Tech-Shelf

I feel so amazed after 6-7 months of my posting in this forum when i posted a solution for wireless network configuration in HP core duo laptops. These links are still active, makes me glad they were of use. I actually forgot my blog password for a while and lost access, stupid me !!! but now I have come back and promise to give more….

For people to have a collective look for discussion on the topics I posted. (btw my ID on linuxquestions.org is garfield1228).

The first post Solution to wireless on FC5 for all has crossed over 31500 hits still growing and most of the below posts above 2500 hits. This gives me more motivation to continue writing that I stopped for a while now and I have decided to post regularly.

here are the posted links on linuxquestions.org one of my fav. forums for quick access …

Solution to wireless on FC5 for all
FC5 on HP dv5000 first boot freezes
SuSe doesnot boot
Suse boot fails
change of OS
Unusual ndiswrapper problems with hp dv5000
Dual core processor optimization
Intel Core DUO processor Vs AMD
Kernel warnings at boot
HP dv5000 Fedora core 4 installation error
Network Manager How to
intel pro 3945abg wireless card driver problem
Ndiswrapper error FC5 intel wireless card installation
configuring wireless on FC5
intel pro 3945abg wireless card driver problem
Knoppix wireless connection
Knoppix on HP dv5000 doesn’t load urgent Help reqd.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=443746

To install and run ndiswrapper on Fedora Core 5,
it take a little tweaking above and beyond what is in the official installation wiki. The first think you need to do is go to http://people.redhat.com/davej/kernels/Fedora/FC5/RPMS.kernel/ and get the latest kernel AND kernel-devel. If you are using firefox, when you click on the download, just open them with the default package installer, and they will be installed.

Otherwise, save them and install them with yum. Be sure that you are using the most recent kernel when you start installing ndiswrapper. IMPORTANT: Make sure you have the right kernel-devel file installed for whatever kernel you are using!!!

1. Now, create a directory in your home folder called Ndiswrapper. (mkdir Ndiswrapper)

2. Now, download the latest stable Ndiswrapper release from http://sourceforge.net/projects/ndiswrapper/
Note: if you have already tried to install it, just change to the directory where you unzipped it and run: make uninstall

3. Move the tar file into your Ndiswrapper directory and unzip it (tar -xzfv (filename))

4. Change to the new ndiswrapper directory and run: make distclean

5. If there are no errors, type:
make install KSRC=/usr/bin/kernels/

6. Open the file /etc/modprobe.conf in a text editor (kwrite /etc/modprobe.conf, or gedit /etc/modprobe.conf) and add the line:
alias wlan0 ndiswrapper
to the top of the file. Make sure there is a blank line at the end of the file, save it, and exit the editor.

7. Now you need to find your window's driver (it is a .inf file). Copy this file into your ndiswrapper directory with all of the rest of the files.

8. Type: ndiswrapper -l
If there are any drivers listed, remove them with: ndiswrapper -e (driver name)
Now, type: ndiswrapper -i (driver name).inf

9. Do ndiswrapper -l and check to make sure that it lists your driver and says "driver installed, hardware present"

10. Type: depmod -a

11. Type: modprobe ndiswrapper

Now you should be ready to set up your wireless card
To do that:
1. ifconfig eth0 down (to make sure your comp is forced to use the wireless card)
2. ifconfig wlan0 up
3. iwconfig wlan0 key (key type, i.e. open) (key here)
4. iwconfig wlan0 essid (network name here)
5. dhclient wlan0

solution to FC4 and FC5 users …

The installation process goes great, but when you reboot, it would hang while starting udev and might get warning messages like -
PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 7 of bridge 0000:00:1c.0
PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 8 of bridge 0000:00:1c.0
PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 7 of bridge 0000:00:1c.1
PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 8 of bridge 0000:00:1c.1
PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 7 of bridge 0000:00:1c.2
PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 8 of bridge 0000:00:1c.2
PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 0 of device 0000:06:00.0
PCI: Failed to allocate mem resource #6:20000@d0000000 for 0000:01:00.0
PCI: Critical temperature reached (0C) , shutting down

