MSI Wind and TC 4.6

[tejjyid]

I'm trying to bring an old MSI Wind back to life - I'm using TC 4.6.1 (CorePLus)

On loading, TC can't see/find the wireless card (it's definitely there 'coz W* is using it)

I've tried a bit of inexpert poking around the forums; I had the same/similar problem 3 years ago with a much older version of TC as well.

modprobe shows there is an ath.ko.gz library
lsmod shows it isn't loaded.

iwconfig/ipconfig say there is no wlan0...

Any assistance appreciated, thanks

[Juanito]

The first thing to do would be to indentify your wireless hardware using pci-utils (lspci) or usb-utils (lsusb) and post the results here/search the forum for posts based on the results.

For example:

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$ lspci
...
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4331 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 02)

[tejjyid]

Fair call...

Realtek RTL8187SE Wireless LAN Controller (rev 22)

I'll start searching, but don't let that stop anybody leaping in with THE ANSWER, if they have it...

(Already I know more than I did yesterday)

[Rich]

From 3.0.21 kernel config file:

# CONFIG_R8187SE is not set

Could that be causing a problem?

[tinypoodle]

From 3.0.21 kernel config file:

# CONFIG_R8187SE is not set

Could that be causing a problem?

It means there is no driver...

FWIW, there is an out-of-kernel driver extension in the 2.x repo.

[tejjyid]

The repo, eh? So, if I understand this, there is a driver in a repository somewhere which could be loaded, and which might solve the problem? Is there a quick guide to getting things from repositories? I assume the name of the extension is obvious...

Does the FWIW suggest pessimism about the likely value of that driver/extension?

I'm a little puzzled by Rich's reference to config 3 - I thought this was TC 4?

[Juanito]

The apps gui will automatically connect to the correct repo for the version of tinycore you're using - for example, tc-4.x will connect to the 4.x repo.

You can manually download apps from a different repo, but there's likely to be a problem with kernel drivers as the kernel version will not match that of the version of tc you're using.

If there's a driver in the 2.x repo, you could take it as an indication that it compiled successfully on tc-2.x, so it might compile on tc-4.x...

[tinypoodle]

The "FWIW" suggests there is a driver available for running core version 2.x but not newer - and in addition also what juanito stated.
The extension is rtl8187se_coffee.tcz

config 3.0.21 is in reference to kernel version numbering (current kernel version of core).

[Rich]

Hi tejjyid

The extension is rtl8187se_coffee.tcz

That's the same extension you tried under TC2.10 a couple of years ago.
You might want to run:

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lspci -nn | grep Realtekand verify that the PCIID is listed as  [10EC:8199]
These links may be of some help:
http://wiki.debian.org/rtl818x
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/rtl8187

The wireless-3.0.21-tinycore.tcz extension contains  rtl8187.ko.gz  which may or may not be right for your chip set.

[tinypoodle]

Hi tejjyid

The extension is rtl8187se_coffee.tcz

That's the same extension you tried under TC2.10 a couple of years ago.
You might want to run:

Code: [Select]

lspci -nn | grep Realtekand verify that the PCIID is listed as  [10EC:8199]
These links may be of some help:
http://wiki.debian.org/rtl818x
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/rtl8187

The wireless-3.0.21-tinycore.tcz extension contains  rtl8187.ko.gz  which may or may not be right for your chip set.

Not compatible - as is also obvious from content of the links above.
Requires either an out-of-kernel driver like mentioned "coffee" or the driver in staging tree - AFAIK all of them are based on the source of chipset manufacturer.

[tejjyid]

OK, thanks folks.

It looks like I'd be better off trying to resurrect TC 2.1, for the particular laptop I have in mind.

BTW - "the driver in staging tree" - what does that mean?

[curaga]

BTW - "the driver in staging tree" - what does that mean?

It means that the driver exists in the kernel, but it's low quality and/or buggy and/or unstable. We don't enable staging drivers, understandably.