Enabling wifi and ethernet support in T43p


Forum: Networking
Topic: Enabling wifi and ethernet support in T43p
started by: lagerratrobe

Posted by lagerratrobe on May 08 2006,00:52
So I've been experimenting with three different Live CD's this weekend: DSL 2.3, Ubuntu 5.10, and Knoppix 3.9.  My preference is  still for DSL, due primarily to its speed, but I have noticed that much of the hardware on my laptop isn't recognized in DSL.  Of particular importance to me is that the onboard network interfaces are not initialized at boot time.  However in the other Debian based distros, both the wired and wifi NIC's are enabled.

Is it possible for me to identify the mechanism used in Knoppix 3.9 to enable these and migrate it over to DSL somehow?

Thanks,

Roger

Posted by cbagger01 on May 08 2006,05:25
Try DSL-N.

It is based on KNOPPIX 3.9

Posted by lagerratrobe on May 08 2006,15:59
No dice.  DSL-N detects the ethernet card, but not the wifi device.
--

Posted by doobit on May 08 2006,17:16
Maybe this article will help shed some light on that:

< http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS6755691725.html >

Posted by roberts on May 08 2006,17:59
What brand/chipset is this wifi?
Maybe there is an extension or by using the latest ndiswrapper which is in 2.4RC2.

Posted by lagerratrobe on May 08 2006,19:34
The specs on the NICs are as follows:
wifi - Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Mini-PCI Adapter
ethernet - Broadcom BCM5751M Gigabit-LAN

It appears that wifi support can be obtained by installing the "IPW2200 Driver for Linux" which can be found here - < http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/ >

I'll play around with this a little later and see what I can do.
--

Posted by lagerratrobe on May 09 2006,03:25
Damn this is irritating.  I found the MyDSL extension for ipw2200 and the 2.4x kernel.  Unfortunateky, it appears the system doesn't want to use it because DSL 2.3 uses a different kernel than the one that was used to compile the extension.  See below.

Code Sample

root@box:~# insmod /lib/modules/2.4.31/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ipw2200/ipw2200.o
/lib/modules/2.4.31/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ipw2200/ipw2200.o: kernel-module version mismatch
       /lib/modules/2.4.31/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ipw2200/ipw2200.o was compiled for kernel version 2.4.31
       while this kernel is version 2.4.26.


Is it possible to still use the module, despite this version discrepancy?

Posted by mvisconte on May 09 2006,05:47
Quote (lagerratrobe @ May 08 2006,15:34)
The specs on the NICs are as follows:
wifi - Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Mini-PCI Adapter
ethernet - Broadcom BCM5751M Gigabit-LAN

It appears that wifi support can be obtained by installing the "IPW2200 Driver for Linux" which can be found here - < http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/ >

I'll play around with this a little later and see what I can do.
--

DSL works like a champ on my IBM T42p.  To set up wifi, all I do is:
DSL Control Panel
Click Prism2
enter "ath0" for the device
set my channel to 6    (ycmv)
enter the access point name
Click OK

DHCP client is already selected.

Posted by lagerratrobe on May 09 2006,13:39
Which version of DSL do you use on your T42p?  I'll have to look up what the "prism2" does, I didn't know it was for wifi setup.
--

Posted by lagerratrobe on May 09 2006,15:12
Ok, I think I've found the winning combo for now.  Forum member "multitudes" had posted an entry in the "Ideas and Suggestions" section which pertains to the kernel mismatch I encountered last night. < http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....titudes >

Looks like using DSL 2.1b and the ipw2200-k2.4.31.dsl is the way to go, it seems to work beautifully.  I like this solution much better than using ndiswrapper, so I'm going to stick with it.

DSL-N looks pretty cool, new kernel and all, but I'm not into the Frugal installs.  I still prefer an HD install of DSL for its lightning fast response, and ease of administration.  I know how unpopular that is here, so I won;t say anything more on the topic.

Very glad to have found a combination that works.  I *almost* was going to have to ditch DSL.  Very glad I didn't have to.

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