(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Hello Everyone,
For many years I've had requests for WPA2 Wifi support in Legacy OS 2 series and sadly had to reply that it's not supported.
Many times I've asked for help on this subject on this forum and received very little support or no support. I guess no one really wanted to spend time fiddling with the 2 series when series 5 and beyond is more exciting.

Well I've fiddle with series 5 for 6 months working on a possible Legacy OS based on the 5 series and not got the results I'm looking for. That's to say there's anything wrong with series 5. For Legacy OS I don't think it's where Legacy OS should head in to the future. So many Puppy derivatives are now built on series 5 that I feel there's no need to make another one.

So this leads back to this post. I've worked on the problem of no WPA2 support in Legacy OS 2 on and off for over a year and finally it looks like we have a winner! What's more amazing is I've known what packages I've needed but when installed just wouldn't work in Legacy. Yesterday I found the right compiled versions and now we have Encrypted Wifi support in Legacy OS 2. I've attached the required package which needs to be unzipped to / as per normal like any other Legacy OS package. If you unzip anywhere else then don't complain it doesn't work! Again when you click on the tar.gz file and it opens and asked where you want to unzip to choose / don't choose /tmp or any where else as it will fail.

Now if you're trying to use Legacy OS 2.1 on a Duo Core post 2007 Laptop, Wifi is most likely not going to suddenly work for you because of the attached package. The required Wifi Drivers for you later model Laptop won't work with Legacy OS 2.1's Kernel 2.6.18.1 Also you most likely noticed your sound isn't working either and you can't get the correct monitor setting with no option for say 900 x 1440. Install Puppy 5.7 or Ubuntu Mate 14.04 LTS instead as these will run fine on your later Hardware. You really have no need to get Legacy OS 2.1 running on your computer.

If you have say a 2004 Laptop with an external Wifi Card you plugin the side like I do there's more chance of success. If in the past you Wifi connection has been detected but you couldn't connect due to password errors then this package is for you!

OK once installed do the following:

In the menu select Setup > Wizard > Configure a Broadband / Network Connection. If you're lucky you'll see eth0 and ath0 which means there's a Wifi driver for your wifi card. If you only see eth0 then you will need to configure the wifi driver for your card manually by clicking "Load Driver".
A list will open and hopefully you'll find the correct driver for your wifi card.
You'll need to load the driver and test it. If you find the right make of driver but not the correct model number give it a try anyway as it may work as was the case with my wifi card. Once the correct driver has been loaded and the test was successful you need to press "Save" so the driver will be used each time you start Legacy OS.

OK in the menu select Dial-Up & Network > Networks > Legacy Wireless Configuration (Wlassistant) If all is ok you should see your internet provider connection which you now need to configure. Once configured you should now be able to connect to the internet through Wifi using the WPA2 protocol.

Remember just trying to connect with Wlassistant first will most likely result in a failed Wifi connection without running the "Configure a Broadband / Network Connection" Wizard first.

YOU REALLY NEED TO LET ME KNOW IF THIS WORKS ON YOUR HARDWARE. IF IT DOES PLEASE SUPPLY THE MAKE AND MODEL OF THE WIFI CARD YOUR USING SO A "SUPPORT HARDWARE LIST" CAN BE CREATED. PLEASE TEST IF YOU CAN.

Download the Package Wifi-WPA2.tar.gz Here!

http://sourceforge.net/projects/legacyo ... 0Packages/

Hello John try this .pet
http://sourceforge.net/projects/bonsaio ... t/download

As far as I know this Puppy 2 Network update updates the network wizard and gives wpa2 anyway try it out.

Hello darry1966,
The problem has always been with the kernel, xsupplicant, libcrypto and libssl not wanting to play nice together. The GUI wizard has nothing to do with it. It only sends commands to xsupplicant and if xsupplicant doesn't want to play ball forget it.
The Puppy Network Wizard loads the driver, Wlassistant makes configuring the password for WPA2 and connection an easy experience.

I will investigate the pet you've supplied so thank you for the link.

Not a problem John.

I am interested in testing the WPA2 but I may need some help.
I have not used Legacy OS before.

I have downloaded Legacy OS 2.1 now. Can I burn it to a CD and try it as a Live CD?

Hello greyowl,
You'll need to burn Legacy OS 2.1 LTS to a CD and then you'll be able to boot the CD and try Legacy OS running the live CD. Just remember you need an old Pentium 3 or 4 Laptop or Desktop. I'm assuming you'll be trying WPA2 on a Laptop. Good Luck and thanks for taking the time to test this. John

I am using the Live CD.
I installed both the Wifi-WPA2.tar.gz and network-wizard-oct07.pet

My wireless driver was installed so that I had both eth0 which is my ethernet cable and eth1 which is my wireless controller.

When I tried to configure the wireless connection, it says I first must set the wireless network parameters. When I click the wireless button, it shows that WPA2 is available. I am stuck here. I don't know what to put for the Profile Name, ESSID, or Shared Key; or the other options on the dialog box.

I need some help with this.

Hello greyowl,
Eth0 or Eth1 are generally for wired connections. You need to be seeing the Ath0 option as this indicates Legacy OS has loaded hopefully the correct Wifi Driver and is ready to attempt connection to a Wifi network.

