Trouble with wireless on Ubuntu

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Luke
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Trouble with wireless on Ubuntu

Post by Luke »

I'm getting this error when I click on the network monitor (the icon in the upper right) in Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy).
SIOCGIFFLAGS error: No such device
Anybody familiar with it?

anyway... I'm wondering if it's possible to start wlan0 manually... without that monitor. Isn't it?
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Post by nickvd »

What wireless chip is being used?

And if it's not supported by linux (quite a lot aren't if memory serves) do a search on the ubuntu forums for 'ndiswrapper', it uses the standard windows drivers to provide "support" under linux... You won't get any of the better features such as the ability to use any of the wireless scanning tools (think airsnort, kismet, etc).

Another possible resource would be linux-wireless.com, though I've never used it, as I've always used ndiswrapper without problems (until now, 6.06 wouldn't work with the method I was using [or I was forgetting a step], and since I rarely if ever use wireless, I haven't bothered to fix things :))
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Luke
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Post by Luke »

Intel Pro Wireless 2200 which according to this:
http://www.debuntu.org/2006/03/27/9-how ... omment-285

has been supported since 6.06 (or possibly earlier)
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volka
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Post by volka »

preface: I'm not familiar with ubuntu

Let's make sure a driver for your wireless device has been loaded

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dmesg | grep ipw
Does this print something like
ipw2200: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver, 1.1.2k
ipw2200: Copyright(c) 2003-2006 Intel Corporation
ipw2200: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
ipw2200: Radio Frequency Kill Switch is On:
ipw2200: Detected geography ZZM (11 802.11bg channels, 0 802.11a channels)
what about

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lsmod | grep ipw
Is there a file /proc/net/wireless? If there is what does it contain

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cat /proc/net/eth1
Inter-| sta-| Quality | Discarded packets | Missed | WE
face | tus | link level noise | nwid crypt frag retry misc | beacon | 20
eth1: 0000 0. 0. 0. 0 0 0 0 0 0
(yepp, the radio kill switch IS on ;))

Just out of curiosity: Does ubuntu ship with the program ethtool?
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Luke
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Post by Luke »

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dmesg | grep ipw
Gave me these results:
Intel(R) Copyright(c) 2003-2006 Intel Corperation
Driver 'ipw2200' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
ipw2200: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
ipw2200: Detected geography ZZM (11 802.11bg channels, 0 802.1 la channels)
So I guess I need to update the driver...
Is there a file /proc/net/wireless? If there is what does it contain
There isn't one
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volka
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Post by volka »

Did you do something to get this ipw2200 driver or is it the one ubuntu 6.10 installs?
Did you update your kernel (/sources)? If yes, exactly what did you do?
I'm just wondering because Ubuntu 6.10 uses kernel 2.6.17 and message Driver '%s' needs updating - please use bus_type methods already exists in 2.6.16, see http://www.linuxhq.com/kernel/v2.6/16/d ... e/driver.c and http://lkml.org/lkml/2006/1/5/151. How old is this ipw2200 driver?

What's the output of

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uname -a

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lsmod | grep ipw

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modinfo ipw2200

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cat /proc/net/dev

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ethtool eth0
(please post the output of each command, even if it throws an error)

It's likely you'll get faster and better results if you ask in a ubuntu specific forum.
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volka
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Post by volka »

Just curious, problem solved?
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Luke
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Post by Luke »

haven't had a chance to mess with it yet. I will post here when I do. Thanks volka. :)
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Luke
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Post by Luke »

volka wrote:Did you do something to get this ipw2200 driver or is it the one ubuntu 6.10 installs?
Did you update your kernel (/sources)? If yes, exactly what did you do?
I'm just wondering because Ubuntu 6.10 uses kernel 2.6.17 and message Driver '%s' needs updating - please use bus_type methods already exists in 2.6.16, see http://www.linuxhq.com/kernel/v2.6/16/d ... e/driver.c and http://lkml.org/lkml/2006/1/5/151. How old is this ipw2200 driver?
I followed this tutorial and then realized the drivers are included out of the box... my comment is half way down the comments titled "oops" and I tried what was suggested to me (from an admin I think) and it didn't work. (said files didn't exist I think)
volka wrote:What's the output of

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uname -a

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Linux luke-laptop 2.6.17-10-386 #2 Tue Dec 5 22:26:18 UTC 2006 i686 GNU/Linux
volka wrote:

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lsmod | grep ipw
nothing happened
volka wrote:

