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tronayne 11-10-2007 10:20 AM
Slackware 12 and Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG
 
I'm just starting with Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG on a Dell Inspiron 6000 and am looking for a guide to getting wireless to work (this machine is normally connected to a router with a cable). I know next to nothing about wireless other than wireless on this machine does work in XP for whatever that's worth. I've looked for information but most of it appears to be from 2004 or 2005 and I'm not too sure it applies.

dmesg reports:
Code:
ipw2200: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver, 1.2.0kmprq
ipw2200: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
and lspci reports:
Code:
03:03.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection (rev 05)
Form this it looks like drivers are loaded and things are recognized?

I have no clue where to go from here and would appreciate somewhere to look. I mean, what do I do from here? Is there a GUI thing, do I do it in /etc/rc.d, I probably missing something real basic and have no clue.

Thanks.

eddyvp 11-10-2007 10:57 AM
Hello,

First, you'll need to download the firmware for the driver.
You can find it here http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/firmware.php
Extract it in /lib/firmware.
If you want to use wpa you'll have to install the wpa_supplicant package, otherwise just modify /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf and /etc/rc.d.rc.wireless.conf to your needs.

tronayne 11-10-2007 12:23 PM
Thanks.

So, I went off to http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/firmware.php and downloaded ipw2200-fw-3.0.tgz (I think the drivers I have are version 1.2.0k and the choice driver versions v1.1.1 and newer firmware v3.0 seems to be the right one. That extracted into /lib/firmware as subdirectory ipw2200-fw-3.0, and I moved the firmware files from the subdirectory to /lib/firmware (I did try to figure out what the install document at the web site was telling me -- without much success, damn I feel stupid).

And, from there, I have no idea what to do next. I read the Wikipedia article about WPA but don't see how that will help and I haven't really got a clue what to do with rc.inet1 or rc.wireless.conf or what I might need to know to mess with them.

I mean, how would I know if the thing works at all? I don't have an open Wi-Fi site handy but there are password-protected sites near enough that they show up in XP; is there something I'm missing that will give me a clue?

Sorry to be so stupid.

Alien Bob 11-10-2007 12:55 PM
Not stupid at all.
Read this article and then ask again if things remain unclear: http://alien.slackbook.org/dokuwiki/...wpa_encryption
Tip: read the non-WPA stuff on that page as well - even though it is written for madwifi, you will benefit from it.

Eric

Whiffle 11-12-2007 05:34 PM
If you do 'modprobe ipw2200', and then 'iwconfig', your wireless interface should show up as eth1 if the driver is working.

'iwlist eth1 scan' will show you nearby wireless access points.

I've had good luck with wicd for managing wireless on my laptop with the same card. It can be a little pokey at times but overall it works well.

tronayne 11-13-2007 08:27 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Whiffle (Post 2956789)
If you do 'modprobe ipw2200', and then 'iwconfig', your wireless interface should show up as eth1 if the driver is working.

'iwlist eth1 scan' will show you nearby wireless access points.

I've had good luck with wicd for managing wireless on my laptop with the same card. It can be a little pokey at times but overall it works well.
Thanks for this -- to my old, ignorant, eyes it's a big help.

Went and got wicd. Looks like a GNOME thing. Also won't start because it's "Missing GTK and gtk.glade. Aborting." Arrgghh!

And so it goes...

Whiffle 11-13-2007 08:49 AM
Yeah its kind of a gnome thing, i found everything i needed to run it at www.slacky.eu

tronayne 11-13-2007 09:01 AM
Um, OK, just what did you have to get? I mean, there's no way I'm going to install and run GNOME but a hint or two about what's needed would go a long, long way if you know what I mean.

Thanks.

Whiffle 11-13-2007 11:53 AM
No gnome dependencies, it needs:

pygtk
pycairo
pygobject
dbus-python

http://www.slacky.eu/index.php?optio...4064&Itemid=56

tronayne 11-13-2007 03:54 PM
Well, thanks; I looked at the link, don't read Italian, couldn't figure out who, what, where, why or when and went off and got the source for dbus-python-0.82.3, pycairo-1.4.0, pygobject-2.12.3 and pygtk-2.12.0.

