Topic awaiting preservation: Help, you debian veterans out there... (Page 1 of 1)

I'm setting up my "new" old pc from scratch after the hd crash.

A: 1 Partition at 650 Gb Win XP Pro on NTFS (done and working fine)
B: Debian sarge 3.1 - problems...


I'm using an iso from www.debianpure.com to get me a simplified installation and the first part of it went w/o a hitch.

However...
As I'll be doing net-installs I need to get my wireless up and running so I've followed the instructions here: http://www.debianpure.com/faqs.html under "How do I use a wireless network card?" naturally it didn't work... who would have guessed ;)

I've got a D-LINK DWL-510 pci card that works flawlessly under win, they don't make native drivers for *nix so I'm using the ndiswrapper to wrap the windows driver.

The card is now detected during boot under wlan0 but DHCPDISCOVER fails to get a connection with the router, ie no ip... The router does work with all other machines at home, so that's not the problem.

Looking here: http://www.linuxelectrons.com/article.php/20040507104718960
I can see that a successful ndiswrapper should show something like this in the logs:

quote:

---

divert: allocating divert_blk for wlan0
wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:90:96:68:6e:67 using driver bcmwl5.sys

---

And it does (with my driver name and mac of course).

I can also see the eq to this at boot:

quote:

---

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"11g AP" Nickname:"MobileRob"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.452GHz Access Point: 00:90:96:64:75:B5
Bit Rate=48Mb/s Tx-Power:13 dBm
RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr=2346 B
Power Management:off
Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:-41 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:66133 Invalid misc:4260128 Missed beacon:0

---

with my card except for this part

quote:

---

Bit Rate=48Mb/s Tx-Power:13 dBm
RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr=2346 B
Power Management:off
Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:-41 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:66133 Invalid misc:4260128 Missed beacon:0

---

which is replaced by something like this: "DHCPDISCOVER xxxx at 255.255.255.255 port XX
xxxx" (i'm at work right now so I don't have access to the machine) a bunch of times before it says "Failed"...

If life was simple, I'd plug in a cable in eth0 and continue from there, but from different reasons I'm stuck with wifi where the pc is located.

WEP is not enabled at this point since I don't want to introduce yet another unknown source of problems...

Needless to say, I've read every friggin hit from googling " wireless +debian +"dwl-510" " without getting wiser, I've tried numerous combos of

quote:

---

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wireless_essid <myrouterssid>

---

and adding "wireless_channel 7" and wireless_mode auto/managed etc...
in /etc/network/interfaces

I've tried different syntaxes: "wireless-essid <myrouterssid>", read the manpages for interfaces and so on but I simply cannot find anything more to try...

The light on the card blinks on boot and shutdown but the router cannot see it, not even a hint of it, even in the logs...

... help?...
... please ...

a wannabe-linuxer...
/Dan

(Edited by DmS on 07-28-2005 15:24)

well... have you tried to assign just a static ip? maybe just the dhcp is failing for a weird reason.


I usually avoid linux &wlan like the plague... aren't there some utils in the wireless stack that show you the access points & neightbours your card finds?
I'd try to look into that first, see if it's a problem at the hardware, or at the protocol stack level (could be somewhere between the wlan0 and the card, or wlan0 and tcp/ip... who knows).

so long,

->Tyberius Prime

thanx, I'll look into that if I can find a manual on how to do it I'm a n00b on *nix...

Also, for some wierd reason my router doesn't like assigning static ip's to machines it can't see...

I've got 4 other machines working against that router with dhcp without any problems (w98, XP Home, XP Pro, OS X) so I don't want to reconfigure that if I can avoid it.

I'll see if I can assign a static ip to one specific mac address or something like that.

More tips anyone?
/Dan

{cell 260} {Blog}
-{ ?There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence. - Jeremy S. Anderson" }-

I dunno if it makes a difference, but everywhere I have every seen refers to wireless as ath0, not wlan0.

You say that your wireless card is up and running... have you tried "iwlist ath0 scanning" (replace ath0 with wlan0 if necessary) to list all the nearby wireless networks? Once you find the network you want, I would suggest "iwconfig ath0 essid <name of network>" and then "ifup ath0". You may need to be root for some of those.

