I got a lot of helpful replies from folks, I'll use the last one as the
pulpit from
which I'll speak ;-)

Thanks to all for their help, here's what I've found:


Jordan Smith wrote:

>I was running this card on Sarge when it was still Testing. Did you
>install the wireless-tools package?
>
>

Yep.

>If so, do an iwconfig and see if the card is detected with wireless
>extensions.
>
>
>If you see wireless extensions in the output, try an "iwlist
>eth1(interface) scan" to see if it picks up the AP
>
>If the card is up and the module loaded then the green light should be
>on. When the interface is routing traffic, the yellow light will be
>flashing.
>
>Also, you might try a lsmod to see if the prism54 and the Yenta modules
>are loaded before you scan.
>
>
# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

eth1 NOT READY! ESSIDff/any
Mode:Managed Channel:6 Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Tx-Power=31 dBm Sensitivity=0/200
Retry min limit:0 RTS thr=0 B Fragment thr=0 B
Encryption keyff
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

eth2 no wireless extensions.

sit0 no wireless extensions.

doclap:~# lsmod|egrep prism
prism54 54812 0
firmware_class 10176 1 prism54
doclap:~# iwlist eth1(interface) scan
-su: syntax error near unexpected token `('
doclap:~# iwlist 'eth1(interface)' scan
eth1(interface) Interface doesn't support scanning.

doclap:~# iwlist 'eth1' scan
eth1 No scan results
doclap:~# iwlist 'eth1' scan
eth1 No scan results
doclap:~# lsmod|egrep -i yenta
yenta_socket 21728 1
pcmcia_core 70868 2 ds,yenta_socket
doclap:~#

During all the above the green light never let a peep of greenness out.

Now, do remember that I don't have an AP here - I'll have to go try the
things that require an AP handy somewhere that has one.

one thing thats not very helpful (in addition to the fact that the vendors
like to switch parts inside without ANY way for folks to tell!), is that
the card itself has NO information about what's inside, and in fact
doesn't even say where it was made! (Jochen asked where it was
made - there's no hint at all. All it says is the usual 'This device
complies ...blah...blah...blah", then FCC ID: PY3WG511, and
Canada ID: 4054A-WG511, then the MAC address (00:09:5b:45:51:aa)
and serial (WG51A33AH021946). thats all on the back. On
the front is even less useful info :-)

So, what I need to do, it appears, is get next to a REAL AP and
see what happens when I do the above iwlist eth1 scan...

I'll report back when I finally get a chance to do that.

Thanks again to all who responded! (That iwlist thing I've not seen
before, and I can tell you I've been looking!)

Oh - Will asked what kernel I was running. Its 2.6.8-2-686
(I'd not heard about iwconfig to monitor mode either, so that's something
else for me to try, if I remember)

rc


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Rusty Carruth:
>
> eth1 NOT READY! ESSIDff/any

This is bad. You can try do 'iwconfig mode monitor' or 'iwconfig mode
managed' and see whether the output still stays the same.

> During all the above the green light never let a peep of greenness out.

This is also bad. What does 'cardctl status' tell you?

> Now, do remember that I don't have an AP here - I'll have to go try the
> things that require an AP handy somewhere that has one.

That won't help you when the card doesn't even power on.

> one thing thats not very helpful (in addition to the fact that the vendors
> like to switch parts inside without ANY way for folks to tell!), is that
> the card itself has NO information about what's inside, and in fact
> doesn't even say where it was made!

Strange. I can't tell whether this is good or bad. I suspect the latter.

> Oh - Will asked what kernel I was running. Its 2.6.8-2-686

Should be ok. It has all the necessary modules and as you have shown,
they are all correctly loaded.

