Can't get wireless to load

[aknisly]

I've previously worked on getting NX running on TS, but have now switched to ThinLinc. I've got ThinLinc working with ethernet (running openbox and xdesktop-kiosk), but we have a bunch of laptops and towers that won't have ethernet access, so we need to get wifi working in the build. I plan to return to Openbox and xdesktop-kiosk after I get this working, but am using xfwm4 so that I have a terminal and the network manager for troubleshooting. I'm booting off of SATA SSD cards, so I suspect that is why I'm not able to add and connect to a wifi connection via the network manager.

I think I'm not getting enough (or the right) drivers loading; I've uncommented these three lines in build.conf:

package wpa_supplicant
package wireless
package wifi-connect

...and added these three lines to thinstation.conf.buildtime

WIRELESS_ESSID="<my_hidden_SSID>"
WIRELESS_WPAKEY="<my_key>"
WIRELESS_DRIVER="madwifi"

I've tried this both with and without quotes, and I've tried the wext driver as well. Nothing shows up in the network manager, and ifconfig shows only the ethernet and local loopback interfaces.

I still feel like I'm barely understanding this process, so if I get this resolved, I intend to finish the documentation that I started in hopes that someone else will profit from it.

Thanks in advance for your help.

build.conf.txt thinstation.conf.buildtime.txt

[Thinstation]

you don't need the wifi-connect package, but you do need autonet. WIRELESS_DRIVER should default to wext, so you don't need that line at all.

Make sure you have the firmware for any wireless adapters in your machine profile.

Networkmanager and autonet conflict, and Networkmanager does not have wireless configuration via .conf files.

[aknisly]

Thanks much for the reply. I've removed wifi-connect and networkmanager, added autonet and removed the WIRELESS_DRIVER line.

Now I'm stuck on the firmware question. I found this thread, and tried:

for port in ls /ts/ports/binary-core; do prt-get install $portdone

I get "--Packages not found" for each of the folders. Here is the contents of binary-core:

However, I'm not sure it applies because the firmware directory isn't empty. It contains:

firmware#git-1.pkg.tar.xz Pkgfile

Just in case, I did go ahead and follow his lead:

git clone http://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git

and rsync'ed it with ports/binary-core/firmware/, but I still don't show a connection. I noticed that he had a bunch of gnome packages installed, so it's not apples-with-apples, but I assume that autonet should handle the connection process automatically?

I also made sure that param allfirmware is true. And could you confirm whether i need quotes or not on WIRELESS_ESSID= and WIRELESS_WPAKEY=?

In case it helps, I've attached the contents of 'firmware_found' and 'firmware_notfound.'

Thanks again.

[Thinstation]

Which wireless adapter do you have?

[aknisly]

Well, I'm getting closer! Your question made me decide to check a few more machines, and now I have one machine connecting. I've tried four others that don't connect. This tells me that the autonet and configuration settings are there. Now I need to find a tool to get the adapter info. I don't have lshw; lspci isn't helpful; I can't figure out how to get it with cat /proc....

Suggestions?

[Thinstation]

lspci -k should tell you which modules are loaded for pci devices, and that is usually enough. lsusb might also be needed depending on the adapter. as root, journalctl -xe |grep -ie firmware , might give some insight

[aknisly]

OK, that was what I needed.

I had time only for a brief look, and one of the adapters that wasn't working was B43. Another was an RTL. I didn't have time to record all the outputs. Unfortunately, I have my back against the wall with school starting and have to put this on hold for now. Time will tell if/when I get to pick this up again. Thanks much for your help.