Bill Haenel

login | site map | contact 

On that subject...

in Internet

Flipboard, Zite, Msgboy, Pulse, Taptu, Poptart,... MORE

So I'm experimenting with a new social media... MORE

UPDATE as of 12PM EST: Facebook has apparently... MORE

I wonder if this means I won't have to help... MORE

I’ve been watching web traffic from my desk here... MORE

Ever wonder what the links under the main Google... MORE

"What if I started a new public media web... MORE

So I noticed that one of the hotter items being... MORE

I recently had the opportunity to review the work... MORE

So I don't have much time to write here, but this... MORE

My good friend John Tynan from KJZZ in Arizona... MORE

OK, I admit this post might just be a bit of a... MORE

Through my work with a number of public... MORE

Remember Webmonkey? "The Web Developer's... MORE

So I got this note from Brookstone after buying a... MORE

This is my new favorite.It's the Washlet, and... MORE

After reading the Tuesday, March 6th edition of... MORE

Sorry to those of you who did not sign up for... MORE

"Billions of signals rush over the ocean floor... MORE

Still using the hell out of those colons in my... MORE

Someone at the Public Media Conference who made... MORE

I really am a pathetic blogger. Not sure why, but... MORE

I'm going to try something new here at... MORE

As my second installment of Web Master Tidbits, ... MORE

I have a CMS called MySiteWorx!, a software that... MORE

Recently I was interviewed by Stephen Feller from... MORE

Everyone knows how much I love public... MORE

I don't write a whole lot of HOWTO stuff on this... MORE

Here's one to watch.  Microsoft Point of... MORE

It seems some other folks (including the New York... MORE

When will they ever learn? I've been watching... MORE

You heard it here first. Or maybe not. But this... MORE

Recently, I've been requested by a prospective... MORE

I had the pleasure of reading the recent blog... MORE

Mass Media: An ethical and socially acceptable... MORE

in Software

I recently acquired an Asus T91MT convertible... MORE

This one has driven me nuts for several years,... MORE

I haven't said much (at least not publicly) about... MORE

in Open Source

For me, one of the highlights about last week's... MORE

Posted by Bill Haenel on 14-Jan-05

If you've never tried it, you might want to wait until you have lots of time to give it your first go.

Mind you, I have only tried configuring wireless networking under one distro, Mandrake 10.1. I have not heard that it is any simpler in any other distro, though, and after having done it on a couple of different machines, I can completely understand why it wouldn't be different.

Setup entailed finding firmware, drivers and gaining an understanding of how these items are loaded into the OS, etc. It was a learning experience to say the least. I feel like a changed man. I've really grown. I had limited knowledge of such things when I started, but now I am practically a novice.

So the first machine I tackled is my Dell D800 laptop. It comes with an Intel wireless set, in linux-land we call it the IPW2100. I guess that's a model number or something.

The second machine is my cobb-jobbed desktop, using a DLink DWL-520 Rev E1. This Rev business is important, mind you. It seems to have a great deal to do with whether the thing will actually work or not.

Especially notable in both cases was the fact that neither of these cards have firmware planted firmly anywhere. That is to say, the firware for both of these cards is loaded at system startup. This means that you have to make sure the system knows where the firware is, and how to load it.

I used a nifty driver loader called ndiswrapper, found conveniently at ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net, for my laptop. After toying with loading all sorts of drivers and following all sorts of installation instructions, I finally decided to try this approach since it appeared easy. You install ndisloader, then you put the firware files (found at ipw2100.sourceforge.net) in /lib/hotplug/firmware. If there's no directory called "firmware" already there, you can just create one. As I understand it, the ndiswrapper is a package that loads a Windows driver within the Linux OS. Neat, huh? Once I did those two things, I was able to restart the machine and run Mandrake's GUI network configuration tool to make a new connection.

My desktop is another story. The DWL-520 Rev E1 doesn't like to play nice. I am still trying to figure that one out. I attempted to use ndiswrapper for that system, bt it didn't work out much. Fortunately I was able to do a whole bunch of reading about what other folks recommend. None of it worked, but as I've found to be the case with other linux-related activities, you don't always find the answers out there, but you do almost always find lots of little bits and pieces that can be assembled to make an answer yourself.

Today I will attempt to use the hostap driver utility stuff to get my desktop running. I tried it yesterday but was unable to make it work. I think I may have tried to load the wrong driver, who knows?

Stay tuned. I'm highly likely to find an answer. And if I do, you'll be the first to know, since nobody else in my life is remotely interested in hearing about it (my website is my friend).

Related topics: · ·
Technorati Tags:
[where: 13617]
Xbox Live Gratuit