Built 'em with 'configure --prefix=/usr' in order pyobject, pycairo, dbus-python and pygobject and the installed tree looks like:
Code:
/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/gtk-2.0
|-- atk.la
|-- atk.so
|-- dsextras.py
|-- dsextras.pyc
|-- dsextras.pyo
|-- gobject
|  |-- __init__.py
|  |-- __init__.pyc
|  |-- __init__.pyo
|  |-- _gobject.la
|  |-- _gobject.so
|  |-- option.py
|  |-- option.pyc
|  `-- option.pyo
|-- gtk
|  |-- __init__.py
|  |-- __init__.pyc
|  |-- __init__.pyo
|  |-- _gtk.la
|  |-- _gtk.so
|  |-- _lazyutils.py
|  |-- _lazyutils.pyc
|  |-- _lazyutils.pyo
|  |-- compat.py
|  |-- compat.pyc
|  |-- compat.pyo
|  |-- deprecation.py
|  |-- deprecation.pyc
|  |-- deprecation.pyo
|  |-- glade.la
|  |-- glade.so
|  |-- keysyms.py
|  |-- keysyms.pyc
|  `-- keysyms.pyo
|-- gtkunixprint.la
|-- gtkunixprint.so
|-- pango.la
|-- pango.so
|-- pangocairo.la
`-- pangocairo.so
The daemon starts and seems to keep running (at least the PID is still there) and executing
Code:
/opt/wicd/gui.py
Missing GTK and gtk.glade.  Aborting.
I have got to be missing some really, really stupid and I'll be darned if I can see what (I know next to nothing about Python, but it sure looks like the right stuff is in the right places).

Is there some environment variable I have to set, some PATH variable, some LD_LIBRARY_PATH?

Sorry to be so ignorant about all this and I do appreciate any and all help.

Whiffle 11-13-2007 06:01 PM
Thats funny, I don't read italian either. I just put the package name in the search box on slacky and find packages that i need, im pretty sure i got them all there.

Only thing I can think of:

http://pastebin.com/m4ba07bd1

Thats what its got open when its running gui.py

Poetics 11-13-2007 06:47 PM
For what it's worth, I've found on my notebook (using the 2200 chipset as well), recent kernels have a driver specifically for the 2200. Recompile with it as a module, add the firmware, and run "modprobe ipw2200" -- I was online without any fuss. After a history of wireless woes with previous cards, I was very impressed.

tronayne 11-14-2007 06:59 AM
Well, duh.

I used your list of files (cool toy, that) and ran a quick and dirty "if ! -f ${file}" to find that, stupid me, I had the wrong pygtk package and that the "missing stuff" was sitting there in /usr/lib/python2.4 (and, of course, there was nothing else in that directory). Arrgghh! Late yesterday I finally figured out what was where on slacky, got the packages, uninstalled what I'd built from scratch and went from there (of course with the wrong pygtk package, but that seems to be the way of things every so often). Oh, yeah, I knew that at least part of the thing was working because the log file showed the daemon doing its thing and listed local transceivers.

So, back to slacky, see if I can figure out where the packages are, get the right pygtk, upgrade, from 2.10.x to 2.12.0 and whadda ya know...

Starts up, shows local transceivers (all password protected, smart neighbors that I have), looks like things might just work out -- after much ado and many, many thanks for your help and advice.

Now all I have to do is go find an open... well, that'll have to wait a day or to.

Thank you once again for the help.

tronayne 11-20-2007 10:27 AM
I'd like to thank, particularly, Whiffle along with other who dragged me kicking and screaming from total ignorance in the direction of having a clue. I'm remote for a week or two -- no DSL, no cable, no nothing but dial-up -- and after a quick 15 mile drive to the library, whadda ya know but there's wicd doing just what you'd expect with no hassle, no fiddling, no twiddling, just working away, downloading 100+ junk mails every day (oh, yeah, and four or five that I actually care about).

wicd makes it easy. Possibly too easy but who cares: it works.


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