[ATrpms-users] Madwifi again

[Chris Schumann]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Axel Thimm [mailto:thimm at neu.nirvana] On Behalf Of Axel Thimm
> Sent: Monday, February 19, 2007 3:02 AM
> To: Chris Schumann
> Cc: atrpms-users at ATrpms.net
> Subject: Re: Madwifi again
> 
> On Sun, Feb 18, 2007 at 09:44:11PM -0600, Chris Schumann wrote:
> > I did a fresh install of FC6 today, and I tried the given 
> incantation, 
> > but it didn't work... maybe because the current kernel 
> version is 2911.
> 
> Yes, for each new kernel you need a "new" kmdl. 
> yum-plugin-kmdl takes care of that, if you haven't installed 
> it simply use
> 
> yum install madwifi-kmdl-`uname -r`

Hey Axel, thanks for the quick reply.

I know that's what is needed, and it worked great a few weeks ago, but not
yesterday. What I typed was this:

yum --enablerepo=atrpms install madwifi madwifi-kmdl-`uname -r`

and what I got was some error about madwifi-kmdl-2.6.19-1.2911.fc6 not
existing, and yum was going to download old kernels.

Of course, this morning, it installed just fine, and my card appeared as
ath0 and wifi0, but system-config-network thinks it's a wired NIC. When I
click New on the device tab, the card only appears if I select Ethernet, not
when I select Wireless. This is the same issue the Livna rpms have. I
couldn't fix that one yesterday, but I hope to have better luck with this
set.

I start by adding it as an Ethernet card. Then edit
/etc/sysconfig/networking/devices/ifcfg-wifi0 and change TYPE to Wireless. I
re-start system-config-network and set the wireless settings and click
Activate. The card does not seem to be "on" (no LEDs lit), and DHCP fails.

Interestingly, ifconfig wifi0 reports this:
wifi0  Link encap: UNSPEC   Hwaddr
00-01-xx-yy-zz-zz-7C-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
       UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST
but ath0:
ath0   Link encap: Ethernet Hwaddr 00:01:xx:yy:zz:zz
       BROADCAST MULTICAST

Successive "ifconfig wifi0" makes the 7C above change to XC where X is any
hex digit, seemingly at random.

Just to show the card is working, I'll remove it from the Devices tab of
system-config-network and go command(o) line and use the steps from
madwifi.org.

iwconfig shows wifi0 and ath0
ifconfig ath0 up
iwlist ath0 scan
- shows my WAP
iwconfig ath0 key <mykey>
iwconfig ath0 essid "My ESSID"
dhclient ath0

At this point, I removed my wired network cable, and brought up CNN's web
page with no problem. It works great, but the configuration isn't saved.

I'd hate for someone like my dad to have to go through all of this. What can
I do to help make this work more smoothly?

Thanks,
Chris