Toshiba A10 - Wireless

Bouncelot · n00b Joined: 09 Sep 2003 Posts: 56

I just got an A10 (HMV), I've got most things working with the 2.6 gentoo kernel (Gave up messing with 2.4.22) except wireless. I am begining to think I have some other problems though (kernel config?).

I tried the Linuxant drivers, and got "no devices found". I just tried ndiwwrapper and am getting "Can't find any 802.11 cards; report output of lspci". I am begining to think something is wrong.

I have looked at the lspci output and I see nothing that is recognisable (to me) as a wireless device.

Here is what I get:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82852/855GM Host Bridge (rev 01)
00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 3584 (rev 01)
00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 3585 (rev 01)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corp. 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 01)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corp. 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB (Hub #1) (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB2 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BAM/CAM PCI Bridge (rev 83)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DBM LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801DBM Ultra ATA Storage Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801DB AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
01:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82801BD PRO/100 VE (MOB) Ethernet Controller (rev 83)
01:0a.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1410 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
01:0b.0 CardBus bridge: Toshiba America Info Systems ToPIC95 PCI to Cardbus Bridge with ZV Support (rev 33)

there are two that are not identified...I am guessing that might be my wireless device....no clue.
anyone have any ideas?

Petyr · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 6:52 am Post subject:

One thing you might want to do is go to the Toshiba website and find your exact model on the site. That answered a few things for myself (i.e. is it an i852 i862 vid card?! gaaaaah)
Personally I have an A15. Lemme know how the 2.6 kernel works out for you. I've been kicking around the idea of switching to it just to play with it but my laptop is fairly mission critical for me at this point.

Petyr Rahl

Bouncelot · n00b Joined: 09 Sep 2003 Posts: 56

It's an 852GM, the 2.6 kernel is loading/detecting it as a 855GM but it's the same driver.

So far 2.6 has been great, it fixed allot of quirks that occured with the 2.4.22 (like the screen blanking and having to go to the X console move the mouse then back to term 1 to continue) It also had native support for graphics chipset, so I dind't have to keep patching it. I mainly moved to it b/c it seemed the only success stories in the forums were with 2.6. So far it's stable and the the only problems i am having were ones I had with 2.4.22 as well.

mrchuckles · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 3:19 pm Post subject:

It would help if we knew what kind of wireless card this laptop is supposed to have. Is this a Centrino wireless laptop? Does it have the Intel 2100 or 2100A Wireless PRO/Lan card?

I have a Dell Latitude D500 with the Intel 2100 Centrino wireless that I was able to get working just fine with ndiswrapper 0.4. My laptop also shows the following from lspci...

Bouncelot · n00b Joined: 09 Sep 2003 Posts: 56

Thast the stuff I am trying to find out, I am not entirely sure where to look for alot of it.

I do know it is a Mini PCI ont the TI cardbus (PCI-1410), The toshiba website says it's a centrino....I just booted into windows to see which drivers toshiba installed. It's saying the driver is from Agere...chalk one up for miss information....Thanks for the help, I guess I'll start searching for Agere wireless devices.

Wish I knew why nothing is showing up with an lspci though.

jetblack · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 6:48 pm Post subject:

Did you remember to compile in wireless support? That bit me when I switched to 2.6. I couldn't get the linuxant drivers to work either until I did (I have a Gateway 200x centrino).

Bouncelot · n00b Joined: 09 Sep 2003 Posts: 56

Ok, so I am an idiot

all's working well using orinoco_cs

kurifu · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Jul 2003 Posts: 77

I bought an A10 not too long ago, and I did notice that the wirless card that comes with the A10 (which is from Agere) is actually located on the pcmcia bus, hence why you really only have one PCMCIA slot on the side of the computer. NetStumbler (for windows) picked it up as an Orinoco card, perhaps that will help you out a little bit.

I had a hard time getting it to work, to be honest, I have not managed to get it to work yet, but it has not been my focus, I have been having WAY too many compile issues and other bugs that I have never seen before on other laptops. I am going to give 2.6 a try as opposed to 2.4.22-r5.

Sincerely,

kurifu · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Jul 2003 Posts: 77

You do NOT need the linuxant drivers to get the wirless card working.

If you are using kernel 2.4 you need to merge linux-wlan-ng in to your system. If you are using 2.6.x pending that you have compiled all the proper modules you will need to simply start up your system and just configure the relative /etc/conf.d/wlan.conf and network config files.

First step, make sure that your PCMCIA services are actually running.
Second step, make sure the device is turned on (little switch on the front)

It uses a HERMES chipset (modules: yenta_socket for the PCMCIA system, orinoco & orinoco_cs for the wlan card itself--make sure these are loaded).

Here is some possibly usefull chipset info: