pencentra 200 and orinoco gold MIPS

Not from captainvideo's and Ceya's experiences - they've gotten the Agere driver working one way or another (captainvideo the more complicated way).

someone asked about unpacking software.

I was working off a pc without active sync, So I ran the installer and went to my temp directory and copied everything to somewhere safe. The installer will throw an error b/c no active sync, but the files are sitting in the temp dir until you close the installer. (most you you guys know this but maybe someone new is reading here)

Out of the installer file, the largest cab was Data1.cab (about a meg). You need an unpacker that can handle this type, so I used WINPACK

That can get you to the actual cab files for the different machines. There were some called wireless.R3000.cab and wireless.R4100.cab

To open these you need another program. I think you can get them kinda open with regular winrar but the names are screwed up. Proper unpackers are made by ocp software They have 30day demos available. I used the cabwuz program mostly because the win ce cab manager (a full featured program) required a new windows script host or some such from microsoft. I didnt want to deal with that right now, so I installed cabwuz.

I am attaching the extracted dll's for the 3000 cab from latest driver. these should work on pencentra.

Edited by captainvideo 2007-06-03 5:13 PM




Attachments
----------------
pencentra.part01.rar (92KB - 26 downloads)
pencentra.part02.rar (92KB - 23 downloads)
pencentra.part03.rar (92KB - 22 downloads)
pencentra.part04.rar (11KB - 21 downloads)

THE ABOVE DID NOT WORK ON THE HPC PRO.

s/f,
ceya!

could you be a little more generous with your words?

I just tried it myself on my 3rd doorstop. Seems ok.

Did you get it to download allright? (I did)
Did you get it to unzip (rar) allright? (i did)
Did you copy all the files to the windows directory of the pencentra 200 hpcpro?
Did you use WLAGS46.DLL as the driver when requested?

I think you are aware of this (as well as the questions above, but just for the others, did you remove any prior assignment of driver to the card from the registry HKLM\drivers\PCMCIA\Lucent Technologies-WaveLAN/IEEE-C908 (this will be specific to your card, or there will be many lucent/agere entries from a prior agere install.) For me, when I want to assign a new driver, I delete the relevant keys. At that point, when you insert the card, it asks for the filename. WLAGS46.DLL

If you did get that far, are you saying that the driver did not allow you to make a connection? If not, then what happened?

Please dont take any of this as talking down to you or anyone else here, I am just trying to be clear for the many people who have no other place to read information on troubleshooting the pencentra. This forum seems to be the only place that is addresing the subject.

Like I said, I just re-downloaded the 4 files from this site and installed them on a machine that I had not installed on before, and they at least got the card up and running, I didn't type in my wireless info to confirm a connection, but I suspect it will work, as my prior issues were all with getting the driver to start.

If anyone else has had success with this, lets hear from ya.

note, (also in the download) there is another dll WLAGS46b which appears to be for some other agere cards besides the gold classic. and just to murky the water a little more, I had adjusted the firmware on my card a while ago, I had downgraded it according to some instructions to allow better promiscumous modes. I did this a few years ago, and I dont have any info on this. I can just say that I am not runnig the latest firmware on the card. ...but this shouldn't matter to the isues in this thread, as the whole point was just getting the driver installed and running on the pencentra, which the standard distribution would not allow.

yeah, there should be about 4 driver dlls or so, but most cards will just use wlags46 or wlags46b

I've downloaded the DLL packages posted above and will try them later when I have some time. I'll let you know the result.

when I loaded the DLL from the drivers , they didn't show up in windows. I did the copy method, syncing and nothing. I will do a hard reset on it and try again. WMAGS46 showed up.

S/F<
CEYA!

I copied all the files to \Windows successfully. Then I had to remove the Lucent WaveLAN driver (which wasn't connecting the PenCentra anyway) because my ORiNOCO card automatically loads that driver when inserted. Inserted card, it asked for driver name, typed in WLAGS46, and card lit up. It tried to connect to Web addresses I typed in, but progress bar stopped moving and it eventually gave up and said "connection with server could not be established." So near, yet so far.

From that last description by cegeek it sounds like you might not have opened up the control applet and adjusted the profile at all.

