Wireless Woes

[McChubby]

Hey everyone,

I've not been using my C3200 for ages, but recently decided to get "interested" again, so...

I still cannot make-up my mind as to which ROM suits me best, so went round the "loop" of checking-out the latest and greatest stuff.

While doing this I tried the latest Angstrom (5th May) and Hentges 1.0.0 (11th Nov 2006) both OPIE and GPE.

Now, with both Angstrom and Gentges GPE, I can configure my Pretec Wifi CF, with WEP and a non-broadcastable SSID and it works first time and reliably.  However with Hentges OPIE it will never work - the card's led continues to flash, and dmesg reports:

Code: [Select]

eth0: New link status: Association Failed (0006)Wellenreiter with OPIE works perfectly, the cards led stays constantly on, and all neighbouring wi-fi hubs are detected.  Once I exit Wellenreiter, the problem begins again.

lsmod snippet shows:

Code: [Select]

hostap_cs              55156  0
hostap                111108  1 hostap_cs
ieee80211_crypt         5088  1 hostap
orinoco_cs             12260  1
orinoco                39988  1 orinoco_cs
hermes                  6368  2 orinoco_cs,orinocoDoes this have something to do with WEP/SSID; I have limited experience on how to debug this problem - any suggestion are really appreciated.

M

[koen]

Hey everyone,

I've not been using my C3200 for ages, but recently decided to get "interested" again, so...

I still cannot make-up my mind as to which ROM suits me best, so went round the "loop" of checking-out the latest and greatest stuff.

While doing this I tried the latest Angstrom (5th May) and Hentges 1.0.0 (11th Nov 2006) both OPIE and GPE.

Now, with both Angstrom and Gentges GPE, I can configure my Pretec Wifi CF, with WEP and a non-broadcastable SSID and it works first time and reliably.  However with Hentges OPIE it will never work - the card's led continues to flash, and dmesg reports:

Code: [Select]

eth0: New link status: Association Failed (0006)Wellenreiter with OPIE works perfectly, the cards led stays constantly on, and all neighbouring wi-fi hubs are detected.  Once I exit Wellenreiter, the problem begins again.

lsmod snippet shows:

Code: [Select]

hostap_cs              55156  0
hostap                111108  1 hostap_cs
ieee80211_crypt         5088  1 hostap
orinoco_cs             12260  1
orinoco                39988  1 orinoco_cs
hermes                  6368  2 orinoco_cs,orinocoDoes this have something to do with WEP/SSID; I have limited experience on how to debug this problem - any suggestion are really appreciated.

M
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=162337\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

ipkg -force-depends remove "*orinoco*" ; reboot

[speculatrix]

I discovered this too, having spent a while trying to stop orinoco drivers being loaded. I spent ages trying rmmod etc without any luck!

Ubuntu has a blacklist feature where you can stop it happening on hotplug, tho' it wasn't totally trivial to do it. Wonder why Angstrom can't have similar.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=44071

[McChubby]

ipkg -force-depends remove "*orinoco*" ; reboot
[div align=\"right\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Ah, thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately it didn't work - it has removed orinoco but wifi still doesn't work!

I discovered this too, having spent a while trying to stop orinoco drivers being loaded. I spent ages trying rmmod etc without any luck!

Ubuntu has a blacklist feature where you can stop it happening on hotplug, tho' it wasn't totally trivial to do it. Wonder why Angstrom can't have similar.
[a href=\"http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=44071]http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=44071[/url]
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=162343\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

For me, bizarrely both Hentges GPE and Angstrom work perfectly fine, without any tweaks; only OPIE has the problem.

[walts]

For me, bizarrely both Hentges GPE and Angstrom work perfectly fine, without any tweaks; only OPIE has the problem.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=162373\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

I am having a similar, but opposite problem.  I've been using a C1000 with Opie (OZ 3.5.4.1) for a while, using Wellenreiter to audit WIFI installations.  I also use it for e-mail and web browsing, but we recently switched from WEP to WPA/PSK and my WCF-11 card wouldn't work.  The firmware on the card needed upgrading, and none of the upgrading approaches I found would work.

i decided to "get with the program", since OZ is now being abandoned in favor of Angstrom, so I installed the May 12 Akita.  The WCF-11 would not work at all, even after getting rid of the Orinoco drivers, so I invested in an Ambicom WL1100-CF, based on some recommendations in the forums.

That was not recognized at all with OZ, and with Angstrom, I can get it to work only after repeated removing and inserting the card, and only with a shell - the GUIs all seem to shut off the card - and only with WEP.  

