Archlinuxarm On C3x00

[danboid]

Hi Mark

Yes, it charges OK just you need to poweroff if you want to charge at full speed according to daal. Online charging is slow.

Of course I'm very interested to see if you can use your wifi card. Is it the Ambicom WL54-CF?

I think the quickest and easiest way to get a wifi connection configured under the Arch console is to install dialog and wpa_supplicant. You  can then run wifi-menu which gives you  a nice ncurses interface to configuring your connection.

EDIT

If you have DNS issues with wifi  you may need to run

Code: [Select]

systemctl start systemd-resolved
& 'enable' it if you find you always need it, of course.

[ArchiMark]

Hi Mark

Yes, it charges OK just you need to poweroff if you want to charge at full speed according to daal. Online charging is slow.

Thanks for clarifying.....

Of course I'm very interested to see if you can use your wifi card. Is it the Ambicom WL54-CF?

Will let you know....probably later today....

Don't have the card with me now, I posted the model number a few pages back when the question came up before....but I can post the info here again later today...it's also a very slim card which is nice...

I think the quickest and easiest way to get a wifi connection configured under the Arch console is to install dialog and wpa_supplicant. You  can then run wifi-menu which gives you  a nice ncurses interface to configuring your connection.

EDIT

If you have DNS issues with wifi  you may need to run

Code: [Select]

systemctl start systemd-resolved
& 'enable' it if you find you always need it, of course.

Thanks for this info....


Meanwhile, I thought of at least one more possible Arch on Z candidate....will let him know about this....

I know another guy, but don't think his Z is working properly now.....but will let him know too....

 

[ArchiMark]

Hi again,

Made it back to my office and plugged in charger.....after a few minutes, the Z was able to start up....

Booted up OK and was able to login at the prompt.....YEAH!!!

My trusty ol' Socket CF Ethernet card was recognized and is working without any configuration on my part......YEAH!!!

Will tryout my WiFi card and report back....and will post some pics of it and my Socket card for reference...

AmbiCom model number WL1100-CF........

Display just turned white....but was able to wake it up.....

Later today will copy over install to my microdrive....

Thanks again for your install guide, danboid....

Now onto trying to install dialog and wpa_supplicant.....

 

[ArchiMark]

Left Z for a few more minutes.....display went black this time....but it wakes up OK....

Used pacman and installed dialog and wpa_supplicant.....will try out AmbiCom card later....

Here's a few pics in meantime....

[ArchiMark]

Forgot to ask.....

What's best way in console to 'eject' my ethernet CF card in order to insert my WiFi card?

Thanks!

[greguu]

Forgot to ask.....

What's best way in console to 'eject' my ethernet CF card in order to insert my WiFi card?

Thanks!

depending what you use to initiate the connection. I use netctrl and would do :

Example :

Code: [Select]

netctl stop ethernet

# remove CF ethernet and plug in CF WiFi

netctl start wifi

[ArchiMark]

Forgot to ask.....

What's best way in console to 'eject' my ethernet CF card in order to insert my WiFi card?

Thanks!

depending what you use to initiate the connection. I use netctrl and would do :

Example :

Code: [Select]

netctrl stop ethernet

# remove CF ethernet and plug in CF WiFi

netctrl start wifi

Thanks for the input!

However, when I tried this, I get:

# netctrl stop ethernet
-bash: netctrl not found

So, I tried installing it, but I got this:

# pacman -S netctrl
error: target not found: netctrl

Assume that either netctrl is part of some other package or I need to do something else to get it?

Thanks.

[greguu]

Forgot to ask.....

What's best way in console to 'eject' my ethernet CF card in order to insert my WiFi card?

Thanks!

depending what you use to initiate the connection. I use netctrl and would do :

Example :

Code: [Select]

netctrl stop ethernet

# remove CF ethernet and plug in CF WiFi

netctrl start wifi

Thanks for the input!

However, when I tried this, I get:

# netctrl stop ethernet
-bash: netctrl not found

So, I tried installing it, but I got this:

# pacman -S netctrl
error: target not found: netctrl

Assume that either netctrl is part of some other package or I need to do something else to get it?

