Wifi for Fedora 12

[ferniferousfern]

I recently acquired a Dell Latitude D610 laptop, and I installed Fedora 12 onto it. However, it is not recognizing the local wifi, although the wifi is working on a laptop identical to this one except it has Windows XP. Could someone please explain in a very clear manner(I am not very good with computers) on how I can make the wifi work? I read several other threads about this, but none of the advice there worked.

[oz]

Hello and welcome to the forums!

I don't do any wireless myself so can't help with it much, but you can check the following thread to get you started:

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/wir...tart-here.html

Also, keep in mind that you'll get the best hardware support by using the latest Fedora release, which is currently up to Fedora 15.

[Roxoff]

It looks like you need either the ipw2200 package or the ipw3945 package to get this going (you can probably install both without any conflicts). These should be available through your package manager, or on your install disk. There is a slim chance that, as Fedora 12 is no longer actively maintained, your on line package managers through yum might struggle. Give it a try and report back if you still can't get it going.

[ferniferousfern]

first guy, appreciate the attempt but that thread made no sense to me. second guy, already had ipw2200, but cannot figure out how to install the ipw3945 I downloaded. very confused at this point.

[jayd512]

Could you tell us which part is confusing you?
Which step are you getting stumped on, or error messages that you may have received?

[ferniferousfern]

I keep getting mixed signals about what I'm supposed to do. and I downloaded that ipw3945 thing but I couldn't figure out how to install it. Apparently I'm supposed to use 'commands' but I don't know what that means. Like I said before I'm not so good with computers. If someone could really dumb it down, like 'Wifi on Fedora OS for Dummies' or something, that would be great.

[oz]

I downloaded that ipw3945 thing but I couldn't figure out how to install it. Apparently I'm supposed to use 'commands' but I don't know what that means.

We have a HowTo with instructions for installing software under Linux that might help:

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/lin...are-linux.html

It gives the commands for installing packages from source, or for installing using the package tools that come with various distributions.

As mentioned earlier, I'd still recommend going with the latest version of Fedora unless installing and running Fedora 12 is mandatory.

[jayd512]

Like I said before I'm not so good with computers. If someone could really dumb it down...

I don't like term Dumb it down. I prefer to help you understand
When we mention using commands, we need you to open a Terminal Window. Same thing as opening a Command Prompt in Windows.
For Fedora 12, that should be found under the Applications menu, then System Tools.
When you click on Terminal, you get a box that will be waiting for you to type your commands... the very ones that were requested in the earlier link.
You can copy/paste the results of those commands here.
That will help us diagnose the issue, and help you move forward.

But I do agree 100% with ozar. Fedora 12 is outdated at this point.
Fedora 15 might actually solve the wireless problem on its own.

[ferniferousfern]

[root@fernipie Ferniferousfern]# tar -zxvf <ipw39451.2.2>
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `newline'

??

[oz]

[root@fernipie Ferniferousfern]# tar -zxvf <ipw39451.2.2>
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `newline'

Try it again, but like this:

tar -zxvf ipw39451.2.2