Since I can't find a version of Wellenreiter to run with Angstrom, I have taken a giant step backwards!

Has anyone gotten Wellenreiter ( or any of the GUI applications) running on Angstrom with the Ambicom card?

Walt

[CoreDump]

I am having a similar, but opposite problem.  I've been using a C1000 with Opie (OZ 3.5.4.1) for a while, using Wellenreiter to audit WIFI installations.  I also use it for e-mail and web browsing, but we recently switched from WEP to WPA/PSK and my WCF-11 card wouldn't work.  The firmware on the card needed upgrading, and none of the upgrading approaches I found would work.

Temporarily upgrading a cards firmware via a RAM upload of an updated version works fine.
Angstrom even does it automatically for you.

i decided to "get with the program", since OZ is now being abandoned in favor of Angstrom, so I installed the May 12 Akita.  The WCF-11 would not work at all, even after getting rid of the Orinoco drivers, so I invested in an Ambicom WL1100-CF, based on some recommendations in the forums.

If there is a Linux driver for this card it could have been made to work.

That was not recognized at all with OZ,

I seriously doubt that.

and with Angstrom, I can get it to work only after repeated removing and inserting the card, and only with a shell - the GUIs all seem to shut off the card - and only with WEP. 

The shell is your friend. All the "GUI" apps are basically frontends to shell commands and ASCII config files. Also "repeated removing and inserting the card," hardly is an acceptable debugging technique. You could have saved yourself a bunch of money and a lot of time by sitting on your but and reading up on how to configure a WLAN card manually w/o any GUI crap.

It is a rewarding learning experience as well.

Since I can't find a version of Wellenreiter to run with Angstrom, I have taken a giant step backwards!

Wellenreiter runs under OPIE, not X11 / GPE.

Has anyone gotten Wellenreiter ( or any of the GUI applications) running on Angstrom with the Ambicom card?

Walt
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See above.

[adf]

Have you considered trying kismet and wifi-radar in ANgstrom rather than wellenreiter? I'd guess wifi radar is there, and I'm pretty sure kismet is, too

[walts]

I can't get the quote tags to work correctly, so I'll do it the old fashioned way.  Apologies...

>Temporarily upgrading a cards firmware via a RAM upload of an updated version works fine.
>Angstrom even does it automatically for you.

Yes, but the firmware on the card won't take the temporary upload.  I don't have the Z here so I can't quote it, but the upgrading software indicate that it was incompatible.  Remember this is  WCF-11 while most of the software seems to have been written for the newer WCF-12.

>If there is a Linux driver for this card it could have been made to work.

>>That was not recognized at all with OZ,

>I seriously doubt that.

You are right.  The card works perfectly with OZ, except that I can't use WPA because I can't upgrade the firmware.  It is Angstrom that won't recognize it.  When I insert the WCF-11 under Angstrom, ifconfg does not recognize wlan0, nor do its other if* friends.  

>> and with Angstrom, I can get it to work only after repeated removing and inserting the card,
>> and only with a shell - the GUIs all seem to shut off the card - and only with WEP. 

This seems to be a defective Ambicom card.

>The shell is your friend. All the "GUI" apps are basically frontends to shell commands and ASCII
>config files. Also "repeated removing and inserting the card," hardly is an acceptable debugging
>technique. You could have saved yourself a bunch of money and a lot of time by sitting on your
>but and reading up on how to configure a WLAN card manually w/o any GUI crap.

>It is a rewarding learning experience as well.

I agree.  I have been using command-line utilities since CP/M, but for whatever reasons, my experience has bypassed the *nix world.  I am very happy to RTFM - if I can find it.  I have read the Angstrom wiki, and looked at the Angstrom manual, which seems to be primarily aimed at folks who develop the ROMS, not at end users.  
As an example of my confusion, many of the various files that seem to relate to the wlan configuration are in totally different places and/or different names comparing OZ and Angstrom.

>>Since I can't find a version of Wellenreiter to run with Angstrom, I have taken a giant step
>>backwards!

>Wellenreiter runs under OPIE, not X11 / GPE.

Ah!  I had assumed that since Mickey was on the Angstrom team, eventually he would port it over.  I can get along with Kismet very well.  I had it running on Angstrom for a while before I concluded that I had a hardware problem.  I'm waiting for the replacement card now.  Mostly what I do is capture the data on the Z and then use Wireshark (Ethereal) to examine/analyze the data on a full-size PC.  Easier on these aging eyes!  However I do use the Z for e-mail and web browsing when there is no PC available, hence the desire to get it working with WPA/PSK.

Thanks for the help and comments!


Walt