Go back up to the start of this post and read it through. If you succeed in loading the correct wireless driver use Wlassistant to connect. It will help you configure your password etc as easy as it is in Ubuntu. Wlassistant will be your Wifi friend from now on once you've successful installing a Wifi Driver first!

Good luck and let me know how you go!

Here is what I got after adding the additional apps.
See attachment

Disregard the previous image because part of it did not come through clearly.
Here is another image of the window. See attachment
I don't know what to do from here to get the wireless to work.

Hello greyowl,
When you click on eth1 a dialog box with open and you'll see the following options.
Wireless | Test eth1 | Auto DHCP | Static IP
First you need to click "Test eth1" to see if you have a live network.
If that proves successful you need to click "Auto DHCP" which will scan for a wireless connection. If this proves successful click yes to save settings for next boot. Now it's time to start Wlassistant which you'll find in the menu under Applications > Dial-Up & Network > Networks > Legacy Wireless Configuration (Wlassistant) From here you should WiFi n connections that are available to connect to. Click on the one you want to use and it will ask for you password etc.
Let me know how you go.

When I test eth1, it comes back as unsuccessful.

Hello greyowl,
First question is how old your computer is? Was it built after 2006? It appears to want to use a broadcom driver. What I first did was find out as much information about my laptop and the wifi model it used. once I did this, I went through the driver list and tested drivers that were the same make but not the exact model and found one that worked.

In the "my-documents" is a folder called "help-info". Inside you'll find extra wifi drivers. Click on the included Puppy Forum Posts and have a read of them.

If you haven't installed a Puppy Pet package before all you need to do is click on it and follow the instructions to install it. If it won't open make sure you're using the ROX file manager and it will open.

Because the Legacy OS 2 series uses Kernel 2.6.18.1 and to use wifi drivers with it they need to be compiled against it to work, trying to compile later wifi drivers designed for later Kernel versions just won't work.

Part of the magic that makes the Legacy OS 2 series run at exceptable speeds on old computers that run too slow using for example Ubuntu 14.04 is because of this Kernel and its associated system files.

Sadly some tester will connect to encrypted Wifi for the first using Legacy OS 2.1 and some won't due to incompatible hardware.

Don't give up with out experimenting further as you computer just might be one of them.

Another trick to try is a later Puppy version say 5.7 and see if that connects on your computer. While you're there try and find out what wifi driver it's using and see if Legacy OS 2.1 includes it.

Again if you're trying to get a 2007 duo core or later laptop to connect with Legacy OS 2.1, I can almost guarantee it's not going to connect.

Good Luck! John

Thank you for the added information.

In answer to your questions, see below:

My laptop is a Dell Latitude D600 which was produced in 2003.

The wireless needs a Broadcom B43Legacy driver (BCM4306 rev2)

Precise Puppy 5.7.1 sets up the wireless OOTB with the above driver.

Slacko Puppy 5.7 and Tahrpup 6.0 will not set up the wireless.

Hello greyowl,
Have you tried loading this included driver? See Image.

Thanks for the information.

Yes, I tried it as indicated in the attachment above.
The Broadcom BCM43 won't work. In fact some distros state that this one has to be blocked in order to use the B43 legacy driver.

It has to be the Broadcom BCM43legacy, usually stated as Broadcom b43legacy. This is the one that works OOTB with Precise Puppy 5.7.1.'t

I don't know where to get the correct driver or how to install it. If it was included with Precise Puppy, could it be included with Legacy OS?

Hello greyowl,
It appears there was a Driver for your wifi card created and was posted 5 years ago on this forum. I've sent a private message to its creator and are waiting for a rely. Hopefully it can be tracked down and we can get you online. Once you confirm it works I'll make it available for others to use.

Thank you for the help.
I will await info on the driver.

Hello greyowl,

Here's the package. If you find Opera changes the file type from pet to gz please rename it back! Click it to install but before you do, do the following.

From the Creator of the Broadcom Driver you need.

Here is the proprietary "wl" Broadcom wifi driver.
Be aware that this driver is likely to compete with the standard "bcm43xx" driver already in Puppy 2.14-2.16.
You will need to blacklist, or fully disable the bcm43xx driver before the proprietary driver will work.
To fully disable the old driver, use ROX to go to /lib/modules/2.6.18.1/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/bcm43xx/
and shift the "bcm43xx.ko" file to somewhere like /root
Now run this command -

Code:
depmod

Now reboot, and when you run the Network Wizard you should see that the new wl driver has automatically loaded.

http://www.smokey01.com/tempestuous/bro ... 6.18.1.pet

Here's hoping you're finally on line!

Thank you so much for this new information and instructions.
I just have a few questions before I proceed:

Since I have to rebook for the changes to take effect, can I do this if I am using the Live CD of LegacyOS? Do I have to set up a save file on my HD? If so, how do I do this? Can I choose the location so that I can remove it later?
Or, do I have to install LegacyOS on the computer before getting this to work?

I am not clear on when I install the .pet package (new driver) in the sequence of the instructions. Is it after I move bcm43xx.ko, run command depmod, and reboot?