Madwifi help needed

[Wolfgang S. Rupprecht]

Anne Wilson <cannewilson at googlemail.com> writes:
> On Tuesday 29 May 2007 18:29:50 Wolfgang S. Rupprecht wrote:
>> Second question: what is your
>> /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ath0 ?  Maybe there is a badly
>> quoted ssid line in there?
>
> It doesn't exist.  I do have a ifcfg-wifi0, which looks sketchy in the 
> extreme.  It just says

I'm pretty sure when I upgraded to fc6 I just copied my ifcfg-ath0
from my fc5 filesystem.  I'm no longer sure how that file got created
originally.  It might well be some older method of configuring wifi.
Still, if it works...

As a test I would try to temporarily get rid of ifcfg-wifi0 (eg via
"mv ifcfg-wifi0 mv hide-ifcfg-wifi0") and put a hand-edited version of
my ifcfg-ath0 in its place.  (NOTE: The stock ifcfg-* files will have
a handful of hard links and you want to be careful not to break them.
It isn't hard to recreate the links, but is a pain to chase them
down.)

> By this time tomorrow I should have the antenna extended - but I don't know 
> whether there is a choice of lengths.  I want it well clear of the box, 
> screen, etc.

I found an <$10 wire antenna with a few feet of cable and magnetic
mount that works well enough.  I taped a piece of L-shaped sheet metal
to the top center of the display and stick the antenna to that.  The
extra cable is wrapped in a loop and taped to the back of the display.
I love that clear mylar packaging tape for "temporary" hacks like
this.

      http://sharperconcepts.zoovy.com/product/YSC-RE05U

> Fortunately it shouldn't be a problem on this box.  It isn't going
> anywhere.  

This laptop mostly stays within range of its home AP too.  If I needed
to move it regularly I'd probably allow the laptop to boot with a full
wpa_supplicant.conf file and then switch to an edited-down file by
hand when I logged in.

> I've seen a neighbour's connection pop up on my Mandriva laptop,
> occasionally, but it doesn't cause me any problem.  The laptop
> merely acknowledges its existence, and I carry on working on my own.

You're lucky.  I see 12 different AP's here with 2 of them open to the
public.  If I let wpa_supplicant connect to open AP's it occasionally
associates with one of them.

> It's a real pain, troubleshooting on a box that doesn't have a network 
> connection.  I'm so used to being able to access the box from where I work 
> and copy/paste.  Still, if I've introduced any typos, I'm sure you'll 
> recognise them as such.

I was hoping it would be a typo, but no such luck. 

Wifi is never quite as reliable as a wired ethernet.  I do have to
occasionally stick an ethernet cable into my laptop to get some things
fixed.  Usually the problem is that fedora distributes a new kernel
but livna doesn't yet have the corresponding madwifi module yet.

-wolfgang
-- 
Wolfgang S. Rupprecht                http://www.wsrcc.com/wolfgang/
Hints for IPv6 on FC6 http://www.wsrcc.com/wolfgang/fedora/ipv6-tunnel.html