LinuxQuestions.org - D-Link DLW-G520 and DI-624 on FC3

Hi,

I just spent 2 days installing D-Link DWL-G520 to a DI-624 wireless router on Fedora Core 2. To save others the trouble I've gone through I thought I would summarise what I did here to make it work.

Since I'm a newbie, I'm gonna write it for newbies...

The hardware is not supported officially by D-Link on Linux, but luckily it works with MadWifi. Unlike a lot of (old) sites will tell you it is not necessary to compile everything (including your kernel) any longer.

After installing the card and router, here's what I did :
0. I installed a package called ShareUtil, which I have no idea if I had to, but one site recommended it...

1. Get the MadWifi rpm's for your kernel.

You'll need two rpms. A kernel upgrade and the MadWifi. I downloaded mine from atrpms.net.

It is *very* important that the version number match your kernel number (I had to upgrade my kernel) and that you select the one for your processor (probably i86/568 etc. probably NOT 64 bit nor SMP if you don't know).

When you've downloaded the files install them using :
> rpm -Uvh kernel-module-madwifi*.rpm
> rpm -Uvh madwifi*.rpm

2. Add the following line to the file /etc/modprobe.conf
alias ath0 ath_pci

3. Use your browser (from a computer that is physically linked to the router) to set up the router. This is described in the manual.

4. Create a file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ath0 like this
# STARTMODE=onboot
DEVICE=ath0
ONBOOT=yes
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
WIRELESS=yes
MODE=Managed
ESSID=<your-essid-default-is-default>
CHANNEL=<your-channel-default-is-6>
KEY=<your-key-if-any-else-leave-blank>
IPV6INIT=no
USERCTL=no
PEERDNS=no

5. Find your access point (AP) with :
> iwlist ath0 scan

6. Configure the network card
> iwconfig ath0 key XXXXXXXXXX
> iwconfig ath0 ap XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
> iwconfig ath0 channel X
> iwconfig ath0 essid XXXXXXX
> iwconfig ath0 rate XXMB

where the X's must be replaced with what you've configured on the router in step 3.

7. Test it
> /etc/init.d/network restart
> ifconfig

If you didn't understand > indicated a command typed from a console window as root. Open terminal and write "su -" and then the root password. Do not type the >'s

I would appreciate it if anybody could tell me :
- what does ShareUtil do ? How do I find out ?
- if any steps here are unecessary ?
- what does step 2 and 4 really do ?

PS. It's a bit anoying, but I have several useful links which I used hours to search and filter out, but I'm not allowed to enter them here, since this is my first post...