Live CDs with Intel 3945 wireless support? [solved]

coplaniuk · Last edited by coplaniuk on Wed Jul 26, 2006 4:05 am; edited 1 time in total

I have a new laptop with an Intel 3945 Wireless card. As you know, it's not supported by the Gentoo LiveCD method of installation, and it's surely not supported by the standard installation. I'd very much like to do a standard installation if at all possible. But I'd like to use my wireless card for the installation.

I saw that there is a method for installing using Knoppix. I imagine I can adapt those instructions to nearly any LiveCD distro (at least I didn't see any reason why I couldn't). Does anyone know of a LiveCD available that has the Intel 3945 drivers available?

I'm hoping the next release of Gentoo has support.
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-- Coplan
~/ Outland - Art, Music, PHP and Hidden Corners of the Web
-{ Embrace Life. Evolve your computer. Emerge Gentoo. }-

slycordinator · Advocate Joined: 31 Jan 2004 Posts: 3065 Location: Korea

Any livecd with ndiswrapper would work. Lets you use the windows inf file.

Then during the install do "emerge ipw3945"

Though can't say I've ever tested that. I don't have a laptop w/ that wireless device.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 6:27 pm Post subject:

coplaniuk,

This thread tells how to do a sneakernet install using removable media.

The alternative is to do the CD based GRP install (x86 only) and add wireless using removeable media.
If you have another liunx PC with the same kernel source and gcc as was used for the liveCD kernel, you can build extra kernel modules there and use removable media to insmod them at the start of your install.
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NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

coplaniuk · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 6:45 pm Post subject:

Hadn't even thought of that. I think I will keep that in mind if plan 'A' doesn't work.

For my own education, I'm going to try to install without the sneakernet method you described. I have been doing some research since I posted this topic, and I think I might have a solution. I discovered that Slax now has a module that loads the intel 3945 drivers. I'm going to create a mySlax disk with this module (among others) so that I can get the Wireless card working. Then I'll try to install Gentoo from there. It's probably not as simple as your sneakernet solution, but it would be a good learning task.

Thanks for your help. I'll let you know how it all works out. I'll mark [solved] when I get everything working by either the slax CD or the sneakernet solution.

PS - "sneakernet" -- been a really long time since I heard that term. Brings back memories.
_________________
-- Coplan
~/ Outland - Art, Music, PHP and Hidden Corners of the Web
-{ Embrace Life. Evolve your computer. Emerge Gentoo. }-

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 7:29 pm Post subject:

coplaniuk,

Since nothing on your installl CD gets into your actual install (it comes from a stage 3 tarball or emerge) once you can get the network to work, its all as per the handbook.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

coplaniuk · Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 4:00 am Post subject:

As it turns out...the Slax CD wasn't as easy to configure as I had hoped. But my ethernet card was automatically detected...so I was able to patch in via hardwire. I had to deal with the smelly basement (that's where the hub is), but I was able to get to a point where I know have the ipw3945 drivers in place.

Just for giggles...I'm going to try to create a Gentoo LiveCD with these drivers on it so that I can use it in case of an emergency.

Thanks all for your help.
_________________
-- Coplan
~/ Outland - Art, Music, PHP and Hidden Corners of the Web
-{ Embrace Life. Evolve your computer. Emerge Gentoo. }-

wolf31o2 · Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 3:17 pm Post subject:

coplaniuk · Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 4:08 pm Post subject:

And people say that procrastination is bad. I was going to create those CDs, but never got around to it. As it turns out, the dev team beat me to it. Now I don't have to do anything.
_________________
-- Coplan
~/ Outland - Art, Music, PHP and Hidden Corners of the Web
-{ Embrace Life. Evolve your computer. Emerge Gentoo. }-

Thnikkaman · n00b Joined: 30 Jun 2004 Posts: 63

Luppy · n00b Joined: 27 Aug 2005 Posts: 27

coplaniuk · Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2006 8:11 pm Post subject:

Slax has a module for the drivers. Using MySlaxCreator, I was able to create a LiveCD that had the drivers. Didn't take too long to get them connected to my network. Just remember, Non-Gentoo distros don't use the /etc/init.d/net.eth0 method to start interfaces.

Anyhow, long story short...with my Slax disk, I can theoretically install gentoo. I never tested though, because I ended up doing as you did -- hooking directly to my hub via ethernet.
_________________
-- Coplan
~/ Outland - Art, Music, PHP and Hidden Corners of the Web
-{ Embrace Life. Evolve your computer. Emerge Gentoo. }-