Confused About Wireless

carlosinfl · 10-07-2006, 06:42 PM

I am a little confused about getting my wireless card working on my Dell Latitude X1 notebook. The notebook to my understanding has a Intel Pro/Wireless 2200GB card installed. I did a search on these forums which directed me to http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/

At that URL, I downloaded the latest stable driver to my Debian laptop called ipw2200-1.2.0.tgz.

Now my question is this all I need to get my wireless card working in Linux or do I also need to use an NDISWrapper for my wireless adapter on Debian? I am not sure the function of NDISWrapper but I would think that if I did not have the mentioned above *.tgz file, then I would have to use the NDISWrapper via Windows drivers, correct?

Thanks for any correction.

Dutch Master · 10-07-2006, 07:29 PM

Check if the mentioned package contains a native Linux driver. If that is the case, you don't need Ndiswrapper. Untar the package, configure, build and install the driver. If that fails, and you have to resort to Ndiswrapper, you do need the Win-XP drivers for it to work. Given the fact that there is a .tgz package available I doubt you'll need to use Ndiswrapper. But it's there as a last resort

noxious · 10-08-2006, 04:35 PM

If you're using a kernel more recent than 2.6.14, you don't need any drivers - there is native support in the kernel.

You do, however, need the firmware for the ipw-2200. Go back tohttp://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/ and get the firmware.

Untar the firmware file and put it in the /lib/firmware directory. Reboot, or modprobe ipw2200. You should be all set.

carlosinfl · 10-09-2006, 05:23 PM

Ah yes. I am using the 2.6.17 kernel right now so I will follow the firmware instructions you posted and report back!

Thanks so much!

carlosinfl · 10-09-2006, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by noxious

If you're using a kernel more recent than 2.6.14, you don't need any drivers - there is native support in the kernel.

You do, however, need the firmware for the ipw-2200. Go back tohttp://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/ and get the firmware.

Untar the firmware file and put it in the /lib/firmware directory. Reboot, or modprobe ipw2200. You should be all set.

When I select the firmware page, it request for me to select the firmware based on my driver version. I have no idea what driver is built into the 2.6.17 kernel so can someone please help me out as to which to select on this following URL http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/firmware.php

Dutch Master · 10-09-2006, 05:54 PM

Read the install file on that site and in the Kernel Requirements section you'll find that the build-in drivers are ieee80211 and ipw2200 1.0. Going back to the page you've mentioned, look up the version number and you'll find that you need v2.2 of the firmware. Also mentioned in that remark is the fact that this driver version was already in kernel 2.6.14-rc1 and -rc2

So, with a little more careful reading, you could have answered your own question

carlosinfl · 10-10-2006, 04:51 PM

Thank you all!

carlosinfl · 10-11-2006, 04:31 PM

OK - I downloaded the v2.2 firmware and moved the files to /lib/firmware (inluding the README) and I rebooted and I am not seeing any changes. Is that all I need to do is extract the firmware and place the files into the mentioned dir.?

How do I know if I was successful? I don't see anything under networking except eth*.

carlosinfl · 10-13-2006, 03:00 PM

Anyone? I am still a little in the dark.

Dutch Master · 10-13-2006, 03:17 PM

Get the wireless-tools package and try the iwscan tool. Read

Code:

man iwscan

to give you the syntax on how it's used.

carlosinfl · 10-19-2006, 07:25 PM

I am unable to find "iwscan" in my "Etch" repo list and it does not appear to already be installed since "man iwscan" did nothing. I am still in the dark in regards to if my wireless card is even being detected by Debian/Linux? Yes, it seems to be built into my kernel and I extracted all the "firmware" files into the suggested sub dir. I created yet I have to see any sign of Linux seeing more that eth0. Maybe "iwscan" will show me some light however I can't find this app in APT.

Dutch Master · 10-19-2006, 07:38 PM

The package is named wireless-tools, you won't find iwscan w/o the wireless tools

Version 27-2 is available for Sarge, I suppose for Etch there are newer packages available. Found it: http://packages.debian.org/testing/net/wireless-tools

carlosinfl · 10-19-2006, 07:43 PM

It appears I already have the wireless-tools package.

Code:

X1:/home/cwilliams# apt-get install wireless-tools
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
wireless-tools is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 258 not upgraded.

What is my next step in this?

farslayer · 10-19-2006, 11:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dutch Master

Get the wireless-tools package and try the iwscan tool. Read

Code:

man iwscan

to give you the syntax on how it's used.

next step..

carlosinfl · 10-20-2006, 08:54 AM

I have wireless-tools already installed yet there is no man entry for "iwscan" - are you sure I am not missing something else?