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modinfo ipw2200

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filename:       /lib/modules/2.6.17-10-386/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ipw2200.ko
description:    Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver
version:        1.1.2kmprq
author:         Copyright(c) 2003-2006 Intel Corporation
license:        GPL
vermagic:       2.6.17-10-386 mod_unload 486 REGPARM gcc-4.1
depends:        ieee80211
alias:          pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002701bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002702bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002711bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002712bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002721bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002722bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002731bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002732bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002741bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00008086d00001043sv0000103Csd00002741bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002742bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002751bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002752bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002753bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002754bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002761bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002762bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00008086d0000104Fsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00008086d00004220sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00008086d00004221sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00008086d00004223sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00008086d00004224sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
srcversion:     21E4CB2BA3BD779BFD7FC01
parm:           antenna:select antenna 1=Main, 3=Aux, default 0 [both], 2=slow_diversity (choose the one with lower background noise) (int)
parm:           roaming:enable roaming support (default on) (int)
parm:           cmdlog:allocate a ring buffer for logging firmware commands (int)
parm:           hwcrypto:enable hardware crypto (default off) (int)
parm:           bt_coexist:enable bluetooth coexistence (default off) (int)
parm:           mode:network mode (0=BSS,1=IBSS,2=Monitor) (int)
parm:           burst_duration_OFDM:set OFDM burst value (int)
parm:           burst_duration_CCK:set CCK burst value (int)
parm:           qos_no_ack_mask:mask Tx_Queue to no ack (int)
parm:           qos_burst_enable:enable QoS burst mode (int)
parm:           qos_enable:enable all QoS functionalitis (int)
parm:           rtap_iface:create the rtap interface (1 - create, default 0) (int)
parm:           channel:channel to limit associate to (default 0 [ANY]) (int)
parm:           led:enable led control on some systems (default 0 off)
 (int)
parm:           auto_create:auto create adhoc network (default on) (int)
parm:           associate:auto associate when scanning (default on) (int)
parm:           disable:manually disable the radio (default 0 [radio on]) (int)
volka wrote:

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cat /proc/net/dev

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Inter-|   Receive                                                |  Transmit
 face |bytes    packets errs drop fifo frame compressed multicast|bytes    packets errs drop fifo colls carrier compressed
    lo:    8243      40    0    0    0     0          0         0     8243      40    0    0    0     0       0          0
  eth0:15353838   14897    0    0    0     0          0         0  2162763   11611    0    0    0     0       0          0
  eth1:       0     426    0    0    0     0          0         0        0   27262    0    0    0     0       1          0
  sit0:       0       0    0    0    0     0          0         0        0       0    0    0    0     0       0          0
volka wrote:

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ethtool eth0

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Settings for eth0:
Cannot get device settings: Operation not permitted
Cannot get wake-on-lan settings: Operation not permitted
Cannot get message level: Operation not permitted
Cannot get link status: Operation not permitted
No data available
volka wrote:It's likely you'll get faster and better results if you ask in a ubuntu specific forum.
I did. I didn't get an answer.
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neophyte
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Post by neophyte »

Wireless connections on Linux are unfortunately still a big PITA. :(
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Post by Kieran Huggins »

I don't mean to be unhelpful, but have you tried:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=309041
?

Also, check

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sudo iwconfig

sudo lshw -C network
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volka
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Post by volka »

oops, forgot the sudo part when writing the commands because I'm lazy and usually do a su *cough*
So that would be

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sudo lsmod | grep ipw
and so on. But it doesn't matter that much.
In the meantime I've installed ubuntu 6.10 on my notebook and - The Ninja Space Goat surely doesn't want to read this - the wireless works without a problem.
Take a look at System->Administration->Network. Is there at least one adapter checked?
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Luke
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Post by Luke »

I'm going to start over with a fresh install of Ubuntu. I think I may have made problems for myself from the get-go because I don't know what I'm doing. I'm about to buy this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Ubuntu-Unleashed- ... F8&s=books

If anybody knows of a better one, let me know.

Hopefully the book will get me up to speed so I'm not just typing voodoo commands into the terminal
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volka
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Post by volka »

hm, maybe I should have installed the english language package ...well, anyway.

Played around for about two hours now with ubuntu and must say I like it. It had a better start than fedora or opensuse on my notebook and it is -of course- much easier to install than gentoo ;)



In the synaptic package managment (hopefully the translation has anything to do with the "real english" label at all) there is a menu settings->package source. If you enable the "universe" repository and then reload the package list you can install wifi-radar. That's my favorite application to find and bind to a wireless network (though it still has some flaws).

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sudo lspci | grep controller
gives me
02:04.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection (rev 05)
02:07.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
and both adapters were automagically configured.

I definitly have to take a closer look at the font settings of ubuntu. They are the best I've seen so far for the notebook. And X works (so far) absolutely smooth with the radeon driver - I didn't manage that and had to use the closed-source driver.

There's a openbook about Ubuntu. Unfortunately for you it's in german. http://www.galileocomputing.de/openbook/ubuntu/
The download link doesn't work for me but that's maybe because some more popular sites recently had reports about this new release and the site is "DDoSed" ;)
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Luke
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Post by Luke »

I noticed the fonts being really crisp and clean as well. I'm on a Dell Inspiron 600m notebook. I'm pretty happy with Ubuntu other than the wireless issues. Anyway... I'm about to reinstall right now. I'll let you know how it goes.
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