ZoneMinder Forums

Hi All,

Ok - I am a noob to Linux and I am trying to setup the NetGear wireless-b USB MA111 on the ZM LiveCD installation with the wlan-ng driver. When I tried to compile the driver, it needs the linux kernel source--I don't know where this is at on the system. It seems to look for in "usr/src/linux", but it's not there. I tried to download the source file on the internet but they all come in RPM files and I don't know what to do with these. I click on it and it asked me to install it, but I don't know where it's putting it.

Can someone help me try to install the driver for the MA111 on the LiveCD version? I don't know what I am doing and I am totally frustrated. Save me from going back to windows. Is there just one setup.exe file I can click on? So many distributions, kernel versions, make files and configuration#$%^&*(!!!!

Does anyone already has a compile version of it and can let me have it with some instruction on installing it??

Thanks.

I think your Netgear usb device is supported by the prism2_usb kernel module, which you already have. If you run the command "lsmod" after plugging it in you may see that this module is loaded. Also after plugging it in run the command "dmesg" and see if there is any output that indicates that the device is recognized.

What you are missing is the prism2-utils which has the tools to configure the device. If your box has an internet connection already you can do "sudo urpmi prism2-utils" and the package will be downloaded and installed.

Check these things out and let us know how it goes.

Best regards,

Ross

Hi Ross,

Thank you for your reply to my post. You are most helpful!!

Yes you are right, the driver is already included in the distribution. I installed the tools as you suggested. Once the tool was installed, it created the directory under wlan under "/etc/".

1. Went to /etc/wlan/
2. copied wlancfg-DEFAULT to wlancfg-YOURSSID
cp wlancfg-DEFAULT wlancfg-CHANGETOYOURSSID
3. edited wlan.conf, change the variable SSID_wlan0="" with
SSID_wlan0="CHANGETOYOURSSID"
4. If you have a pci ethernet card installed and working already and wants to bring up the wireless. You have to stop the eth0 first.

sudo ifconfig eth0 down

4. For some reason, I can't get the DHCP to work, I had to do the static address with these commands:

sudo ifconfig wlan0 up IP_ADDR_FOR_DEVICE
sudo route add default gw YOUR_ROUTER_IP

Look here for some additional help:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/history/163192


For some reason I can't get the WEP security to work even after I edited the wlancfg file or the DHCP function to work.

If anyone knows, please post.


Thanks again Ross.

Trieu

You will need to get WEP working before DHCP can work if WEP is enabled on your AP/Router.

Disclaimer: I am not very familiar with the prism2-utils/wlan-ng tools, as my wireless card uses a different set of tools. So the following is a best guess.
edit: I few minutes on google reveals that the tools I am familiar with don't play well with the prism2_usb devices, so I refer you to this page:
http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug/ ... 00046.html

Thanks for the feedback, and let us know how it goes

Ross

One more ref here:
http://www.mandrake.tips.4.free.fr/conf ... on101.html

This has a fairly complete section at the end about a prism2_usb dongle and Mandrake 10.1

Hi Ross,

Thanks for looking up the reference for me, the one on configuration101.html was most helpful. It confirmed what I was doing. It needed a reboot for the WEP to work, which I didn't do the first time.

I was able to get the WEP to work but still not the DHCP to work. I don't care though, as long as it works, I don't really need the DHCP anyway.

To sum it all up for the next frustrated person:

1. You need to download and installed as mention by Ross the tools for the prism_usb to work
2. The tools installs the /etc/wlan folder
3. In this folder, you need to edit two files. You need to rename the wlancfg-DEFAULT to wlancfg-REPLACEWITHSSID. This file also has configuration settings for your specific network, such as WEP.

You need to edit the wlan.conf to use your ssid.

When you open these files, there are pleny of comments so they will be self explantary.
4. If you have any other card besides the wireless, you need to bring it down first with the command, "sudo ifconfig eth0 down".
5. If you have WEP enabled at your Access Point, you need to edit the wlancfg-XXXX file and then do a REBOOT before it would work.

To date, I still can't get DHCP to work, so I added these line to my
/etc/rc.local file to auto run these commands to get mine working. If your DHCP does not work either, you need to do the same. I have another NIC that seems to be the default each time it reboot, so I shut it off each time the computer start. Then I assigned the wlan0 an address and the gateway address.

sudo ifconfig eth0 down
sudo ifconfig wlan0 down
sudo ifconfig wlan0 up YOURSTATICIPADDRESS
sudo route add default gw YOURROUTERIP

Hi All,

I just wanted to added that I figure out a way to add DHCP to the wireless setup. This seems to be the only way that works for me.

I had to go under System>Configuration>Hardware>Hardrake>MA111, then run the config tools under this gui interface.

It doesn't seem to work if I was to configure it under System>Configuration>Configure Your Computer>New Connection or through the command line, but I could be doing something wrong.