orinoco gold wireless pcmcia redhat 9.0 (i've provided lots of details :) )

[jipe]

hey,

i'm a relative newbie to linux so any help would be greatly appreciated. i've checked out many old posts on this and other sites, but to no avail. here's my problem. i was running redhat8.0 with a regular wired ethernet card (eth0) on my laptop. no problems with that, all was fine.

then i got a proxim orinoco gold pcmcia wireless ethernet card. partly due to that, and partly due to better graphical support for my chipset, i decided to upgrade to redhat9.0.

i went for a fresh install but did not bother setting up my eth0 nic. instead i want to just set up my wireless pcmcia card, for the moment anyway. i presume this will be eth1.

from what i've read redhat9.0 seems to have pretty good native support for the orinoco gold card. here is exactly what i did to set up my wireless connection:

# insmod orinoco
# insmod orinoco_cs
# insmod hermes
# modprobe orinoco
# modprobe orinoco_cs
# modprobe hermes

after doing this, i get the following output from lsmod:

# lsmod
Module Size Used by Not tainted
orinoco_cs 5864 0
orinoco 36024 0 [orinoco_cs]
hermes 8196 0 [orinoco_cs orinoco]
ds 8680 1 [orinoco_cs]
yenta_socket 13472 1
pcmcia_core 57216 0 [orinoco_cs ds yenta_socket]

there is more to that output, but i think that is all that is relevant - i'll post the rest if anyone thinks it'll help.

next i ran:

# cardctl ident

and got:

Socket 0:
product info: "Agere Systems", "Wireless PC Card Model 0111", "", ""
manfid: 0x0156, 0x0003
function: 6 (network)

so i made a /etc/pcmcia/hermes.conf file that contained the following:

device "orinoco_cs"
class "network"
module "hermes", "orinoco", "orinoco_cs"
card "Wireless PC Card Model 0111"
manfid 0x0156, 0x0003
bind "orinoco_cs"

finally i ran:

# /etc/rc.d/init.d/pcmcia restart

and heard two high pitched beeps. from what i've read this means the card has been accepted and next i just have to configure the network. am i correct in assuming this?

next i went to the redhat network confirguration gui tool (in system settings>network).

under the devices tab i clicked "new".
then selected "wireless connection".
then "other wireless card".
then "lucent orinoco and prism II-based pcmcia wireless".
i selected it as eth1 and left the irq, mem, io, dma all blank.
from here i just kept clicking forward and accepting the default (i.e. mostly blank and automatic) options.

doing all this created the device eth1 as a wireless device. however when i clicked "activate", i got the following message:

interface 'eth1' not found
Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
invalid argument "s:".
Determining IP information for eth1...SIOCSIFFLAGS: Connection timed out
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Connection timed out
failed.

i'm really stuck what to do from here. it seems to me that the card has been accepted but i'm doing something stupid when it comes to setting up the network. does this seem to be a fair assumption?

here is some other output that might be useful:

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 gives:

# Please read /usr/share/doc/initscripts-*/sysconfig.txt
# for the documentation of these parameters.
USERCTL=no
PEERDNS=yes
GATEWAY=
TYPE=Wireless
DEVICE=eth1
HWADDR=00:10:C6:1C:1A:70
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
NETMASK=
ONBOOT=yes
DHCP_HOSTNAME=
IPADDR=
NAME=
DOMAIN=
ESSID=default
CHANNEL=6
MODE=Managed
KEY=s:
RATE=Auto

/etc/modules.conf gives:

alias eth1 orinoco_cs

if i run iwconfig i get:
# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

eth1 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"myessid" Nickname:"mynickname"
Mode:Managed Channel:-190 Bit Rate:11Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm
RTS thr=21 B
Encryption key:off

