Debugging Wireless Extensions (common problems)

Usually, people don't have much trouble with Wireless Extensions. There are a few gotchas, here
are the most common ones :
iwconfig doesn't list my card
1. Make sure your card is plugged in the PC, and check its led.
2. Make sure the system can identify your card.
3. Make sure the proper driver for your card is loaded using lsmod.
4. Check if the driver did recognise the card using dmesg.
iwconfig says "no wireless extensions." for my card
1. Enable the config option CONFIG_NET_RADIO in your kernel setup.
2. Recompile and reinstall this kernel.
3. Recompile and reinstall the kernel modules.
4. Do cat /proc/net/wireless. If the command returns an error, you are using the
wrong kernel. Try again.
5. If you are using driver from the external Pcmcia package (kernel 2.2 and earlier),
go into the Pcmcia package, do a make config
6. Check that the following line appears : "Radio network interface support is
enabled.".
7. Recompile and install the Pcmcia package.
iwconfig still says "no wireless extensions.", displays garbage or crashes before
displaying anything.
1. Make sure you have fully checked all the steps of the second question.
2. The driver or driver version you are using probably does not support Wireless
Extension.
3. Check status of Wireless Extension support for your driver in the Wireless LAN
Howto.
4. If your driver is listed, try a more recent version.
5. If your hardware is listed, try the driver mentionned (there may be multiple of
them).
6. Make sure that Pcmcia is loading the driver you think it is loading. Hack the
various files in /etc/pcmcia/ until it loads the correct driver (grep is your friend).
7. If you still can't get it, or if you find no suitable driver, complain to the driver
maintainer.
I try to change a specific parameter with iwconfig, it just returns an error message
1. Check reading parameters and setting other parameters.
2. If setting all parameters fail, see first two questions.
3. No card support the full range of Wireless Extension, so your hardware or
firmware may not have this feature.
4. Check the Windows driver and card documentation to see if the feature exist.
5. Then, your driver or your driver version may not export this particular feature.
Try the latest version.
6. For driver with otherwise rich support, it's more likely a hardware limitation. For
driver with limited support, it might be a driver limitation.
7. Check the driver documentation to see if the feature is supported.
8. Lastly, ask the maintainer if it is a hardware, software or documentation limitation
and what to do about it.
iwconfig crashes after displaying valid info...
1. Use Wireless Tools version 27 or later, which fixes this issue.
iwlist scan crashes while iwconfig and other iwlist commands work fine
1. Use Wireless Tools version 27 or later, which fixes this issue.
iwconfig says : "Warning: Driver for device XXXX has been compiled with version
XX, while this program is using version XX"
1. Use Wireless Tools version 27 or later, which fixes this issue.
iwconfig says : "Warning: Driver for device XXXX has been compiled with version
XX, while this program supports up to version XX"
1. Upgrade to the latest stable version of Wireless Tools.
2. If this doesn't fix that issue, you may
If nothing bad happens, just ignore the message.
Install a pre-release version of the Wireless Tools (see above).
iwconfig says : "Warning: Driver for device XXXX recommend version XX of
Wireless Extension"
o Ignore, unless you can't configure your card.
o Upgrade your kernel, and recompile/reinstall kernel/modules/tools.
When compiling the Wireless Tools, it says "Wireless Extension earlier than XX
detected"
0. Ignore, unless you find a bug.
When compiling the Wireless Tools, it says "Wireless Extension later than XX
detected"
0. This is not problematic, but think of getting a newer version of the tools.
When compiling the Wireless Tools, it complains that I FLA_WI RELESS is
undeclared
0. Use Wireless Tools version 27 or later, which fixes this issue.
In the kernel log, it says "wlan0 (WE) : Buffer for request XXXX too small (0<XX)"
0. Find the wireless application that generates it
1. Upgrade this application it to the latest version
2. If the problem persist, file a bug on the application
In the kernel log, it says "wlan0 (WE) : Invalid/Unknown Wireless Event"
0. Your kernel and your driver are out of sync
1. Recompile/reinstall your kernel, kernel modules, pcmcia modules and external
driver modules
I change stuff in wireless.opts, nothing happens
0. Check that the MAC address prefix of the definition matches the MAC address of
your card (with ifconfig).
1. Check that no other previous definition would match your card (the first matching
section is used, "*" matches everything).
2. In particular, make sure that you have either commented or removed the
"*,*,*,*)" at the top of wireless.opts.
3. Check the scheme matching and the scheme you are currently using (with cardctl
scheme).
4. Restart the Pcmcia card manager.
5. Check you system logs for error messages.
6. See next question
My config in wireless.opts is still ignored, and I have no error message in the system
log
0. If your card is not a Pcmcia card, it's normal, because wireless.opts is part of the
Pcmcia specific configuration. The workaround is to use a distribution with
integrated support for Wireless Extensions.
1. Most distributions don't use standard Pcmcia configuration but their own network
configuration scripts. In this case, they will ignore wireless.opts.
2. Most modern distributions have integrated support for Wireless Extensions. When
this is available, this is the easiest option, as you just need to add your settings the
network configuration file of the distribution. Sometime you can even do wireless
configuration in the graphical tools.
3. For distributions that don't have integrated support for Wireless Extensions, file a
bug report with the distribution and reinstall standard Pcmcia scripts, especially
/etc/pcmcia/network.
When I set my configuration in wireless.opts, it complains in the system log that it
can't find iwconfig
0. Install Wireless Tools somewhere on the system, like in /usr/local/sbin
When I set my configuration in wireless.opts, I've got weird errors in the system logs
0. Run iwconfig. See first two questions.
1. Try to set the equivalent parameters directly using iwconfig to make sure that you
get the syntax right and that the card support those.