CMOS was set in 2004 yikes... got b43-fwcutter installed and will give the firmware a shot when I get home from work tonight. Thanks so much!

See this: http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/...devicefirmware
Solved my problem!!!!

Cross the hell with SLACKWARE.
enable WIRELESS CARD AND CONNECTION [SOLVED]
1.- log as root with this:

su -

2.- Your going to edit two files, then restart connection services.

nano /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf

3.- Activate and uncomment the follow (just find the lines, forget it about the others, (NO NDISWRAPPER, DELETE IT AND FILL IT WITH wext)):

#DEFAULT GATEWAY IP ADDRESS

GATEWAY="192.168.0.1"

## Example config information for wlan0. Uncomment the lines you need and fill
## in your data. (You may not need all of these for your wireless network)

IFNAME="wlan0"
USE_DHCP[4]="yes"
WLAN_ESSID[4]="name of your router default wireless connection, or name of your wireless connection"
WLAN_WPA[4]="wpa_supplicant"
WLAN_WPADRIVER[4]="wext"

## Some examples of additional network parameters that you can use.
## Config information for wlan0:

IFNAME[4]="wlan0"
WLAN_ESSID[4]=name of your router default wireless connection, or name of your wireless connection

4.- save and exit
5.- at this point you set the service, now enable main source | EXAMPLE: "wpa_passphrase conection01 123$$marck" (no quotation)

wpa_passphrase wirelessname password

6.- copy the PSK=23432432o432432435465u6456656546k654 (copy your code not this, and NOT THE "PSK=")
7.- edit the supplicant and search for ssid and psk, if you see comment # just uncomment

nano /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
SSID="your wireless name"
PSK=paste you PSK code

8.- save and exit
9.- hide key/password

chmod 640 /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

10.- pre-activation (if you get error, just copy the example line at the end of error message and paste it, then enter)

wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

11.- Wait to get "CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED"
12.- open other root terminal

13.- ACTIVATE WIRELESS (thanks god...)

dhcpcd wlan0
dhclient wlan0

14.- YOU READY TO LIVE
15.- check and try to connect, open and web browser or something
16.- reboot your system or:

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf restart

|16| .- optional:

send a message to patrick volkerding saying that debian and debian distros are better and easier to configure.

allenlinux | grep head tail

1 members found this post helpful.

Alight I got everything installed and got the internet working with this... how do I get it so I don't have to repeat steps 10 thru the end every time I reboot? Thanks for your VERY helpful post!

Also, wicd still doesn't show any connections, any help there?

Care to post output of iwconfig ?

Just need a way so that every time I start up I don't have to type:

wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
dhcpcd
dhclient

Also, this method probably won't work if I try accessing a wireless other than my home

Have you tried fiddling with the wicd's preference section? Set the wireless interface to wlan0 and I think you should be good to go regardless of any other wireless router.

I feel pretty dumb right now... installed wicd from /extras and everything works fine now... thanks guys!