Networking :: DSL on Thinkpad X41



Hi There,

I love DSL; it's brilliant.  I'm trying to totally circumvent the Windows build I have on my work laptop without screwing it up.  All I need is Firefox and wifi, and I can get all my non-work stuff done.  DSL lets me do just that.

So, here's the problem.  When I boot DSL, it doesn't find my ethernet or wifi cards on my Thinkpad X41.  I saw that there was an extension for the Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG card that Windows says I have.

When I install the extension and configure it per this, I get some errors when I run depmodscript.sh.  Now, here's the deal: the extension seems to be configured for kernel 2.4.31.  But the current shipping version of DSL comes with kernel 2.4.26.  I tried to correct the problem by changing the path in depmodscript.sh to point to the 2.4.26, which works.  But, when I run modprobe ipw2200, I get error messages.

Does anyone know how I can fix this?  I presume that I either need to get DSL with 2.4.31 (is this in beta?) or an extension configured for 2.4.26  Is that right, or am I missing something?

I also tried to get this working with ndiswrapper, which is recommended for the ipw2100BG here.  Still no joy.

Many thanks,
Ken
DSL version 2.1b has 2.4.31.
lucky13,

Thanks for the quick response.  Do you think I could somehow rebuild the extension to work for 2.4.26?  Or is downgrading to DSL 2.1 my only option?

I just realized that DSL 2.1 is twice as big as 3.4.  That means it won't fit on my 64 MB USB key. :(

K
DSL 2.1b, which is in archive section, is not double the size. It is still just under 50MB and should be ok on a 64MB pendrive.

Perhaps you were looking at DSL-N?

Many have tried to compile ipw2x00 drivers. First these drivers were not supported in 2.4.26. I believe that they are not officially supported in 2.4.x. However, there exists a hack which apparently works for the 2.4.31 kernel. Also, it appears that hack no longer works in newer 2.4.x kernels. So, it would appear that DSL v2.1b would be your current solution. I am considering using 2.4.31 for DSL v4.0 for this very reason among others.
Robert,

Thanks again for your help.  I'll d/l again and retry -- I could have been moving too quickly and clicked through the dsl-n folders.

I've been reading the thread on DSL 4.0a.  Best of luck with it.  It's so bizarre that this issue exists with such a popular wifi chipset.  

I saw you mention that you don't have ipw2200 hardware; if you need someone to beta test a build, I'd be happy to.  Just give me a shout over email.

Thanks,
Ken

P.S. I re-downloaded 2.1b and the zip file was around 50 MB.  After unzipping, the folder size was 100MB.  The culprit was a 60 MB file in qmenu called harddisk.  I deleted it.  Let's see if this still works. :)
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