Wireless networking on Fedora Core 4 (linux)

[Kliro]

Hey, I'm having problems getting internet to my laptop with fedora installed - Ive got an intel pro/wireless 2200gb network card - and am trying to get it to connect to my router WRT54G and ultimeately the internet.

The problem is I'm brand new to linux - (we've all got to start somewhere) and I can't find any really useful info on how to set it up etc - I'm sure I need drivers for the card as I doubt its natively supported, but where from? And how do I install them and get them to work??

Sorry if this is tedious - but any help is appreciated

[grandmaster]

The first place to start is your wireless cards manufacturer to see if they have Linux drivers available.

Post back when you have checked and we can try and move to the next stage.

EDIT:

Try these :
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scri...ProductID=1784

Download this.

[Kliro]

Originally Posted by grandmaster

The first place to start is your wireless cards manufacturer to see if they have Linux drivers available.

Post back when you have checked and we can try and move to the next stage.

EDIT:

Try these :
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scri...ProductID=1784

Download this.

If I download this to the windows partition of my hdd is there any way of getting it over to the linux side or will I have to copy to disk?

Cheers

[grandmaster]

I think disk is the best way,

You could always plug a lan cable into your router (if that is already set up to the internet)

You could then download everything you need then unplug the cable.

[ZrByte]

Originally Posted by Kliro

If I download this to the windows partition of my hdd is there any way of getting it over to the linux side or will I have to copy to disk?

Cheers

If the windows partition is fat 32 you will have no problem, if its ntfs I believe you can mount it as a read-only partition (Unless they have finally got a work around for that issue). Only problem is I cant remember exactly how you do this, im sure one of the Linuxites on here will though.

[Kliro]

Im pretty sure its FAT32 - when I open my computer I see two hdd's C: and E: but when I click on E: theres nothing there - should i just drag and drop stuff there??

[Tristan]

If you're new to Linux, I wouldn't have recommended Fedora. It's very up-to-date, very good for developers, but not necessarily the easiest to set up for new users.

As far as the wireless card goes, after a bit of Googling, it seems that it is supported, but requires a firmware download. Red Hat don't include these in Fedora (although other distributions do). This is available from

http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/firmware.php

I've no idea of the driver version included in FC4 though.

[Aragorn]

I agree with Tristan, Fedora isn't for the faint hearted.

I managed to get my Linksys WMP54G card working, with WPA, on FC4 but only after a few evenings of hair pulling! (had to use NDISWrapper and WPAsupplicant)

There are lots of good 'how-to's on the dedicated Fedora forums at http://www.fedoraforum.org/ - worth visiting if you are going to stick with FC4.

[jfknight]

Apart from the firmware already mentioned, you will also need the ipw2200bg drivers. These are available from http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/[IMG]chrome://targetalert/content/skin/new.png[/IMG][IMG]chrome://targetalert/content/skin/new.png[/IMG][IMG]chrome://targetalert/content/skin/new.png[/IMG][IMG]chrome://targetalert/content/skin/new.png[/IMG][IMG]chrome://targetalert/content/skin/new.png[/IMG]

As long as you aren't using WPA/PSK it's not that bad as long as you follow the instructions carefully in the README file. If you are using WPA, then you also need the wpa_supplicant from http://hostap.epitest.fi/wpa_supplicant/[IMG]chrome://targetalert/content/skin/new.png[/IMG][IMG]chrome://targetalert/content/skin/new.png[/IMG][IMG]chrome://targetalert/content/skin/new.png[/IMG][IMG]chrome://targetalert/content/skin/new.png[/IMG][IMG]chrome://targetalert/content/skin/new.png[/IMG]
and some more research.

I've been using FC3/4 on my Acer Travelmate 382tmi for a year now. First tried NDISwrapper and got nowhere, Then I tried the linuxant drivers, which although cheap are still not free and the driver kept hanging up and needing manual restarts. Then I found the Intel sponsored ipw2200 project on Sourceforge, and it's been pretty much OK since then. I'm running a few releases behind the current one now because it works and I can't be bothered to keep reinstalling it unless there's a good reason. The driver does hang now & then but at least it restarts itself with only short pauses. It's actually more reliable than the Windows XP driver which always halted before I removed the Windows bugware off the machine.

jfk