yet another ipw2200 inquiry...

[crito]

I am on a Dell Inspiron 9300 with an Intel Pro-Wireless 2200bg and Debian kernel 2.6.18-4-686.

I am assuming that the ipw2200 driver is already installed...

9300:/home/michael# modinfo ipw2200|grep version
version: 1.1.2kmq
srcversion: 741238A39A8C7372DBF7F77

So now I need to download the firmware from sourceforge. I assume that the firmware that matches my driver to be

driver versions v1.1.1 and newer firmware v3.0

So this gets moved and untarred in /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware. Am I just moving the firmware or does it still need to be installed?

Now I (apparently) need the 80211 subsystem. I'm not sure which version I need, The site states that...

"stable versions can be identified by the last digit of the version number being a 0 (zero). All other releases are development snapshots".

None end in 0, and none match the version # of my driver or firmware. So is the latest version 1.2.18 what I should go with?

Now I install the subsystem. And find this

ieee80211-1.2.18# cat INSTALL

The installation requires the compiled kernel sources or headers
against the matching kernel. These are typically found in:

/lib/modules/\`uname -r\`/build

If that directory does not exist, or is empty, you likely need to
install the kernel source packages for your distribution.

This folder does not exist. The closest thing I found to solving this issue googling was

sudo apt-get install linux-source-<kver> linux-headers-`uname -r`

but not sure this is right. And this is as far as I have made it, really.

I have put quite some time into this, and realize that this issue has been covered pretty extensively, but nothing seems to work for me. I'm pretty much a noob but don't feel like I'm in completely over my head. I got bored with Ubuntu pretty quick. If anyone could talk me through this installation step by step in a clear, precise, verbose manner from start to finish I would definitely appreciate it. And if I missed anything or clarifications of my system are needed, please let me know. ndiswrapper is not an option. I will also be using WPA

thanks,
michael

[antidrugue]

I am on a Dell Inspiron 9300 with an Intel Pro-Wireless 2200bg and Debian kernel 2.6.18-4-686.

I am assuming that the ipw2200 driver is already installed...

9300:/home/michael# modinfo ipw2200|grep version
version: 1.1.2kmq
srcversion: 741238A39A8C7372DBF7F77

So now I need to download the firmware from sourceforge. I assume that the firmware that matches my driver to be

driver versions v1.1.1 and newer firmware v3.0

So this gets moved and untarred in /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware. Am I just moving the firmware or does it still need to be installed?

That's it, you stop here. Just putting the firmware in /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/ (or in /lib/firmware/) is enough.

The IPW2200 driver the the IEEE80211 subsystem are already part of the kernel.

Check the "Wireless Networking" section of this how-to for more details:
Techno Wizah: Debian HOW-TO: Etch on Asus Z63A

As for actualy connecting to wireless networks, Network Manager is an excellent solution:
Techno Wizah: Debian HOW-TO : Managing networks with NetworkManager

[crito]

OK, still no luck. I even started from scratch to make sure anything I tried before didn't foul up my results.

my driver is installed

firmware v3.0 is in /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware

network-manager-gnome is installed

network-manager, wireless-tools, and wpasupplicant are there

As per the instructions I edited /etc/network/interfaces (though this didn't appear to be strictly necessary)

adduser your-user_name netdev My username is in netdev

According to these instructions, that should do it.

Are you certain that the ieee80211 subsystem is already part of my kernel? Is there a way I can check this?

Also, when I go to Desktop-Administration-Networking only two things show up, Ethernet 0 and Ethernet 1

I seem to remember from the install that E0 was 1394 and E1 was my 100mb wired connection. So I'm left wondering why the wireless connection isn't listed.

hmmm....... (scratching my head)

[crito]

n/mind, I got it.

Always making things way harder than they really needed to be

thanks again for help
m

[columbiasts1]

I used this page as a reference and have to admit that it was thorough, which I like. I started by getting the firmware and performing the following:

tar xzvf ipw2200-fw-3.0.tgz -C /lib/firmware which extracts the contents into the firmware folder (worked great). Had to go back and do this again when I realized that it created a subdirectory instead of putting the files directly in /lib/fimrware.

I next went to the shell and done dmesg and didnt see anything with ipw2200, so I issued the command modprobe ipw2200 and done dmesg again and it appeared at the bottom of the dmesg

ieee80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'NULL'
ieee80211: 802.11 data/management/control stack, git-1.1.13
ieee80211: Copyright (C) 2004-2005 Intel Corporation
ipw2200: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver, 1.1.2kmq
ipw2200: Copyright(c) 2003-2006 Intel Corporation

Sweet !!!

I next verified that driver and the 80211 stack were loaded in /lib/modules/2.6.18-5-686/kernel by issuing a "find" command:

find . -name ieee80211.ko
find . -name ipw2200.ko

and sure enough they were there. Getting very anxious at this point and thinking I am on the correct path to finally making this thing work after 5 days of sleepless nights....LOL

I next go to Gnome and browse to Gnome>Desktop>Administration>Networking ....headed for Network Manager to see if I have wireless listed and didnt see it (not good) so I thought I would issue the iwconfig command to see what came up and this is all I seen:

lo no wireless extensions.

eth1 no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

sit0 no wireless extensions.

So, it appears that I have everything loaded (not automatically on reboot) but I can issue a few commands (modprobe) and make everything show up in dmesg. I just dont have a listing for the wirreless connection in Network Manager so that I can connect. I personally dont have wireless connection but I travel a lot and would like to be able to use wireless in the hotel from time to time. I currently have a Windows box that I use but I am trying to make the switch slowly. I can take that Window box and see a secured wireless connection in my neighborhood so that is how I am determining whether I have wireless working or not. So far I cant see a connection or even get it to appear in Network Manager....Any ideas?

Note: I was using kernel 2.6.18-5-686

[jledhead]

I assume you extracted the firmware to this directory (you mention a different dir)
/usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/

Because I have the same card and thats where mine are. And also I assume you have rebooted since then?

[columbiasts1]

I actually just extracted it to /lib/firmware and not the /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/ but I guess it doesnt hurt to have it in both places. I did reboot after I extracted it in /usr/lib but that might have been my problem that I couldnt see eth2 because I had it in the incorrect directory. I will give it a try and let you know.

~ Thanks