J.
--
In this bunker there are women and children. There are no weapons.
[Agree] [Disagree]


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Rusty Carruth a écrit :
> I got a lot of helpful replies from folks, I'll use the last one as the
> pulpit from
> which I'll speak ;-)
>
> Thanks to all for their help, here's what I've found:
>
>
> Jordan Smith wrote:
>
>> I was running this card on Sarge when it was still Testing. Did you
>> install the wireless-tools package?
>>
>>
>
> Yep.
>
>> If so, do an iwconfig and see if the card is detected with wireless
>> extensions.
>>
>> If you see wireless extensions in the output, try an "iwlist
>> eth1(interface) scan" to see if it picks up the AP
>>
>> If the card is up and the module loaded then the green light should be
>> on. When the interface is routing traffic, the yellow light will be
>> flashing.
>> Also, you might try a lsmod to see if the prism54 and the Yenta modules
>> are loaded before you scan.
>>
> # iwconfig
> lo no wireless extensions.
>
> eth0 no wireless extensions.
>
> eth1 NOT READY! ESSIDff/any
> Mode:Managed Channel:6 Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
> Tx-Power=31 dBm Sensitivity=0/200
> Retry min limit:0 RTS thr=0 B Fragment thr=0 B
> Encryption keyff
> Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
> Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
> Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
>
> eth2 no wireless extensions.
>
> sit0 no wireless extensions.
>
> doclap:~# lsmod|egrep prism
> prism54 54812 0
> firmware_class 10176 1 prism54

It can be a hotplug problem. Do you have the firmware located in
/usr/lib/hotplug/firmware directory ?

What is written in the logs ?

kernel: Loaded prism54 driver, version 1.2
kernel: eth0: resetting device...
kernel: eth0: uploading firmware...
kernel: eth0: firmware version: 1.0.4.3
kernel: eth0: firmware upload complete
kernel: eth0: interface reset complete

> doclap:~# iwlist eth1(interface) scan
> -su: syntax error near unexpected token `('
> doclap:~# iwlist 'eth1(interface)' scan
> eth1(interface) Interface doesn't support scanning.
>
> doclap:~# iwlist 'eth1' scan
> eth1 No scan results
> doclap:~# iwlist 'eth1' scan
> eth1 No scan results
> doclap:~# lsmod|egrep -i yenta
> yenta_socket 21728 1
> pcmcia_core 70868 2 ds,yenta_socket
> doclap:~#
>
> During all the above the green light never let a peep of greenness out.
>
> Now, do remember that I don't have an AP here - I'll have to go try the
> things that require an AP handy somewhere that has one.
>
> one thing thats not very helpful (in addition to the fact that the vendors
> like to switch parts inside without ANY way for folks to tell!), is that
> the card itself has NO information about what's inside, and in fact
> doesn't even say where it was made! (Jochen asked where it was
> made - there's no hint at all. All it says is the usual 'This device
> complies ...blah...blah...blah", then FCC ID: PY3WG511, and
> Canada ID: 4054A-WG511, then the MAC address (00:09:5b:45:51:aa)
> and serial (WG51A33AH021946). thats all on the back. On
> the front is even less useful info :-)
>
> So, what I need to do, it appears, is get next to a REAL AP and
> see what happens when I do the above iwlist eth1 scan...
>
> I'll report back when I finally get a chance to do that.
>
> Thanks again to all who responded! (That iwlist thing I've not seen
> before, and I can tell you I've been looking!)
>
> Oh - Will asked what kernel I was running. Its 2.6.8-2-686
> (I'd not heard about iwconfig to monitor mode either, so that's something
> else for me to try, if I remember)
>
> rc
>
>

--

Flo

Jochen Schulz wrote:

>Rusty Carruth:
>
>
>>eth1 NOT READY! ESSIDff/any
>>
>>
>
>This is bad. You can try do 'iwconfig mode monitor' or 'iwconfig mode
>managed' and see whether the output still stays the same.
>
>
>
well, the 'NOT READY' stays the same, but Mode does change from
managed to monitor and back. I have played with changing the power,
and iwconfig reports the change. I can also set the essid to an
arbitrary string, and it reports same in the iwconfig.

It all seems to work, other than the 'NOT READY!' part...

