Damn Small Linux - Not!

JohnJohn · Joined: 16 Aug 2006 Posts: 4

I am using an old Compaq 1200XL with AMD chip w a meagre 192mB RAM. I am struggling to get the USB port running for either my LinkSys USB Wireless adapter or my HP952 printer. (I also have a D-link PCI Wireless card but have not tried that one yet) I have given up temporarily on the printer and I am now trying the wireless adatper. I have been working on this on/off for literally days/weeks!

I found a message which has gotten me to being able to seeminly install the LSPWUSB.inf driver manually using ndiswrapper and iwconfig. I believe v3 uses a Prism driver, but have not been able to confirm this.

1. All seems to go well until I use pump -i wlan0. It returns an Operation Failed message. Why is that and what should I do about it?

2. When I look at iwconfig it shows my wlan0 device,essid, etc, correctly BUT does not show an access point address (I am not even sure if it should and I do not know how to enter it if needed) I also get a warning about recommending version 18 of Wireless Ext. Not sure what this means.

3. I have tried it with WEP on and off. ALso iwconfig did not accaept ASCII WEP and I used what I thought was HEX and that worked. Is HEX required?

I am not sure where to go next and would appreciate some gudance and suggstions.

Thank you!
JMF

dougz · Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 29

No, I don't have it working. However, I've been reading up on this and have a couple of pointers.

First, be aware that USB WIFI adapters are a very hard problem for all non-Windows operating systems. If you want to find an easy solution, find a supported adapter (preferably non-USB), ask questions in the forum before buying, and then go purchase. See [url]http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Verified_Wireless_Cards[/url]

Pointers --

[url]http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/showproduct.php?product=2230&cat=all[/url]

Consider ndsiwraper, rather than prism. Scroll down to v3 in
[url]http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=218918&page=2[/url]

Those only help clarify the chipset & driveroptions. You need to understand how to do the equivalent in DSL. As I said, not easy.

I asked yesterday, in DSL forums, if anyone had a USB WIFI working in DSL. No replies.

USB WIFI looks good for Windows, although the WUSB11 v3 has some issues in Windows, but USB WIFI is very difficult for non-Windows.

FWIW, I've about decided that it isn't worth my time.

dougz · Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 29

Another vote for using ndiswraper with linksys & prism --
[url]http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/dsl-n/f/viewtopic.php?t=291[/url]

Howerver, I think I have to disagree that all USB can be made to work --
[url]http://linux-wless.passys.nl/query_hostif.php?hostif=USB[/url]

Best of luck!