I am trying to use a Centrino laptop at a site, and get a wireless
connection at high speed instead of a cable :-( Unfortunately, while the
laptop would connect with their access points using Windows, Linux gets
to the point where iwlist scans and shows the access points, all running
with the default name like IBM or linksys, all on channel 6, all with
encryption off... and I can NOT find the command(s) to tell the modem to
pick and access point and use it.

I'm running FC2 with their 2.6.9 kernel, so that may be part of the
issue, my old laptop was RH9 and "just worked" but I don't have it any
more. The driver is in (the ipw2200 with 802.11g) and I can scan their
point and a bunch of Ad-hoc points (laptops?), I just can't find a way
to get the wlan to associate.

Yes, I tried setting the domain, channel, and MAC by hand, setting mode
to auto, etc, no joy. I realize that it's possible that the FC2 kernel
just doesn't *quite* support this, and I'm going to build a 2.6.10
kernel tonight and try that, but it's not clear if there's a step
missing or something silently failing.

I did pull down much documentation, although a lot of it starts by
telling me how to patch my 2.0 or 2.2 kernel, or assuming that the wlan
is PCMCIA and is setup by those scripts.

Is this just not working in 2.6, or is there some poorly documented
command needed to start the association?

--
-bill davidsen (davidsen@tmr.com)
"The secret to procrastination is to put things off until the
last possible moment - but no longer" -me

Bill Davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com> writes:

>I am trying to use a Centrino laptop at a site, and get a wireless
>connection at high speed instead of a cable :-( Unfortunately, while the
>laptop would connect with their access points using Windows, Linux gets
>to the point where iwlist scans and shows the access points, all running
>with the default name like IBM or linksys, all on channel 6, all with
>encryption off... and I can NOT find the command(s) to tell the modem to
>pick and access point and use it.

iwlist essid=IBM eth1


>I'm running FC2 with their 2.6.9 kernel, so that may be part of the
>issue, my old laptop was RH9 and "just worked" but I don't have it any
>more. The driver is in (the ipw2200 with 802.11g) and I can scan their
>point and a bunch of Ad-hoc points (laptops?), I just can't find a way
>to get the wlan to associate.

>Yes, I tried setting the domain, channel, and MAC by hand, setting mode
>to auto, etc, no joy. I realize that it's possible that the FC2 kernel
>just doesn't *quite* support this, and I'm going to build a 2.6.10
>kernel tonight and try that, but it's not clear if there's a step
>missing or something silently failing.

>I did pull down much documentation, although a lot of it starts by
>telling me how to patch my 2.0 or 2.2 kernel, or assuming that the wlan
>is PCMCIA and is setup by those scripts.

>Is this just not working in 2.6, or is there some poorly documented
>command needed to start the association?

It has more to do with the driver for the wireless (ipw2200) than with the
kernel. The ipw2200 is still a work in progress ( which version do you
have?) CErtainly I can get mine to associate.

It may be that all your access points use WPA in which case teh ipw2200
does not (yet?) support it. You might try ndiswrapper instead.



>--
> -bill davidsen (davidsen@tmr.com)
>"The secret to procrastination is to put things off until the
> last possible moment - but no longer" -me

Bill Unruh wrote:
> Bill Davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com> writes:
>
>
>>I am trying to use a Centrino laptop at a site, and get a wireless
>>connection at high speed instead of a cable :-( Unfortunately, while the
>>laptop would connect with their access points using Windows, Linux gets
>>to the point where iwlist scans and shows the access points, all running
>>with the default name like IBM or linksys, all on channel 6, all with
>>encryption off... and I can NOT find the command(s) to tell the modem to
>>pick and access point and use it.
>
>
> iwlist essid=IBM eth1
>
>
>
>>I'm running FC2 with their 2.6.9 kernel, so that may be part of the
>>issue, my old laptop was RH9 and "just worked" but I don't have it any
>>more. The driver is in (the ipw2200 with 802.11g) and I can scan their
>>point and a bunch of Ad-hoc points (laptops?), I just can't find a way
>>to get the wlan to associate.
>
>
>>Yes, I tried setting the domain, channel, and MAC by hand, setting mode
>>to auto, etc, no joy. I realize that it's possible that the FC2 kernel
>>just doesn't *quite* support this, and I'm going to build a 2.6.10
>>kernel tonight and try that, but it's not clear if there's a step
>>missing or something silently failing.
>
>
>>I did pull down much documentation, although a lot of it starts by
>>telling me how to patch my 2.0 or 2.2 kernel, or assuming that the wlan
>>is PCMCIA and is setup by those scripts.
>
>
>>Is this just not working in 2.6, or is there some poorly documented
>>command needed to start the association?
>
>
> It has more to do with the driver for the wireless (ipw2200) than with the
> kernel. The ipw2200 is still a work in progress ( which version do you
> have?) CErtainly I can get mine to associate.
>
> It may be that all your access points use WPA in which case teh ipw2200
> does not (yet?) support it. You might try ndiswrapper instead.

