Wireless Interface not detected

Libu · 02-15-2007, 12:04 AM

I installed Slackware 11.0 for the first time two days back. Everything went well, but I just couldnt get wireless to work. Funny thing is that the wireless card is recognized. I have a Hp dv4000 laptop and my wireless card is the "Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG"

I have included the output of the following commands below:

Code:

root@dragula:/lib/modules/2.6.17.13# lspci|grep PR
06:05.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection (rev 05)

Code:

root@dragula:/lib/modules/2.6.17.13# lsmod |grep ipw2200
ipw2200               101312  0
ieee80211              29896  1 ipw2200
firmware_class          7424  2 pcmcia,ipw2200

Code:

root@dragula:/etc/rc.d# cat rc.inetd1.conf

# Config information for eth0:

IPADDR[0]=""
NETMASK[0]=""
USE_DHCP[0]="yes"
DHCP_HOSTNAME[0]=""


# Config information for eth1:
IPADDR[1]=""
NETMASK[1]=""
USE_DHCP[1]=""
DHCP_HOSTNAME[1]=""


# Config information for eth2:
IPADDR[2]=""
NETMASK[2]=""
USE_DHCP[2]=""
DHCP_HOSTNAME[2]=""

# Config information for eth3:
IPADDR[3]=""
NETMASK[3]=""
USE_DHCP[3]=""
DHCP_HOSTNAME[3]=""


# Default gateway IP address:
GATEWAY=""


# Change this to "yes" for debugging output to stdout.  Unfortunately,
# /sbin/hotplug seems to disable stdout so you'll only see debugging output
# when rc.inet1 is called directly.
DEBUG_ETH_UP="no"


## Example config information for wlan0.  Uncomment the lines you need and fill
## in your info.  (You may not need all of these for your wireless network)
IFNAME[4]="wlan0"
#IPADDR[4]=""
#NETMASK[4]=""
USE_DHCP[4]="yes"
#DHCP_HOSTNAME[4]="icculus-wireless"
#DHCP_KEEPRESOLV[4]="yes"
#DHCP_KEEPNTP[4]="yes"
#DHCP_KEEPGW[4]="yes"
#DHCP_IPADDR[4]=""
#WLAN_ESSID[4]=BARRIER05
WLAN_MODE[4]=Managed
##WLAN_RATE[4]="54M auto"
##WLAN_CHANNEL[4]="auto"
##WLAN_KEY[4]="D5AD1F04ACF048EC2D0B1C80C7"
##WLAN_IWPRIV[4]="AuthMode=WPAPSK EncrypType=TKIP WPAPSK=7B1ABEEB5D197741923ED26727569C365E31212096A0EAFAD563B
268BAD01CAF TxRate=0"
##WLAN_WPA[4]="wpa_supplicant"

Code:

root@dragula:/etc/rc.d# ifconfig -a
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0A:E4:D9:52:A2
          BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:10 Base address:0x4000

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

sit0      Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-00-00-00-30-30-30-3A-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
          NOARP  MTU:1480  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

Code:

root@dragula:/etc/rc.d# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.
eth0      no wireless extensions.
sit0      no wireless extensions.

Even though my wireless card seems to be recognized by the kernel, why isn't it assigned a device ? Am I missing some config file that has to be modified ?Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

mickyg · 02-15-2007, 03:13 AM

Even though lspci lists the correct wireless card details that doesn't necessarily mean that the driver will work with the card.

I have a Toshiba Satellite Pro L10 and although lspci lists the card correctly I still have to use ndiswrapper to load the windows driver for my card.

Libu · 02-15-2007, 08:29 AM

The reason I didnt try to install ndiswrapper was because the ipw2200 module seemed to work in Ubuntu Breezy badger (which was on my laptop previously).
I think, I will wait to see if anybody had the same problem and solved it, before I try with ndiswrapper.

Thanks.

2Gnu · 02-15-2007, 09:19 AM

Is the firmware loaded? Any clues in dmesg?

Libu · 02-15-2007, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2Gnu

Is the firmware loaded? Any clues in dmesg?

Hmm..Iam not sure what that means. Is it like whether the driver for the chipset is loaded ? But that should have been loaded, since my other components are working :? !! Or am i missing the point here.
If iam how do I check whether the firmware is loaded ?

Libu · 02-15-2007, 10:33 AM

Allright, I guess I didnt do anything like that. I just checked out http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/INSTALL and there is a section for loading firmware. Will try it once i reach home later in the evening.
I just have one question. I did not have to do anything manually to load the ipw2200 module. So would'nt the firmware get automatically loaded too ?

Libu · 02-15-2007, 10:52 AM

Alright I now understand the difference between firmware and a device driver.

Quote:

In general, software is a program that operates hardware. Some software is designed to run at the operating system level (such as a game, application, or software driver), while some software (such as "firmware") is designed to run at the hardware level. In the later example, firmware is software that is used for application.

To best illustrate the idea:

Firmware is a software stored in a programmable chip in a device (such as a digital camera), which instructs the device how to operate. For example: when the power button is pressed, the camera is instructed by the firmware to turn "on." When the capture button is pressed, the device is instructed by the firmware to take a photo, and so on. Firmware operates at the hardware level (regardless if an operating system is installed on the device).

I got this info from this link (using google, what else

!!) http://www.infopackets.com/channels/...pplication.htm

Guess i will check out whether the firmware is installed or not before I do anything else. But gotta wait till i get home for that.