# ifconfig eth1
eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 15:00:02:00:01:00
BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:3 Base address:0x200

the last few lines of dmesg are:

hermes.c: 5 Apr 2002 David Gibson <hermes@gibson.dropbear.id.au>
Linux Kernel Card Services 3.1.22
options: [pci] [cardbus] [pm]
ds: no socket drivers loaded!
unloading Kernel Card Services
Linux Kernel Card Services 3.1.22
options: [pci] [cardbus] [pm]
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:03.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:01.4
Yenta IRQ list 00b8, PCI irq11
Socket status: 30000411
cs: IO port probe 0x0c00-0x0cff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x0100-0x04ff: excluding 0x378-0x37f 0x480-0x48f 0x4d0-0x4d7
cs: IO port probe 0x0a00-0x0aff: clean.
cs: memory probe 0xa0000000-0xa0ffffff: clean.
hermes.c: 5 Apr 2002 David Gibson <hermes@gibson.dropbear.id.au>
orinoco.c 0.11b (David Gibson <hermes@gibson.dropbear.id.au> and others)
orinoco_cs.c 0.11b (David Gibson <hermes@gibson.dropbear.id.au> and others)
divert: allocating divert_blk for eth1
eth1: Station identity 0015:0002:0001:000a
eth1: Looks like an Intersil firmware version 1.10
eth1: Ad-hoc demo mode supported
eth1: IEEE standard IBSS ad-hoc mode supported
eth1: WEP supported, 104-bit key
eth1: MAC address 15:00:02:00:01:00
eth1: Station name " "
eth1: ready
eth1: index 0x07: Vcc 5.0, irq 3, io 0x0200-0x027f
eth1: Channel out of range (21)!
hermes @ IO 0x200: Card removed while waiting for command completion.
hermes @ IO 0x200: Frame allocation command failed (0xFFFFFFED).
hermes @ IO 0x200: Card removed while waiting for command completion.
hermes @ IO 0x200: Frame allocation command failed (0xFFFFFFED).
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778) [PCSPP,TRISTATE]
parport0: irq 7 detected
lp0: using parport0 (polling).
lp0: console ready
Linux agpgart interface v0.99 (c) Jeff Hartmann
agpgart: Maximum main memory to use for agp memory: 409M
agpgart: Detected SiS 630 chipset
agpgart: AGP aperture is 64M @ 0xe0000000
sisfb: Fatal error: Unable to reserve frame buffer memory
sisfb: Is there another framebuffer driver active?

i think they're all that's relevant. i dont really know what any of it means but i take it that the

eth1: Channel out of range (21)!

isnt good, nor is the rest of it about the card being removed... especially seeing as how i didnt remove the card...

anywho, any help would be greatly appreciated and i'll post whatever else you think might be necessary. and just to state the obvious, the card does actually work coz i've been using it under windows xp with no problems.

[serz]

Do you have two network cards? If not, then you should be using eth0 instad of eth1..

[jipe]

hey,

thanks for your reply :)

yes, i've two network cards. eth0 is the inbuilt wired ethernet card on my laptop. i'm trying to configure eth1 to represent my wireless orinoco gold card.

any further suggestions welcome!!!

[serz]

I don't know about wireless cards but...

Can't you specify something like "iwconfig eth1"? Cause it complains about your eth0 card, which is not wireless.

[jipe]

hey serz,

thanks for your reply again.

i actually specified iwconfig eth1 up above already - i know it looks like a mess coz there's so much detail in there :)

what i got was:

# iwconfig eth1
eth1 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"myessid" Nickname:"mynickname"
Mode:Managed Channel:-190 Bit Rate:11Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm
RTS thr=21 B
Encryption key: off


also, from reading previous posts on similar problems i have a suspicion that there may be an irq conflict. so i ran the following:

# cat /proc/interrupts
CPU0
0: 8953 XT-PIC timer
1: 65 XT-PIC keyboard
2: 0 XT-PIC cascade
3: 17 XT-PIC orinoco_cs
8: 1 XT-PIC rtc
9: 0 XT-PIC usb-ohci, usb-ohci
11: 6 XT-PIC O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6812 Cardbus Controller, SiS 7018 PCI Audio
12: 398 XT-PIC PS/2 Mouse
14: 6833 XT-PIC ide0
15: 424 XT-PIC ide1
NMI: 0
ERR: 0


