Hi everyone! :-)
Yesterday I managed to find a driver for my USB wireless dongle, and it is now correctly recognized by the kernel. However, I don't know how to configure it.
The system-config-network opens up in text mode and is not very forthcoming (it lists ethernet, ISDN and modem as possibilities for configuring a new device). I don't know how to create an /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-whatever manually for my wireless card. NetworkManager doesn't see the device since the ifcfg* script doesn't exist. What am I supposed to do? (Google also didn't help...).
The device is listed by lsusb as:
# lsusb | grep 802 Bus 001 Device 005: ID 1286:1fab Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. 88W8338 [Libertas] 802.11g
The libertas kernel module is loaded:
# lsmod | grep liber libertas 105931 0 cfg80211 164625 1 libertas lib80211 4194 1 libertas
How do I find out the name of the device, and how do I create the ifcfg script properly?
Best, :-) Marko
On Sat, Mar 24, 2012 at 10:05 PM, Marko Vojinovic vvmarko@gmail.com wrote:
Hi everyone! :-)
Yesterday I managed to find a driver for my USB wireless dongle, and it is now correctly recognized by the kernel. However, I don't know how to configure it.
How did you install the driver that you found?
What is the output of "/sbin/ifconfig -a" does it list the wifi device i.e. wlan0 ?
Do "ethtool --driver <iface> " to find the driver associated with your wifi network interface.
In my case I get the following output:
# ethtool --driver wlan0 driver: ath9k version: 3.2.0-1-amd64 firmware-version: N/A bus-info: 0000:02:00.0 supports-statistics: no supports-test: no supports-eeprom-access: no supports-register-dump: no
Usuall the NetworkManager detects all the active network interfaces and presents the devices. In your case, I suspect the wifi device is not being initialized.
HTH, -- Arun Khan
On Tuesday, 27. March 2012. 10.02.25 Arun Khan wrote:
On Sat, Mar 24, 2012 at 10:05 PM, Marko Vojinovic vvmarko@gmail.com wrote:
Yesterday I managed to find a driver for my USB wireless dongle, and it is now correctly recognized by the kernel. However, I don't know how to configure it.
How did you install the driver that you found?
Basically, I did this (following the advice of Ned Slider, from another thread):
# yum --enablerepo=elrepo-testing kmod-compat-wireless # modprobe usb8xxx
Namely, on the http://elrepo.org/tiki/kmod-compat-wireless there is a list of drivers corresponding to various devices. My device is
# lsusb Bus 001 Device 006: ID 1286:1fab Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. 88W8338 [Libertas] 802.11g
so I did a search on the site for "1286" and found two relevant modules, usb8xxx and libertas. Modprobe-ing usb8xxx loads the following:
# lsmod Module Size Used by usb8xxx 13926 0 libertas 105931 1 usb8xxx libertas_tf 12514 0 mac80211 234108 1 libertas_tf cfg80211 164625 2 libertas,mac80211 rfkill 15242 1 cfg80211 compat 16607 2 mac80211,cfg80211 lib80211 4194 1 libertas
When I plug in the device, /var/log/messages says:
Mar 27 08:10:30 CicaMaca kernel: usb 1-2: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 7 Mar 27 08:10:31 CicaMaca kernel: usb 1-2: New USB device found, idVendor=1286, idProduct=1fab Mar 27 08:10:31 CicaMaca kernel: usb 1-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0 Mar 27 08:10:31 CicaMaca kernel: usb 1-2: Product: 54M USB Wireless NIC Mar 27 08:10:31 CicaMaca kernel: usb 1-2: Manufacturer: Tenda.. Mar 27 08:10:31 CicaMaca kernel: usb 1-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
which is basically the same information as found in dmesg. The device is correctly recognized, as far as it goes.
What is the output of "/sbin/ifconfig -a" does it list the wifi device i.e. wlan0 ?
No, ifconfig lists only my two wired ethernet devices (eth0, eth1), and the openvpn virtual ethernet device (tap0). No mention of anything wireless.
Do "ethtool --driver <iface> " to find the driver associated with your wifi network interface.
