IPW2200 support

Forum: DSL Ideas and Suggestions
Topic: IPW2200 support
started by: blueskip

Posted by blueskip on July 05 2005,23:49

I would VERY much like to see this implemented. This is a fair card. I know some don't like it, but I've had little trouble out of it so far.

Knoppix 3.8.1 is supposed so support I'm downloading 3.9 now. But Knoppix isn't nearly as streamlined as I wish it were since I ONLY want the machine for surfing and playing music files. Knoppix is VERY slow on the machine I'm running this on.

I also can't get a new WG200-3A mini PCI (prism chipset) card to work either with DSL so I'm having to quit it. I'm not a linux geek and I have no wish to be. The learning curve is too steep it'll be obsolete before I have time to learn. I want an OS that works is all. DSL rocks but it won't find any mini PCI cards and I need them as this is all that I can use one the machine I have it on. DSL doesn't have to be a single version! It would be nice for a larger version that maybe will still be very trim but have options to install more hardware. I mean the business card thing is cool too but that just doesn't satisfy everyone.

Just my two cents.

p.s. I would happily PAY for this if I was sure this OS would work on my hardware. There is no version of windows that can even compare on a 400Mhz processor. Yes quite old, but I like it. And until some of the new machines come down is price, I'm not replacing it. I'm not rich. It's a flat screen and very compact for my kitchen counter.

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on July 06 2005,02:00

I hate to burst your bubble, but native support for any ipw2x00 cards is not likely to happen with DSL.

The firmware for these cards alone is several megabytes in size, and we have a writtin-in-stone, never to be broken, maximum limit of 50 megabytes of space.

DSL always has been, remains, and always will be the 50mb speed demon that it is now.

Not to mention that many of the liscenses for these drivers have pretty restrictive licenses.

I have an ipw2100 in my laptop, and tried for a long time to get it to work. When I finally got it working, I decided that it would be a lot easier to just go grab an orinoco chipset pcmcia card for a few bucks than have to beat it into working again.

But that's just my sad story.

Your best bet is to setup and install the drivers and firmware yourself.

I'm not even sure that we can redistribute the drivers as a .dsl package.

-J.P.

Posted by cbagger01 on July 06 2005,15:49

Another alternative might be to boot up knoppix with the:

knoppix desktop=fluxbox

boot command.

knoppix with Fluxbox is not as fast as DSL, but it is MUCH faster than knoppix with KDE (default mode).

Posted by blueskip on July 07 2005,01:31

Nobody is busting my bubble. But to recall the days of when everyone thought that the 1.44 floppy was adaquate and if you couldn't fit it on there you were a sloppy programmer using too much resources or ram....hmmm.

Just hurting yourself. I mean I'll move on now to what works for me but, so will the rest of the ones finding it so great right now, at some point in time. Without the constant change demanded by improvement, well... you get the picture.

However, I do appreciate the help!! (very much) I didn't know that command and I'll try it. Knoppix has found the card in this version and it seems to already run faster than older versions I've tried so maybe this may be just what I was looking for.

Again thanks!

Posted by blueskip on July 07 2005,01:41

"orinoco chipset pcmcia"

I don't have a pcmcia slot. I have a mini PCI slot and that is ALL that I have. This machine is a perfect proving ground for an OS like DSL but it just looks ragged and unprofessional to have a external card hanging out of the back for a wireless connection when the machine looks as clean as it does on a kitchen counter. It an old GCTP I put a hard drive in and 500mb of ram. It works awesome with win98 (not that I really want windows on it) but I can't get a driver for the IPW2200 for 98 although I have a prism based mini PCI card that I think I can/do have a 98 driver for hmmm....

Posted by tempestuous on July 07 2005,05:23

On the web some people have reported success using IPW2200 with ndiswrapper. I suspect this may be highly dependent on the distribution/kernel, but it's worth a try.

Posted by blueskip on July 10 2005,21:18

I tried with no luck to add the ipw with ndiswrapper to DSL. However Knoppix (latest version) found the card with little effort at all and the only problem I had was with ipv6 which I had to turn off. I haven't figured out how to make knoppix boot to fluxbox. I tried several things from message boards to no avail. I'll keep trying. It's sad I can't use DSL for this. It's a perfect OS for this machine.