compaq evo no pcmcia?

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specialpuppy
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compaq evo no pcmcia?

#1 Post by specialpuppy »

hello, new pup here. I loaded slacko 6.3.0 on my OLD laptop and am wondering how to get it to recognise the wifi port? my ethernet works fine just no wifi. HELP :?

steve

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Mike Walsh
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#2 Post by Mike Walsh »

Hi, specialpuppy.

Mmm. I take it you're using a CardBus wireless adapter, running from the PCMCIA slot, yes?

PCMCIA stuff is pretty old by now.....yet it still works very well. I use one of these:-

https://www.amazon.com/Netgear-WPN511NA ... B0009PTGBA

.....in a 14-yr old Dell Inspiron laptop:-


Image


.....and it's absolutely stable. The driver for this particular model's chipset has been supported by the Linux kernel for a looong time. That's the crux of the problem, really; does the kernel of your Puppy support the chipset of your wireless adapter?

I only bought this one a little over a year ago; the laptop is original, and after multiple upgrades still hums along sweetly. I wanted a 'period' adapter that would have been on the market at the time the Dell itself was new.

It works perfectly.

One problem that you come to realise with running Linux is this, in a nutshell; most drivers (the kernel is almost entirely nothing but drivers (better than 90%), which is why you never, or only rarely, need to install them) have to be 'reverse-engineered' from their Windows counterparts. Which takes time. It's no use wanting to use brand-new stuff, even with a brand-new Linux kernel.....driver support for it won't yet have been added.

So it makes sense, when buying hardware, to dig a little, and find out about driver support at the time of shopping for it. You're generally OK with PCMCIA/CardBus stuff, since the tech is 'old-hat' now. However, there are some wireless chipset manufacturers whose stuff has always been a PITA to work with in Linux. One of these is Broadcom.

It will help immensely to know what make/model of PCMCIA card we're talking about here. It will allow us to 'dig' a little, and find out what the state of play is with the chipset. You must understand, the more details you can give us, the greater the likelihood we can help. We're not too good with a crystal ball!! :lol:

Machine specs would also be good, too; make, model, CPU, RAM, HDD, graphics card (if any), etc.

BTW:- You would have been better posting this in the beginners forum; this one is mainly for Puppy-specific system & hardware/firmware development threads. The 'PCMCIA' descriptor has been there ever since the Forum was first set up back in 2005.....

It would have been 'cutting-edge'.....at that time! :)


Mike. :wink:

specialpuppy
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#3 Post by specialpuppy »

Hello Mike, sorry for not getting back sooner. well to shed light on this both my encore electronics 54mbps 802.11g and my Linksys 2.4ghz 802.11g do not work. its like the port is dead no power lights on either. I personally dont think it is the cards but something not turned on.
Compaq evon620c
intel pentium M 1600mhz

Thanks Steve

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Mike Walsh
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#4 Post by Mike Walsh »

Hi, Steve.

Mm. Okay. Without an actual model no. for either wireless card, I'm going to take an educated guess here:-

Is the Linksys one of these?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-WPC54G-Link ... Sw1DtXKI2d

...or one of these?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Linksys-Wireles ... SwfVpYpOhM

As for the Encore Electronic card, could it be one of these?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Encore-Electron ... SwiYFXIO5f

I need confirmation on these (if at all possible), as it's pointless trying to determine the relevant chipsets without having anything definite to work from. Having determined the chipsets, we can then use the Wikidevi site to narrow down the probable Linux kernel drivers for the same....okay?

I'll leave that one with you.....


Mike. :wink:

specialpuppy
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#5 Post by specialpuppy »

hey Mike yes first and last are what i have. so... now what?

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greengeek
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#6 Post by greengeek »

When you boot go into the bios setup (F1, F2, F8, F11 or maybe even esc depending on model??) and look for options relating to pcmcia. I seem to recall options like "legacy" and also "ToPic" or something similar. See what it lets you change and give all options a try.

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Mike Walsh
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#7 Post by Mike Walsh »

Hi again, specialpuppy. Now, then...

The Linksys adapter apparently came in several different versions.....each of which used a different chipset! It's about what I expected; there was a lot of chopping & changing of components with manufacturers, at the time when these were on the market originally. Plus, as expected, there were many 'generic' manufacturers who sold their products on to bigger firms, who in their turn simply re-badged them as their own product.

