wireless network

mp1183 · n00b Joined: 29 Jun 2006 Posts: 3

I'm installing from the minimal cd, and I am having difficulties with step 1--configuring my connection. I'm using an 802.11 minipci wireless network adapter, which can't seem to be found. It registers eth0 as something with a lengthy address (00-03-0D-53-25-81-2A-44-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00), which I don't recognize; and it registers eth1 as my normal lan card. iwconfig indicates that neither of these (including something called "lo", which I don't recognize) have a wireless extension. There is nothing in .../drivers/net that seems to be appropriate for the wireless card in my computer. Any suggestions? Would one of the drivers in ...drivers/net work for my card? Is there a way I could obtain the correct driver at this part of the installation? Am I shit out of luck?

thanks,

Matthew

eyeL · Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2006 3:33 am Post subject:

lo is local loopback, and you won't need to worry about that.

Have you tried setting up eth1?
_________________
[theNPA - down for updates] | [Adopt an unanswered post]
gentoo 2005.1 [lazy] - gcc 4.1.1

mp1183 · n00b Joined: 29 Jun 2006 Posts: 3

Yes, I have tried setting up both of them for wireless with no success.

koenderoo · Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2006 9:32 am Post subject:

Wireless cards are hardly supported in the minimal and universal CD's. Also it's hardly supported in the kernel. 90% change your card isn't supported in the kernel.
I hope you are having access to another machine with internet or are dual booting with Windows. In that case I can recomment you install ndiswrapper. This can install windows wireless drivers under Gentoo.

Installing this ndiswrapper is hard too, because it's also not on the install cd's of Gentoo. That's why you need internet access on a different machine or are dual booting with an OS that has internet. You need to download it by hand and copy it into the /usr/portage/distfiles.

Before you do this, please check whichh packages you need to with emerge -fp ndiswrapper. If gentoo-sources is also mentioned you need to install the kernel-files too. This can't be transported on a floppy (over 30 MB) so either put the files on cd or dual boot, download and mount that disk into your Gentoo environment.
Ndiswrapper will not install until you have your new kernel up and running. For installing ndiswrapper: read the manual. it holds more instructions then I can cover now.
_________________
webmaster van www.koenderoo.nl

cosmicnut · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 26 Apr 2004 Posts: 94

My suggestion to most people wanting to install over wireless is, don't. Not what you want to hear but it's true.

If you can connect the standard LAN card to the network, I would suggest using that. It'll cut the install time in half. You can use emerge, etc after the system is complete to get wireless working

Otherwise, download the universal CD and a copy of the latest Portage tree and use the packages on the CD to install the base system. You can then install drivers/ndiswrapper to get wireless working using a fake emerge ("emerge --pretend -f ndiswrapper" will show you what you need to download, download the files and put them in /usr/portage/distfiles).

Oh yes, as for eth0. You probably have a firewire port on your machine. The default options enable ethernet over firewire. That usually nicks eth0. Its not a problem. If you don't need it you can disable ethernet over firewire when you build your own kernel.

koenderoo · Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 12:44 pm Post subject:

echo?

True that it takes a bit more time to get it all started, but if you follow instructions as above and are a little bit known to linux you will be up and running in no time.
I think drilling holes and placing wires all through the house will take much more time.
_________________
webmaster van www.koenderoo.nl

cosmicnut · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 26 Apr 2004 Posts: 94

cho.. ho.. o

I ment that you could put the machine near a hub for a little while the base system was installed. Then get wireless working, then get Xorg going, etc.

minipci also made me think laptop. Don't know why....

valkyrite · Apprentice Joined: 19 Sep 2002 Posts: 241

The first step towards using your wireless card work is check if it is being recognized by the livecd.

Typing "iwconfig" will reveal if a wireless interface is detected. If not try 'lsmod' to check if the appropriate module for your card is loaded. If it is, try "dmesg | grep <module_name> to see if there is any problem.

if the livecd kernel cannot detect your wireless card, then it is very difficult to get it working.

bdm · Posted: Sat Jul 01, 2006 1:00 pm Post subject:

I managed to install Gentoo over wireless fairly easy not too long ago. I simply booted up Knoppix v4.0.2 (v.5.0.1 for some reason didn't work properly). Then used ndiswrapper provided from Knoppix to load up the Windows drivers (ndiswrapper -i wmp54gs.inf), then modprobing it into the kernel (modprobe ndiswrapper), then 'iwconfig essid your-essid-here', then 'iw key you-26-character pass-key', then 'pump -i wlan0', or whatever interface your wireless card is.

It's also worthy of noting that you must perform the steps above as root, and that wireless will only work from Knoppix. Once you reboot to configure xorg and a GUI, you will need to re-configure it.