[Resolved] Network driver for EeePC 901 ?

[paulfxh]

I just spent some time experimenting with TinyCore 1.0 and 1.1 on my Asus EeePC 901 but could not get a network connection.
As I could not at all find the appropriate driver for my card (atl1e), must I assume that TinyCore cannot (for the moment at least) be used on my netbook?

[^thehatsrule^]

# CONFIG_ATL1 is not set

Guess not.  You could either compile it, or wait for the next kernel update in TC (which may not be soon).

[roberts]

Community member dmoerner created an extension that works with EeePC 901 wireless ethernet.

I packaged wpa-supplicant and rt2860sta for them so it's now useable on a EeePC 901 pretty well.

[roberts]

Another wireless option is to try ndiswrapper.We also offer that as an extension.  If the 901 is an Atom processor, and you have access to Windows driver, might be worth a try. The ndiswrapper works well with my 900A but then it is an Atheros card.

[paulfxh]

Thanks for the replies.

Another wireless option is to try ndiswrapper.We also offer that as an extension.  If the 901 is an Atom processor, and you have access to Windows driver, might be worth a try. The ndiswrapper works well with my 900A but then it is an Atheros card.

Yes, the EeePC 901 has an Intel Atom processor but I don't have any Windows stuff at all on this machine. However, I'm sure that a Windows version of atl1e must be readily available so maybe I can download it on my Ubuntu partition and move it over to the partition where I intend to install TinyCore (although I notice that installation of your OS to HD seems to be frowned upon by your community  )

Community member dmoerner created an extension that works with EeePC 901 wireless ethernet.

That's great but I see from this howto that this is only available as source. To compile this would require me to get the build tools from the repos which is basically impossible without some kind of internet connection which I don't have right now.

BTW, I also have DSL 4.1.2 on this computer where I have the rt2860sta driver installed and working perfectly. Perhaps there is a chance that this might work also in TinyCore in which case I would have access to a compiled driver. Does anybody think this might work?

[^thehatsrule^]

Yes, the EeePC 901 has an Intel Atom processor but I don't have any Windows stuff at all on this machine. However, I'm sure that a Windows version of atl1e must be readily available so maybe I can download it on my Ubuntu partition and move it over to the partition where I intend to install TinyCore (although I notice that installation of your OS to HD seems to be frowned upon by your community  )

Only non-standard "traditional" hd-installs are not supported.

Community member dmoerner created an extension that works with EeePC 901 wireless ethernet.

That's great but I see from this howto that this is only available as source. To compile this would require me to get the build tools from the repos which is basically impossible without some kind of internet connection which I don't have right now.

You could do the same as what you've suggested above.

BTW, I also have DSL 4.1.2 on this computer where I have the rt2860sta driver installed and working perfectly. Perhaps there is a chance that this might work also in TinyCore in which case I would have access to a compiled driver. Does anybody think this might work?

No, it will probably not.

[paulfxh]

OK, I have used this guide to install TC (1.1 RC1) to the 16 GB drive on my EeePC 901. BTW, does this make it a "frugal install"?
This boots fine although I'm a bit concerned that not everything (indeed, anything) shows up on the Desktop. But I'll leave that for another thread if I can't solve it myself.
Right now, I want to get a wireless network connection to TC. So, I  have now downloaded four .tce files (on my Ubuntu partition) from the TC repo and copied them over to the /home/tc/ directory. These files are
compiletc.tce
linuxheaders-2.6.26.tce
rt2860sta-source.tce
wpa-supplicant.tce

Now for the newbie question. I can't figure out how to get this stuff installed. The TC wiki doesn't seem to provide this information.
Can somebody please let me into the secret? 

[paulfxh]

Now for the newbie question. I can't figure out how to get this stuff installed.

OK, don't worry, I've figured out how to load the .tce files.
So, I got all four mentioned in my last post loaded.
Then I tried to compile the rt2860sta source using this guide.
However, the "compile-rt2860sta.sh" command ends abruptly with:

Fetching upstream source of rt2860sta...wget: bad address 'www.ralinktech.com.tw'

So, even though I downloaded what I thought were all of the necessary files in another partition (which has an internet connection), my lack of internet connection on the TC partition still trips me up.
Hmmm..........what options do I have now?

[florian]

OK, I have used this guide (http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=308.0) to install TC (1.1 RC1) to the 16 GB drive on my EeePC 901. BTW, does this make it a "frugal install"?

Ouch ouch ouch  ! I'm afraid that what you did is not a 'frugal' hdd install but a 'traditional' hdd install. No running in RAM, no 'pristine state' at boot. This is probably NOT what you want!

You should extract bzImage and tinycore.gz from the iso directly to your harddisk. Not gunzip'ing tinycore.gz!!! Then points grub entry to those files, aka kernel bzImage and initrd tinycore.gz

As for the network part, I think you were on the right tracks with those extensions.

