How to Install Firmware in Slackware 12.1 IBM Thinkpad T30 (Cisco MPI350)

[wkdude18]

I have a dual-boot computer (Elive and Slackware) and wireless works in Elive but not Slackware. This website Cisco Aironet Wireless 802.11b - ThinkWiki says the firmware information for the driver is in /proc/driver/aironet/eth(x)/Status. This file exists in Elive, the version is 5.02.19. However, there are not even any subdirectories in /proc in Slackware. Is the driver/firmware information in another directory in Slackware? If not how would I go about installing the newest version that I downloaded from the Cisco website. I unzipped the .exe and got a 50C56021.IMG file. Should I put this file somewhere to install it? If so, where? Do I need to have subdirectories in /proc for the wireless card to work? Will they be made automatically after installing the firmware, or will I have to make them myself?

[bidi]

Well, the problem is that you don't have anything under /proc. I'd like to know how that happened. See what the "mount" command returns.

That article also mentions there's an open-source driver out there, go on google and find it, that's what you need. Chances are you'll need to compile it, if it's not already part of Slackware. The airo driver website will probably give you all the info you need to get it working, too.

[wkdude18]

Well, I'm not 100% sure I need firmware to get it running, because in dmesg theres an output after Airo saying loading firmware version 5.02.19 or something like that. However, the website says that the Airo driver is compatible with latest versions. Anyways, the output of ls -l /sys/class/net/(eth0)/device/driver/module is /../../../airo. Not to mention it appears in lsmod and dmesg, so I'm fairly confident in the fact that the computer already has the Airo driver installed. Also, the airo-driver project on Sourceforge has had no active development since 2006. A question though, the airo module does come with a driver standard correct? That is the whole point if I'm not mistaken. Nonetheless, hear is the output of mount
/dev/hda9 on / type ext3 (rw) (hda9 is where S-Ware is installed)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
usbfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)

But miscellaneously, not really, after going to /proc right now, I found it populated with subdirectories, including /proc/driver/aironet/eth0/status
And I read the status file and firmware version is 5.02.19, so it could use an upgrade.

Anyways, in the file WepKey in /proc/driver/aironet/(interface)/ it says

Key 0 set with length =5
Key 2 set with length = 5
Key 3 set with length = 5
Tx key = 0

Might you know what this means? And also, can you tell me why the output of iwconfig resets to the default every time I reboot? Where is the config file for this? Do you also know why I have to do ifconfig eth0 up before I can successfully execute iwconfig eth0 essid "mynetwork'. How can I make the interface start at boot and maintain its settings?

[bidi]

But miscellaneously, not really, after going to /proc right now, I found it populated with subdirectories, including /proc/driver/aironet/eth0/status
And I read the status file and firmware version is 5.02.19, so it could use an upgrade.

Stick with what you have for now, specially since it's working (at least that's what I got from you later comments.

Anyways, in the file WepKey in /proc/driver/aironet/(interface)/ it says

Key 0 set with length =5
Key 2 set with length = 5
Key 3 set with length = 5
Tx key = 0

Might you know what this means?

I have no idea, never used WEP before.

And also, can you tell me why the output of iwconfig resets to the default every time I reboot? Where is the config file for this? Do you also know why I have to do ifconfig eth0 up before I can successfully execute iwconfig eth0 essid "mynetwork'. How can I make the interface start at boot and maintain its settings?

That's because you need to configure the interface. To configure the interface you'll need to edit these two files:

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf
/etc/rc.d/rc.wireless.conf

Read the comments to figure it out, it's pretty straight forward.

[wkdude18]

I will look into that