[ was "Problem with Cisco wireless card under Suse Linux 10.1" ]

Hello,

It turned out that the Cisco _card_ was not the problem. Below is an
updated problem description. In short, connection to local WLAN fails
using (K)NetworkManager, yet is successful using "traditional method
with ifup" in the Suse YaST network setup.

What is wrong? What can I do to make KNetworkManager and KWiFiManager work?

Again, in you reply, please be specific as I am not a Linux expert at
all. The (potential) jargon you see is what I gathered from other
people.

Thank you,

Starl8gazer


----------


Problem description:
--------------------

Hardware:

* IBM laptop Thinkpad T30 Type 2366-B1U S/N 78-HFTB9 08/02

* Cisco PCMCIA card Aironet 340 11Mbps 2.4GHz DS


Linux system software:

* Suse Linux 10.1, 'uname -rv' says '2.6.16.21-0.25-default #1 Tue Sep
19 07:26:15 UTC 2006', all patches duly downloaded and installed;
using KDE

* infos from YaST/Network Devices/Cisco 340 Series Wireless LAN Adapter:
Automatic Address Setup (via DHCP)
Network Name (ESSID): <empty>
Authentication Mode: Open
Key Input Type: Passphrase
Encryption Key: <empty>
Hardware Details:
Hardware Configuration Name: bus-pcmcia-0.0
Module Name: airo_cs
(that is what it came up with at the installation of Suse)
DHCP Options: Hostname to Send: AUTO


Local WLAN info:

* no encryption, no authentication


Symptoms:

* choosing "User Controlled with NetworkManager" as Network Setup Method,
I cannot get wireless connection to local WLAN;
KNetworkManager sees local WLAN, but shows that the little blue progress
bar for the connection process stops at about 2/3 of full length;
KWiFiManager shows excellent signal strength and also sees Network Name,
yet all entries of the local WLAN show WEP "on" which should not be
the case; trying "Switch to Network" fails with error message "Aborting
network switching due to invalid WEP key specification"

* choosing "Traditional Method with ifup" as Network Setup Method,
wireless connection is successful;
KWiFiManager again shows entries of local WLAN with WEP "on", but also one
with WEP empty; trying to switch to it results in the same error message
as described above

* when working with NetworkManager: output from...

michelson:/ # ifconfig eth1
eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:40:96:44:9F:C7
[ with traditional method, there is an extra line here with
inet addr:.... Bcast:... Mask:... ]
inet6 addr: fe80::240:96ff:fe44:9fc7/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:71697 errors:4011 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:4011
TX packets:28793 errors:286385 dropped:0 overruns:286385 carrier:0
collisions:1809 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:34389724 (32.7 Mb) TX bytes:8257695 (7.8 Mb)
Interrupt:4 Base address:0x4100

michelson:/ # iwconfig eth1
eth1 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"<local_WLAN>" Nickname:"michelson"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:0F:24:C8:9B:60
Bit Rate:11 Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm Sensitivity=0/65535
Retry limit:16 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=41/100 Signal level=-75 dBm Noise level=-256 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:11 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:3155 Missed beacon:0