[driverloader] DWL-650, revM1 Mandrake 10, Kernel 2.6.3-4

[RF]

All the below was true as of yesterday, but today, once again, things
happened a little differently.  It's very strange that driverloader never
behaves the same way twice, especially after a re-boot.



I noticed that my modem responds to the iwlist scan with a mode of "Auto",
which I dont recall seeing anywhere else.  Root of the problem?

----------------------------





It has been a long strange road to get this D-link card working, but for
the benefit of all, here is how I can "reliably" get a link to my 2Wire
wireless DSL modem (SBC DSL service).  I am using Mandrake 10CE with the
stock Kernel 2.6.3-4 from the download disks, but with many updates from
the updates list.

It usually happens that since eth0 is attempted on boot (driverloader
aliased to eth0 in modules.conf), and inevitably an IP is NEVER grabbed
on boot, I usually pull the card out of the slot to boot so I dont waste
the minute or two the boot process hangs and I can get to the parts that
work.

After booting, pop in card, open up a console, give an iwlist scan, if
it finds my modem, then an ifup eth0 usually gets me going.  Today I had
an unusual message after the ifup eth0:
--------------------------
[root at localhost robert]# ifup eth0
Determining IP information for eth0...SIOCADDRT: File exists
 done.
--------------------------
What is the SIOCADDRT?  I've never gotten that output before.

Other issues:  if the iwlist scan doesnt find the modem, I change the
mode to Ad-hoc which causes the 'Link' to go green, then issue and ifup
eth0 which will NOT get an IP from the modem, so now change back to the
Managed mode, and re-scan which usually now finds the modem, then an
ifup eth0 gets me connects (and without the SIOCADDRT message from
above).

If any combination of the above doesnt work, I ifdown, remove card and
begin again.  Usually I get an ip, but sometimes it can take a while

Here is my ifconfig-eth0 file:
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
ONBOOT=yes
ESSID=2WIRE360
MODE=Managed
HWADDR=00:05:5d:98:1d:32
MII_NOT_SUPPORTED=yes
WIRELESS_ENC_KEY=""
NEEDHOSTNAME=yes


This is the output of the iwlist scan immediately after boot and card
insertion (found on first try):
[root at localhost robert]# iwlist scan
lo        Interface doesn't support scanning : Operation not supported

eth0      Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:D0:9E:EF:1F:D1
                 ESSID:"2WIRE360"
                 Mode:Managed
                 Frequency:2.437GHz
                 Quality:1/1  Signal level:-82 dBm  Noise level:-200 dBm
                 Encryption key:off
                 Bit Rate:1Mb/s
                 Bit Rate:2Mb/s
                 Bit Rate:5.5Mb/s
                 Bit Rate:11Mb/s
                 Bit Rate:22Mb/s
                 Extra:bcn_int=100


One issue that I am not sure about is how the setup software for the
windows based D-link card and the modem work to set the host name.  In
windows (and when I used a Xircom wired lan card) my computer was given
a name other than localhost.  I booted into windows and went to the
modem's configuration interface and changed the computer name to local
host.  I cant say for sure if this had any effect, but there is less
confusion and opportunities for breakage as far as I can tell.

Robert F
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