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: d0000000-dfffffff

01:04.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8001 Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 13)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Asus)
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 20
Memory at e6000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
I/O ports at 9000 [size=256]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at 50080000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [48] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [50] Vital Product Data

01:08.0 Ethernet controller: D-Link System Inc DWL-510 2.4GHz Wireless PCI Adapter (rev 20)
Subsystem: D-Link System Inc Unknown device 3301
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 11
I/O ports at 9400 [size=256]
Memory at e6004000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

01:0b.0 RAID bus controller: Silicon Image, Inc. SiI 3112 [SATALink/SATARaid] Serial ATA Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 809d
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 16
I/O ports at 9800 [size=8]
I/O ports at 9c00 [size=4]
I/O ports at a000 [size=8]
I/O ports at a400 [size=4]
I/O ports at a800 [size=16]
Memory at e6005000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at 50000000 [disabled] [size=512K]
Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2

03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R300 ND [Radeon 9700 Pro] (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 0002
Flags: bus master, stepping, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 21
Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
I/O ports at c000 [size=256]
Memory at e4000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at e3000000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [58] AGP version 3.0
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

03:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R300 [Radeon 9700 Pro] (Secondary)
Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 0003
Flags: stepping, 66MHz, medium devsel
Memory at d8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [disabled] [size=128M]
Memory at e4010000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=64K]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

eth0 Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr 00-E0-18-00-00-74-D2-54-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:8 dropped:8 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0E:A6:C5:4C:9E
BROADCAST MULTICAST 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 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:18 Base address:0xc000

eth2 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0E:A6:C5:78:F4
inet addr:192.168.1.102 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::20e:a6ff:fec5:78f4/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:3874 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2361 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:880196 (859.5 KiB) TX bytes:650689 (635.4 KiB)
Interrupt:20

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:62 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:62 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:3100 (3.0 KiB) TX bytes:3100 (3.0 KiB)
lo no wireless extensions.
eth0 no wireless extensions.
eth1 no wireless extensions.
eth2 no wireless extensions.

[Harry Kuhman]

If you are making any wireless choices based on Knoppix, you are likely in for trouble. I have a wireless card that worked under 4.02 but stopped working under all versions of 5.x. I also find that several other wireless cards that I have that Knoppix never worked with work find under other hard disk installed versions of Linux and even other Live CD versions. I suggest trying a few alternate Live CD versions to see if you current card isn't now well supported after all (I would start with BackTrack 2, Mandriva and Puppy Linux, in that order). If you do come to the conclusion that your old card just isn't going to be supported, I would suggest either finding something that will work with a more wifi-friendly version of Linux or at the very least waiting until the next release of Knoppix (expected "real soon now"(tm)), otherwise you might get something that somehow does work with the current version but stops working when things change again.

[Lilt]

Thanks for your insight. perhaps it is a bit hasty to buy a network card based on Knoppix's compatibilities, but if you haven't gathered I don't really like this wireless network card. It's given me nothing but hassle whenever I try and use it, and I didn't manage to get it working at-all under Linux the last time I tried either. Meanwhile, I'm sure there are cards out there with the most common chipsets, which would have a much higher chance of being focused on.

Still, you're right that Knoppix isn't the only LiveCD out there. I'll try downloading some others and seeing if they can find it.

BTW: What's the difference between the CD and DVD versions? Would the DVD version be likely to contain drivers for more obscure model chip-sets?

Right now I'm still on the process of trying to figure-out what's still usable HD-wise. I'm willing to try and get the card running whilst I'm waiting for the various diagnostic/recovery programs I'm using to run/recover, perhaps more if I get somewhere. The program had a secondary disk with 2 partitions, and I just got a .5 TB SATA drive which I might put into that machine and see what I can get of the other disks contents'.

Hmm... After a few hours of poking around, I've finally gotten ndiswrapper to say that there's a card there, but it doesn't show-up under iwconfig. Ideas?

[Harry Kuhman]

BTW: What's the difference between the CD and DVD versions? Would the DVD version be likely to contain drivers for more obscure model chip-sets?
AFAIK the DVD version has lots more programs but I believe the kernel and drivers are the same. And I have no insight to offer on what your next step should be under Knoppix, since I can't get my card working either.

As to a card to buy, I can't make any recommendation. In part because I find wireless so messed up in 5.x that I wouldn't want to see anyone spend money on my recommendation and hope to get knoppix wireless working, and in part because of a tremd by almost all manufacturers to release cards based on different chip sets under the same model number (slipping in a different "version" number). You often can't get trhe version number from the outside of the package and will likely never find it when buying mail order, so if you still want to go with a new card I suggest dealing with a local retailer who will let you try before you buy, or who at least has a return policy that doesn't involve a restocking fee.

There are many websites that claim to tell you which chip set is in which card and how well each is supported under Linux. I can't speak to how accurate any of them are. If you want to find that information then I suggest starting with Google and searching for linux and chipset and wifi or wireless.

[Lilt]

Hmm... I've managed to get a step further, and it's now reporting that it can intermittently see someone's wireless router. Sadly, it's still not seeing my linksys router... Possibly a signal strength thing, I might have to try and secure the aerial a bit more firmly (another reason to want a new card - the aerial is a bit loose and falls off if not secured).

I've also been trying to get WPA working, with no luck, so it is disabled on my router for the time being.

The issue that I was having was that the guides I was reading seemed to be expecting that I would not have the ndiswrapper already running. When I ran "modprobe ndiswraper", it was thus doing nothing. With "modprobe -r ndiswrapper" then "modprobe ndiswrapper", it finally reported finding wlan0.

Got BackTrack 2 downloaded and burnt, going to try and use it today.

[Lilt]

Update: BackTrack 2 finds the card, and I can get it doing a basic scan that shows-up the other router (not mine) it doesn't seem to be able to obtain an IP address. Might probe more later, right now I'm burning Mandriva.

[noobtolinux]

Try wpa_supplicant -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -i wlan0 -D wext -dd where wlan0 is the wireless card. There seems to be an issue with calling ndiswrapper, as I used, but I got it to work with wext. It might help. Also, make sure that your wpa_supplicant.conf file is configured correctly. I am using WPA AES. For that to work I had to set up pairwise and group as CCMP only. Plus, make sure that the password is entered in hex format and without quotes. Here's what I have:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant

#COFFEE SHOP - Using simple WEP
network={
ssid="COFFESHOP"
key_mgmt=NONE
wep_tx_keyidx=0
wep_key0=6644565378
}

#HOME - Using WPA AES
network={
ssid="HOME"
proto=WPA
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=CCMP
group=CCMP
#psk="willubethere4ever"
psk=365342f8362524e1834abbd953edaf8979c4de38d7601f abb30a84d769953bb3
priority=2
}

Obviously the ESSID and PSK are not what I actually use, but these are to demonstrate my setup. Let me know if it helps.