Is your card a WPC54GR, a WPC54GX, or a WPC54GS (with a specific revison/version number.....anywhere from v1.0 to v7.0)?

This revision/version number is very important, as it appears Linksys were, at that time, using no fewer than 9 or 10 different chipsets!!! Every one of which will want a different driver..... :roll: If it's a v2, a v4, or a v5, you are going to be out of luck, I'm afraid. I'm really hoping it's a v7; the 'ath5k' driver is what powers my own card, and that's been supported for years.

If it's a v1.0, v1.1, v1.2, v3.0, or a v3.1, then it's a Broadcom chipset. They're a PITA to work with, but it is 'do-able'.....it'll be the 'b43', or 'b43 legacy' driver.

If it's a GR, it'll be a Ralink chipset. If it's a GX, you are going to be totally out of luck.....I've never even heard of the 'Airgo' chipset.....and Wikidevi states that it simply doesn't exist. Period.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

As for the Encore Electronics card, I can't even find a Wikidevi listing for that particular beast, so it's entirely possible that nobody's ever attempted to use it under Linux. More likely it's a re-badged 'generic' card.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

If you plug either of them in, boot into Puppy on that machine, then bring up a terminal and enter

Code: Select all

lspci
.....and hit the 'Enter' button, it should bring up a list of recognised PCI devices. Can you copy that list & paste it into your next post, please? It will help enormously with getting a specific ID. That, and the version number, of course..!


Mike. :wink:

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Mike Walsh
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#8 Post by Mike Walsh »

greengeek wrote:When you boot go into the bios setup (F1, F2, F8, F11 or maybe even esc depending on model??) and look for options relating to pcmcia. I seem to recall options like "legacy" and also "ToPic" or something similar. See what it lets you change and give all options a try.
Hey, greengeek.

Mm. Y'know, I've never even heard of the option for PCMCIA being in the BIOS. Certainly it doesn't exist in my own Dell, despite having the slot and bus for it built-in.....

Is this summat you've come across yourself, or is this an educated guess? :lol:

Anything's possible, I suppose...


Mike. :wink:

specialpuppy
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#9 Post by specialpuppy »

Hey Mike probably a dumb question but I do have the linsys install cd.i also installed ndiswrapper, dont know how to use it but...
I did what you said but when i try to copy and paste. no luck.from what i have found my cards are NOT supported. but maybe if I could just load the CD?

Thanks Steve

specialpuppy
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#10 Post by specialpuppy »

oh yea i tryed going into BIOS and changing options. No LUCK :cry:
Steve

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Mike Walsh
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#11 Post by Mike Walsh »

Hi, Steve.

Mm. Well, if you want to use a CardBus wireless adapter (and it's not a bad idea, since it does leave your USB ports totally free), and you don't mind perhaps forking out a small amount of dosh for a new one, I can recommend a couple that are guaranteed to work.

This one:-

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-WPN511-R ... B0007YQO2M

...and this one:-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NETGEAR-108-M ... Sw4CFYo0xX

These two are only examples; you can find these all over the place on eBay & Amazon. I only picked these two out at random, for illustration purposes.....but they will not 'break the bank'.

Both of these use the Atheros AR5005GS chipset, which runs via the 'ath5k' driver.....and that's been supported by the Linux kernel since time out of mind. It might be easier to do it this way; most of these cards are easily available quite cheaply nowadays, since it's pretty old technology.....and it'll definitely be simpler than trying to get your cards running using the Windows driver under ndiswrapper. I can't advise on that, since it's not something I've ever attempted to do, I'm afraid.

More & more manufacturers are beginning to support their products with Linux drivers nowadays.....but this technology dates back around a decade, when the situation was very different. For these, it's definitely easier in the long run to do your research and make certain that what you're buying will actually work, before you part with your cash..! :)

Up to you, of course.....it's only a suggestion. Let us know what you want to do.

--------------------------

RE:- Copy/pasting from the terminal. Sorry, I should have explained this bit.....and it's useful to know for future reference, anyway.

