[solved] How to configure wlan on my gentoo installation.

chappy · n00b Joined: 02 Aug 2008 Posts: 6 Location: Mainz

Hi all,

i installed gentoo as the documentation on the gentoo homepage described (with wired network).
But now i want to install my wireless device (its a HP 6710b notebook with integrated wlan).
Wlan device is: "Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection".

As i'm totally new to linux (playing with gentoo maybe helps me to get better) i don't know how to start/go on.
How can i check if linux already detected the wlan device?

Thanks to you all for any kind of help!!!

Regards

Stefan

zyko · Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 4:58 pm Post subject:

chappy · n00b Joined: 02 Aug 2008 Posts: 6 Location: Mainz

Hey zyko,

thanks a lot. In the meantime i searched for some things and now i'm at this status:

First of all i had to change/edit the kernel cause i didn't have the wlan functionality installed.
Lucky that there is the gentoo documentation where i found how to do this ;-)

- Emerged wireless-tools.
- lsmod: iwl3945 (i emerged the drivers for it)
- iwconfig wlan0 essid KD-chappy (set my essid)
- iwconfig wlan0 key s:mykeyhere (added my key in ascii mode)

Now when i try to scan i get this:

zyko · Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 6:28 pm Post subject:

I looked into this and it seems a little complicated for a linux novice, but WLAN stuff is always flaky. You'll receive your Linux Baptism by Fire, I guess

Okay, you'll need to scan through some documents before the fun begins:

The iwlwifi project: http://intellinuxwireless.org/ -- this is the recommended driver for your wireless device, and it's in the Linux Kernel.
Gentoo-wiki, always helpful: http://gentoo-wiki.com/Iwlwifi
The German Gentoo-wiki: http://de.gentoo-wiki.com/IWLWIFI
The Gentoo Handbook on WLAN: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=4&chap=4

And the deprecated (!) ipw3945 page on gentoo-wiki: http://gentoo-wiki.com/Ipw3945 -- maybe this contains some useful information, so it wouldn't hurt to take a glance at it.

Just as an educational bonus, there are some more:
Gentoo-wiki's page on Wireless: http://gentoo-wiki.com/Wireless
And the German one: http://de.gentoo-wiki.com/Wireless_Konfiguration

Yeah, that's a lot, even for Gentoo's standards

I would build everything related to wireless as modules (<M> in menuconfig). Also, enable automatic module loading in your kernel. This will maximize the probability that udev/hotplug/whatever will automatically load everything that's needed. This means you shouldn't use modprobe or /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6.

Just to make things clear: You most likely use WPA access points, since WEP is usually frowned upon. This means you can't use wireless-tools to connect to anything. Use wpa_supplicant. Wireless-tools are only useful for scanning access points (iwlist scan) and displaying info (iwconfig).

chappy · n00b Joined: 02 Aug 2008 Posts: 6 Location: Mainz

Hi zyko,

finally it's working now :-)

I turned off the encryption for testing and after it typed dhcpcd wlan0 i'm online ;-)

In the next step i will get through your documentation and try to use wpa_supplicant so that i can change back to my
wpa2-personal encryption.

Thanks a lot for your help i much appreciate that.

Wish you a nice weekend ending :-)

Cheers

Stefan