LinuxQuestions.org - Fixing wireless and boot up blank screen

Ok I have a dell 700m and I trying to get wireless working I compiled kernel version 2.6.17.1 for wirless and it has driver ipw2200. its complile great but the wireless is not working. I did a dmesg! ipw and I get:

Code:

Detected Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG Metwork Connection

ipw2200-bss.fw request firmware failed: Reason: -2

Unable to load firmware: -2

failed to register network device

probe of 0000:02:01:0 failed with error -5

ok I went to the ipw2200 site and found out that i needed firmware and put it in the /lib/firmware directory because that where hotplug looks for firmware and still no go same error.

also I was wondering if I could turn vesa framebuffering on without recompiling the kernel because my startup is blank when lilo is set to vga and in text mode its looks all stretched out. I turned it off because it said I wouldn't need it in the description for the option