If I remember right, when you first get the driver to work, it pops up the dialog that asks if you want to assign a static ip or dynamic. (default dynamic). It doesnt automatically open the control applet for the card, but it does give you the vertical bar graph tray icon. (the icon changes slightly with connection strength). If you doubleclick the icon, the control program should open (this was the WMAGS46.EXE file that was one of the files in the archive)

If you get the control applet running, off the first menu there is an option to select a profile (there is only one to begin named default). You can edit it or create a new one and at the end of editing it, the new options are selected.

I am not really sure if you got that far or not.

If you didnt get the icon (it should appear each time you insert the card) you can usually find a shortcut in the control panel (called wireless network),which also opens the applet. If the driver is running, this shortcut will open the settings the same as clicking on the tray icon. If the tray icon is not running you may need to click this shortcut to get it running. If the card is not inserted, this icon will let you edit wireless profiles (ssid/wep).

So basically I am not certain if you achieved a wireless link without a 'network' connection, or if you did not get the wireless link to connect.

I didnt include any of the html help files from the driver set in earlier post. I probably could have as they shrink up to about 50k. I am going to attach them here. There may be some basic info on using the driver that could help.




Attachments
----------------
helporinoco.rar (53KB - 3 downloads)

I got all that:

1) bar icon in system tray (says excellent connection) - client window opens and says connected);
2) IP configuration window appeared as soon as I entered the DLL name;
3) Wireless Network control panel applet is there - edited the profile to connect to my network

It's set up just like it is on my other H/PCs where it was installed normally using CAB files. As I said above, it doesn't say "connection with the server could not be established" immediately - first you see the globe rotate on the upper right and the progress bar on the lower right, the latter moving part of the way slowly, then stopping - and only then the above error message.

I should note, though, that I had to delete the WaveLAN driver files manually even after "removing" the WaveLAN driver with "Remove Programs" in the Control Panel. I deleted every file with "WLLUC" in its name, except for HTML and BMP files. Maybe there's another one I missed with a different name?

Edited by CE Geek 2007-06-06 2:44 PM

It is sounding like the driver is working. I am assuming you are connecting to your own AP/router or at least one that you know the setup for.

I usually have my best luck getting a working network connection with a dynamic ip and not a static one. I cant tell from what you said if you left it on dynamic or not. Actually I am reading it quick but i am not sure that you are using an AP or if you are doing adhoc.

Anyway, what i wanted to say, and i have not seen mentioned before. I often can get a much faster recognition and connection, if the pcmcia card is first used in a normal windows based laptop, and is assigned an ip by (the router) dhcp. For some reason, I have had issues where it seems like either the router, or the dhcp server (if that is the proper term) does not like the way the handheld identifies itself. If I use the card on my laptop, I can see the laptop name listed in the lease area on the router, and usually, when I switch the card to the handheld, the name does not change. The handheld is able to renew the ip and get an ip assigned to it (the same one the laptop just had), but the router still lists the laptop name.

I can still connect without doing that, but sometimes it doesnt work right away, or I wind up reinserting the card repeatedly.

Aside from that, the real question is whether you got an IP assigned or not. I am guessing that you have the network tools from the plus! pack or from the power toys (whichever), or you have something from vxutil. Some way to read the handheld IP and release/renew it. I have had the problem of not getting an assigned IP from both the wireless/security side and from the networking protocols side. It could be either one. I dont think it is some file you forgot to delete Although there may be some old registry entry that tells it to default to some unusual IP address if it does not get one right away from your DHCP. I think I remember some entries from one of these drivers that I did not like. My last installs were on machines without prior drivers so the fact that copying the files directly to windows does not write new registry entries, means that nothing got overwritten. If there were some old entries refering to default ip's, they may be causing a problem. I would look at deleting those keys before looking for files to delete.

I would try the trick with using a laptop first (if you have one), or at least another machine. And make sure you have a networking utility to check your ip and renew the ip.

You could of course try static ip as well, but I never have luck with that. There is probably a lot of other info on stuff to try on sites that deal with general 802.11.

Were you able to get the site survey to work in the control applet?

