Network driver - found. Click? [Solved by Randomize Timer]

[gortiag]

I'm sorry for my noobness, and I've tried to understand all the faq and wiki stuffs that I've dug out..

I have a networking card DWL-G520 (wireless), and I've understood from previous reading (and testing) that I should use the madwifi driver.
So, I've downloaded the madwifi driver, and read the help file.

However, the help file doesn't explain *how* to install the driver! It only says stuff like "build module" and other stuff that I don't know how to do, but seems to be default lore in the linux world.

I come from an XP system, and now I can't find the "click-click-next-finish". I don't really expect to find that in Gentoo linux, but at least some correspondent..
I've tried to get my internet working for some time now - so can anyone tell me the click-click steps, or at least direct me to a source of information that's understandable to non-penguins?

(btw, there's no wlan0 or such in my init.d folder)

Thanks!

// Fred

[atrus123]

I had to go through some of the things you're going through now while trying to get my wireless to work.

As far as the madwifi driver is concerned, it sounds like you just downloaded a tarball, but I've learned from past experience that you're better off downloading this off portage (emerge madwifi). You might have to unmask the package, so you'll want to read up on how to do that (there are forum posts regarding this -- I've made one myself).

Also, read this: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=4&chap=0 from start to finish. I spent a long while dealing with the wlan0 thing, only to find out that it was introduced early on in the handbook. What i'd been doing is just reading the 'Wireless Networking' section without paying any attention to the other stuff, while the wlan0 is introduced in an earlier segment.

Also, since this is a pcmcia card, have you enabled everything you need in the kernel? Search the forums for this information as well.

Good luck with this. Once you get it working, it will be quite a payoff.

J.

[gortiag]

I'll try those things out.. Gentoo seems easy to maintain and stuff, so I hope it works.

Thank you for your response!

[gortiag]

EDIT:
I've gotten my wireless network up, and I can now connect to my neighbours (very slow) unencrypted wireless network.. I can ping google.com. (hooray!)

However my network uses WEP, a 128-bits asci-key and something called "shared" in XP.
In XP, there are two types (of connection types?) - "shared" and "open"

So, when I want to fix my settings, what do I typ? I've tried

[gortiag]

sorry to ::::bumb::::

but 4 days without a proper connection do that to you.

[atrus123]

This is more of a bump for you than a real response, but I had a similar problem with using wireless tools when it came to my WEP.

I solved it by installing wpa_supplicant and going WPA instead. That was easy and it worked right away.

I'm sure there is some way to tell portage not to emerge the madwifi driver, if you want. I'm not sure exactly how to do this, but I'm sure there's something here: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml that might help you figure it out.

Unless someone else knows how to do this or has a better suggestion?

J.

[gortiag]

Uhm, I just posted something in half.. But I'm using Links2 right now and an enter made it dissapear.. In case I didn't post anything;

It now works. Haleluja!

Thanks for your responses.. At least it made me feel better.

[atrus123]

Ahh, glad you got it working. What did the trick?

Now that this is solved, the powers that be like it when you add a [solved] to the main subject heading.

Welcome to the Gentoo world. Hope you come to enjoy it as much as me.

J.

[gortiag]

I'm sorry to say that I don't know what made the trick.

I messed around with my network config files (/etc/conf.d/net?) <- you can find these in the various helpfiles and what-not.

I guess all you really have to do to get something to work is to really sit down and read *everything* there is to read and try to find some logic.

Thank you again for the replies! Long live helpful people!

For all of you who might come across this, I want to point out some stuff that took me a while to understand.

1. If you want to emerge something, and it tries to get it off the net (and you have no net, ofc), all you have to do is to log into an alternate computer and downloading everything you need from the net. Then you can burn it all out on a CD or something and put those files (the tar.bz2 or whatever-files) into portage/distfiles!
Then you can run the "emerge" command and install the software. (it took me 2 days to understand that I can do this.. I hope you'll be faster )

2. Search the forums, and read the helpfiles! (more than 2 times)
If you think you've read it all, check the most basic helpfile there is (like the install instructions) and check if you can find anything there. Perhaps you missed something in the very beginning (when you were busy understanding fstab and all the other penguin-stuff)?

3. Check your chipset!!!
You can check what chipset your card has here: http://www.linux-wlan.org/docs/wlan_adapters.html.gz
or, if you "know" that Madwifi should support your card - double-check that here: http://madwifi.sourceforge.net/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=compatibility_list

4. www.justfuckinggoogleit.com