Dell Mini 9

[Juanito]

In order to use the b43 module, you'll need the firmware. In order to use the wl module, you'll need to boot with "blacklist=ssb blacklist=b43"

[h-munster]

Thanks for the info!  I guess I'll use the wl module with those "prohibitive" boot codes.

By the way, I just remembered that the resolution was correct when I booted a virgin version of TC from a USB thumb drive.  However, when I checked appsaudit, it showed all of the onboot and ondemand extensions in my internal drive.  Was the virgin USB TC tapping into the 915resolution on my Mini 9's SSD?

[h-munster]

Okay.  I used the "blacklist=ssb blacklist=b43" boot codes, and the wireless card seems to be recognized.  However, when I try to use "iwlist scan", I get:  "eth1    Failed to read scan data : Invalid argument".  The same message appears after "iwlist scanning".  Not sure what I am doing wrong.

Also, I forgot that I can only boot into the console, so I have to "startx" to get Xvesa.

Here is the contents of my /grub/menu.lst

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default         0
timeout         0
color cyan/blue white/blue
title           Tiny Core Linux 3.0
kernel          (hd0,1)/boot/boot/bzImage quiet embed ht=on hpet=disabled blacklist=ssb blacklist=b43 tce=hda2 home=hda2 opt=hda2 nodhcp norestore restore=hda2
initrd          (hd0,1)/boot/boot/tinycore.gz

Thanks!

[Juanito]

Are the wireless_tools and wireless-2.6.33.3-tinycore extensions loaded?

Can you connect to your router with:

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$ sudo iwconfig eth1 essid "essid"
$ sudo iwconfig eth1 key restricted 12:34:56:78:9A:BC:DE:F0:12:34:56:78:9A
$ sudo udhcpc -b -i eth1
..or similar (this example is for wep)?

[tinypoodle]

"eth1    Failed to read scan data : Invalid argument".  The same message appears after "iwlist scanning".

The same message would appear after "iwlist s" as well 
If eth1 is the wireless interface then this output indicates that extensions are loaded, but might need

Code: [Select]

sudo ifconfig eth1 up
and/or

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sudo iwconfig eth1 mode managed
first, depending on particular driver.

[h-munster]

Thank you for the suggestions!

"ifconfig eth1 up" alone did the trick.  It's now working in my bootlocal.sh.

Just curious, why does one now have to blacklist the Broadcom modules and manually start the wireless interface? -- I don't recall having to make these moves on earlier versions of TC.

The only thing left is to figure out why TC boots into the console, instead of Xvesa.

Thanks!

[Juanito]

Just curious, why does one now have to blacklist the Broadcom modules and manually start the wireless interface? -- I don't recall having to make these moves on earlier versions of TC.

You're not blacklisting the broadcom module, you're blacklisting the reverse engineered in-kernel module (b43) - wl is the broadcom module.

b43/ssb were not in earlier kernels/versions of tc, hence there was no need to blacklist them.

As mentioned elsewhere, you'd possibly get more functionality out of using b43 and firmware rather than wl.

[h-munster]

You're not blacklisting the broadcom module, you're blacklisting the reverse engineered in-kernel module (b43) - wl is the broadcom module.

Oh.  That's correct.  Thanks for the reminder.

As mentioned elsewhere, you'd possibly get more functionality out of using b43 and firmware rather than wl.

Thank you for the suggestion.  I might try it, but installing the firmware seems a little involved, and there are a few variables which are unknown to me.

It looks like I need to compile version 013 of b43-fwcutter.  I don't think that I can use b43-fwcutter.tcz in the repository, because it is version 012.  So, apparently I must have a compiler (which I guess means installing gcc.tcz)  and headers for libc.  Which extension contains the libc headers?

These seem to be the instructions for installing the firmware for my wireless card with kernel 2.6.33.3:  http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#fw-b43-lp  However, in TC, to which directory do I install the firmware?  TC hasn't a "/lib/firmware" directory nor a "/usr/local/lib/firmware."  I did find "/sys/firmware."

By the way, I solved the problem with TC booting into a console instead of Xvesa.  I had cleaned out out all of the config files in the /home/tc directory, assuming that they would be automatically repopulated after booting TC 3.0.  I had no ".profile" and no ".Xdefaults" (which explains why I wasn't seeing any transparent aterms).  I am still not sure what caused the strange resolution behavior that I experienced.

[tinypoodle]

It's /lib/firmware
You might temporarily want to load the firmware-*-tinycore.tcz extension to get the path structure, or alternatively just look at firmware-*-tinycore.tcz.files 

[Juanito]

Thank you for the suggestion.  I might try it, but installing the firmware seems a little involved, and there are a few variables which are unknown to me.

It looks like I need to compile version 013 of b43-fwcutter.  I don't think that I can use b43-fwcutter.tcz in the repository, because it is version 012.  So, apparently I must have a compiler (which I guess means installing gcc.tcz)  and headers for libc.  Which extension contains the libc headers?

These seem to be the instructions for installing the firmware for my wireless card with kernel 2.6.33.3:  http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#fw-b43-lp  However, in TC, to which directory do I install the firmware?  TC hasn't a "/lib/firmware" directory nor a "/usr/local/lib/firmware."  I did find "/sys/firmware."

To compile, you just need to use the appbrowser to download/install compiletc - this will get all of the required extensions for you.

You can create /lib/firmware, copy the firmware files to there and make your own extension out of it. /usr/local/lib/firmware would probably also work, but I didn't try this myself.

[h-munster]

You might temporarily want to load the firmware-*-tinycore.tcz extension to get the path structure, or alternatively just look at firmware-*-tinycore.tcz.files

Thanks.  I can't seem to find any "firmware-*-tinycore.tcz" extensions, but I looked at the file list for "firmware-iwlwifi.tcz" and it puts almost everything into "/usr/local/lib/firmware."  It's helpful to see that directory structure.  I assume that installing this extension as onboot will maintain an automatically persistent "/usr/local/lib/firmware" directory, but then, how would one keep the manually created b43 firmware from disappearing from that directory at shutdown?

To compile, you just need to use the appbrowser to download/install compiletc - this will get all of the required extensions for you.

Thanks.  That sounds easy!

You can create /lib/firmware, copy the firmware files to there and make your own extension out of it. /usr/local/lib/firmware would probably also work, but I didn't try this myself.

Okay.  So, if I can make an extension for the new firmware files, I would need to install it as onboot to keep it automatically persistent?

[tinypoodle]

You might temporarily want to load the firmware-*-tinycore.tcz extension to get the path structure, or alternatively just look at firmware-*-tinycore.tcz.files

Thanks.  I can't seem to find any "firmware-*-tinycore.tcz" extensions

* is meant as wildcard for the variable kernel version number 

[h-munster]

* is meant as wildcard for the variable kernel version number

Thanks.  I understood the wild card.  I just couldn't seem to find any extensions named:  "firmware" <wild card> "tinycore.tcz".

[tinypoodle]

Oh, sorry, changed name to firmware.tcz with 3.x
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/3.x/tcz/firmware.tcz.list
Also path changed from /lib/firmware to /usr/local/lib/firmware

[Juanito]

Okay.  So, if I can make an extension for the new firmware files, I would need to install it as onboot to keep it automatically persistent?

Affirmative