Frugal inst. cannot connect to wifi but CD can

[RichardG]

My problem concerns connecting to my home network.
The computer is a Dell Inspiron 2650 using a wireless card Broadcom BCM4306.
There is a Windows partition but I have not added any service packs.

I burned a CD with Puppy 6.02 iso and booted from the CD.
Puppy identified the Ethernet driver 3c59x and the wireless driver b43legacy pci correctly.
I was successful using either the Ethernet connection or the wireless connection. My home network is configured to use WPA encryption w/r to wireless.

Since this worked, I went on to do a new frugal install into the windows partition from the iso file on the CD. Booting from the hard drive, Puppy still sees the network and the same drivers, but I cannot connect to my network (the drivers are loaded). However, I can connect to a non-encrypted 'public' wireless network within range.

I did another CD boot using boot options pmedia=cd and pfix=ram and successfully connected again. So the problem seems to have something to do with the frugal install.

[rcrsn51]

What wireless connection manager are you using?

Does your frugal install work with Ethernet?

When you made the frugal install, did you include the zdrv.sfs file?

[bigpup]

What did you use to do the Frugal install?

Are you using, the Network Wizard, Frisbee, what to connect?

Do you have a save file on the hard drive for the CD version?
If yes.
Does the frugal install seem to boot as a first time boot or does it seem to be using the CD version save file?

Before you did the frugal install.
Did you defrag the partition using Windows defrag program?

When you try to enter the password that allows you to connect to your network.
What happens?
You do what?
You see what?

[RichardG]

Understand that I am a novice w/r Linux and Puppy; my replies may be unhelpful.

What wireless connection manager are you using?
When working with the CD before the fugal install, Simple Network setup was enough.
With the frugal install, I tried Simple, Frisbee and Network Wizard.

Does your frugal install work with Ethernet?
No.

When you made the frugal install, did you include the zdrv.sfs file?
I had slacko-5.7-NO-pae.iso on the CD and followed the instructions on this page:
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/InstallationFullHDD
The CD has zdrv_tahr_6.02.sfs on it; I assume that it was included.

What did you use to do the Frugal install?
I think the previous answer explains what I did.

Are you using, the Network Wizard, Frisbee, what to connect?
W/R to the frugal install, I have tried all 3 connection programs, without success on my network.
I connected to a wireless unencrypted public site within range using Network Wizard.

Do you have a save file on the hard drive for the CD version?
Following the install instructions cited above, I did NOT make save files for the CD.
If yes.
Does the frugal install seem to boot as a first time boot or does it seem to be using the CD version save file?
Maybe irrelevant but there is a Save File corresponding to the frugal install. As far as I know there is not a Save File corresponding to the CD.

Before you did the frugal install.
Did you defrag the partition using Windows defrag program?
My Windows partition was corrupted. So I formatted the partition (NTFS) using a Windows XP startup CD. Then I installed Windows XP. I did not add the service packs. I assume the partition was not fragmented.

When you try to enter the password that allows you to connect to your network.
What happens?
You do what?
You see what?
At some point I save a profile for my wireless network. I have checked it and it worked OK with the CD-only attempts. Using Frisbee, I get a list of available networks, including mine. The line
shows 00:0d:3a:24:e0:5b 2417 =58 [WPA=PSK=TKIP][ESS Hoo-Hah
Further below is the 'Not Connected' indicator.

I select the line and click on 'Connect' I see the 'requesting an IP address' indicator. After that I have the same screen as before with the 'Not Connected' indicator. The network icon at the lower right of the screen has thee lines below 'Active Interfaces'. The Rx, Tx lines have data but the IP address line is blank.

Starting from Network Wizard, it says that my wlan0 interface needs to be configured and that no module is loaded. I highlight the b43legacy line and load it successfully. I get a screen saying that no new interfaces have been detected. Back to the needs to be configured screen, I click on the wlan0 button. Configure screen has a 'wireless' button, I click on it. Now I have the option of loading my profile. I select it and load it and get the profile Name, ESSID, and the Passcode in plain text. The WPA/TKIP indicator is highlighted. The boxes checked are 'Managed', 'Restricted' and 'Broadcast SSID'. When I click on 'Use this Profile', I get the 'Configure network interface wlan0' screen back again after a scanning message.

[rcrsn51]

The fact that you can't even connect with Ethernet suggests that there is something significantly wrong with your install.

1. Boot off the CD using "puppy pfix=ram".
2. Go to the location on the hard drive where your frugal install is located.
3. Do you see the zdrv.sfs file?
4. Delete the current savefile.
5. Reboot off the hard drive.
6. Does your Ethernet/WiFi now work?
7. Shut down and make a new savefile.

[gcmartin]

I dont run Frugal. So, I am NOT the best resource to address Frugal generation or its use.

Maybe some better instructions are needed for a frugal setup using 6.02. And if some better instructions for this distro already exist, we can direct him to it for 6.02.

• Is there a PUP utility on that distro to "create a frugal on the HDD?"
• Is there a PUP utility instructing how to add any boot parms once a frugal is created on the HDD?

The CD/DVD version of the ISO does not have this problem, so one method of explanation would be to have him replace the contents that exist on the HDD with all of the on the disc and try to boot that.

Hope all of these responses help the OP to see a path to solution.

For the rest of the community, the use of adrv,zdrv,etc continues to grow in distro builders use. We need some means of explaining the new requirements for Frugal generation to reduce this kind of problem.

[RichardG]

The fact that you can't even connect with Ethernet suggests that there is something significantly wrong with your install.

1. Boot off the CD using "puppy pfix=ram".
2. Go to the location on the hard drive where your frugal install is located.
3. Do you see the zdrv.sfs file?
4. Delete the current savefile.
5. Reboot off the hard drive.
6. Does your Ethernet/WiFi now work?
7. Shut down and make a new savefile.

The steps above worked, both Ethernet and WiFi are connecting. I can get onto the internet. FYI, and just for the sake of clarification, the filename on my HDD is zdrv_tahr_6.02.sfs.

Thank you very much. I will try a non-frugal install once I am broken-in.
Rich

[rcrsn51]

Excellent. If you are using a frugal install with "save to a folder", there is no advantage to doing a full install.

But if you are using a Windows partition, your current setup is the only option.

[bigpup]

Good to see you got it working.

Thanks for answering our questions.

The answers did tell us what you did or did not do and gave clues as to what is happening.