It would only boot with acpi=off.
This is a problem with pcmia, to fix this you have to edit the /etc/pcmcia/config.opts file and change the line
–> include port 0×100-0×4ff, port 0×800-0×8ff, port 0xc00-0xcff
to
–>include port 0×100-0×4ff, port 0xc00-0xcff
removing the 0×800-0×8ff. This will allow you to boot with acpi enabled.
Add the following kernel flags to grub.conf pci=assign-busses pci=routeirq.

–> kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5smp ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet pci=assign-busses pci=routeirq

About the warning messages for pci, that's a problem that is waiting for some free time. But it should work fine even though u get warning messages, it boots perfectly and doesnot hang.

Well, this is my 1st post and this deals with configuring intel pro 3945abg card on FC5 on my laptop…

Fedora Core 5 comes with a default kernel v2.6.16-1.2054 but it seems that this kernel version has a bug. Its better if you use the test 3 release of FC5 or update your kernel version to 2.6.16-1.2080.
To install and configure wireless on FC5 follow the following steps :

install the following rpms and reboot ur system
kernel-smp-2.6.16-1.2080_FC5.i686.rpm
kernel-smp-devel-2.6.16-1.2080_FC5.i686.rpm
kernel-kdump-2.6.16-1.2080_FC5.i686.rpm

Once done with it, install the following rpms-
ieee80211-1.1.13-10.rhfc5.at.i386.rpm
ieee80211-kernheaders-1.1.13-10.rhfc5.at.i386.rpm
ieee80211-kmdl-2.6.16-1.2080_FC5smp-1.1.13-10.rhfc5.at.i686.rpm
ipw3945-0.0.74-4.rhfc5.at.i386.rpm
ipw3945d-1.7.18-1.at.i386.rpm
ipw3945-firmware-1.13-1.noarch.rpm
ipw3945-kmdl-2.6.16-1.2080_FC5smp-0.0.74-4.rhfc5.at.i686.rpm
ipw3945-ucode-1.13-1.at.noarch.rpm
now reboot ur system ….

Now, once you have installed all rpms successfully, ur done…do this
#depmod -a
#modprobe ipw3945 <- this loads the module.

to chk if its done do …
#dmesg | grep ipw <- this should list the driver detected.
#lsmod <- this should list the driver detected. look for ipw3945
#lspci -v should list ur driver info…

OK now finally…
#ps -C ipw3945 <- this should list the ipw3945d deamon running …
this means its running successfully and got loaded.

else try,
#/sbin/ipw3945d to start it …
thats it,now
#system-config-network &

select FILE>NEW>WIRELESS>FORWARD>SELECT UR DRIVER NOW LISTED> FORWARD> COMPLETE THE CONFIGURATION
i.e. add ur essid, key etc and ok
U R DONE …
its up and running , do #ifconfig it should show it running….displays its address and other details….

or to configure manually – do the following -
#depmod -a
#modprobe ipw3945
#/sbin/ipw3945d
#ifconfig eth1 up
#iwconfig essid
#iwconfig key
#dhclient eth1
#ifconfig eth1 displays the details …

Yup, its up and running …
You can use this method for most of intel drivers …

here are a few useful links -
http://www.utexas.edu/its/wireless/i…fig_linux.html
http://www.roseindia.net/linux/tutor…OWTO.html#toc5
http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/…Fedora_Core_5&
http://tuxmobil.org/centrino.html

http://ipw3945.sourceforge.net
http://dl.atrpms.net/fc5-i386/atrpms/RPMS.stable/
http://atrpms.net/dist/fc5/
http://people.redhat.com/davej/kerne…5/RPMS.kernel/
http://rpmforge.net/user/packages/