>>During all the above the green light never let a peep of greenness out.
>>
>>
>
>This is also bad. What does 'cardctl status' tell you?
>
>
Socket 0:
3.3V CardBus card
function 0: [ready]
Socket 1:
no card

Which is probably right - one slot is empty, one has the netgear
in it.

Stranger and stranger. I lean toward the 'it ain't gonna work', but
it seems like it _almost_ works...

Oh - someone asked if I'd said 'ifconfig eth1 up', so I tried it (after
all the fooling above) and got:

SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory

Thanks to all for the help thus far!

rc


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Florian Gossin wrote:

>...
>
>>doclap:~# lsmod|egrep prism
>>prism54 54812 0
>>firmware_class 10176 1 prism54
>>
>>
>
>It can be a hotplug problem. Do you have the firmware located in
>/usr/lib/hotplug/firmware directory ?
>
>

Umm, that's bad - its empty. First big clue, eh? ;-)

>What is written in the logs ?
>
> kernel: Loaded prism54 driver, version 1.2
> kernel: eth0: resetting device...
> kernel: eth0: uploading firmware...
> kernel: eth0: firmware version: 1.0.4.3
> kernel: eth0: firmware upload complete
> kernel: eth0: interface reset complete
>
eth1: islpci_open()
eth1: resetting device...
eth1: uploading firmware...
prism54: request_firmware() failed for 'isl3890'
eth1: could not upload firmware ('isl3890')

that was from syslog...

So, was I supposed to copy something from the windows
CD over to the hotplug/firmware dir, or did I miss something
when I installed software?

Oh, look! http://prism54.org/phpwiki?pagename=...Debian%20HowTo
has a pointer to http://prism54.org/firmware, where one may find some
possible solutions ;-)

So, now I get:

kernel: Loaded prism54 driver, version 1.2
kernel: PCI Enabling device 0000:09:00.00 (0000 -> 0002)
kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt ...blah...
pci.agent[4578]: prism54: loaded successfully

That was in /var/log/messages, nothing much elsewhere.

So, I did:

ifconfig eth2 up

and suddenly it says 'IEEE 802.11b/g' instead of 'NOT READY!'
Thats a BIG improvement.

I then tried 'iwlist eth2 scan', and get no scan results (Oh,
the green light is STILL off!)

Ok, so I tried airsnort and it didn't see any packets in a few seconds,
but that doesn't mean anything.

So, I tried running kismet, and it says:

FATAL: Unknown capture source tyep 'prism54' in source
'prism54,eth2,claytons'

AH! There we go: that needs to be 'prism54g,eth2,comment'! Now I've got
packets! (No green light yet, but, hey, who needs a green light if the card
works! ;-)

I'm assuming it works because kismet display looks sorta like this:
Network List
(Autofit)
Info
Name T W Ch Packts Flags IP Range
Size Ntwrks
. linksys A N 006 64
0.0.0.0 0B 4
. HOLZ A O 006 44
0.0.0.0 0B Pckets
! argoweb A O 006 41
0.0.0.0 0B 154
P N --- 1
0.0.0.0 0B Cryptd


0

Weak


0

Noise


0

Discrd


0

Pkts/s

4


Welcome to
Kismet

Kismet-Client 2005.04.R1
build 20050403003117

Welcome to the Kismet
panels frontend.
Context help is available
for all displays, press 'H' at any time
for more information.

This message can be turned
off by editing the kismet_ui.conf file.
Press to
continue.

clayto
Ch:---

Elapsd
00:01:31 Status


Connected to Kismet server version 2005.04.R1 build 20050403003117 on
localhost:2501
Found new probed network "" bssid 00:90:4B:54:6B:9F

After a while, I ended up with:

! linksys A N 006 178 T4 192.168.1.102 234B
! HOLZ A O 006 121 0.0.0.0 70B
! argoweb A O 006 119 0.0.0.0 0B
P N --- 5 0.0.0.0 0B
linksys_SES_51740 A O 006 1 0.0.0.0 0B

and then suddenly kismet died, with:

/usr/bin/kismet: line 80: 4818 Segmentation fault ${BIN}/kismet_client
$client
Killing server...
Didn't detect any Cisco Discovery Packets, unlinking cisco dump
Didn't see any weak encryption packets, unlinking weak file
WARNING: ...blah...
Kismet exiting.
Kismet exited.