# cat /proc/ioports
0000-001f : dma1
0020-003f : pic1
0040-005f : timer
0060-006f : keyboard
0070-007f : rtc
0080-008f : dma page reg
00a0-00bf : pic2
00c0-00df : dma2
00f0-00ff : fpu
0170-0177 : ide1
01f0-01f7 : ide0
0200-027f : orinoco_cs
02f8-02ff : serial(auto)
0376-0376 : ide1
0378-037a : parport0
03c0-03df : vesafb
03f6-03f6 : ide0
03f8-03ff : serial(auto)
0cf8-0cff : PCI conf1
4000-40ff : PCI CardBus #02
4400-44ff : PCI CardBus #02
a000-afff : PCI Bus #01
ac80-acff : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS630 GUI Accelerator+3D
d000-d0ff : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 10/100 Ethernet
d000-d0ff : sis900
d400-d4ff : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS PCI Audio Accelerator
d400-d4ff : SiS 7018 PCI Audio
d800-d87f : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 56k Winmodem (Smart Link HAMR5600 compatible)
dc00-dcff : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 56k Winmodem (Smart Link HAMR5600 compatible)
ff00-ff0f : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE]
ff00-ff07 : ide0
ff08-ff0f : ide1

i'm not sure what i should be looking for here, but does anything seem to conflict?

thanks

[mi6]

how about a quick #/sbin/dhclient eth1

what does that spit out?

[jipe]

mi6, thanks for your reply

# dhclient eth1
Internet Software Consortium DHCP Client V3.0pl1
Copyright 1995-2001 Internet Software Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/products/DHCP

SIOCSIFFLAGS: Connection timed out
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Connection timed out
Listening on LPF/eth1/15:00:02:00:01:00
Sending on LPF/eth1/15:00:02:00:01:00
Sending on Socket/fallback
receive_packet failed on eth1: Network is down
DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
send_packet: Network is down
DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
send_packet: Network is down
DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
send_packet: Network is down
DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 13
send_packet: Network is down
DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 11
send_packet: Network is down

i dont think i'm even at the stage where i can look for a network though because i dont think the card has been properly recognised yet. i'm getting the two high pitch beeps which i believe signify the module was loaded properly, but there is no light activity.

has anyone got this card working (proxim orinoco gold 8420-WD) under linux? i thought the orinoco was supposedly well supported...

as i said above in an ealier post, i think there may be an irq conflict or something, but i really dont know what to look for. from the output of /proc/interrupts above has anyone any idea? i'm desperate!!!

i'm thinking of re-posting this topic in hardware (unless someone has any insights). any last suggestions?

[jipe]

oh, one more thing. here's some info from /var/log/messages that may be useful:

Jul 16 11:38:48 name cardmgr[2094]: socket 0: Wireless PC Card Model 0111
Jul 16 11:38:45 name network: Setting network parameters: succeeded
Jul 16 11:38:45 name network: Bringing up loopback interface: succeeded
Jul 16 11:38:48 name netfs: Mounting other filesystems: succeeded
Jul 16 11:38:48 name cardmgr[2094]: executing: 'modprobe hermes'
Jul 16 11:38:48 name cardmgr[2094]: executing: 'modprobe orinoco'
Jul 16 11:38:48 name cardmgr[2094]: executing: 'modprobe orinoco_cs'
Jul 16 11:38:48 name cardmgr[2094]: executing: './network start eth1'
Jul 16 11:38:48 name /etc/hotplug/net.agent: invoke ifup eth1
Jul 16 11:38:48 name autofs: automount startup succeeded
Jul 16 11:38:49 name kernel: eth1: Channel out of range (21)!
Jul 16 11:38:49 name kernel: hermes @ IO 0x200: Card removed while waiting for command completion.
Jul 16 11:38:49 name kernel: hermes @ IO 0x200: Frame allocation command failed (0xFFFFFFED).
Jul 16 11:38:49 name kernel: hermes @ IO 0x200: Card removed while waiting for command completion.
Jul 16 11:38:49 name kernel: hermes @ IO 0x200: Frame allocation command failed (0xFFFFFFED).
Jul 16 11:38:50 name sshd: succeeded
Jul 16 11:38:50 name dhclient: receive_packet failed on eth1: Network is down
Jul 16 11:38:51 name xinetd[2246]: xinetd Version 2.3.10 started with libwrap options compiled in.
Jul 16 11:38:51 name xinetd[2246]: Started working: 1 available service
Jul 16 11:38:53 name dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
Jul 16 11:38:53 name dhclient: send_packet: Network is down