---
Website

Cool, thanx!
I can definately see my card info under wlan0, that's for sure so I'm guessing it's up and running, at least what I can read during boot tells me that the card is found.

I'll give the scanning a try as I get home tonight

I contacted the guy who setup the distro this morning, I'll see if he get's back to me.

btw, I still havn't configured X or desktops, I figure I might just stay in console until I get this done, no use in introducing more potential snags, right?
/Dan

{cell 260} {Blog}
-{ ?There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence. - Jeremy S. Anderson" }-

right.

And Iron Wallaby hit it on the head what I meant with 'utils' ;-)

Ok, here we go:
"iwlist wlan0 scanning"

Shows me my network and all info is consistent with the routers info.

"iwconfig wlan0"

shows my essid, same mode as the router, cell: <routers mac address> Encryption key:Off
link quality 100/100 signal level:-53 dBm Noice level:-256 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0
etcetera...

Basically all info consistent with router and card as I can see

"ifconfig wlan0 essid dmsproject"
doesn't say anything so I'm guessing it's ok... :)


"ifup wlan0"

Listening on LPF/wlan0/<my mac address>
Sending on LPF/wlan0/<my mac address>
Sending on Socket/fallback/fallback-net
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 10
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 19
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
No DHCPOFFERS recieved.
No working leases in persistent database

Exiting

Failed to bring up wlan0



My "/etc/network/interfaces" holds this:

auto lo
iface li inet loopback
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wireless_channel 7
wireless_essid dmsproject
wireless_mode ad-hoc
wireless_key off



Oh, the card is running on IRQ 10, could it be any conflicts there? If so, how do I find and resolve them?

I'm in contact with the guy at debianpure, hopefully he might have some tips as well...
I'm starting to go slightly nut's here...
The only good thing so far is that I'm learning 100'ds of ways that don't work ;)

/Dan

{cell 260} {Blog}
-{ ?There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence. - Jeremy S. Anderson" }-

(Edited by DmS on 07-30-2005 21:16)

Well, guess what, DmS -- your wireless card appears to be working perfectly under Linux. Congrats!

The problem appears to be your wireless router -- it's not responding to your DHCP requests. Do you have any sort of network encryption or filtering? Have you tried and tested the router under other OS's, to verify that it works?

---
Website

IW: So I thought, but it's true but still not true

quote:

---

I've got 4 other machines working against that router with dhcp without any problems (w98, XP Home, XP Pro, OS X) so I don't want to reconfigure that if I can avoid it.

---

I've got a dual boot on this specific machine and if I pop into XP the card works perfectly.
So the router ain't broken, neither is the card...

From what I can figure the card works fine insofar that it can scan the networks and pick up all info there just fine, however when it tries to transmit, it's either not transmitting, or it's transmitting requests that the router cannot see, thus it cannot answer and assign an ip...

No WEP, no filtering no nada nothing special setup on the router.
The routerlogs show all the other machines connecting and getting ip's, the linux one doesn't show up at all...

From some obscure reason I can't assign a static ip to a machine that hasn't connected to the router... don't ask, I have no idea... it's binding to the mac-address and I can't hardcode it in the router, I can only clone one from a list of known machines and this one isn't known to the router, doh...

I've spoken to the guy at debianpure and he can't understand what's going on either...
It's like the card can hear fine but has forgotten how to speak


Can someone walk me through this part:
[/quote]
Listening on LPF/wlan0/<my mac address>
Sending on LPF/wlan0/<my mac address>
Sending on Socket/fallback/fallback-net
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 10
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 19
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
No DHCPOFFERS recieved.
No working leases in persistent database
[/quote]
esp the netmask , port and interval things so I can understand a bit more on how it works.
Not sure if it helps though but still Could it be transmitting on the wrong port, under the wrong netmask or something equally stupid?