One more thing, the excellent connection is to the proper network right? I was having a lot of trouble with neighbors networks that are open. It would grab onto them before mine even though I had a very specific profile setup.

One more one more thing. If you created a new profile instead of editing the 'default' profile, (and leaving the name default alone ...profile name not the ssid).....If you did create a new profile, the driver doesnt always go back to it without you reselecting it. You have to select it almost as if you were going to open it up and edit it, and then just close the window with the ok button. The easiest thing is to just edit the default profile.

I dont know why I am curious, but let me and the rest of the world know if you make any more progress.

dont worry, all that matters in selecting the driver is the registry entry under HKLM/drivers/pcmcia.

with prism drivers (and probably the orinoco too) most of the config settings are under HKLM/comms

but there are some more reg entries elsewhere that are more subtle yet can have an effect.

what is the IP you are getting?

is this the hpc2000 driver (iiirc you have hpc2000)

if nothing helps i would try a hard reset? believe me with wlan it can help lots if you're not really well versed with all the registry entries and wlan dll files

edit: hehe some of these things have been mentioned in the post above, i just didnt see the post, sorry.
oh and i do agree, dhcp will usually work better than static ip

Edited by cmonex 2007-06-06 4:20 PM

I'm using the ORiNOCO in my XP notebook PC as well, so yes, it has been recognized there first. I always try DHCP first, and that's the setting I have for the card on the PenCentra. And yes, it's in Infrastructure mode, not Ad-hoc. (I've never had a need to use Ad-hoc mode thus far with any of my devices.)

I hadn't thought to check the registry, though. There may be entries there left over from the WaveLAN driver. Can't hurt to take a look.

Edited by CE Geek 2007-06-06 6:39 PM

ChuckB64@Cebridge.net Help! I just picked up a Pencentra 200 running Windows CE handheld PC Professional Edition version 3.01. This has a core system of WinCE2.11. I also just got a Lucent/WaveLAN IEEE 802.11 Turbo 11Mb SILVER wireless card and I can not get any drivers I've found to load or the utility program. I'm very new to WinCE and read over some of the previous thread, much is over my head. I do have a to 2Gig PCMCIA HDD to transfer files to the Pencentra. Any help would be appreciated! All attempts to load previous drivers & setup programs result in an error message stating that the proge=ram/file is not a vaild WinCE program. Thanks! Chuck

In an earlier post dated 6/3 there is a 4 part .rar attachment. The files in this attachment should be put into the windows directory of the CE device.

I am assuming the silver driver is the same as the gold.

Most of the discussion in this thread involves a problem with the installer for this driver. The cab files are created with information to make them device specific, and sometimes the information is too specific and the cab files will not install, so I extracted the necessary files and posted them as an attachment to the 6/3 post.

It is a lot to try to explain all the details of driver installation if you have no experiece with CE devices. There is a lot of info in this thread if you can get through it. You should get a utility to allow you to open/edit the registry, as you may need to edit or delete a key. Otherwise you may need to reset your device when it is not necessary.

You need to know the specific name of the driver before you insert the card for the first time (WLAGS46.DLL ). When you inset the card, it should ask for this driver name. If the wrong name was used on a prior attempt, the system will continue to try to use that name and will not ask for a new name. (this is when you delete the relevant key, or reset the device).

The type of error you are listing looks as if you are trying to run the windows9x 32bit installer program from the WinCe device. It is too much for me to get into here, but WinCe devices are generally designed to be linked to a PC for program installation (activesync). The installers are usually written to be run from the PC. The installer often contains several cab files for several different devices. It is supposed to recognize your device and copy the correct cab file to the device. A seperate install routine runs on the device to unpack the cab. This was supposed to make things easier, but for many of us, this is the source of our issues. When not using a pc (activesync) you need the correct specific Cab file for your device, which you could run from your pcmcia drive.

I am not really following this thread anymore, but others here may be able to help (if you still need it).

btw. I got really bored with the pencentra. I have 3 of them and the batteries on all of them will die when not used for a few weeks. For the size/weight/price, I found that the fujitsu tablets (3400) offer a good alternative to the pencentra. Others would disagree, but that is a discussion for another forum.