[paulfxh]

Thanks for the advice. Looks like I did the "spendy" install instead of the "frugal".   
OK, so based on what you said I did the following:

- download the TC 1.1 RC1 iso to Ubuntu Desktop
- Extract the iso to provide a "boot" directory
- copy bzImage, tinycore.gz and isolinux folder from this directory over to the root of an empty ext2-formatted partition on the EeePC 901
- I use Xandros Grub in the MBR, so I added this to the /boot/grub/menu.lst of the Xandros partition
 

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title Tiny Core Linux 1.1 RC1 Frugal Install
root (hd1,6)
kernel /bzImage root=/dev/hdd7
initrd /tinycore.gz
boot- However, when I try to boot to this I get an error 2 (bad file or directory type)

Any clues as to why it won't boot?

[^thehatsrule^]

fwiw, atl1 is marked experimental in 2.6.26

Looks like the extension tries to download the source package.  You'd need to grab that as well.  It may be easier for you to build it on a TC system with Internet access, or in a VM.

You don't need to copy the isolinux folder. Try

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title TC
root (hd1,6)
kernel /bzImage
initrd /tinycore.gz
This would indicate that the files are on ie /mnt/hdb5

[paulfxh]

Looks like the extension tries to download the source package.  You'd need to grab that as well.  It may be easier for you to build it on a TC system with Internet access, or in a VM.

Thanks for the suggestions. I was able to create the rt2860sta.ko.gz driver in TinyCore VM in VMware Server and install it in the "traditional" TC HDD install I have on the EeePC 901.
I copied the driver to /lib/modules/2.6.26-tinycore/drivers/net/wireless (the last three directories I had to create) and then issued the commands:

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depmod -a
modprobe rt2860 sta
ifconfig ra0 up
ifconfig ra0 192.168.1.5 netmask 255.255.255.0
route add default gw 192.168.1.254Now, if I type "ifconfig" details of the ra0 interface show up.
However, I still can't ping.
I believe this is simply because I don't have the "iwconfig" command which is necessary to define the essid and wep key. Any clues as to how I can get iwconfig?
[Just thought it may also be because I haven't installed wpa-supplicant in the HDD install]

You don't need to copy the isolinux folder. Try

Code: [Select]

title TC
root (hd1,6)
kernel /bzImage
initrd /tinycore.gz
This would indicate that the files are on ie /mnt/hdb5

Still can't get the frugal install to boot. Almost everything I've tried gives me the same error 2 which suggests that bzImage is either not there (but it is) or it's not really a file but something like a symlink. 
This is a real mystery.
BTW, to get my "traditional" TC HDD install to boot I use the following in /boot/grub/menu.lst

Code: [Select]

root (hd1,9)
kernel /bzImage root=/dev/hdd10So, even though (hd1,9) should translate as /dev/hdb10 (or /dev/sdb10), TC recognizes it as /dev/hdd10 (which is actually the same as I find in DSL 4.1.2)

[paulfxh]

OK, I got iwconfig from wireless_tools (downloaded in Ubuntu, copied across and loaded by app_browser).
So, finally, I have internet in Tiny Linux 
Even though it took some time, I learned a lot about this OS in the attempt to get wireless working.
I still have some problems but maybe I should start new threads about each. But, if anybody has some clues, here they are:

1. How to install Wbar (can't find this in tce or tcz repos)
2. An earlier post in this thread said

atl1 is marked experimental in 2.6.26

Where can I get this as it too is not in the repos
3. How to do a frugal install that actually boots

Thanks to everybody for helping me out. 

[roberts]

Good to hear that you have your wireless module.

re: frugal
You should use grub's find command to see if grub can actually see your frugal bzImage
Some had to upgrade their version of grub.

re:wbar
wbar is part of tiny core. It should be controlled from the file .desktop field icons: wbar
yours is likely set to 0

Your installation (traditional hdd) is not recommended and as such you will continue to have challenges that others do not.

[paulfxh]

Thanks for the reply

re: frugal
You should use grub's find command to see if grub can actually see your frugal bzImage
Some had to upgrade their version of grub.

Yes, I used

Code: [Select]

grub>  find /bzImagein Ubuntu and both partitions where I have TC installed (frugal and traditional) showed up. So, Grub sees the bzImage file in my attempted frugal install, but for some reason doesn't recognize it as a real file.
However, as with nearly all problems  I've ever had, I don't believe I'm the only one ever to have experienced this. And this one certainly can't be blamed on my traditional install.

re:wbar
wbar is part of tiny core. It should be controlled from the file .desktop field icons: wbar
yours is likely set to 0

I checked the .desktop file in both my traditional TC install and in my TC VM. Both show exactly the same file content

Code: [Select]

wm: jwm
icons: wbarHowever, wbar shows in the VM but not in the traditional install. Is this one of the traditional install challenges you refer to?

Your installation (traditional hdd) is not recommended and as such you will continue to have challenges that others do not.

Believe me, I have no perverse desire for unnecessary challenges but so far I'm not seeing any light at the end of the "frugal" tunnel.
Perhaps there's a detailed howto/guide somewhere?