portable, Averatec 5500 Trying to set up SuSe 9.2

Hello,

I recently purchased an Averatec 5500. I am attempting to set up Linux
9.2 on it. I have managed to install it and get it to boot.

However, I am having trouble getting a network connection on it.

It has a SIS 900 PCI Ethernet port, an 802.11g Mini PCI Wireless port,
and a 1394 Network port. I have test the Ethernet port and the 802
port under Windows and they work.

I did the default install. That did not work. Then I ran the repair
and installed the SIS module. That had no effect.

Years ago I set up an old Compaq to use Linux, put it had a PCAMIA card
for the network card. This one has the built in cards. I have never
set up the 802 cards in Linux. This is a new experience.

The email address that I am posting from is old. I have never changed
it so I can post and not receive spam. If you wish to email me use
XXXX@XXXXX.COM .

roland

On 21 Mar 2005 06:28:53 -0800, XXXX@XXXXX.COM staggered into
the Black Sun and said:

Google://"averatec 5500 linux" doesn't turn up much that's useful.
There's nothing about this laptop on tuxmobil.org or
linux-on-laptops.com either. You may be in for a hard slog if you're
new to Linux, because weird hardware abounds on laptops.


Er... you *can* use Firewire for networking, but hardly anyone does and
it's considered experimental. What did you mean by "1394 network"?


Good to know that the hardware works. So... you need to figure out
exactly what the hardware *is*. The Windows Device Mangler lies like a
rug; I wouldn't trust it as far as I could spit a guinea pig. Post the
outputs of "/sbin/lspci" and "uname -a". All SIS900 NICs should be
supported if you just "modprobe sis900", but if this is a new laptop,
its NIC may have a new PCI ID that isn't in the database for SuSE 9.2's
less-than-bleeding-edge kernel. Or the card may not be a SIS900;
mnaufacturers tend to use whatever chip is cheapest at the time.

I can't help you much with the wireless thing. A fair number of these
802.11n cards have no Linux modules available, but there's always
ndiswrapper. That does some kernel-level magic that allows you to use
the Windows kernel modules in Linux, as long as you're running a 32-bit
kernel on the x86 or x86-64. The output from lspci could be a great help
in providing info on what exactly you need to do.


You are aware, are you not, that the spammers fish out anything that
looks like a mail address from public archives and add it to their
databases? Munging applied (remove YOURPANTS to reply, natch.) HTH,

--
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin / mail: TRAP + SPAN don't belong
http://www.brainbench.com / Hire me!
-----------------------------/ http://crow202.dyndns.org/ ~mhgraham/resume

< XXXX@XXXXX.COM > skrev i meddelandet


You can use Win-XP's .INF & .SYS ndis drivers for almost any wireless card,
also take a look at this site: ( in this case for SuSE 9.2 )
http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/phpwiki/index.php/Suse %20Professional%209.2

Dances With Crows wrote:
into
having
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and
and
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the
9.2's
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32-bit
help

I am not new to linux. I have been using SuSe linux since the 6.2 or
something like that. I did manage to get one version set up on an Old,
Old Compaq Laptop once. It was a 75mz computer. I think I still have
the PCAMIA network card from that computer.

When I updated my home pc, I did notice that there were updates for the
Wireless Lan Cards and other network updates on the SuSe update sites.
I have considered attemting to use that to update the thing and see if
that helps.
(Not sure if it would. But it is an idea.)

I have also pre-ordered SuSe 9.3. It is supposed to have better 802
support.
Not sure if it will. 9.2 was not a real great version because Novell
was in a rush to get something out under their name.

The Windows Network Connections says there is a 1394 network card. I
have not attempted to use it. It is just there. It is unplugged. Not
really sure what to do with it. I figured I would describe it in the
post. At least now I know it is experimental. (Windows did not say it
was experimental.)

I tried to do a search on google before posting. I did not find much
either.
I did find something on setting up a 2200 or 2600, but the instructions
there didn't help me much for the 5500. Those instructions, and that
person's results - that person managed to get the network card's set up
with a little tweaking, but had trouble with the sound. The sound is
working fine. I am having a lot of trouble with the network cards.
That person also had trouble with the monitor settings. I took a tape
measure and measure the screen in MM before running SAX, and set it up
without any problem. (Having set up my screen on my home PC a few
times, with a few different monitors, I had an idea this was what was
needed.)