Thanks.

sorry, it is netctl.

Please follow the Arch guide on setting up netctl  : https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Netctl

What connection manager you using currently to connect to the WiFi or Ethernet ?

[ArchiMark]

Forgot to ask.....

What's best way in console to 'eject' my ethernet CF card in order to insert my WiFi card?

Thanks!

depending what you use to initiate the connection. I use netctrl and would do :

Example :

Code: [Select]

netctrl stop ethernet

# remove CF ethernet and plug in CF WiFi

netctrl start wifi

Thanks for the input!

However, when I tried this, I get:

# netctrl stop ethernet
-bash: netctrl not found

So, I tried installing it, but I got this:

# pacman -S netctrl
error: target not found: netctrl

Assume that either netctrl is part of some other package or I need to do something else to get it?

Thanks.

sorry, it is netctl.

Please follow the Arch guide on setting up netctl  : https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Netctl

What connection manager you using currently to connect to the WiFi or Ethernet ?

No worries....thanks for clarifying and the additional info...

Please note that I haven't used Arch for about 2 years or so....so, re-familiarizing myself now with Arch again.....


Tried 'netctl stop ethernet' again, but lights on ethernet card are still lit up and one blinking as before....
So, card still working.....

As for connection manager, I haven't used one yet....I just booted up Z with the ethernet card plugged in and connected with ethernet cable and it recognized card and connection.....

btw, not seeing any ncurses window when using wifi-menu.......just console.....

No luck so far getting wifi working.....

Card had indicator light working when I booted up I think, but no light is off....

According to netctl page on ArchWiki, you need to setup a profile in /etc/netctl....did the following to try and generate the profile file in /etc/netctl/:

# wifi-menu -o  

But nothing created there....

Just tried copying wireless-wpa example and editing it.....

Then

# netctl start wireless-wpa
Job for netctl1@wireless\x2dwpa.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See "systemctl status "netctl1@wireless\\x2dwpa.service"" and "journalctl -xe" for details.

# systemctl status "netctl1@wireless\\x2dwpa.service
* netctl1@wireless\\x2dwpa.service
   Loaded:  not-found (Reason: No such file or directory)
   Active:   inactive (dead)

Tried to get more info on WiFi card:

# lspci | grep -i wireless
pclib: Cannot open /proc/bus/pci
lspci: Cannot find any working access method.

In searching online for info on this card, I came across a page with this card for sale, info it lists about it says:

Wireless Security  128-bit WEP RC4 Wireless Data Encryption

Also, found on another site some more info about card:

Chipset               Driver
Prism2/2.5/3       hostap

Been reading more info on this.....

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wirele...k_configuration

Rebooted with Ethernet card inserted so I can install some other programs.

Tried to install networkmanager...but got error message on 2 files:

libpgm
zeromq

Tried again and now I get '404' and 'error: failed to commit transaction (unexpected error)' and 'error: failed to retrieve some files'....

Any tips on how to get card working?

[danboid]

Hi ArchiMark!

Good to hear you can finally boot Arch! That's a big step forward!

As you say, the screen does sometimes blank properly under 4.2.3 kernel but more often the screen goes white for me.

You won't see an ncurses interface for wifi-menu unless you install dialog.

Unfortunately though it seems your Ambicom is using the same wifi chipset as my old wifi card - a PLANEX GW-CF11X which uses the PRISM 3 chipset and I've had even less luck with getting that to work than my new card which I can at least get to scan and connect. The prob with my new card is if you try to download something or use pacman it starts off very slow, like 10K/s then rapidly gets slower and slower before it gives up, errors and stops working completely.

My new wifi card - the SparkLAN WCFM-100  only has 1 set of firmware files for the CF chipset version. The prob with the PRISM devices is there are at least 20 or so  different versions of the primary and secondary firmware files and non of the ones I tried worked.

To turn off your ethernet or wifi card you run:

Code: [Select]

ip link set eth0 down
I've found this guide to be helpful:

http://linuxcommando.blogspot.co.uk/2013/1...fi-network.html

Good luck!

