problem with wireless on RH7.3 with pci adapter

[Project Manager]

Hi,

Barry Dunietz wrote:
> I am trying to get the pci wireless on my ibm thinkpad T30 running the
> RH7.3.  
>
> Now, iwconfig wlan0 shows wireless extension. However, 
> when simply typing iwconfig will not list wlan0:

If you are trying to get wireless on a Thinkpad, I suppose you should be 
using the PCMCIA cardbus driver.  So your friendly driver is hostap_cs, 
not hostap_pci.

Good way to check if your driver is loaded correctly is to have a look in:

1. /proc/net/wireless
2. /proc/net/hostap/

if you are trying to use this Thinkpad as an access point, then you 
should see the MAC addrs of stations associating to it listed as 
proc-files in /proc/net/hostap.

Also lsmod lists the hostap_cs driver if it loaded fine.  Mine looks like:

	alexander:/home # lsmod
	Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
	hostap_cs              47792   1
	hostap                 53476   0  [hostap_cs]
	hostap_crypt            1520   0  [hostap]

/etc/modules.conf should normally contain "alias wlan0 hostap_cs".

If have pcmcia support built into the kernel (which is the case with 
recent kernel versions), there shouldn't be a need to recompile it. 
Check this by issuing:

	cardctl ident

which will list all pcmcia cards inserted into the laptop and recognised 
by the pcmcia package.  Mine looks like:

	alexander:/home # cardctl ident
	Socket 0:
	  product info: "PROXIM", "RangeLAN-DS/LAN PC CARD", ""
	  manfid: 0x0126, 0x8000
	  function: 6 (network)

If you are really trying to use a pci card on the Thinkpad, then *lspci* 
should give some starting clues.

Hope that helps some - Cheers

> 
>  iwconfig
> lo        no wireless extensions.
> 
> eth0:1    no wireless extensions.
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> [root at apple root]# iwconfig wlan0
> wlan0     IEEE 802.11-b  ESSID:"test"
>           Mode:Master  Frequency:2.422GHz  Access Point:
>           Bit Rate:11Mb/s   Tx-Power:-10 dBm   Sensitivity=1/3
>           Retry min limit:8   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
>           Encryption key:off
>           Power Management:off
>           Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
>           Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
>           Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:112   Missed beacon:0
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> the only way i was able to get the hostap_pci on the network configuration
> tool was when i added "alias eth1 hostap_pci" in /etc/module.conf
> changing eth1 by wlan0 did not help.
> 
> It looks like i need to recompile the kernel? (never did that thus i am
> hesitant to do so)