New to Fedora, struggling with wireless

[Axel Thimm]

On Fri, Nov 24, 2006 at 09:25:58AM -0500, Matthew Saltzman wrote:
> On Fri, 24 Nov 2006, Axel Thimm wrote:
> 
> >On Thu, Nov 23, 2006 at 08:57:26PM -0700, Kevin Kempter wrote:
> >>On Thursday 23 November 2006 18:58, Matthew Saltzman wrote:
> >>>On Thu, 23 Nov 2006, Erik Hemdal wrote:
> >>>>>On 23/11/06, Cecilia Lunardini <cecilialunardini at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >>>>>>So, my question is: is there a step by step, guide on how to
> >>>>>>set up the wireless?  It has to be very detailed, because I am
> >>>>>>an absolute beginner and even the most obvious aspects of
> >>>>>>Linux are not obvious to me.
> >>>>>Try this guide (for Fedora Core 6) and see if you can follow it
> >>>>>through (I think the only missing element from a Fedora
> >>>>>installation to get Centrino wireless working is the Intel
> >>>>>firmware that needs to be downloaded):
> >>>>>
> >>>>>http://www.ces.clemson.edu/linux/fc2-ipw2200.shtml
> >>>>>
> >>>>The Clemson instructions are very good and step by step.  Take a
> >>>>few minutes to read over all of it to get an idea of what you're
> >>>>in for, because it's very detailed.  There are several steps you
> >>>>need to do before you can simply check for the detection of the
> >>>>card.
> >
> >>This worked for me.
> >>
> >>1) download the v3.0-9 firmware from
> >>http://atrpms.net/dist/common/ipw2200-firmware/
> >>
> >>2) download the driver (ipw2200-1.2.0-45.fc6.at.i386.rpm ) and the 
> >>appropriate
> >>kernel module (such as
> >>ipw2200-kmdl-2.6.18-1.2849.fc6-1.2.0-45.fc6.at.i686.rpm  ) from here:
> >>http://atrpms.net/dist/fc6/ipw2200/
> >>
> >>3) run "yum install ieee80211-kmdl-2.6.18-1.2239.fc5-1.2.15-14.fc5.at" as 
> >>root
> >>to satisfy dependancies before you install the rpm's (or try and install 
> >>the
> >>RMP's and yum the module it gripes about)
> >>
> >>4) install the rpm's you downloaded in steps 1 & 2
> >
> >Hi,
> >
> >steps 1)-4) can be simply abbreviated with
> >
> >yum install ipw2200
> >
> >if you have ATrpms activated as a repo.
> 
> Of course, you have now (probably unnecessarily) climbed on a treadmill 
> where every kernel update requires an update of these modules.  That's OK 
> if you know you want or need the benefits of the newer module versions, 
> but most people don't (need or want or know).

Or you simply install yum-plugin-kmdl and forget about the "treadmill" :)

> Centrino wireless now Just Works(tm) (once firmware is installed), unless 
> there is something unusual about your hardware or operational procedures.

Perhaps rephrased: it works if you only have basic demands on wireless.

> What advantages do the ATRPMs offer, other than the updated driver 
> versions?

That's easy to answer, other than carrying new features and fixing
bugs (like QoS, radiotap, essid, deadlock/oops, passive scan), the
versions found in the kernel like the one of FC6 (1.1.2) are
development snapshots and the ones at ATrpms are the upstream
recommended, tested, verified and supported stable versions (at this
time of writing it's 1.2.0). BTW some of the mentioned features/bugs
may have been backported to FC6's kernel by the kernel package
masters, so don't nail me on a specific item listed above.

In upstream's words: "Only fully tested and verified drivers should be
used and deployed by end users. The development and unstable snapshots
are intended only for development and testing.". And if you go hunting
for a bug in 1.1.2, the first thing you'll hear from the developers
is to upgrade to the latest stable/development release first.

Having said that, I don't really recommend to blindly go 1.2.0 w/o a
reason, e.g. don't fix what ain't broken. The firmware for 1.1.2 (the
version in FC6) is also still available at ATrpms. But in case you
find difficulties, firmware restarts in the logs, issues with
performance/QoS, missing features needed for monitoring or more
complex wpa stuff, or bugs blocking these, then you should really
upgrade the ipw2x00 subsystem through these packages.

Check out the archives of ipw2100-devel (contrary to the name it's the
list for ipw2200, too) for further details on this.

> >>5) reboot, then go to Administration --> network (or the gnome
> >>equivelant) and create a new wireless device. Your ipw2200
> >>centrino device should now show up.
> >
> >>Hope this helps...

-- 
Axel.Thimm at ATrpms.net
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