intel PRO wireless 2100 centrino
 

hi,
has any one here successfully compiled a new kernel and got the centrino wireless stuff to work?
if so, could you please post your steps?
1 specific question: i believe i have to enable CONFIG_NET_RADIO during kernel compilation. now where is it in xconfig because the command line config is so many options, takes hours to go through.
thanks.

hey mate...i have the same card in my acer aspire 2000..
i have used ndiswrapper to use the windows .inf file to generate drivers to work it...have managed to install it and everything and get a the config stage...plug in my wep code etc...i do get data being sent but as of yet have been unable to get a working connection..however i think that may be due to the config...something i have overlooked...i think the prob is with the type of wep key security... linux sets it as restricted and my router says automatic..if i manage to get it working i will let yaz kno ..
to get ndisloader go to sourceforge and search..installation is simple if u know the make command.
fitzy

did u have 2 compile/patch ur kernel? i am using the ipw2100 @ http://ipw2100.sourceforge.net, and they say must have kernel 2.4.23+.

i have mandrake 10 and have 2.6.3 kernel....and did nothing else..am having a looksee at ipw2100 now...
ok had a look mate...if you read the install document you will see you need to edit a few things in the kernel to get it working..i strongly suggest you give ndisloader a try...it is a lot easier!!...hopefully it will work for you!!..im sure mines a simple config error

hmm,
i thought ipw2100 is the only stuff that makes centrino on linux.
i'll try ndisloader.
thanks.

Let me know if you get it to work, i have the same card = )

OK lads ive got the card working :)
i did it by installing ndiswrapper...see sourceforge for download.
once that was done i downloaded the windows driver and then did what ndiswrapper instructions asked....it will eventually say that the card if present..you may have to try installing the driver a couple of times..(i used win xp driver)
once this is done...i followed the rest of the instructions so that the coding was set up it just needed to be configured..however i spent quite a few days trying to get it work..
heres how i eventually did it.. set it to DHCP in configure my computer.. (i have dhcp router) ..once that was done...i set to work on iwconfig...and spent hours moronically plugging in my wep code..to no avail..kept on resetting...so i set my wireless AP to disable wep..and left the iwconfig settings blank..and restarted laptop... lo and behold to my amazment it gave me the bootup line
WLAN0 ........................................[OK]
and the net was connected at boot :-p
hope that this gets people all happy wid wless net..im afriad i havent got wep working..i think that it might only work on some router/card combinations...because of the security modes.. my AP only had one mode out of three that linux would let u set..and this didnt appear to work with the centrino card...as it didnt work with windows..
let me kno if anyone gets wep working
fitzy

Where did you find a copy of the .inf file? I tried to extract the file in in wine, but I get an error. :S

joneSi
~Steve Jones

i got a copy of the inf file from the driver you can download for windows...i have a dual boot machine you see..best bet is 2 download the zip file from inte..and then extract the inf file out of that...if not i have an inf file...i can mail it 2 you

I had massive issues with a number of distros out there... until I loaded up Gentoo...

Running a 2.6.5 kernel I type:

FEATURE="-sandbox" emerge ipw2100

at the prompt when I'm connected to the net through eth0 and portage handles the rest...

Then to connect I make sure the modules are loaded first:

modprobe ipw2100

Then...

ifconfig eth1 up

Scan networks using

iwlist scan


Then connect to a network using

iwconfig eth1 essid blah


Sometimes I may have to

dhcpd eth1


But it runs like a dream and far easier to get working than with other distros I have tried (SuSE, redhat etc)...

Fastly

Thats...

FEATURES="-sandbox" not FEATURE="-sandbox"


Oh and don't ask me what a sandbox is... I still think it's a box full of sand. Someone on IRC told me this was necessary (it doesn't work without it)..

OK, I can get ndiswrapper to load up, and it scans the 'airwaves' but it makes my keyboard act funny. I can't type stuff in or it makes one letter repeat. And its never the same one...makes getting the driver uninstalled not so easy.

Thanks for any input....

joneSi

I've got some advice... don't ignore my last post - it works.

Hmmmm, it makes my keboard do things like this.

ndiswrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaappppppppppppppper and so its IMPOSSIBLE to type. Anything I'm missing with the sandbox...where do I put that. Just in a term? Lemme kno :)

joneSi

Hi,
I've been reading this thread and trying to figure out how to get the centrino 2100 wireless thang working and wanted to report on my success - WEP and all.
I'm running slack 9.1 on an IBM r40 laptop.

Here's what I did:
1. downloaded and ran swaret (for the non-slack: slackware's package upgrade tool) to upgrade the kernel from version 2.4.22 to version 2.4.26.
2. installed the hostap drivers (needed for WEP support)
3. installed the ipw2100 driver
4. put a copy of the latest firmware into the appropriate directory
(the hostap drivers and firmware is all available at the ipw2100 site, and ipw2100 INSTALL file contains instructions for installing, where to put the firmware, etc.)
5. edited /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf so that my ip address is assigned by rc.inet1 to eth1 (the centrino device) and not eth0 (a built in ethernet card)
6. wrote a script called by /etc/rc.d/rc.local (run at boot time) that loads the ipw2100 driver, brings up eth1,
configures wireless parameters like essid, and the WEP key I use.
7. rebooted and presto it works WEP and all.

Some details would need to be adjusted if you aren't running slackware and they probably also show that I'm an almost complete newbie. Maybe there's some unnecesary stuff in there? Maybe there's a better less hackish way to do it?

Good luck all!
-geomatt

Woah. Thats intense :) I'll try that, I'm putting a fresh install together on my laptop. Will try then....thanx.

BTW Can you show us what your script looks like, minus the 'sensitive' stuff ;) Just want an idea of what the heck I'm supposed to be

joneSi

Sure,
Here it is:
=============================================

DEVICE=eth1
ONBOOT=yes
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
TYPE=Wireless

modprobe ipw2100
ifconfig eth1 up

iwconfig eth1 essid MyNetwork
iwconfig eth1 key NNNN-NNNN-NN

==============================================
You may have to spell out more parameters, for you particular configuration.

I followed the INSTALL instructions (which are not slackware specific) and named this file
ifcnf-eth1 and put it in a directory called /etc/sysconfig which I think I had to create just for this file. I forget - must be the effects of old age or too much time trying to use windows before wising up and ditching it... ;)

Lemme know how you make out,
geomatt

Will give it a shot when I get some more time, maybe over the next few weeks. Got a lot going on between now and then.

Thanks,
Steve Jones

Greetings. I'm trying to set up wireless on my laptop using Slackware 10. I installed version 0.47 of the drivers from sourceforge. lsmod shows the compiled modules as loaded. Now my problem is that when I try to:

% ifconfig eth1 up

it says something like "device eth1 does not exist"

I also tried wlan0, but it doesn't exist either. I am able to go online using a Lan cable that goes into my router if I set it up as static ip. But if I:

% ifconfig eth0 (the normal ethernet cable) down

% ifconfig eth0 up

it stops working. So I'm having a hard time partly because once I go down, I can't go back up!

So problem #1 is eth1 and wlan0 don't exist, and problem #2 is i have a hard time troubleshooting because I can't go up once I go down. How can I get it to recognize eth1/wlan0?

Thanks

--atm

oh another piece of info: if I run ifconfig without any parameters, it shows lo and eth0 as the only devices.

atm,

I use a script called by /etc/rc.d/rc.local to get my wireless interface up and running. It names the device starts it up and feeds it a couple of parameters.

the script is in a file named /etc/sysconfig/ifconfig-eth1 and looks like this
*******************************

DEVICE=eth1
ONBOOT=yes
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
TYPE=Wireless

modprobe ipw2100
ifconfig eth1 up

iwconfig eth1 essid MyNetworkName
iwconfig eth1 key ************

***************************************************

-geomatt

Yeah, I realized a few things since I last posted in this thread.

1)I have Ipw2200, not 2100. (doh! :o )
2)The 2200 driver is very alpha (but worked better than 2100, of course).
3)I'm trying to get ndiswrapper working, with mild success.

I don't know if I should post my problems with ndiswrapper in this thread, because this is about IPW2100.

Anyhow, thanks.

I thought I better get in on this considering I have centrino and I'm currently using this forum to get 802.11b up and running. Using the Ipw2100 driver.....

I have had some success. Using Yum I have installed the driver(yum did some really funny things....but got going)

Wrote a script similar to GeoMatts and Apon boot eth1(wlan) goes up(so it seems) then when i use ifconfig I don't get anything.

ifup eth1 tells me I have no device exsists. Mind you tonight I will check the and see if the module is loaded.

So far I've noticed that centrino wireless is up on slackware and gentoo I'm running fedora core 2 and I feel its only a matter of time.

my 2 cents, Regards Matt

Success!!! I am now running Fedora Core 2 on my Dell M60 with working 802.11b (ipw2100)

After looking everywhere, it was this forum that lead to the most success.
How I did it......The RPM way.

go to Atrpms Thanks Axel Thimm for this site.
Lots of great rpms.
I used yum to install mostly everything......
Prepare yum by following these instructions yum config
We need to hack a bit because the yum config tutorial doesn't include the testing channel.
All you do is add this

run yum check-update
......after millions of years(I wise man once said dial-up is man greatest test).........
I tip is to # out the servers you don't want to contact in yum.conf, speeds thing up a little.
then...
yum install ipw2100 hostap-driver hostapd hostap-utils

If you lucky this will work for you. Unfortinately it wasn't for me.
After yum installed the wrong kernel patch and hostap would not install becuase a failed dependencie, from installing the worng kernel module....
I took to it manually downloading the correct kernel-module for ipw2100, hostap-driver and its kernel-module.

Make sure you have wireless exstensions installed.
I also manually loaded the firmware using hotplug, by following the INSTALL instructions on the topic.
Again yums rpm install of the firmware worked but I had no idea where the firmware was and whether it was loaded properly.

Bing! I rebooted and linux found the hardware configured it and it work beautifully.

The problem I found with yum was that when I would install a module, yum would pick the wrong dependencies. I could be doing something wrong though.

I hope this helps, because everybody here helped get me going. Thanks to geoMatt, whos post sent me in the right direction.

-M@

Dell M60
centrino 1.7
quadro fx go 700
40gb 5400rpm
intel PRO wireless 2100 (802.11b)
Fedora Core 2

Hey congrats!
And thanks - glad some of my newbie thrashings helped.
-geomatt