PCLinuxOS won't recognize Linksys WUSB54GSC usb wireless network adapter

[barryc]

The second from last entry of the log says what driver the kernel is using to handle the card and what card address is given to this card. We already knew this info from earlier "dmesg" command and hence this output is not very informative.

The card is recognized and a driver is loaded to handle it, the problem is with the buggy driver and this can be tricky as drivers usually ship with a kernel and using a different version of a driver usually means using a different version of the kernel.

There these 3 kernels in the repository,2.6.31.12-pclos1,2.6.32.24-pclos1.xxx and 2.6.33.7-pclos6.xxx.

You are using the last one, try to install the first two and see if they will work with your card.

Make sure first "dkms" service is set to start at boot time in services section of pcc and boot from the first two kernels after installing them and then run the dmsg command again and see if you will get the same error msg.

There is no "dkms" listed in the Services list.  How do I make sure the first dkms service is set to start at boot time?

[muungwana]

just checked and its nolonger on the list, i wonder what happened to it, anyway,Forget about that part and install those two kernels and check the card against them, try first booting from the older kernel.

[barryc]

Will do.  I really appreciate all your efforts at helping to solve this.

[barryc]

Well, I tried both older kernels earlier today.  Same problem with all of them.  I think the
driver just isn't cutting it.  After thinking about it awhile, I tried my wife's laptop to see if
her wireless works.  Amazingly, it didn't work either.  On her machine, I had saved the windows
driver that I used with ndiswrapper on pclos 2007 before updating it to 2010.10.   Reconfigured her machine with the old
ndis wrapper and it worked first try.  Her machine uses a slightly different version of the Broadcom
chip but the native kernel wouldn't work.

Still trying  to find a workable solution as I suspect the kernel driver needs some bug fixes or
revisions to work with this particular adapter.  Maybe the devs will come up with something.
In the meantime, I am on the hunt for a suitable ndiswrapper solution.

[barryc]

Gave it another try and I got the configuration completed with the USB adapter.  Rebooted and found Wireless (Wi-fi) (Wlan0) in the menu under the Network Manager icon in
the tray.  Selected Disconnect Wired (Ethernet) (eth0) and clicked on Active Interfaces > Wireless (Wi-Fi) (wlan0).

Got a connecting.... tool tip.  And that's where everything stopped.  Got 4 syslogd messages but could not connect wirelessly.
Even tried it with the eth0 cable disconnected.  Still no joy.  Desktop locked up and had to bail out with REISUB to reboot.
Can't find the syslogd messages.  Tried cat /var/log/syslogd | tail -n 50 and got a no such directory....

Very close and yet so far.  Any idea what's going on?

[muungwana]

Another thread reminded me of a website where you can go and download updated versions of drivers.

Linux drivers are maintained at this website: http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users

you can get latest drivers here: http://wireless.kernel.org/download/compat-wireless-2.6/

just download the latest version you find there, extract it, go into the folder and then press "F4" to bring up the terminal and then type "make" and wait for it to compile all the drivers. When it is done enter the following command and then enter roots password when asked and reboot your system when its done installing and try to use the card and see if it will work.

su -c "make install"

You can read the "readme" file for more info.

can you try connect again and post any result you may get.

[barryc]

I have just finished extracting the latest (12-26-2010) wireless kernel files and
done "make".  I noticed some errors at the end of the compilation so I haven't done
a "make install" yet.  Following are the last lines of the "make":

  LD [M]  /home/barry/Downloads/linux_drivers/compat-wireless-2010-12-26/compat-wireless-2010-12-26/drivers/net/wireless/rtl818x/rtl8180.o
  LD [M]  /home/barry/Downloads/linux_drivers/compat-wireless-2010-12-26/compat-wireless-2010-12-26/drivers/net/wireless/rtl818x/rtl8187.o
  LD      /home/barry/Downloads/linux_drivers/compat-wireless-2010-12-26/compat-wireless-2010-12-26/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/built-in.o
  CC [M]  /home/barry/Downloads/linux_drivers/compat-wireless-2010-12-26/compat-wireless-2010-12-26/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/base.o
/home/barry/Downloads/linux_drivers/compat-wireless-2010-12-26/compat-wireless-2010-12-26/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/base.c: In function ‘_rtl_init_deferred_work’:
/home/barry/Downloads/linux_drivers/compat-wireless-2010-12-26/compat-wireless-2010-12-26/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/base.c:229: error: implicit declaration of function ‘alloc_workqueue’
/home/barry/Downloads/linux_drivers/compat-wireless-2010-12-26/compat-wireless-2010-12-26/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/base.c:229: warning: assignment makes pointer from integer without a cast
make[4]: *** [/home/barry/Downloads/linux_drivers/compat-wireless-2010-12-26/compat-wireless-2010-12-26/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/base.o] Error 1
make[3]: *** [/home/barry/Downloads/linux_drivers/compat-wireless-2010-12-26/compat-wireless-2010-12-26/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi] Error 2
make[2]: *** [/home/barry/Downloads/linux_drivers/compat-wireless-2010-12-26/compat-wireless-2010-12-26/drivers/net/wireless] Error 2
make[1]: *** [_module_/home/barry/Downloads/linux_drivers/compat-wireless-2010-12-26/compat-wireless-2010-12-26] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/kernel-devel-2.6.33.7-pclos6.bfs'
make: *** [modules] Error 2

Any problem here?  I don't want to "make install" if  the errors will wreak havoc with my kernel.

[muungwana]

It didnt build 

nothing annoys me more than people releasing code that doesnt compile.

Will check here if it fails too

[barryc]

Thanks.  Yes, it is annoying.  I'm going to catch some sleep.  I have
ordered a Azio pci based network card with a Ralink driver and will try
my luck with that until (and if) the Linksys usb adapter can be resolved.

[barryc]

Tried a new approach after many attempts at installing the Windows driver with ndiswrapper.
Removed ndiswrapper with Synaptic and rebooted.  Plugged the Linksys usb adapter into
a usb port and rebooted.  The kernel driver recognized it immediately and let me configure with netdrake.
I relogged in as instructed, turned off my wired ethernet (eth0) and selected my wireless wifi connection.
An that's where nothing happened.  After a brief pause where it tried to connect, I got the message that
wired network was down, or words to that effect.  couldn't restart network with "service network restart"
Had to reboot to get out of "network lock".  Don't know where to look next.  Any ideas?

Here are my ifconfig -a and iwconfig files:

[barry@BigBee ~]$ ifconfig -a
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:00:00:40:03:A5 
          inet addr:192.168.1.2  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:25382 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:17776 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:17100662 (16.3 MiB)  TX bytes:4888623 (4.6 MiB)
          Interrupt:5 Base address:0x6000

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback 
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:1891 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1891 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:732202 (715.0 KiB)  TX bytes:732202 (715.0 KiB)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:18:F8:30:25:0E 
          BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

[barry@BigBee ~]$ iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Tx-Power=13 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:on