Setting up sheevaplug with wlan

[ljones]

Hello all

I've finally (actually only yesterday) gotten my sheevaplug. To start off with I'd like to just to try something simple -- my idea is to use it as a basic FTP server. Snag is though that my  network isn't wired, I usually use a wireless network. I've not really done much to the sheevaplug except to just try to login (which worked ok). I did see the instructions here - http://www.openplug.org/plugwiki/index.php/New_Plugger_How_To - but some of those instructions apply to a wired network as opposed to a wireless one. How do I set up the wireless side?

Thanks

ljones

[AutoStatic]

Hello ljones, where do you plan to plug in the SheevaPlug? If it's next to your wireless router why not just plug in a patch cable instead of putting energy in trying to hook the plug up to your wireless network?

[birdman]

Since I did this yesterday...

1. Get a USB Wifi dongle  (something with a rtl8187 chipset would be good).
2. apt-get install wireless-tools
3. edit /etc/network/interfaces and add something like:

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet static
  address 192.168.1.51
  netmask 255.255.255.0
  broadcast 192.168.1.255
  gateway 192.168.1.1
  wireless-essid <your-network-SSID.
  wireless-key restricted 1 <your-WEP-key>
  wireless-defaultkey 1
#  wireless-mode Managed
  wireless-channel auto


If you are using WPA rather than WEP you'll have to do something different - perhaps someone else has done that?

[ljones]

I might be in luck there as I have an old Netgear WG111v2 here which is RTL8187 based....I think! Though how do I apt-get if the sheeva isn't online yet? Can I just download it from somewhere online (not sure where) and copy it across via (say) a USB memory stick? Sorry I have no idea how ubuntu (is that what the sheeva uses?) manages its packages; normally my default linux is slackware where I can just use  e.g. installpkg as root.

Unfortunatly I don't have enough physical space free to put the sheevaplug next to the wireless router, let alone an external hard drive! Ack, the curse of small rooms, power supplies and computer cables(!). I have more space in a different room but then there's no phone line in that room for the router. Always the way 

ljones

[hypn0toad]

while this may sound like a silly question.. why bother making it wifi?   i use wifi for all of my needs too, and the router is in my living room in a small cabinet... but yea the plugcomp fits fine back there and takes up practically no space.  its not like you need physical proximity to the device, and wired lan will be faster than wireless...

that said, you can always follow these other instructions to make it work with wifi

[ljones]

Since I did this yesterday...

1. Get a USB Wifi dongle  (something with a rtl8187 chipset would be good).
2. apt-get install wireless-tools
3. edit /etc/network/interfaces and add something like:

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet static
  address 192.168.1.51
  netmask 255.255.255.0
  broadcast 192.168.1.255
  gateway 192.168.1.1
  wireless-essid <your-network-SSID.
  wireless-key restricted 1 <your-WEP-key>
  wireless-defaultkey 1
#  wireless-mode Managed
  wireless-channel auto


If you are using WPA rather than WEP you'll have to do something different - perhaps someone else has done that?

:-( Unfortunatly it dosen't appear to be working.

The sheevaplug dosen't even see my Netgear WG111V2 (I'm 100% sure it is a RTL8187 device, I can also confirm it is working). The blue light dosen't even come on!

Also *lots* of problems at startup --

Code:

* Setting kernel variables (/etc/sysctl.d/10-process-security.conf)...        error: "vm.mmap_min_addr" is an unknown key
* Activiating swap
FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.22.18/modules.dep: No such file or directory
FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.22.18/modules.dep: No such file or directory
* Starting early crpyto disks
FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.22.18/modules.dep: No such file or directory
FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.22.18/modules.dep: No such file or directory

/lib/modules is *empty* on my system. Have I been shipped a faulty/corrupt sheevaplug?



ljones

[AutoStatic]

Did you try upgrading the SheevaPlug? Isn't 2.6.22.18 the standard kernel?

[ljones]

Did you try upgrading the SheevaPlug? Isn't 2.6.22.18 the standard kernel?

Nope not upgraded it. Should I try the alpha-6 software first?

ljones/SP

[AutoStatic]

Just try updating the current Ubuntu installation first (http://plugcomputer.org/plugwiki/index.php/New_Plugger_How_To).

[ljones]

Unfortunatly it didn't seem to work. I could connect and update using apt-get, and I didn't have any problems re-logging in. However, /lib/modules still remains empty x.x . Kernel version is 2.6.22.18 .

ljones

[birdman]

OK - you'll need the alpha6 install and the 2.6.30.5 kernel to get an rtl8187 driver.
The alpha6 update is simple to do, provide you have a small USB stick and an Intel Linux PC handy.
The Netgear should be OK.  Certainly the WG111GE I have (my son has....)  is an RTL8187, but I've just noticed that it says WG111v3 on the box.  From a quick web search it seem v2 was Realtek too, though.

[ljones]

Good news! After reading the wiki (the 2.6.30.5 kernel definately needs installing too!) on installing alpha6 & the kernel (everything worked something seems to be working. I set the IP address for the stick as 192.168.0.50, and I can successfully ping that address from another system. Pinging google.com also works on the sheeva, so far so good all seems to be working! Now .... how to setup a simple FTP server.....?

Notes (or things I found out on the way while doing all of this.....)

1 As I had a newer sheevaplug I had to change the pid's as laid out here ( http://www.plugcomputer.org/plugwiki/index.php/SheevaPlug_Installer ) . The page didn't seem to specify which file to change exactly, though I managed to find which one. I found it in ~/sheeva/sheevaplug-installer-alpha-6/scripts-linux/openocd/config/interface/sheevaplug.cfg . (Decompressed on my main linux system, not the sheeva!).

2. Installing a new kernel ( http://www.plugcomputer.org/plugwiki/index.php/Install_Prebuilt_Kernels_From_sheeva.with-linux.com ) I installed a new kernel following those instructions but used 2.6.30.5, rather than 2.6.30.3. I followed all the instructions including the setenv's and everything after. The printenv bootargs didn't work, but everything else did.

3. I used the command cu -s 115200 -l /dev/ttyUSB1 to connect the sheevaplug from the command line, works with no problems.

4. After all this I could add in the auto/iface commands above .

ljones

[AutoStatic]

Great! Can't help you though setting up FTP, personally I think it's a bit deprecated and unsafe so I prefer SSH.

[ljones]

If ftp won't work I wonder if the sheeva can be setup to serve webpages? (Was hoping to do it via ftp, as (usually) its pretty easy.

ljones

[birdman]

I've got the cherokee web server running on mine (which is what I was running on my Asus wl500g, and was available so it made it rather simple to move everything over).