Tiny Core Linux

General TC => Tiny Core Netbooks => Topic started by: tejjyid on April 17, 2010, 09:27:49 PM

Title: Wifi TC 210 on MSI Wind
Post by: tejjyid on April 17, 2010, 09:27:49 PM
I have tried searching but can't find anything about this problem on my machine:

I'm trying to run TC 210 on an MSI Wind u100, it's fine but no wifi - which actually means not fine since i don't have ready access to an ethernet port, so no appsbrowser.

Any ideas? Seems that TC can't see the wireless adapter. Maybe there's some setup i can do?

FWIW, I have a Realtek wifi chipset.
Title: Re: Wifi TC 210 on MSI Wind
Post by: jur on April 17, 2010, 11:20:04 PM
Have you tired the stuff in the wiki?

http://wiki.tinycorelinux.com/tiki-index.php?page=Setting+up+Wifi
Title: Re: Wifi TC 210 on MSI Wind
Post by: Juanito on April 17, 2010, 11:32:16 PM
If you load pci-utils/usb-utils, does lspci/lsusb show your wifi adapter?
Title: Re: Wifi TC 210 on MSI Wind
Post by: loserguy on April 19, 2010, 02:08:53 AM
Hi tejjyid,

Don't worry, I have the same netbook and wifi is working great with tinycore. :D

For the realtek driver you could try this extension.
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/2.x/tcz/rtl8187se_coffee.tcz (http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/2.x/tcz/rtl8187se_coffee.tcz)

Incidentally, msi wind netbooks come with different wifi modules ...
Mine is a ralink one for which you can try this extension if the realtek driver is not the right one.
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/2.x/tcz/rt2860.tcz (http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/2.x/tcz/rt2860.tcz)

You might need to download this using another distro if you have no internet connection and copy the files over to your tce/optional dir.

Also, the fn+f11 keys work on my netbook in tinycore, so make sure wifi is turned on before trying to connect. Spent 2 hours knocking my head against the wall ....
Title: Re: Wifi TC 210 on MSI Wind
Post by: tejjyid on April 19, 2010, 02:48:41 PM
Thanks all, will get working on it. New to X-ville, so a bit slow.

Can I mount my device hard drives (the Windows one) once TC is loaded? That makes transferring the driver file pretty easy.
Title: Re: Wifi TC 210 on MSI Wind
Post by: maro on April 19, 2010, 10:07:23 PM
@tejjyid: Yes you can.

If your Windows partition is a FAT or FAT32 type you just need to do mount /dev/hda1 This assumes that TC has correctly identified the partition. You can check this with cat /etc/fstab

For NTFS partitions you'll need the ntfs-3g.tcz extension. You can then mount with sudo ntfs-3g /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1 Please use the correct device (and mount point) for your case. Furthermore, there is also a NTFS module in 'filesystems-2.6.29.1-tinycore.tcz', but this is AFAIK limited to read-only access.
Title: Re: Wifi TC 210 on MSI Wind
Post by: tejjyid on April 20, 2010, 06:45:09 PM
Thanks to both loserguy & maro (and everybody else). TC Up & running! Very impressed so far. This is the 3rd LX distro I've tried & the 1st one to get working...


****back, with edits******** ???
OK, now I have a few more problems. It seems everything was fine after the 1st install, but now, post shutdown & restart, it's not so clear.

When I click on the WICD icon, no window appears. I checked with netconfig; seems wlan0 isn't up/on/visible. The _coffee driver is still present.

I found a post saying you might need to run a script wlan0up, but when I run that I get a string of "Can't insert ieee8211_crypt-rtl.ko......Unknown symbol in module or unknown parameter"

Loserguy, you mentioned you had wireless running on an MSI, what's your boot setup? Off a harddrive or a pendrive? And which persistence option do you use? I'm thinking maybe the problem is the way I've got TC starting up, but guessing really.
Title: Re: Wifi TC 210 on MSI Wind
Post by: mwoodruff on April 26, 2010, 10:02:33 AM
Quote
When I click on the WICD icon, no window appears.
Have you run wicd-start before clicking the WICD icon?  Took me a while to figure out I needed to do this.
Title: Re: Wifi TC 210 on MSI Wind
Post by: loserguy on April 26, 2010, 06:31:19 PM
@tejjyid
I'm using norestore boot codes with confs stored in a "zzzsettings.tcz". I just added a simple script to run in the background at startup as was outlined here:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/2.x/tcz/rt2860.tcz.info (http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/2.x/tcz/rt2860.tcz.info)

Guessing at this point, but have you checked to see if the required extensions and their dependencies are getting loaded (appsaudit)?

@ mwoodruff
Thanks! I'm going to try WICD too  :)
Title: Re: Wifi TC 210 on MSI Wind
Post by: tejjyid on April 28, 2010, 10:14:04 PM
Thanks for the wicd-start tip, now wicd is operational. But it can't see wlan0 either.

This is puzzling, because immediately after installing the Rtl8187se_coffee.tcz, I could see wlan0. Now it is permanently installed, no dice. Maybe I can de-install & re-install.

Also, I'll check the appsaudit & let you know how it goes.
Title: Re: Wifi TC 210 on MSI Wind
Post by: tejjyid on May 05, 2010, 08:54:22 PM
I played around with appsaudit, everything looks OK, so far as I am any judge.

Also checked lspci & lsusb, it can definitely see the Realtek wireless chipset. WICD apparently can't though - it says "no wireless networks available".

WICD is definitely started & the wireless adapter is definitely turned on.

more clues...thought I would try manually, bypassing WICD, so tried this;

/sbin/ifconfig wlan0 up  => no such device

So, that seems (to me) like the coffee.tcz extension hasn't installed itself at boot, even though appsaudit says it's there.

Is the fact that I'm running off a USB possibly relevant? I don't have a spare hard drive to test this on at the moment.
Title: Re: Wifi TC 210 on MSI Wind
Post by: Juanito on May 05, 2010, 10:07:14 PM
What does "iwconfig wlan0" show?
Title: Re: Wifi TC 210 on MSI Wind
Post by: tejjyid on May 06, 2010, 04:55:07 PM
iwconfig shows:

wlan0           no such device
Title: Re: Wifi TC 210 on MSI Wind
Post by: gerald_clark on May 06, 2010, 09:08:25 PM
My wireless adapter is eth0.
run 'ifconfig -a' and see wha tshows up.
Title: Re: Wifi TC 210 on MSI Wind
Post by: tejjyid on May 07, 2010, 01:51:18 AM
ifconfig results: eth0 looks like the Ethernet adapter; along with dummy0 (also Ethernet) & lo (loopback)
Title: Re: Wifi TC 210 on MSI Wind
Post by: tinypoodle on July 05, 2010, 05:29:25 PM
Quote
I found a post saying you might need to run a script wlan0up, but when I run that I get a string of "Can't insert ieee8211_crypt-rtl.ko......Unknown symbol in module or unknown parameter"

The instructions in the info of the extension are rather misleading and could never work "as is" (which is easily proven by a look at content of the script), took me a while to figure it out...
Try following:

Code: [Select]
cd /local/lib/modules/2.6.29.1-tinycore/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/
sudo ./wlan0up

you could then check with lsmod if all 6 modules have been loaded  ;)

Quote
My wireless adapter is eth0.
run 'ifconfig -a' and see wha tshows up.

That's driver dependent.
With rtl8187se_coffee.tcz if name is wlanN by default.
From output of modinfo:
Code: [Select]
parm:           devname: Net interface name, wlan%d=default