FedoraCore4 - Wireless issues?

frederic · 01-27-2006, 01:12 PM

I wasn't sure whether to post this here, or in the wireless forums, so after some thought I decided here made more sense (to me).

Building a carputer... so far I've:

Built a chassis for in-dash installation.
Installed PC components into above chassis.
Installed Fedora Core 4 (fancy redhat).
Compiled and installed rt2500 drivers for linksys 54G wireless card.
Compiled and installed 3m touchscreen driver (after fixing it grrr)
Successfully established a wireless connection from my pickup to my neighbor's wireless network .

So far so good. Unfortunately, I find manually trying to make a wireless connection distracting while driving, talking on a cell phone while "standing" in a parking lot, and so on.

So I guess I'm looking for a more automatic "I found this, so I will connect to this" type of linux/FC4 software, which will require less interaction from me.

I experimented with kismet however I just couldn't get it working for whatever reason.

What software do you guys use (on linux) for searching for available wifi hot spots? I did a search here, but didn't find anything terribly obvious.

Thanks in advance. I and my truck thank you

Frederic

intuitionsys · 01-27-2006, 02:40 PM

You may want to have a look at the code for Silverwolf on my site (silverwolf.intuitionsys.com) to see what I'm doing (it does what you want).

One question I have though is are you sure rt2500 is the correct driver for your LinkSys card? I used to use a 54G variant and the only driver available was ndiswrapper. I use rt2500 myself but it's for an Edimax card.

frederic · 01-27-2006, 03:34 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by intuitionsys

You may want to have a look at the code for Silverwolf on my site (silverwolf.intuitionsys.com) to see what I'm doing (it does what you want).

I just browsed through there, very slick. I'll grab the code after this reply and see if I can start to pull the wifi-hunting component out. Thank you.

Quote: Originally Posted by intuitionsys

One question I have though is are you sure rt2500 is the correct driver for your LinkSys card? I used to use a 54G variant and the only driver available was ndiswrapper. I use rt2500 myself but it's for an Edimax card.

I've managed to enjoy connectivity with the linksys card using both the serialmonkey driver as well as the ralink "reference" drivers on their website. As far as use, and performance, I can't tell the difference. I'm actually using the linksys card right now to post this message, while attached to my neighbor's wifi

frederic · 01-28-2006, 01:30 PM

Interesting.

I had the card working fine with FC2 and FC3, using either the RaLink or the serialmonkey drivers, and now with FC4, it absolutely does not work. The driver loads okay (rt2500.ko) but iwconfig doesn't allow it to connect. after a few attempts, iwlist will list my neighbor's network, some of the time.

Very weird.

intuitionsys · 01-31-2006, 08:17 AM

Are you using the RT2500STA.dat file to configure your card or Fedora's own infrastructure? Sorry, I'm not familiar with Fedora. SuSE uses sysconfig entries for setting up the card and the network but I found it obtuse to use with my rt2500 based card. Since I've moved to Gentoo, I've been using the .dat files to configure the card at module load time with very few problems.

What Silverwolf does is keep a database of "known networks" that require security information which on the highest level are simply a collection of the .dat files required for those networks. It scans the airwaves at regular intervals with iwlist and allows you to select a secure network if you have that network in your database (referred to by the MAC address of that network's wireless router). For hotspots that are wide open, it uses a generic .dat file that will work with any wide open network, as long as they support DHCP.

frederic · 01-31-2006, 09:02 AM

Thank you for the reply.

No, I wasn't using the .dat file for configuration, I instead did the "make" then "make install-fedora" expecting it to work more or less.

I must admit my Linux skills barely exceed "signing on". Part of my intention is to learn Linux and become comfortable with it as well.

>>Gentoo, I've been using the .dat files to configure the card
>>at module load time with very few problems.

2.6.x kernel with Gentoo?

>>generic .dat file that will work with any wide open network,
>>as long as they support DHCP.

Gotcha... I'll see if I can figure this out. I was trying to use "ifup wlan0" and wifiscanner.x.x.x.x.rpm to do this initially.

I did download Silverwolf, but it wouldn't compile since I couldn't get QT working. I compiled it and installed it, but it went "somewhere" and not part of the path yet since I'm unsure where it went.

I'll figure it out

intuitionsys · 01-31-2006, 11:25 AM