What more can I do, try to ping the router from linux? ping another machine on the network from linux? Can I sniff my network with my mac to see what the linux machine is transmitting? If so, how?

would these work even if I don't have an ip? Grrrrrrr.....
I'M NOT GIVING UP!!!!! (yet)


/Dan

{cell 260} {Blog}
-{ ?There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence. - Jeremy S. Anderson" }-

I got a tip to set the wireless_mode to managed instead of ad-hoc, if that doesn't work I've found something else that I'll try...
http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsamwel/dwl-510-on-linux-2.6.html

Ah This is wonderful, according to the link it seems like you have to manually edit the .inf file and adjust PCI-id's in it before running ndiswrapper in order to get it working correctly...

(note, there's between 10 and 11,000 hits on google of problems with DWL-510 & Linux, what a superb choice I've made )


<strolls off in the halls hummin a newly composed song: "newbie-linux-wireless do not mix, do not mix...">
/Dan

{cell 260} {Blog}
-{ ?There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence. - Jeremy S. Anderson" }-

WooooooHooooooooo!!!!!!!!!



auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wireless_channel 7
wireless_essid dmsproject
wireless_mode managed

If I let it run at boot, then login as root and do "ifup wlan0" it works.

It now get's an ip and I can ping things in my lan

Now onwards to the rest of the install...


{cell 260} {Blog}
-{ ?There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence. - Jeremy S. Anderson" }-

(Edited by DmS on 08-01-2005 21:04)

HAAAAH I'm da man!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm now proudly writing this message from moz on debian 3.1 sarge using gnome.


IT ROCKS PHAT!

I just knew I'd win

Now it'sw time to back off and saviour the wonders of Linux

Laters and BIG thanx for all suggestions, it really helped me understand wtf I was doing

/Dan

{cell 260} {Blog}
-{ ?There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence. - Jeremy S. Anderson" }-

Well, this has been an interesting experience to say the least.
I've learned tons and had fun and frustrating moments.

A Summary:
I used debianpure from http://www.debianpure.com/ which basically is a simplified way to get a "real" debian install up and running with the normal packages (visual, audio, web, dev, office etc) that a normal user needs.

It starts out with basic setup and partitioning etc which was easy to understand, as you get to the apt-part of the install you stop the basic installation and reboot. As root you then run 1 of 4 different sh-scripts (gnome from cd, kde from cd, gnome from net, kde from net), these scripts retrieve the needed packages and installs them.

After another reboot you get to configure screen, sound etc which also worked just fine.

After that you are up and running! Nice package indeed.

Needless to say I've had some problems, but these where 95% me using a notoriously bad wireless card for Linux, had I used a std ethernet card I'm sure it would have been a breeze.
The last 5% of trouble was the fact that all paths in the sh-scripts has hardcoded paths starting with /media/cdrom/ As I had one dvd-drive and one cd-drive mine where labeled cdrom1 and cdrom2... Doh, none of the scripts worked.

Not knowing if/how you could rename these in bash I copied all content from the CD, altered the scripts and burned a new .iso
After that it all worked.

For the wireless card (D-Link DWL-510 11Mbps PCI card), this is what I found out:
The ndiswrapper worked with the std windows dlink-drivers, however the /etc/network/interfaces needed to have the correct wireless_channel and wireless_mode managed asides from what was specified in the faq at debianpure.
I suspect, but not confirmed, that when I used ad-hoc for the mode it tried to connect to another of my machines up and running on the LAN.

At some points during the install in bash, the system will lag and not echo your input at the prompt, it comes back without you doing anything though.

There is one more snag, the card refuses to start on boot, it needs an su <password>"ifup wlan0" after you've booted everything to kickstart it and to get an IP, omit this and it will not recieve an ip from the router... go figure... As for how stable it is, I don't know yet, I've used it for about 1 hour without problems so far.

At this point I havn't enabled WEP yet, I've heard that there might be problems with the 128 bit encryption and that you might need to set a lower level, havn't confirmed that yet though.

All in all, basically a nice way to get up with Debian 3.1 Sarge using kernel 2.6.8x.
If you unlike me have a clue when you start, you'll have an easy time with it.

/Dan

{cell 260} {Blog}
-{ ?There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence. - Jeremy S. Anderson" }-

(Edited by DmS on 08-02-2005 09:54)