Help needed getting wireless working on my thinkpad T40

[wileyvic]

Hey guys,
i'm trying to get my older laptop working wirelessly with tc but i'm stuck on what to do next so if someone could point me in the right direction it'd be much appreciated. (if i chose the wrong section to post this topic i'm sorry)  i've been a linux user for almost 3yrs but for much of the first 2yrs i've mostly done things from the gui. i'm now learning to do things from the command line, but i'm still pretty green. anyways here's the info i've gathered/steps i've taken so far...

output of uname -a:
Linux box 2.6.29.1-tinycore #1337 SMP Fri Apr 10 19:12:39 EEST 2009 i686 unknown

i started by installing the following packages
 - wireless-2.6.29.1-tinycore.tcem
 - wireless_tools.tcel

i then modprobe ipw2100 (b/c that's what other distros had loaded when i used them on this machine)
here is the output of lsmod | grep ipw
ipw2100                46044  0
libipw                 16600  1 ipw2100
lib80211                1948  1 libipw
firmware_class          3188  3 ipw2100,pcmcia,e100

next i used iwconfig and got:
lo   no wireless extensions.

dummy0   no wireless extensions.

eth0   no wireless extensions.

so then i rebooted and tried it again with the same result.
next i checked dmesg and here is the output of dmesg | grep ipw:
ipw2100: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2100 Network Driver, git-1.2.2
ipw2100: Copyright(c) 2003-2006 Intel Corporation
ipw2100 0000:02:02.0: PCI INT A -> Link[LNKC] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
ipw2100: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 Network Connection
eth1 (ipw2100): not using net_device_ops yet
ipw2100 0000:02:02.0: firmware: requesting ipw2100-1.3.fw
ipw2100: eth1: Firmware 'ipw2100-1.3.fw' not available or load failed.
ipw2100: eth1: ipw2100_get_firmware failed: -2
ipw2100: eth1: Failed to power on the adapter.
ipw2100: eth1: Failed to start the firmware.
ipw2100Error calling register_netdev.
ipw2100 0000:02:02.0: PCI INT A disabled
ipw2100: probe of 0000:02:02.0 failed with error -5

And this is where i'm stuck. i have no idea what i should try/do next, so if anyone has any help they can give me it'd be much appreciated.

thanx, vic

[^thehatsrule^]

The .info and dmesg results suggest that you need to grab the firmware

[wileyvic]

lol i sorta gathered that, just have no clue how or where. but i'll keep looking for the answer. 

[wileyvic]

ok so i found the firmware ( at http://ipw2100.sourceforge.net/firmware.php), downloaded the ipw2100-fw-1.3.tgz file, extracted it and have these 4 files:
LICENSE
ipw2100-1.3.fw
ipw2100-1.3-i.fw
ipw2100-1.3-p.fw

what do i do with them?

[curaga]

Put them in /lib/firmware, and then create an extension out of them:

sudo su
mkdir /lib/firmware
cp ipw*fw /lib/firmware
cd /
tar cvzf tmp/intel-firmware.tce lib/firmware/*

Then put the resulting extension in your tce directory, and have wireless automatically on boot

[wileyvic]

Thanks curaga! Your post worked, and my fireware issue is now solved. i read last night somewhere about hotpluging the firmware by sticking it into /lib/firmware, just had no clue how to make that last past a reboot on tc. quick question about what i did. when using your instructions do i have to change directory to / or could i have just typed tar cvzf /tmp/intel-firmware.tce /lib/firmware/*?

anyways i still haven't managed to connect to my home network.
i installed wicd.tce, clicked on the icon and my wifi light came on.
i used iwconfig eth1 essid "home"
and the output of iwconfig reads:

eth1      IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:"home"  Nickname:"ipw2100"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: 00:19:5B:25:C0:98   
          Bit Rate=11 Mb/s   Tx-Power:16 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=100/100  Signal level=-50 dBm 
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:46   Missed beacon:0

which is what i get in other distros using this wireless adapter.

now what do i have to do next? i'm gonna guess it has to do with dhcp but as i mentioned before i'm still a noob at the terminal.

[^thehatsrule^]

TC uses udhcpc for its default dhcp client.  You could use the gui tools (i.e. see cpanel)

[wileyvic]

Thanks ^thehatsrule^! udhcpc was the command I needed to get it working
The following did the trick:

Code: [Select]

$sudo udhcpc -i eth1(I used the command line because the gui tool seems to do nothing and when I open it again it is back to defaults)

Now if I could only remember how to get the last few steps into a script and get it executed on boot. I know i read that somewhere in the forums...

Anyways thanks again guys!

[roberts]

/opt/bootlocal.sh

You don't need sudo in /opt/bootlocal.sh as all commands listed there are executed as root.

[curaga]

when using your instructions do i have to change directory to / or could i have just typed tar cvzf /tmp/intel-firmware.tce /lib/firmware/*?

Nah, it was just for convenience / out of habit. You could have used full paths too.

[wileyvic]

Thanks again guys! This is a great little distro that I will probably use/play with for sometime. Keep up the great work!