Network connection and wireless USB adapter

F

FreeBCP

After five or more years away from FreeBSD, I am preparing to install 8.2 on a Dell Inspiron 530 desktop. I will have to use a wireless adapter (I have two, both Belkin, F5D7050 and F5D8053). It occurred to me that my past successful installation depended on my nic being picked up during the installation and providing immediate internet connectivity. Using a wireless USB adapter may make things more difficult as the DNS will not be picked up "automatically". Assuming I can get the adapter to work with FreeBSD, what steps should I take to ensure a successful network connection?

Thom
 
The 8.2 installer doesn't have wireless capability. The latest 9.0 installer does, but I haven't tried it.
 
Why does the install depend upon an internet connection precisely? And/or, plan b: temporarily remove the hard drive and install in another machine that has connectivity. (I've only originally installed from CD, reinstalled with ftp; cloned an installation from Bootit-NG image files; and in an edge case,
rsynced practically every subdirectory to a 2nd-channel disk, as far as I
can remember easily.)
 
The bootonly CD needs a connection. But almost everything with a wireless connection can also use a wired connection.

disc1, the DVD, and the USB memstick image are all fine standalone.
 
Thanks guys.

My previous installs all picked up the connection right away with DHCP. At the moment, temporarily moving the disk to another machine is not an option. I might just have to bite the bullet and try to configure it manually. Or perhaps try 9.0 instead?
 
9.0 is good. But the network connection is not needed for the full install media, and you can always install it wired and then change settings afterward.
 
I will probably install from CD. Hopefully I will not have too much difficulty getting the wireless adapter working and configuring my network connection. DHCP made that extremely easy.
 
The second is version 5000. I don't have the box for the first, so I have no idea what version it is.
 
I have determined that the Belkin F5D8053 v5000 contains a RealTek chipset, requiring (for Linux, as least) the driver rt18192su. The F5D7050 (v 4000 apparently) uses the Zydas chipset (which FreeBSD recognizes when configuring network devices)and requires the ZD1211 driver. Are the suggested BSD equivalents suggested above going to be appropriate? I seem to recall seeing - but cannot locate it now - that there was another that might work better for the F5D7050 (which does seem to require firmware, even in the latest Ubuntu and openSUSE distros). I keep running into snags, but I am not ready to give up yet.
 
Thank you, I actually figured that out about an hour ago, and ended up reinstalling after a kernel panic and interrupt storm. I tried the command line method per your instructions but had an issue with wpa_supplicant. I am going to look into the handbook on wireless networking. My other issue (which does not belong here) is configuring Xorg, for which I will also consult the Handbook. My books are a little out of date when it comes to X.

I really appreciate your help so far and hope to get back on track with FreeBSD.
 
Everything is up and running and Xorg seems to have somehow configured itself (looking back, I would not have installed GDM, but I can figure out how to remove it later).

I added

Code: 
wlans_zyd0="wlan0"
ifconfig_wlan0="WPA SYNCDHCP"

to /etc/rc.conf and unless it is something in /boot/loader.conf or /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf, I think the mod to rc.conf has caused a kernel panic and it will no longer boot.

Also, to verify, /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf should include the name of the network after ssid= and the network password after psk= Is that correct?
 
You probably need to add
Code: 
if_zyd_load="YES"
to /boot/loader.conf. Also you are correct about the ssid= and psk=, and they should be in double quotes. Ex. ssid="DontStealMyWireless".
 
silverglade00 said:
You probably need to add
Code: 
if_zyd_load="YES"
to /boot/loader.conf. Also you are correct about the ssid= and psk=, and they should be in double quotes. Ex. ssid="DontStealMyWireless".
Click to expand...

Thank you. I had added that to /boot/loader.conf. I think it is zyd that may be the issue, or else the device itself, because I forgot to switch the adapter and it booted right up. When I inserted it, everything locked up and lost key/mouse functionality. I thought to try ural(4) instead but the system locked when trying to save the file and now the kernel panics on booting.:x
 
Remove the new entries in /etc/rc.conf. With the right module loaded, ifconfig(8) will show the new network interface. Until that shows up, don't try to configure wlan0.

A problem with either should not cause a kernel panic, but I can't say it's impossible.
 
I don't know what is going on with the 8.2 install; I keep getting snags. So I will try 9.0, and hopefully have better luck with it. I don't have the choice of a wired connection at the moment, so it's get wireless working or bust. I think I was very close, but the man page for zyd seems to suggest that functionality with the driver and chipset is not that great. If I can get 9.0 to recognize the other adapter I might have better luck.
 
Alright, so I'd really like to get 8.2 up and running with wireless. For some reason it will not pick up the Belkin F5D8053, so I am left with the other. Everything seems to work fine until I add the appropriate info to rc.conf. I noticed in the logging that it could not load the firmware for zyd(4), so on a hunch I added
Code: 
if_zydfm_load="YES"
after
Code: 
if_zyd_load="YES"
The result is a panic on irq9, an interrupt storm and something about a sleeping thread. Removing the former line did not fix the issue at all and had the same result as without it.

Trying manually does not seem to work as zyd is already in the kernel. Not sure where to go from here.
 
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