Problem with USB stick and Wi-Fi connection with F12 beta

[ghoul]

Hi all!

I've just installed F12 beta on my netbook (MSI U100).
Installation schema:
/boot (250Mb) on /sda5 (yes, on extended partition, but this probably is not important);
/ (5Gb) on encrypted logical volume;
(no swap)

The first problem was terrible display flickering. I fixed that with nomodeset kernel parameter as advised at common bugs (https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F12_bugs#intel-misc-gfx).

Now I face 2 problems which have a synergic negative impact on my user experience :)
1) It looks like F12 doesn't recognize my Wi-Fi card - NetworkManager applet shows only wired network. This prevents me from updating through network.
2) It looks like F12 doesn't notice I'm inserting my USB stick (any of them) - it is not shown on desktop, it is not present in Nautilus, no activity in tail -f /var/log/messages and event stable 0% CPU load in SystemMonitor.

I can't use wired network, and without both Wi-Fi and USB it's quite hard even to update packages to newer version :)

Any ideas?

P. S. My USB stick is fine, and my Wi-Fi card are fine - they all works well when I boot another Linux on this netbook.

[stoat]

Hello ghoul,

I don't know about the USB sticks, but the wireless thing perfectly describes a driver issue. Recently, two other people with MSI Wind notebooks had wireless cards using the Realtek RTL8187SE chipset. True, it is known to "just work" in other distros (e.g., Mandriva, for example). But the driver has not yet shipped with Fedora kernels, and it must still be so with Fedora 12. It can be made to work with ndiswrapper and the XP driver for the card. You probably can answer the chipset question with this...lspci -nn | grep -i network

[tho.mei]

Hallo ghoul

fist of all: F12 is still a Beta. May there are still some problem left. Pleas add your problems to https://bugzilla.redhat.com/

The first problem:
Can you post the result of the command lspci This show the type of your WLAN-card.

The second problem:
Tray to mount the stick manual.

become root: su -
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt (or may be /dev/sdc1 or /dev/sdc2 ....)

If it works, only the automount does not work. If not, the problem is more serious.

[ghoul]

Hello tho.mei and stoat,

thanks for your answers :)


Hallo ghoul

fist of all: F12 is still a Beta. May there are still some problem left. Pleas add your problems to https://bugzilla.redhat.com/

I know F12 is a beta :) I just don't hurry to post new bugs because often the problem with the new release resides in changed configuration (and can be easily fixed).


The first problem:
Can you post the result of the command lspci This show the type of your WLAN-card.


stoat was right, I have an unlucky Realtek RTL8187SE chipset:
02:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8187SE Wireless LAN Controller (rev 22)

I've found appropriate Fedora bug #459439 (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=459439). There is a workaround proposed.

I've also found a howto (http://marilyn.frields.org:8080/~paul/wordpress/?p=2814) which seems to be suitable also.

The chipset works not only in mandriva, but also in ubuntu. So, it should be possible to build something suitable from their sources.

I know about ndiswrapper. But it seems to me it is not a perfect solution.

I would try if any of above works for me and share my result here :)



The second problem:
Tray to mount the stick manual.

become root: su -
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt (or may be /dev/sdc1 or /dev/sdc2 ....)

If it works, only the automount does not work. If not, the problem is more serious.

It looks like the problem is not so easy.
a) mount fails (it also fails with -t vfat)
b) ls /dev/sd* does not show my stick after it is inserted.

I suspect it may be related with the installation method I used: I've installed F12 from Mandriva's Grob and used F12 iso image on stick.

This problem looks worth to be reported. So, I'll file it to https://bugzilla.redhat.com/

[tho.mei]

Hallo ghoul

Does lsusb show your stick?

[AdamW]

We know how to provide a driver for that device, we just choose not to. Fedora by policy ships only kernel drivers that are part of the upstream kernel or have been approved to merge into it, which doesn't cover the driver for that chip. We do this to encourage Fedora developers and others to contribute to building high-quality drivers, rather than bodging round problems with low-quality drivers. If a driver isn't merged into the upstream kernel, it means there's something wrong with it, basically. :)

On the USB issue - can you run this as root:

grep -i -5 BIOS /var/log/messages

and see if it returns anything?

[stoat]

I know about ndiswrapper. But it seems to me it is not a perfect solution.Maybe so. But it's not so bad either. Especially when the alternatives are limited or non-existent. And setting it up shouldn't be any worse than that rtl8187 hack or building a module. I don't have to use ndiswrapper myself any more, but I'm glad it's around.

P.S.: In the comments for your above linked howto at The Grand Fallacy, Thorsten Leemhuis said he has an rpm package with the driver prepared for review by RPM Fusion.

[ghoul]

Hi tho.mei and AdamW,

Thank you for your help!

Hallo ghoul

Does lsusb show your stick?

No, it does not. Here is its output before inserting the stick:
[root@u100-dytynky ~]# lsusb
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0c45:62c0 Microdia Sonix USB 2.0 Camera
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
and here it is in a minute after inserting the stick:
[root@u100-dytynky ~]# lsusb
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0c45:62c0 Microdia Sonix USB 2.0 Camera
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
They are identical, so I think lsusb does not show my stick.

I'm attaching result of grep -i -5 BIOS /var/log/messages - it is too long to post it here :)
Still, I don't see any stick-related activity there. The only USB device I see is a webcam (build in).

Now I have a strong feeling this problem should be reported :)

[ghoul]

Hi stoat,

Maybe so. But it's not so bad either. Especially when the alternatives are limited or non-existent. And setting it up shouldn't be any worse than that rtl8187 hack or building a module. I don't have to use ndiswrapper myself any more, but I'm glad it's around.

P.S.: In the comments for your above linked howto at The Grand Fallacy, Thorsten Leemhuis said he has an rpm package with the driver prepared for review by RPM Fusion.

I can't find that rpm on RPM fusion :(
But people in a mailing group (http://groups.google.com/group/goslinux/browse_thread/thread/8d4e74960c7ef681) claim that ndiswrapper provides better experience than Linux drivers they tried. So, I would probably try it out :)

[stoat]

I can't find that rpm on RPM fusionCheck again every now and then if you still need it. I doubt its arrival there will be met with much fanfare here.


So, I would probably try it outYeah, if nothing else comes along for you. It's usually the last resort. But it does work. If you do decide to try it, don't let threads about it around here discourage you. They typically involve a lot of thrashing around for a page or two. Often the biggest obstacle is acquiring a suitable Windows driver. Usually, the driver that makes the card work in Windows XP is what is needed (the SYS and INF files). But W2K and even W98 drivers will usually work, too. It's known not to work well with Vista drivers. Anyway, after all the thrashing and flailing around, the relevant steps boil down to only four steps. And those include two steps to install it from RPM Fusion. It can also be compiled from source in a matter of minutes followed by two steps to install and configure the Windows driver. The source version has to be recompiled for every new kernel (two minutes again), but the driver steps do not have to be repeated. Just FYI. Just in case.

[ghoul]

I have fixed the problem with USB stick by reinstalling F12 using external HDD for storing installation ISO image.

[ghoul]

Finally I've installed Ndiswrapper for my Wi-Fi chip. I've used this (http://fedoramobile.org/fc-wireless/ndis-yum-livna) howto. Installation was flawless and not my Wi-Fi card works fine :)