Wireless PCMCIA setup

[David Bandel]

On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 16:36:16 -0500, Edward Jabbour <ejbr at comcast.net> wrote:
> On Friday 07 January 2005 03:41 pm, Net Llama! wrote:
> > On Fri, 7 Jan 2005, Edward Jabbour wrote:
> 
> > > I've compiled CONFIG_PRISM54 into my 2.6.8-r3 kernel. Some info:
> > >
> > > cardctl ident
> > > Socket 0:
> > > product info:  "Intersil", "ISL3890", "_", "_"
> > > manfid: 0x000b, 0x3890
> > > function: 254 (null)
> > >
> > > iwconfig
> > > lo no wireless extensions
> > > eth1  NOT READY! ESSID:off/any
> > > Mode:Managed  Channel:0  Access Point:  00:00:00:00:00
> > > [etc - in other words, no wireless]
> > >
> > > I have emerged the latest (unstable) baselayout and its dependencies,
> > > and pcmcia-cs. I do not have wlan, net.eth0, eth1 or similar
> > > in /etc/init.d.  The networking guide in the Gentoo Handbook is not
> > > much help.
> > >
> > > If anyone knows of a good, clear, howto designed for the
> > > simple-minded, I'd appreciate a pointer or, indeed, any advice at
> > > all.  Thanks.
> >
> > I'll admit up front that i've never used gentoo for this sort of thing,
> > nor are my wifi cards the same as yours.  However, from the info above
> > it looks like your card is being detected, so this is likely a wifi
> > configuration issue, rather than a hardware/pcmcia issue.
> 
> Exactly.
> 
> > How did you configure the interface?
> 
> I haven't.  That's what I've been trying to do but have no idea where to
> start.  I've  set up ethernet , ppp, and much more stuff over time, but
> this wifi stuff is a real nut for me.  Totally at a loss here.

I don't know how Gentoo handles Wi-Fi, but most distros let the PCMCIA
startup scripts handle PCMCIA cards.  But first:

1.  Give eth1 an IP address, etc.
2.  You need to know what you're trying to connect to:
     AP (Windoze calls it infrastructure), Ad-hoc network (Windoze
calls it peer-to-peer).  These are the only two kinds of networks you
can have (Windoze has a third category, but it's still
infrastructure).
3.  You must know your network name
4.  You must know your encryption type/code.  I've only ever used WEP.

Once you know 2,3, and 4 above, we can configure something:
iwconfig eth1 essid "network-name"
iwconfig eth1 mode managed | ad-hoc
iwconfig eth1 encryption s:cyphercode
(the s: above allows you to use alphanumerics rather than knowing the
actual code numbers)

If the above works, I suggest looking through /etc/pcmcia/network.opts
for your IP configuration, and /etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts for your
wireless configuration (unless Gentoo does this elsewhere).

HTH,

David A. Bandel
-- 
Focus on the dream, not the competition.
            - Nemesis Air Racing Team motto