this is what happens if i boot up with the pcmcia card inserted

[mi6]

Yes, it seems I am jumped the gun a bit. My apologies!

I cannot find your particular card in a list at http://www.linux-wlan.org/docs/wlan_adapters_supported_html2.html

Since the 8420 lists as a straight 802.11b card, my assumption would be that it is indeed orinoco, but as I have read Proxim may not be using that chipset currently. Since cardctl didn't specify what chipset you have, I would lean towards incompatibility.

Do you have access to another card that is positively a prism/orinoco card?

[jipe]

>Do you have access to another card that is positively a prism/orinoco card?

no, unfortunately this is all i have...

[mi6]

still interested in this one...

I noticed a couple of differences in how you configed your comp and how I did my laptop:

card "Microsoft Wireless Notebook Adapter MN-520 1.0.3"
version "Microsoft", "Wireless Notebook Adapter MN-520", "", "1.0.3"
bind "orinoco_cs

Of course this is a different card, but the same chipset (supposedly). The point is I place the above in /etc/pcmcia/config not /etc/pcmcia/hermes.conf.

Try adjusting the above example to suit your needs and placing it in your /etc/pcmcia/config file.

[mi6]

hmmm...did some more searching for ya!

The Wavelan IEEE saga nevers ends. Proxim bought the card and access point business of Agere (Agere keept the chipset and radio part), so now the same Orinoco cards are sold by Proxim under the name Orinoco Classic or Orinoco World (841X - with the big square antenna and using the same Agere chipset). In a bold marketing move, Proxim renamed all it's other lines of wireless cards as Orinoco, however those cards are not based on the Agere chipset but on Atheros chipset (846X, 847X and 848X). So, if the Proxim Orinoco card doesn't have a big square antena and do support 802.11a or 802.11g, you can be sure it's not a true Orinoco. I currently don't know yet if the Orinoco 11b (842X - 802.11b only with a short antenna) use the Agere chipset or not.

So it is up in the air if these are supported according to: http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Linux.Wireless.drivers.html#WavelanIEEE

sadly, I went through this same ordeal when chosing a PCI base wireless card for my desktop.

[jipe]

mi6 cheers for your help/research buddy.

unfortunately it was to no avail. i also tried explicitly using the wavelan_cs and wvlan_cs drivers, as well as the orinoco_cs driver. all unsuccessfull :(

i think this one is pretty much a dead end. i'll just try a quick post in hardware and see if anyone has any last ideas...

thanks to everyone for their help and i'll let you know if it ever does work for me :)

[mdwatts]

FYI... Just so you know that your other thread in Hardware was removed as it really only points to this one asking for additional help. Crossposting? :)

[jipe]

Crossposting?

fair enough.

seeing as how it was getting nowhere in this forum, i thought some new eyes might see it in hardware. :)

[jipe]

here's a link to proxim's beta driver for anyone that's interested:

http://www.greenblaze.com/proxim.html

thanks to stir_frey for posting it!

i got it working under redhat9.0 in minutes.

just download it, follow the instructions. very easy, very quick. no obvious bugs or clashes on my system yet either.

sweet

:)