[danboid]

I wouldn't let my bad experience with PRISM stop you from trying though Mark - you do have a different model which may require different firmware and so it could work?

This page seems to be the definitive resource for PRISM info:

http://linux.junsun.net/intersil-prism/

I tried writing to the author of that page to see if he knew of any more PRISM firmware download sites but he did not and no longer maintains the page or uses Prism devices.

If you do find some suitable firmware for your device then copy it into /lib/firmware and try it out!

[danboid]

wifi-menu won't work unless you have dialog installed AND it finds your wlan0 device, which won't appear until you have the correct firmware installled.

EDIT

You'll need to run

Code: [Select]

modprobe hostap_cs
To load the prism driver

[ArchiMark]

Thanks, danboid!

Appreciate all daalnroti's and your help with getting Arch going.......

And appreciate your help with WiFi card too....

Here's a page I found with lots of WiFi cards listed with info about them.....

It has the AmbiCom model card I have listed too:

http://linux-wless.passys.nl/query_alles.php

It has link to driver files:

http://hostap.epitest.fi/

Which leads to:

http://w1.fi/releases/

Do you think any of these files are what I need for the card?

I just got up this morning and when I saw my Z the display had turned white all during the night.....

I did install dialog....but no ncurses window comes up when doing

# wifi-menu wlan0

Is that what you use 'wlan0' for wifi interface?

I get 'No such interface: wlan0'

Just noticed you use 'eth0'.....so, you use it for WiFi card too.....hmmmm..............

[danboid]

Looking at that list of files you linked to it seems you have a PRISM 2 based card whilst mine is PRISM 3. That page on prism I linked to earlier explains how to identify what firmware your card needs but it looks like you don't need to do any hunting like I've had to.

I used eth0 in that example ip command as I presumed you wanted to turn off your ethernet card? Mine is USB and needs to be plugged into a powred hub so I have no use for such a command. Swap eth0 for wifi0 to turn off your wifi card, if/when you get it working.

I've found I don't need to specify a network device with wifi-menu. So long as my wifi card is plugged in and its module/firmware has been loaded, wifi-menu auto-detects it. Its not working for you because you've not loaded the hostap_cs module and/or not copied the correct firmware files into /lib/firmware.

Run that modpobe command from my previous post when you have your wifi plugged in then check the output of dmesg -it'll prob be complaining of missing firmware for wifi0 if you''ve not installed it.

You'll need to also install iw and/or wireless_tools to get iwconfig. iw was supposed to have deprecated iwconfig but some (old) wifi drivers apparently still work better with iwconfig. To check for wifi devices you run

Code: [Select]

iw dev
For more info on configuring wifi read the guide I linked to earlier.

That s really all I know about Linux wifi!

[ArchiMark]

Decided to try stopping Ethernet card, eject it, and then insert WiFi card again.....

Now, when I did it, this time it recognized there was a WiFi card inserted after I did

# netctl start wifi

Lignt on card blinked....

So, did

# ifconfig wlan0

And I see info about wlan0 interface listed!

So, did

# wifi-menu wlan0

And voila!  the ncurses window came up!

And I see my wireless network listed and long with some others in the area.....

Selected it in menu.....

Screen went black for about 5 seconds.....then I see the command prompt again at top of screen.....

Tried to ping and voila! it worked! So AmbiCom card is working!!!

However, when I tried to install something via pacman, I got error message:

# pacman -S screen
resolving dependencies.....
looking for conflicting packages..

Packages (1) screen-4.3.1-2

Total Download Size:    0.44 MiB
Total Installed Size:     0.80 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y
:: Retrieving packages......
error: failed retrieving file 'screen-4.3.1-2-arm.tar.xz' from mirror.archlinux.org : Operation too slow. Less than 1 bytes/sec transferred the last 10 seconds
warning: failed to retrieve some files
error: failed to commit transaction (download library error)
Errors occurred, no packages were upgraded.

OK, tried it again, and this time it worked and installed it!

So, I've got working wifi!!!

Yeah!!!