[maemo-developers] WLAN connectivity using only wireless-tools

[From: Kalle Valo]

"ext Kalle Vahlman" <kalle.vahlman at gmail.com> writes:

> I'm trying to construct myself a small rootfs that would boot up and
> connect to my (open) WLAN.

I assume that you didn't modify initfs.

> For this I'd very much like to avoid any unneccesary and/or closed
> bits, so I thought no prob, I'll just install wireless-tools there
> and put few commands to my bootup script.

Not a problem, should work just fine. Occasionally I also use
wireless-tools directly.

> Alas, things didn't go that easily. For whatever reason, the wlan0
> interface (although seemingly up & running) refuses to take on the
> essid I set with iwconfig, or any other command I try.

Examples and full output from kernel, please.

> So, the question is, is there some special setup needed for the wlan0
> to come to life or do I really need to bring in the likes of wlancond
> (whatever it's role in this might be)?

You just have to do ifconfig wlan0 up before using wireless-tools.
When the interface is down, the driver doesn't accept any commands.

> What I'm seeing in dmesg is the following line:
>
> <4>[   11.625122] sm_drv_transmit: sm_frame_tx returned error -9

> reported multiple times, but I guess this could be just the dhclient
> trying to talk over non-connected interface.

Yes. It means that you try send a packet but you are not associated to
the AP.

> Any hints?

Can't think of anything sensible. Try 'iwconfig wlan0 mode managed',
but don't know if that makes any difference. It shouldn't.

-- 
Kalle Valo