antiX-forum

Hey, all --

Before I give you my absolute general question, you should know that I am running Lysistrata on a Dell Inspiron 5000e that I essentially put together from pieces that were being tossed and, frankly, this distro never fails to impress me.

Now my question:

I just put in a wireless card in the machine where the modem used to go, and I'm having a hell of a time trying to get it to work (the ethernet connection is great -- I'm writing this while hooked up at the computer lab at Cabrillo College where I'm a 50-year-old computer science freshman, but that's another story).

So rather than waste anyone's time at this moment (ha ha), I was wondering if there's a kind of general "This is wireless on Linux" guide or tutorial where I can find out what I'm actually doing wrong and then ask those who might know a specific question other than "Hey, it doesn't work."

Does anyone know of such a tutorial or guide?

Thanks.

Larry Cafiero
AntiX user since 2007

Let's find out if your wireless card has an alias. Open a terminal, become root, and do

Code: Select all

iwconfig

It should be pretty obvious if your card has an alias.

If your card does not have an alias (the output will simply list your devices with captions along the lines of "no wireless extensions") you will need drivers for your card (get from the manufacturer's website - you need a .sys and .inf file). You will then need to use ndiswrapper to get it installed.

Let us know how this works out and I/we can help out further.

john

Try this:
http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/ ... connection

John --

After becoming root (what a feeling of power!) and running iwconfig I get this:

lo no wireless extensions

wlan0 RT2500 Wireless ESSID:""
Mode: Managed Frequency=2.412GHz Bit Rate 11Mb/s Tx-Power:0 dBm
RTS thr: off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Link Quality=0/100 Signal level:-120 dBm Noise level:-80 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 RX invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

eth0 No wireless extensions

Thanks, moron, the Mepis link -- I'll take a look at that now, but I thought that the above iwconfig might mean something.

Larry Cafiero
AntiX user since 2007

Have a look here Larry.

http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/ ... 00_chipset

and set it up in Mepis Network Assistant under wireless and interfaces

Menu>Admin/Tools>Mepis Utilities>Network

Thanks, all, for your help. I have to wave the white flag of surrender for the moment, since I have to concentrate on final exams at school before trying to get the wireless to work.

Incidentally, I'm not without Internet connection, because I can connect via an ethernet connection and a PCMCIA card.

I will try the wireless again after school ends. Meanwhile, I'll also be poring over the information in this forum and elsewhere, and I'm grateful for your input. Thanks all.

Larry Cafiero
AntiX Forum Member No. 100