I will try the "/sbin/lspci" and "uname -a tonight. I will also see if
I have the old PCAMIA card that I know works. If I can get the system
to update, it might cure the problem.

roland

On 21 Mar 2005 10:48:05 -0800, XXXX@XXXXX.COM staggered into
the Black Sun and said:


OK, that's good.


Hm. I wonder what that could be? You typically see "1394" in
connection with Firewire devices, because Firewire is an Apple name and
the "real" name for that bus is IEEE-1394. Oh well, the SIS900 and
802.11n are the things you probably are more concerned with.


It'd be really useful to see the output from the lspci command. uname
will not be that useful, since you're almost certainly using a 2.6
kernel of reasonably recent vintage.


"PCMCIA". (People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms.) That's a
good backup plan. Make sure you've installed the PCMCIA utilities and
modules, and that they've been started at boot time. If they're
running, "pgrep cardmgr" should return a single PID.


That too. Let us know how you get on. If you manage to get everything
working, make sure to write up a summary and put it on your web page, so
that the next guy who tries Linux on an Averatec 5500 can benefit from
your work. Hey, he might then offer you virtual beer :-) .

--
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin / mail: TRAP + SPAN don't belong
http://www.brainbench.com / Hire me!
-----------------------------/ http://crow202.dyndns.org/ ~mhgraham/resume

Dances With Crows wrote:
into
I
having
be
laptop,
or
I
and
the
uname
That's a
and

I could not find the card, only the wire clip that went with it. This
was from 3 or 4 years ago, so I am not really sure what I did with it.
I had loned out the laptop to my neice who was in college, and the
thing died. It was only a 75mz computer so it was not worth trying to
fix. I used it for a few years to work on a Masters degree, and then
she used it going to college... so it sort of got a work out. So the
$500 I paid for a used laptop... well is was not wasted. But I am not
sure what I did with the PCMCIA card. I may also have a USB ethernet
card at home somewhere.

Anyway, I may get a chance to work on this project this weekend. If
not, I may just wait until I get SuSe 9.3. The reveiws say it is
suppose to have better 802 support. I plan on loading that anyway. So
I may just wait.

I was just attempting to see if I could get this working because I had
a copy of 9.2. I do things sometimes just to see if I can succeed in
doing them.

It took me a couple of attempts to get 9.2 to load on the laptop. The
first attempt sort of mucked up the windows partiton. I had to reload
windows. I had not loaded anything else on yet, so it was not a big
deal. I figured I would attempt this before loading the computer up
with programs.

roland

I broke down and purchased a new usb ethernet card. I managed to get
SuSe to update with it. I updated all the wireless lan drivers in
SuSe.
However that did not manage to get the wireless lan working.

Now part of the problem might be - I don't know much about wireless
networking.

I did not get much of a chance to work on this over the weekend. A
friend I gave my old computer to...

Well, they had AOL and decided it was not a good ISP. I have spent a
bit of time trying to get AOL out of that computer. I am not so sure
about their new choice of ISP's either, they signed up with Qwest DSL
and MSN.

They also had all sorts of Spyware and adware in the computer.
I think it is cleaned out now? I am not sure?

roland

Hi Folks,

I now have linux 9.3. (Okay, so I paid Novell some more money.)
I have loaded it up on my desktop. Everything works really nice.
Some of the problems I was having in 9.2 are fixed. (I kept losing the
sound settings, and I could not get a good photo print... both are
fixed now.)
That is another story...

There is a nice photo program on 9.3 called flphoto. It is a GPL
program. From the help screen it looks like it is on source forge.
But this is not why I am posting.

The 802 card is a Micro-star intnational Ralink RT2500 802.11 Cardbus
Reference Card.

I have tried the ad-hoc, managed and master settings. I have tried on
DHCP, and with a static IP address.

