Wireless - thinkpad t60, wpa_supplicant, madwifi please help

khoda · n00b Joined: 22 Nov 2006 Posts: 5

Hi all,

I installed gentoo this past weekend. I'm very new to linux (this is my first complete installation of the operating system). I am trying to get my wireless internet working. At home I use WPA encryption and at school we don't, so somebody suggested to install wpa_supplicant. My wirless chipset is Atheros AR5212 802.11abg. It shows up with I type lspci and the interface is shown at ath0 when I type iwconfig. I installed madwifi drivers then wpa_supplicant.

When I type iwlist ath0 ap no access points are listed. I'm not sure what to do.

Any suggestions?

erik258 · Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 2:55 am Post subject:

from the iwlist man page, iwlist version 28:

khoda · n00b Joined: 22 Nov 2006 Posts: 5

erik258:
When I type "iwlist ath0 scan"

I get:

erik258 · Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 3:12 am Post subject:

ah. you may have to load these modules (i just listed all to do with wireless)

khoda · n00b Joined: 22 Nov 2006 Posts: 5

Sorry if this is a noobie question (but I'm very new). By "loading the modules" you mean typing "modprobe <module name>" right?

If so, I just did that then typed "iwlist ath0 scan" and got the same problem.

By the way, wpa works in windows (and my friend uses it in ubuntu).

What else am I missing?

erik258 · Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 3:28 am Post subject:

i do indeed mean just the command you executed. good job.

are you sure you got them all? check to be positive and i'll check to make sure i listed all important ones. alternately you could go to /lib/modules/<your-kernel-version>/net/ and load whatever you see there, but note that modprobe automatically appends a .ko to the name, so for example if you wanted to load wlan_scan_sta.ko you would type 'modprobe wlan_scan_sta' like that.

why not load all the modules in that directory, just to make sure? i probably missed the one you need, now that i think about it. I am using this particular atheros card as an AP and therefore can't scan with it, and thus maybe i don't have all the modules loaded i would need.

and why not post your lsmod output? that might help. i would also like to see what happened on 'iwconfig ath0' if you wouldn't mind posting that.
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khoda · n00b Joined: 22 Nov 2006 Posts: 5

Thanks for your help so far. I loaded all the modules in /lib/modules/__/net and it still isn't working.

Posting my lsmod output and iwconfig ath0 output will require me to install a GUI (which I haven't done yet). Is there another way to post this output? I've been using links and I emerged gmp but /etc/init.d/gmp start doesn't work so I"m not sure how I would post the ouput. If there is no other way, I'll have to wait until I have the time to install a GUI to post it.

Thanks again.

erik258 · Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 6:32 am Post subject:

you must mean gpm. that's probably the best way to do it, yes.

were you typing /etc/init.d/gmp start? try /etc/init.d/gpm start.

or tell me what the error message said.

ps. just X doesn't take too long, it's kde/gnome and friends that take a really long time.
_________________
Configuring a Firewall? Try my iptables configuration
LinuxCommando.com is my blog for linux-related scraps and tidbits. Stop by for a visit!

erik258 · Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 6:40 am Post subject:

compare yours with mine at least:

Rumil · Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:46 pm Post subject:

Ensure ath0 interface is up before you try to scan: