ipw2200 firmware problem

I've got problems getting my wireless adapter to work.
It's an intel pro wireless 2200; my laptop is an Asus a6q00v.
this is what dmesg tells me:

mpf@cvlaptop:/usr/src/linux$ dmesg | grep 2200
ipw2200: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver, git-1.1.1
ipw2200: Copyright(c) 2003-2006 Intel Corporation
ipw2200: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
ipw2200: ipw2200-bss.fw request_firmware failed: Reason -2
ipw2200: Unable to load firmware: -2
ipw2200: failed to register network device
ipw2200: probe of 0000:01:03.0 failed with error -5

k,I understand the firmware can't be loaded. I've been using the 2.4 firmware. Somewhere (might even be the sourceforge project page) I read that I should be using the 3.0 firmware for this particular driver. But when I gunzip the ipw2200-fw-3.0.gz archive to /lib/firmware, it doesn't expand to ipw--boot.fw, ipw--bss_ucode.fw, ipw--bss.fw, ipw--ibss_ucode.fw and the like, but to a single file called ipw2200-fw-3.0.
This is not what ipw2200.sourceforge.net/INSTALL tells me it should be like.
So I used the 2.4 firmware instaead. Unzips fine but still the same problem (dmesg output).
My firmware directory is /lib/firmware, according to /etc/hotplug/firmware.agent. I had to create that directory first.
So... is this a problem with the 3.0 firmware download (I downloaded it 2 times, same thing) or something else?
I don't think it's a kernel configuration issue, because I used the config file from: http://www.leufke.info/linux/asus/config-2.6.15,
which is from a guy who has exactly the same machine and appears to know what he's doing. Only difference: his config was for a 2.6.8.15 Kernel, I use it for a 2.6.8.17. I took it as is, only put in support for XFS, since that's what I'm running.

Any help would be much appreciated. I'm tired of booting into windows just to google around.

[Baikonur]

EDIT:: it wasn't the sourceforge page, it was right here

Either you didn't download the correct file or you didn't untar it correctly.

I downloaded the .tgz file. Unpack it with the command "tar xvzf <filename>"

That did it!
I thought the file being a .gz-file would automatically mean it's not a tar archive.
(yeah, I'm a windows child... extensions still mean too much to me)
Now the card detects 11 access points, which means it definitely works (with the 3.0 firmware)!
All I have to do now is craft a proper /etc/network/interfaces file, I think, because
that doesn't show anything like wlan0 yet.
Thanks a lot, jschiwal!

EDIT:: YEAH!!! I just ran

iwconfig eth1 mode managed
iwconfig eth1 essid MYESSID

then edited my interfaces file, and ...

Originally Posted by my_pc cvlaptop:/home/mpf# ifup eth1 Internet Software Consortium DHCP Client 2.0pl5 Copyright 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 The Internet Software Consortium. All rights reserved. Please contribute if you find this software useful. For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/dhcp-contrib.html Listening on LPF/eth1/00:15:00:3e:2b:39 Sending on LPF/eth1/00:15:00:3e:2b:39 Sending on Socket/fallback/fallback-net DHCPDISCOVER on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 6 DHCPOFFER from 192.168.2.1 DHCPREQUEST on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 DHCPACK from 192.168.2.1 bound to 192.168.2.100 -- renewal in 43200 seconds.

thanks again!

Just an FYI. There is a command called "file" that you can use to tell what a file is. After you used gunzip, you were left with a tar file. The -z option in the tar command says to extract using gunzip.

> file ipw2200-fw-3.0.tgz
ipw2200-fw-3.0.tgz: gzip compressed data, from Unix
> gunzip ipw2200-fw-3.0.tgz
> find ./ -cmin -1
./
./ipw2200-fw-3.0.tar
> file ipw2200-fw-3.0.tar
ipw2200-fw-3.0.tar: POSIX tar archive

I have got the same problem as baikonur had in the first post.
I hav installed suse 10 ,kernel 2.6.13-15-default on my toshiba satellite A105 series laptop which has intel proset 2200 BG card. I see the eth1 interface on executing iwconfig with "no wireless extensions" on it. It gives no error when i run 'modprobe ipw2200'.
In the log messages the following message is seen

ipw2200: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
ipw2200: ipw2200-bss.fw request_firmware failed: Reason -2
ipw2200: Unable to load firmware: -2
ipw2200: failed to register network device


i hav copied my all relevant firmware files (of package ipw-fw-2.4) in /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware directory because 'firmware.agent' file had this address.


my subsystem version is ieee80211-1.2.15 package

previously after removing all the ieee80211.h files i installed subsystem and driver with no error. after this i could see the completely configured interface with 'iwconfig'.but the os hanged when i tried to connect the wireless and afterwords it didnot even showed the interface eth1.

plz help me configure my wireless i need it urgently

even the entry in autoconf.h for kernel CONFIG_FW_LOADER = m