Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 169496
Dell Truemobile 1150 (Prism2/Orinoco) Mini-PCI Card Cannot Scan for Networks by Default Configuration
Last modified: 2007-11-30 17:11:14 EST
Description of problem: While I appreciate Fedora's automated networking and wireless configuration scripts, there is one issue related to the scanning component of the Orinoco driver that drives me nuts. The problem essentially is that the Orinoco driver cannot scan for available wireless networks unless the network device has been 'ifconfig (device) up' prior to the scanning request. While this problem may sound trivial, it certainly makes Fedora's automated network scripts useless unless the device can be brought up before the scanning occurs. I have experimented with this problem on other Linux installs, particularly Gentoo, and I had to edit Gentoo's network handling scripts to 'ifconfig up' device prior to scanning, so I know that this is a required solution. The reason I post this bug here is that I do not know if it would be easy to patch the Orinoco driver code such that it can scan without having the device be 'ifconfig up' prior to the scan. If this is possible, it would let the user treat the wireless card practically like any other on any machine. As it stands, it is very cumbersome to use this driver. Another potential solution would relate to those who maintain the hardware configuration database: perhaps those individuals could write a configuration exception that turns on the card prior to scanning somewhere in the configuration scripts. I do not know whether this is a possibility, but Fedora is the only distribution, as far as I know, that has actually patched its kernel with newer Orinoco code, so this does not seem too unreasonable to ask. If it is at all helpful, I file for a similar bug report on the Orinoco's development page: http://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/index.php?func=detailitem&item_id=14667 Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): kernel-2.6.12-1.1456 How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. With the Orinoco device off, perform iwlist (dev) scanning 2. Turn device on; run iwlist (dev) scanning Actual results: Note how in #1 that nothing is returned. Note how in #2 something is returned. Expected results: Both cases should return something. This is fundamentally important if Fedora is to handle Orinoco-based cards properly. Additional info:
Mass update to all FC4 bugs: An update has been released (2.6.13-1.1526_FC4) which rebases to a new upstream kernel (2.6.13.2). As there were ~3500 changes upstream between this and the previous kernel, it's possible your bug has been fixed already. Please retest with this update, and update this bug if necessary. Thanks.
2.6.14-1.1637_FC4 has been released as an update for FC4. Please retest with this update, as a large amount of code has been changed in this release, which may have fixed your problem. Thank you.
Closed due to lack of response. Please reopen when the requested information becomes available...thanks!