intel wifi 5100

[indietrash]

how on earth do I make this thing work?

I've heard rumours about using the 2.6.27 kernel will make my troubles go away - but WHICH 2.6.27 kernel is it everyone is talking about? Linus's? because his is hard masked into next year according to eix. git? because that one (the latest available through git) is horrendous. I can't even make it.

any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm on a multicom jhl90+ laptop.

[overkll]

I'm running vanilla-sources-2.6.27-rc7 for my atheros 9280. It's in portage, but you need to unmask it. I don't know if your card is supported, but I do remember an entry for "Intel Wireless Wifi NextGen AGN". Maybe that's for you?

[indietrash]

aren't there any troubles running vanilla-sources? e.g. bugs or heavier trouble than that?


EDIT:
can't install the kernel. even though it is both in package.mask, package.unmask and package.keywords.

[overkll]

Strange, all I have is

[vuakko]

I would strongly warn however about using the 2.6.27 rc kernels. This morning there was found a serious
regression in the rcs' e1000e module, which can in some cases permanently break your network adapter. Therefore,
if you need the e1000e driver, DO NOT use the rc kernels or at least blacklist it or never compile it! The breakage
may be so bad that only the change of the whole motherboard will fix it.

[overkll]

Do you have a link that references the bug?

[vuakko]

Planet Gentoo also had an announcement about it, you can follow the link path:
Planet Gentoo --> LWN --> Kernel, RedHat, Suse, Ubuntu, Gentoo Bugzillas

EDIT: and yes, Intel Wifi 5100, 5300 do work with 2.6.27.

[overkll]

Good thing I don't have one of those. I think that's the first time I every heard of software frying hardware in linux.

[vuakko]

Yeah, you can just think how my heart jumped when reading about this. Luckily I used 2.6.26 for installing my new laptop,
but I then started using 2.6.27-rc5 to get my Intel 5300 working. Though I actually had the e1000e module autopulled for a
while (before fixing it), I guess I did only little or no networking with ethernet under 2.6.27. Well at least ethernet still works
in Windows (for some odd reason I'm not testing it in Gentoo for a while... )

Hopefully the fall-out will stay small.

[overkll]

Did you try the daily wireless tarball from linuxwireless.org like I mentioned in my post above? I did with gentoo-sources 2.6.26-r1, but when I loaded the ath9k module, it would fail with "undefined symbol" or similar. It said the symbol was usbnet or something like that. I'd love to stick with the stable tree. The nvidia beta driver isn't quite perfect.

[vuakko]

I know nothing about Atheros stuff. I could have used also 2.6.26 for the wireless, but then I should have installed the iwlwifi
module as a package and not as included in the kernel. But because that would have changed anyway when moving on to
more recent kernels, I thought that whatever, I'll try the git kernel for once.

If it complained about missing usbnet, did you check if your kernel has usbnet? It's under USB Network Adapters in menuconfig.

[overkll]

I tried 2.6.26-gentoo-r1 with the latest compat-wireless tarball from linuxwireless.org again today. I did select the usbnet option. Modprobing ath9k errored out with

[overkll]

BTW, does the intel card work well? In my experience they have the best range - distance out of all the laptop wireless chips I've come across. I was thinking about replacing this one with an intel pro wireless card.

[marekd]

[vuakko]

The e1000e module is for Intel's PCI-E physical ethernet cards, not for wifi. The iwl5000 module is what you need for
the wireless + the ucode package. So you can have wifi. Your physical ethernet most probably requires exactly
e1000e, so stay away from it.

[marekd]

[overkll]

I don't know if it's been fixed yet. I don't think so. I just emerged vanilla-sources-2.6.27-rc8 today and it had a big fat ewarn about the e1000e. Thank goodness I have the nVidia chipset.

I don't see any reason why you couldn't install with a stable kernel. That's what I did. I only moved to the .27 series to get my atheros 9280 working, as well as the intel-had (nvidia/conexant) ALSA driver working.

I suppose you could use a .27 series kernel, as long as you disable the e1000e module. But it's your risk. You're probably better off waiting till it's fixed.

[marekd]

that's what I want to do right now. Install stable kernel just to run ethernet card, install all needed stuff, and try to install another kernel (like .27 just for my wifi). I may have 2 kernels, in case I need my lan connection, but most of the time I use wifi only. If you use .27 kernel, and just disabled e1000e module and everything works fine for you, why shouldn't it work for me?

[overkll]

That's what I think as well, but you're the one who has to make the decision. It seems logical that if the e1000e module is disabled, then one doesn't have to worry about damaging the card. But if for some unseen reason the card is damaged, the only way to replace it (it's a laptop, right?) is to replace the motherboard since it's an integrated controller. Either that or use a usb net dongle or a pcmcia net card.

I don't know enough about the exact cause to give advice on this issue. If I had an e1000e, I'd try to find more info and see if anyone else has successfully accomplished the feat with no damage. I wouldn't want to be the Guinea pig.

Like I said, it's your decision, and your machine.

[marekd]

[overkll]

I don't make any claims. All I'm saying is that it's your decision to make and I don't know enough about this bug to give any valueable advice.

[marekd]

it may be a little offtopic, but....
I did some research, asked people from tech support and got answers, that my physical card is Realtek, however chipset is INTEL. That's why I was almost 100% sure I need e1000e modules. But, since I booted minimal gentoo CD (with 2.6.24-r7 kernel) i loaded module r8169. When I plug cable the card works correctly. Yet, still lspci outputs some lines concerning ICH9 Family chipsets.
For example:
Network Controller: Intel Corporation Unknown Device 4237
Ethernet Controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co. , Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 02)

Right now, I must say I don't know what should I look at Is e1000e MY driver (i mean for my lan card), or even after I install 2.6.26 or 2.6.27 kernel I won't have to use e1000e modules?
Should I be affraid of EEPROM corruption? From one side, this is Realtek, and works with realtek module, but this is still Intel chipset.
thanks in advance!

[overkll]

Well, if it's a Realtek ethernet controller, you should be safe. The e1000e driver in the 27 series only bricks the e1000e chips. I haven't heard that it bricks other controllers that are on a ICH8/9 chipset.

I don't think your wrong to be concerned because you have the ICHx chipset. Seems that the root cause is still unknown. Here's the latest info I could find. You can read other devs comments from that thread as well.

EDIT: Can you try the min-install cd again and run update-pciids? You'll need to have your network card configured since it'll pull the info from the net. Then rerun lspci and see if it picks up the unidentified Intel controller.

[marekd]

[overkll]