So, I tried airsnort again and:

Oooh! Look! AirSnort is now seeing packets! It says:
00:0f:b5:EF:..... CAME... Thu, Sep 1 00:57... channel 10, 195 packets,
1 encrypted, 0 interesting, 1 unique
FF:FF:FF:FF... 46 packets, 0 encrypt, 0 interesting, 0 uniq.

(It is interesting to me that airsnort only sees one (or maybe that's
two) things, but kismet saw 3 (or is that 5???))

I don't have any permission to connect anywhere yet, so I won't
try till I can run over to my neighbors, but I *think* we're up...
Especially since ifconfig says that we've gotten 1.3 MiB from 13016 received
packets (now, I wonder why I sent 5 packets? hmmm)

So, apparently the Netgear 802.11g card with NO info on where it was
made is a prism54g card and sort of works.

Thanks to all for all the help! (I hope I'm not just more dense
than most! Hopefully this email will help someone somewhere sometime...)

Any comments anyone wants to make on the above would be appreciated...
(like, did I miss anything, get wrong assumption, etc)

rc


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Rusty Carruth:
>
> kernel: Loaded prism54 driver, version 1.2
> kernel: PCI Enabling device 0000:09:00.00 (0000 -> 0002)
> kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt ...blah...
> pci.agent[4578]: prism54: loaded successfully

Congratulations, you have a working wifi card.

> ifconfig eth2 up
>
> and suddenly it says 'IEEE 802.11b/g' instead of 'NOT READY!'
> Thats a BIG improvement.
>
> I then tried 'iwlist eth2 scan', and get no scan results (Oh,
> the green light is STILL off!)

The light is switched off when you are in monitor mode. Maybe you
switched to monitor before scanning?

> ! linksys A N 006 178 T4 192.168.1.102 234B
> ! HOLZ A O 006 121 0.0.0.0 70B
> ! argoweb A O 006 119 0.0.0.0 0B
> P N --- 5 0.0.0.0 0B
> linksys_SES_51740 A O 006 1 0.0.0.0 0B

Looks fine. I Like that 'linksys' thing. ;-)

> and then suddenly kismet died, with:
>
> /usr/bin/kismet: line 80: 4818 Segmentation fault ${BIN}/kismet_client

May be just a problem with kismet (although it never crashed for me).

> So, I tried airsnort again and:
>
> Oooh! Look! AirSnort is now seeing packets! It says:
> 00:0f:b5:EF:..... CAME... Thu, Sep 1 00:57... channel 10, 195 packets,
> 1 encrypted, 0 interesting, 1 unique
> FF:FF:FF:FF... 46 packets, 0 encrypt, 0 interesting, 0 uniq.
>
> (It is interesting to me that airsnort only sees one (or maybe that's
> two) things, but kismet saw 3 (or is that 5???))

Last time I used it, airsnort wasn't able to enable "channel hopping" on
the card- That may be the reason for the smaller number of packets.
Kismet can do this (you may have noticed how the channel displayin
kismet is permanently changing - lock it with 'L').

Anyway, airsnort is not a network detector, but a WEP key cracker.
Should you want to do this, you better collect packets with kismet and
use aircrack (only with permission of the network owner, of course).

> I don't have any permission to connect anywhere yet, so I won't
> try till I can run over to my neighbors, but I *think* we're up...
> Especially since ifconfig says that we've gotten 1.3 MiB from 13016 received
> packets (now, I wonder why I sent 5 packets? hmmm)

DHCP?

> So, apparently the Netgear 802.11g card with NO info on where it was
> made is a prism54g card and sort of works.

Good to hear.

J.
--
I often blame my shortcomings on my upbringing.
[Agree] [Disagree]


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