If I have it set on ad-hoc, Automatic setup with DHCP, Sharde Key, and
Hexadecimal it will give me an IP address of 192.168.1.101 but I am
unable to connect to anything.

I have a dns server in the host name and server configuration settings.
and the update name servers and search list via dhcp block is checked.

Any ideas on what to try next?

thanks for help,

roland

XXXX@XXXXX.COM schrieb:
the

Very good to hear, that with the new 9.3 version, the problems seems
to be fixed.
I'm using the same laptop (Averatec 5500) bougth at NORMA for a
real good price some month ago.
I never suceeded to make the network running under SuSe 9.2,
neither the sound card to play.
Under XP Home no problem, as well as under KNOPPIX.


This WLAN card did not work with version 9.2.
It was recognized by the system as a PCI device, but it never worked
there.
You can find RALINK drivers for LINUX at their website.
Unfortunately I never tried to compile them.

on


What is the configuration of the hot spot?

(wb)

http://rt2400.sourceforge.net/ works well. There 's an app called
RaConfig2500, some combination of running that and doing `dhclient ra0`
usually works. I've had issues getting it to work well w/ WPA and even
WEP.

I well, sort of went to Scotland in May. Had a nice vacation. The
laptop issue had to be put on hold for a while.

On the note of going to Scotland.... I dowloaded the new drivers for my
Konica Minolta 2300DL printer. They print nice. My Epson 1160 prints
the 13x19 prints nice out of linux expect they are off center on the
page.
Not very far off center, just enough to be annoying. It starts on the
edge on one side instead of leaving a 1/4 inch margin, and leaves a 3/8
inch margain on the bottom of the print, and leaves a 1/4 inch margin
on the other two sides. It prints fine, and a nice frame might cover
up the margins... just it was annoying. Now finding a 13x19 inch
frame... that is another story. (nobody has them)

WB rote:






This could be one of the problems. I am real new at the wireless
thing. This is a wireless router in my house. I had to configure he
wireless router myself, and the configure the laptop to work with the
wireless router. I manage to get it to work through trial and error in
windows.
I am not real sure how I have it configured. I might have to log into
it to see. (If I can remember how to do that... this is a whole new
thing here.)

I did try connecting to it when I had no security settings on it, and
that did not work either. (I had to reset it after a power outage
once.)

So I am sure part of this is I don't really know what I am doing with
configuring a wireless network. I took it over to my nieces house, and
her husband is a computer student at college. He could configure the
windows partition to work with his wireless network, but not the linux
system to work with his wireless network. We also had a couple of
other pcmcia cards we attemted this with, and none of them would work.

So, it is just something I am not doing correctly, I am sure. Linux
9.3 found the card fine. I am going to have to end up going to a linux
users group to get this figured out. I was going to go this past
Saturday, but I ended up having to go to a funeral. It seems there is
always something to keep me away from a LUG meeting.

roland

XXXX@XXXXX.COM writes:

First, when you are near the wireless access point do
iwlist s
to see if you see the wireless access point. If not, your system is almost
certainly not working (eg you have not installed the correct driver for
your wireless card. If you have a driver listed in /etc/modprobe.conf, look
at
dmesg|less
to see if there is some error message.

If iwlist sees it, then do
iwconfig
to see if the wireless is actually associated with something.

Then I do not know whick OS you are using. Under Mandrake look for the file
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0
or whatever your wireless port is calledi (the one in iwlist that lists
wireless access points)
See what is in there. How are you supposed to get the IP address? dhcp? Or
some static address?

.

It is SuSe 9.3, and it is set to DHCP. I set it to a staic address and
it pick up the 192.168.1. whatever I set it to, but it did not ping
anything.
So I put it back to DHCP.

I try these and the other things people have suggested and see. Sooner
or later, one way or another I will get something working.

It just takes time. It also hasn't really been a priority. I didn't
really buy the laptop for internet access, just to download and work on
photos. I only put linux on it to see if I could do manage to get it
working on there.

So, over time, I will manage to get the 802 card working. I just might
post every once in a while my progress. Right now, I have managed to
get the system to find the card. That is progress over it not finding
the card.

roland