Wireless Problems

[Karthik1019]

I have a Dell TrueMobile 1150 in an old laptop that I just installed Suse 9.3 on. I don't know anything about linux, this is my first go at it. When I set the onboard lan card to DHCP and plug the laptop straight into the back of my Linksys router, it works fine. The router and computer seem to communicate just fine and settle on host names and such things. When I try to go wireless though, there are problems. The card is recognized by the OS and running the Orinoco drivers, which, according to google, is great. I have the ESSID set to the networks SSID, which I assume is the correct thing to do, and the Gateway set to the router's default one. Also, the domain name is set to ri.cox.net, the ISP, which the router did itself and the host name is just linux by default I guess. I even think that the card is picking up some kind of signal, because it has a bit rate which varies between 2 and 11 MBps. So what's the problem? I don't know, but I think its the mac address. When I open up the wireless lan status thing, it says the AP mac is 44.44.44.44.44.44 which is rediculous. The router says that its wireless mac address is completely different and that the mac address of the computer is completely different. Is this where the problem is or is it somewhere else in the configuration of the card? I can't figure out a way to change the address and I've been trying for a while so any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

[Karthik1019]

I've been searching the web basically all day for a solution. There were plenty of threads detailing people's experiences with this card. They all started off saying that the card is very well integrated with Linux etc, but in the end, were left unresolved. This happens to be the only one I found that was even somewhat conclusive at all:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...04/09/4/161095

It's really long, I read all of it, but understood next to nothing. Still, I'm not looking for a full translation or anything, I just want to know if someone would be nice enough to explain to me what exactly that last post is all about and how to do what is suggested in it. Also, there's a little bit in there, maybe two or three posts, that discuss Suse and how it finds the network before it turns on the card, then details a somewhat solution, though I don't know if it worked. Could someone help me out there too. Thanks.

[Karthik1019]

!!! I think I finally figured out a way to beat this thing. It's taken a long while and a lot of learning, but I finally got somewhere. The truemobile is a MiniPCI card, not a PCMCIA card. But the distros, bot Suse before and Ubuntu now, recognize it as a third PCMCIA slot/card. So what it does is assign it the PCMCIA driver, orinoco_cs.ko, though the Ubuntu device manager doesn't say so. Well, if I can associate it with the PCI driver, orinoco_pci.ko, which is also included, then maybe it will work out. Now I just need someone to please tell me the commands to change a driver from one thing to another. I already know the location of what I need. PLEASE, I'm begging you, anyone, help me. Of course, this is all theory, and since I've only been around linux for a week or so, I'd say there is about a 99% chance I'm completely wrong. My back up plan is to use that program that allows you to use windows drivers in linux. The reason I didn't try already is because it seems like that thing is only supposed to work for PCMCIA cards. I did it a few hours ago to get a linksys card working, I just forget the name since it's 3:30 am and I'm tired. Looking forward to a response.

-Karthik

[Karthik1019]

It seems like no one anywhere, not google, not here, not linuxquestions.org, anywhere, can tell me how to change a driver to a different file. I don't need to make a new kernel or anything, the driver is already there, I just need to apply it to the card. Its not worth it to spend my days doing this anymore. School starts in a week and I've gotta start getting ready, please, someone help, otherwise, I'm just gonna give up tomorrow....