Newbie needs help w/ ASUSTek PCE-N13 ops in OSS 11.3

English Network/Internet
1

Hello, At the moment I’ve been acclimating myself to OSS 11.3 on the live DVD from the retail package. My #1 priority is getting my wireless to work when I finally install OSS because wireless is my only comm from this PC.

I believe that I’m unable to get on the WiFi metro mesh because I completely lack the necessary knowledge and experience to work wireless in OSS. Here is what has happened so far.

In the manual, I am instructed to go to Yast > Network Devices > Network settings > Global Options Tab, then check off “User Controlled with Network Manager.”

I hit OK, then the Saving Network Configurations app went down a laundry list until it hit “Activating Networks.” Then a popup window said, “error, no available networks.”

OK, what does it want from me? How do I satisfy it? Is it looking for access points?

I decided to activate KNetworkManager. I went to the wireless tab, put in the SSID, and hit the scan button, then a pop-up with a pic of a PC screen with curved lines to the right of it just sits there. I have no idea what to do with it. What is it supposed to do? What am I looking for?

In Xandros, wireless is like driving a car: Just turn on the engine and go. In OSS, I feel like I’m driving the space shuttle.

I know the card works like a charm in WinXP. I also assume that OSS has all the necessary firmware/drivers/utilities to work, but I don’t know how. Here is the data from hardware detection in Yast:

Kernel driver rt2860sta
Model:Ralink RT2860

For brevity’s sake, I only provide the data relevant to the device:

linux@linux:~> /sbin/lspci

02:00.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2860

linux@linux:~> /sbin/lspci -v

02:00.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2860
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 130f
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
Memory at fdff0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: rt2860

That “access denied” denied label is on other devices too, not sure what it means.

I tried dmesg | grep firmware in console, but there is no output. The cursor only skips to the next line. I do not know if this is a disparity of the live DVD.

I did look in var/log/bootmsg and I saw a ton of lines referring to firmware, but I found nothing to that referred to “unable to load firmware,” so I assume that the PCE-N13 has everything it needs except a person who knows how to work it in OSS 11.3.

Please tell me how to work the GUIs to get wireless going. A graphical presentation is even better if you can tell me where to find it. Thanks in advance.:shame:

P.S. The retail manual says “Find a detailed description of the network configuration with YaST in section ‘Configuring a Network Connection with YaST’ (Chapter 21, Basic Networking) and Chapter 32, Wireless LAN,” but this little manual only goes up to chapter 9![/size]

2

The card works. The kernel driver is in use, and I know these cards work. So it’s in your configuration.

You say it’s a PC, so I guess you would like to make the connection to your wireless router or access point during boot time. This means you have to set networking to the ‘traditional method’, i.e. ‘ifup’.

If you do so in the networksettings screen you’ve already visited, in the next tab you will see the networkcards/devices.
Click on the wireless card, and click ‘Edit’. Leave DHCP settings as they are (fully automatic, like default in XP), click ‘Next’.
Leave the networking to ‘Managed’, put in the SSID of your router (the name of your wireless network, mind linux is case-sensitive, so knurpht is something else then KNURPHT),
and enter the passphrase or key for your wireless protection. Reboot and a connection should be established at next boot.

Get back here if you don’t get this working like this, the network gurus will show up :slight_smile:

3

Thanks for your reply. Actually, I want to connect to access points at my leisure rather than at boot time. Will that reboot work on a live DVD? I haven’t installed OSS yet.

4

In, Global Options, ticked Traditional method with ifup. In Overview, hit edit RT2860. Network Card Setup > Address > Dynamic Address: DHCP, DHCP both version 4 and 6. Then Wireless Network Card Configuration > Operating Mode: Managed, Authentication Mode: No Encryption. In Network Name window, I typed the SSID for the network, hit “Scan Network,” but nothing happened.

Under Saving Network Configuration, went down laundry list, then window vanished. Now what? I rebooted and all the original settings were back again, so this method won’t work with live DVD. I prefer KNetWorkManager anyway.

The reason I want to work this out with the wireless card now is that I know I’m going to be up tish creek when I go for that full install / dual boot w/windoze. At least with working wireless comms, I will be up tish creek with a paddle. And I have to business by email everyday.

5

Well, that’s pretty obvious, in fact NO setting on a live CD will persist a reboot, simply because it is a Live CD, for persistent settings you would have to be able to store them somewhere (and read them on next reboot), which can not be done onto the CD for obvious reasons.

As for your problem, these cards are known to work, if you really want decent help, read the stickies in this subforum and provide more information as explained in the stickies.

6

I have attempted to provide information in this thread per the stickies in this category. What further information do you require?

I believe that I have already ascertained that I simply need to be provided a reference to instructions to get my wireless connection going in KNetworkmanager because it does not seem to be a straight forward process in OSS. I have seen console commands in the stickies, but I’m not sure how to work the console or what to observe in controlling a connection. Thanks in advance.

7

You said you’re using a live cd. Why don’t you install the OS, and then set it up. It’s already been said that your wireless NIC is known to work. Why do all the troubleshooting and then have the settings go away when you reboot?

8

Actually, I was just following up on the suggestion by the global moderator and came back with the results. What I really want to do is configure the card, then use KNetworkManager to connect, but I want to know how to do that before the actual installation.

Right now, I have a dual boot Xandros/WinXP system on a 320GB HD. I want to make a complete switch over to an OSS/WinXP system on a WD 1TB HD. I chose OSS 11.3 because it’s the only linux OS I can find that has kernal 2.6.34 which is suggested by WD as the optimum kernal for the advanced formatting system.

The problem is I don’t know how to set up that wireless. When I make that switch over to the 1TB HD and if I don’t know how to set up that wireless, then I will be dead in the water because it’s the only comm for this computer.

I suppose I could continue comms through WinXP, but WinXP has stability issues, therefore I trust Linux 1000x more when I go online.

Unless I know how to set up that wireless, the only access I will have to tech support is to Open SLX which has the option of helping me with wireless, but their only real obligation is to help me get OSS 11.3 installed correctly. I’m not sure if I can get them to help me with this.

In essence, I need a step by step plan to set up that wireless right now, or else I could be completely lost when I make the switch. I’ve been googling “wireless GUI setup OSS 11.3,” but I only find bits and pieces of info so far. What I need is a step by step manual and, unfortunately, the little manual that came with the retail package doesn’t cut it.

OSS 11.3 might seem easy to some of you, but to me, it looks like one of those Star Trek engineering interfaces and I’m just one of the actors pretending how to work it.

So, please tell me, where can I find those wireless manuals for OSS? Thanks in advance!