Testing WIFI and GPS hardware

[arne anka]

> and ifconfig eth0 gives values for received and transmitted data:

dunno where those come from.

> eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1F:3F:BE:45:2B
>            inet6 addr: f58b::263:ceff:fd87:ed25/64 Scope:Link
>            UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
>            RX packets:429957 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
>            TX packets:12080 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
>            collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
>            RX bytes:607951527 (579.7 MiB)  TX bytes:128021 (125.0 KiB)
>
> but if I start pinging an external IP address from the Freerunner and  
> pull
> the USB cable, pings stop returning until I plug the cable back in and
> restart networking on the host.

no wonder -- your wlan does not have an ip (the ipv6 one is useless).
you need at least to run
udhcpc -i eth0
to obtain one.

> I see the same group of lines repeating:
>
> $GPRMC,,V,,,,,,,,,,N*53
> $GPVTG,,,,,,,,,N*30
> $GPGGA,,,,,,0,00,99.99,,,,,,*48
> $GPGSA,A,1,,,,,,,,,,,,,99.99,99.99,99.99*30
> $GPGSV,1,1,00*79
> $GPGLL,,,,,,V,N*64
> $GPZDA,,,,,00,00*48
>
> but I'm not sure how to interpret them. Thanks for your help!

well, if you're in a spot with gps reception, after a while (about a  
minute, maybe even longer) between all these ,,, there should be numbers.
i am not that familiar w/ gps, but i think as long as frinst N*?? changes  
it means that your gps receives signals which means that the hw should be  
ok.