What should <iface> be? There isn't one associated to the wireless NIC, or I am unable to find it. I tried the following methods:
# ifconfig -a # lshw -C network # rfkill list # iwconfig
None of these report anything except my three wired devices (if at all).
I vaguely understand that all these utilities are querrying the kernel for the info about hardware, but the kernel does not seem to be exposing it (or requires some non-automatic initialization). I tried looking at various places under /proc (to see if I can read something manually), but I found nothing, and TBH I don't quite know where to look.
Usuall the NetworkManager detects all the active network interfaces and presents the devices. In your case, I suspect the wifi device is not being initialized.
The NetworkManager does indeed give "some" indication that there is a wireless device, but it doesn't tell much. When I do a "service NetworkManager restart", this is the only relevant thing I recognized about wireless from /var/log/messages:
Mar 27 08:24:24 CicaMaca NetworkManager[30454]: <info> WiFi enabled by radio killswitch; enabled by state file Mar 27 08:24:24 CicaMaca NetworkManager[30454]: <info> WWAN enabled by radio killswitch; enabled by state file Mar 27 08:24:24 CicaMaca NetworkManager[30454]: <info> WiMAX enabled by radio killswitch; enabled by state file Mar 27 08:24:24 CicaMaca NetworkManager[30454]: <info> Networking is enabled by state file
Everything else is about eth0, eth1 and tap0 devices. I can provide full logs if you think I missed something.
I am almost out of patience with this, and I'm already considering buying another wireless card, or rather a wireless router which can act as a client to another wireless router, so that I can connect the computer via wired ethernet. I'd prefer not to waste any money on this, especially if it is just a software configuration issue, but I also need the damn thing to start working sooner than later.
Btw, the device is working properly under Windows, and it used to work properly under Linux with ndiswrapper. But current ndiswrapper fails to work (or even fails to compile) on current CentOS, so my only option is to try a native Linux driver from kmod-compat-wireless.
If there is any way to make this work without throwing money at the problem, I'd appreciate to know. Also, if there isn't a way to make it work (in the next couple of days), I'd appreciate to know that as well. In that case, can you recommend any wireless device for a desktop machine which would work painlessly under CentOS? There might be a small chance I can buy it somewhere.
Thanks for helping out! :-)
Best, :-) Marko
Hi Marko if your WLAN interface does not show up in ifconfig or in "ls -l /sys/class/net/ " then - your system recognizes that it has to load the modules you mention when you plug in your WLAN interface - but the modules are incapable to install the interface correctly
if you say you cannot bring to work ndiswrapper because its compilation fails, then you are in bad luck.
I once had a similar problem with a D-Link card (featuring the adx TI-chip). What I did: I waited until a new version of ndiswrapper was available, compiled this one, and off I went.
suomi
On 03/27/2012 08:46 AM, Marko Vojinovic wrote:
On Tuesday, 27. March 2012. 10.02.25 Arun Khan wrote:
On Sat, Mar 24, 2012 at 10:05 PM, Marko Vojinovicvvmarko@gmail.com wrote:
Yesterday I managed to find a driver for my USB wireless dongle, and it is now correctly recognized by the kernel. However, I don't know how to configure it.
How did you install the driver that you found?
Basically, I did this (following the advice of Ned Slider, from another thread):
# yum --enablerepo=elrepo-testing kmod-compat-wireless # modprobe usb8xxx
Namely, on the http://elrepo.org/tiki/kmod-compat-wireless there is a list of drivers corresponding to various devices. My device is
# lsusb Bus 001 Device 006: ID 1286:1fab Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. 88W8338 [Libertas] 802.11g
so I did a search on the site for "1286" and found two relevant modules, usb8xxx and libertas. Modprobe-ing usb8xxx loads the following:
# lsmod Module Size Used by usb8xxx 13926 0 libertas 105931 1 usb8xxx libertas_tf 12514 0 mac80211 234108 1 libertas_tf cfg80211 164625 2 libertas,mac80211 rfkill 15242 1 cfg80211 compat 16607 2 mac80211,cfg80211 lib80211 4194 1 libertas
When I plug in the device, /var/log/messages says:
Mar 27 08:10:30 CicaMaca kernel: usb 1-2: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 7 Mar 27 08:10:31 CicaMaca kernel: usb 1-2: New USB device found, idVendor=1286, idProduct=1fab Mar 27 08:10:31 CicaMaca kernel: usb 1-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0 Mar 27 08:10:31 CicaMaca kernel: usb 1-2: Product: 54M USB Wireless NIC Mar 27 08:10:31 CicaMaca kernel: usb 1-2: Manufacturer: Tenda.. Mar 27 08:10:31 CicaMaca kernel: usb 1-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
which is basically the same information as found in dmesg. The device is correctly recognized, as far as it goes.
