ipw2100 on Sony Vaio TR2AP (Rev 04 802.11b Intel 2100) Problems
 

Hey,
I'm running Fedora Core 3 (2.6.12 Kernel) with the latest version of ipw2100 (using testing 1.1.5 but tried stable 1.1.0 first, with no luck), wireless-tools, host-ap and ipw2100-firmware (1.3). I've installed these via apt using atrpms respoitory

My problem is I get the following error when attempting to change channels:
[root@orlwl002428 cabe]# /sbin/iwconfig eth1 channel 6
Error for wireless request "Set Frequency" (8B04) :
SET failed on device eth1 ; Operation not supported.

I've already changed eth1 to monitor mode, it seems I can only change channel in Ad-Hoc mode. I've google-fu'd for the past week or so and haven't found anything to help. I've also not been able to successfully attached to a managed 802.11b router (encryption disabled). I have not yet tried an Ad-Hoc network.

Has anyone seen anything like this with ipw2100 and the Sony Vaio TR2AP? Some more info;

(iwconfig on eth1)
eth1 unassociated ESSID:off/any Nickname:"ipw2100"
Mode:Managed Channel=0 Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Bit Rate=0 kb/s Tx-Power:16 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

(lspci)
02:0b.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter (rev 04)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 2596
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 9
Memory at e0201000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2

(modinfo ipw2100)
filename: /lib/modules/2.6.12-1.1381_FC3/updates/drivers/net/wireless/ipw2100/ipw2100.ko
description: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2100 Network Driver
version: 1.1.5
author: Copyright(c) 2003-2005 Intel Corporation
license: GPL
parmtype: debug:int
parmtype: mode:int
parmtype: channel:int
parmtype: associate:int
parmtype: disable:int
parm: debug:debug level
parm: mode:network mode (0=BSS,1=IBSS,2=Monitor)
parm: channel:channel
parm: associate:auto associate when scanning (default on)
parm: disable:manually disable the radio (default 0 [radio on])
vermagic: 2.6.12-1.1381_FC3 686 REGPARM 4KSTACKS gcc-3.4
depends:
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002520bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002521bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002524bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002525bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002526bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002522bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002523bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002527bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002528bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002529bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd0000252Bbc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd0000252Cbc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd0000252Dbc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002550bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002551bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002553bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002554bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002555bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002560bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002562bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002563bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002561bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002565bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002566bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002567bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002570bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002580bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002582bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002583bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002581bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002585bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002586bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002587bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002590bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002592bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002591bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002593bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002596bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd00002598bc*sc*i*
alias: pci:v00008086d00001043sv00008086sd000025A0bc*sc*i*
srcversion: 9F3B5182A508106F4848556

(dmesg)
I only get this if I rmmod then modprobe ipw2100
ipw2100: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2100 Network Driver, 1.1.5
ipw2100: Copyright(c) 2003-2005 Intel Corporation
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:0b.0[A] -> Link [LNKD] -> GSI 9 (level, low) -> IRQ 9
ipw2100: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 Network Connection

Hope somebody can help. Thanks.

Just a guess but... ipw2200 is a bit weird, you need to patch your kernel with a certain version of ieee80211 to get it to work, as the one in kernel in conflicting. Usually, you have to recompile your whole kernel with the new version of ieee patched, or the ipw2200 driver doesn't install at all.

Have you installed ieee80211 before the ipw2200 drivers (no clue if this exist on Fedora)?
Aslo, it could be an idea to install the driver and ieee from source instead than using package, as the configure script would probably detect incompatibility.