[PLUG] Wireless on Debian

["Robert J. Squire Jr." <rjsquire@ebi-online.com>]

Hello all:

Firstly, thanks to all of you who replied to my question about 
consulting rates.

This time I've got something more technical.
I've got a NetGear MA401 pcmcia wireless card in my laptop and my 
inability to get it working under linux is the only thing that prevents 
my deleting my winXP partition.

I've compiled my the orinoco_cs, orinoco, and hermes modules and they 
load fine manually.

The output of 'cardctl ident' is as follows:

Socket 0:
 product info: "NETGEAR MA401RA Wireless PC", "Card", "ISL37300P", 
"Eval-RevA"
 manfid: 0x000b, 0x7300
 function: 6 (network)


My /etc/pcmcia/config file contains the following:

device "orinoco_cs"
 class "network" module "hermes", "orinoco", "orinoco_cs"

and:

card "NETGEAR MA401RA 11Mbps 802.11 WLAN Card"
 version "NETGEAR MA401RA Wireless PC", "Card", "ISL37300P", "Eval-RevA"
 manfid 0x000b, 0x7300
 bind "orinoco_cs"


When I remove and reinsert my card once, nothing happens and pcmcia 
seems not to notice that the card's been inserted.  The second time it's 
inserted the machine beeps and the card lights up and a block like the 
following appears in syslog:

Aug 29 20:57:42 crookshanks cardmgr[448]: unsupported card in socket 0
Aug 29 20:57:42 crookshanks cardmgr[448]:   product info: "NETGEAR 
MA401RA Wireless PC", "Card", "ISL37300P", "Eval-RevA"
Aug 29 20:57:42 crookshanks cardmgr[448]:   manfid: 0x000b, 0x7300  
function: 6 (network)


Even though the pcmcia system seems to notice the card, it considers in 
"unsupported" and the kernel modules are not loaded automatically by the 
pcmcia system.  If I modprobe the orinoco_cs module orinoco and hermes 
come along for the ride:

crookshanks:/home/rjsquire# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
orinoco_cs              4360   0  (unused)
orinoco                31232   0  [orinoco_cs]
hermes                  5216   0  [orinoco_cs orinoco]
ide-cs                  3328   1
ntfs                   48992   0  (unused)
parport_pc             13892   1  (autoclean)
lp                      6464   0  (autoclean)
parport                24576   1  (autoclean) [parport_pc lp]


However, even after I load the modules, I can't find the networking 
device.  I've tried eth1 ( eth0 is my built in ethernet adapter )  and 
wlan0 but to no avail:

crookshanks:/home/rjsquire# iwconfig eth1 essid any
Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1A) :
   SET failed on device eth1 ; No such device.
crookshanks:/home/rjsquire# iwconfig wlan0 essid any
Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1A) :
   SET failed on device wlan0 ; No such device.


So that's where I stand.  Lost.  How do I beat this thing into 
submission and make it bend to my will?  I'm tired of being outsmarted 
by inanimate objects.  Thanks in advance.

Rob Squire

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