What is the output of "/sbin/ifconfig -a" does it list the wifi device i.e. wlan0 ?
No, ifconfig lists only my two wired ethernet devices (eth0, eth1), and the openvpn virtual ethernet device (tap0). No mention of anything wireless.
Do "ethtool --driver<iface> " to find the driver associated with your wifi network interface.
What should<iface> be? There isn't one associated to the wireless NIC, or I am unable to find it. I tried the following methods:
# ifconfig -a # lshw -C network # rfkill list # iwconfig
None of these report anything except my three wired devices (if at all).
I vaguely understand that all these utilities are querrying the kernel for the info about hardware, but the kernel does not seem to be exposing it (or requires some non-automatic initialization). I tried looking at various places under /proc (to see if I can read something manually), but I found nothing, and TBH I don't quite know where to look.
Usuall the NetworkManager detects all the active network interfaces and presents the devices. In your case, I suspect the wifi device is not being initialized.
The NetworkManager does indeed give "some" indication that there is a wireless device, but it doesn't tell much. When I do a "service NetworkManager restart", this is the only relevant thing I recognized about wireless from /var/log/messages:
Mar 27 08:24:24 CicaMaca NetworkManager[30454]:<info> WiFi enabled by radio killswitch; enabled by state file Mar 27 08:24:24 CicaMaca NetworkManager[30454]:<info> WWAN enabled by radio killswitch; enabled by state file Mar 27 08:24:24 CicaMaca NetworkManager[30454]:<info> WiMAX enabled by radio killswitch; enabled by state file Mar 27 08:24:24 CicaMaca NetworkManager[30454]:<info> Networking is enabled by state file
Everything else is about eth0, eth1 and tap0 devices. I can provide full logs if you think I missed something.
I am almost out of patience with this, and I'm already considering buying another wireless card, or rather a wireless router which can act as a client to another wireless router, so that I can connect the computer via wired ethernet. I'd prefer not to waste any money on this, especially if it is just a software configuration issue, but I also need the damn thing to start working sooner than later.
Btw, the device is working properly under Windows, and it used to work properly under Linux with ndiswrapper. But current ndiswrapper fails to work (or even fails to compile) on current CentOS, so my only option is to try a native Linux driver from kmod-compat-wireless.
If there is any way to make this work without throwing money at the problem, I'd appreciate to know. Also, if there isn't a way to make it work (in the next couple of days), I'd appreciate to know that as well. In that case, can you recommend any wireless device for a desktop machine which would work painlessly under CentOS? There might be a small chance I can buy it somewhere.
Thanks for helping out! :-)
Best, :-) Marko
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
On 27/03/12 07:46, Marko Vojinovic wrote:
Btw, the device is working properly under Windows, and it used to work properly under Linux with ndiswrapper. But current ndiswrapper fails to work (or even fails to compile) on current CentOS, so my only option is to try a native Linux driver from kmod-compat-wireless.
That ndiswrapper issue should hopefully be fixed now with the kmod-ndiswrapper-1.57-1.el6 release. It at least gives you that option should the native driver prove fruitless.
On Tuesday, 27. March 2012. 19.45.33 Ned Slider wrote:
That ndiswrapper issue should hopefully be fixed now with the kmod-ndiswrapper-1.57-1.el6 release. It at least gives you that option should the native driver prove fruitless.
Indeed, the new ndiswrapper works perfectly! :-) The compat-wireless looks promising, but it still seems rough around the edges, and I needed a working solution asap, so... ;-)
Thanks for help!
Best, :-) Marko
-
anax -
Arun Khan -
Marko Vojinovic -
Ned Slider