Pup's terminal is often referred to as a bit 'dozy'; the copy/paste operation is distinctly odd, till you get used to it! To copy, simply highlight the section you want to copy; don't do anything else. To paste, you need to click your middle mouse button (usually clicking your scroll wheel does it.....or if using a lappie, clicking on both left & right buttons at the same time).

Hope that helps.


Mike. :wink:

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greengeek
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#12 Post by greengeek »

Mike Walsh wrote: I've never even heard of the option for PCMCIA being in the BIOS. Certainly it doesn't exist in my own Dell, despite having the slot and bus for it built-in.....

Is this summat you've come across yourself, or is this an educated guess?
Yep, I have seen it a lot in my systems. For some reason I seem to gravitate towards Toshiba lappies, so maybe it's a brand thing...

specialpuppy
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#13 Post by specialpuppy »

Hello Mike I'm back. I got the netgear card you recomended and with a little bit of work i did get it installed. However, my WIFI icon is green but still can't connect??? ready for orders Sir :)

Steve

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Mike Walsh
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#14 Post by Mike Walsh »

Hi, Steve.

Thought you'd gone AWOL on us. Nice to see you back.....

You're running Slacko 6.3.0, yes? And you say your wireless icon is green?

Have you actually run the Connection Wizard yet? (Menu->Setup->Internet Connection Wizard) You should get three choices; Simple Network Setup (SNS for short), Frisbee (specifically for wireless, although I've never been able to make it work), and 'Dougal's' Network Wizard.

You'll need to 'scan' for your router's SSID. In SNS, it'll be entered automatically, and you'll just need to enter your router's password. In 'Dougal's', you'll need to add your password, followed by first 'saving' the profile, and then 'loading' it.

'Dougal's' gives you the greatest degree of control, but SNS is definitely the easiest to use.

After you've done that, you'll need to run the firewall setup again; it's a well-documented 'bug' in getting a network connection 'up-and-running' in Slacko 6.3.0.


Mike. :wink:

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greengeek
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#15 Post by greengeek »

specialpuppy wrote:Hello Mike I'm back. I got the netgear card you recomended and with a little bit of work i did get it installed. However, my WIFI icon is green but still can't connect???
Do you mean you can't connect to the router or you can't connect to the internet?

specialpuppy
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#16 Post by specialpuppy »

yes i mean internet. i will do as you suggest Mike, and will post back hopefully on that laptop :wink:
Steve

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Mike Walsh
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#17 Post by Mike Walsh »

No probs. Let us know how you get on.

Any queries, just ask.


Mike. :wink:

specialpuppy
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#18 Post by specialpuppy »

firewall say on but i dont know what to check or uncheck? if that makes sence.

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rcrsn51
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#19 Post by rcrsn51 »

Here is the standard diagnostic test for WiFi. Open a terminal and run the following commands:

1. Run iwconfig. Is a wireless interface like wlan0 listed?

2. Run ifconfig wlan0 up. Use the interface name from Step 1. Is there an error message?

3. Run iwlist wlan0 scan. Do you get a report of your WiFi neighbourhood?

If steps 1,2 or 3 fail, you have a hardware problem probably caused by a missing WiFi driver or firmware. Run dmesg and check for error messages.

4. Run ifconfig wlan0. Does wlan0 have a valid IP address on your network, like 192.168.1.10? The IP address 169.254.x.y is NOT valid.

5. Run cat /etc/resolv.conf. Does it show a valid nameserver entry, like 192.168.1.1? Make sure that you spell resolv correctly.

If steps 4 or 5 fail, the problem is probably with your connection manager program and how it interacts with your wireless router. Get PWF. With an old PCMCIA card, you may need to set your router for WEP encryption.

Turn your firewall OFF. Get PFM to be sure. There are reports that some Puppy firewall apps can interfere with network connections, even though they shouldn't.

-------------------------
Last edited by rcrsn51 on Fri 24 Mar 2017, 14:58, edited 7 times in total.

specialpuppy
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#20 Post by specialpuppy »

hey rcrsn51 thanks. I ran what you said and i need help with what to type on #2 interface is...what? verizon or my wifi name? i tried both but came up bad address. #3 was good showed mine and others not connected to.#5 turned up no such file or directory.#6 brought up 5 operations

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