I didn't mention in this group I played with setting essid, mode, and
even poking in the MAC address of access points. I'll take a look at
ndiswrapper, of course after I find the NDIS driver :-(

Driver identifies at 0.12-11, firmware 2.0-2, tools 27. Latest from
either Intel or freshrpms depending on when I looked.

I have a hard time believing that people who don't change the channel,
the essid, or enable encryption are using WPA, but I guess anything is
possible.

--
-bill davidsen (davidsen@tmr.com)
"The secret to procrastination is to put things off until the
last possible moment - but no longer" -me

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 17:30:23 GMT, Bill Davidsen wrote:
> Bill Unruh wrote:
>> Bill Davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com> writes:
>>
>>
>>>I am trying to use a Centrino laptop at a site, and get a wireless
>>>connection at high speed instead of a cable :-( Unfortunately, while the
>>>laptop would connect with their access points using Windows, Linux gets
>>>to the point where iwlist scans and shows the access points, all running
>>>with the default name like IBM or linksys, all on channel 6, all with
>>>encryption off... and I can NOT find the command(s) to tell the modem to
>>>pick and access point and use it.

<snip>

>> It has more to do with the driver for the wireless (ipw2200) than with the
>> kernel. The ipw2200 is still a work in progress ( which version do you
>> have?) CErtainly I can get mine to associate.
>>
>> It may be that all your access points use WPA in which case teh ipw2200
>> does not (yet?) support it. You might try ndiswrapper instead.
>
> I didn't mention in this group I played with setting essid, mode, and
> even poking in the MAC address of access points. I'll take a look at
> ndiswrapper, of course after I find the NDIS driver :-(
>
> Driver identifies at 0.12-11, firmware 2.0-2, tools 27. Latest from
> either Intel or freshrpms depending on when I looked.
>
> I have a hard time believing that people who don't change the channel,
> the essid, or enable encryption are using WPA, but I guess anything is
> possible.
>

Just to add a point here about the ipw2200 driver. I just installed one
of these minipci cards in my dell laptop. Initially, I had the linuxant
drivers working with it but I have a few problems with that driver like
kernel panics if its active when the laptop shuts down. The linuxant
wetsite has all the windows drivers on it. For the ipw2200, I had to
take a few steps on debian which may or may not be required with Fedora.
I had to recompile the kernel to get wep support and now I see these
kernel modules loading with a 2.6.7 kernel:

ieee80211_crypt_wep 5220 1
crc32 3808 1 ieee80211_crypt_wep
ipw2200 132268 0
firmware_class 7584 1 ipw2200
ieee80211 35556 1 ipw2200
ieee80211_crypt 5352 2 ieee80211_crypt_wep,ieee80211

All I need to do is modprobe ipw2200 and all this gets done. I need
these to do wep with my WRT54G BTW. I also had to add support for
loadable firmware in the kernel. The way I set the essid and wepkey on
debian is pretty easy. I just set up profiles in /etc/network/interfaces
that I can use wherever I am. Works very good on debian.

I would check the kernel modules if you are trying to do wep since the
ipw2200 driver has distinct requirements for doing wep.

--
Michael Perry | do or do not. There is no try. -Master Yoda
mperry@lnxpowered.org | http://www.lnxpowered.org

Michael Perry wrote:

> Just to add a point here about the ipw2200 driver. I just installed one
> of these minipci cards in my dell laptop. Initially, I had the linuxant
> drivers working with it but I have a few problems with that driver like
> kernel panics if its active when the laptop shuts down. The linuxant
> wetsite has all the windows drivers on it. For the ipw2200, I had to
> take a few steps on debian which may or may not be required with Fedora.
> I had to recompile the kernel to get wep support and now I see these
> kernel modules loading with a 2.6.7 kernel:
>
> ieee80211_crypt_wep 5220 1
> crc32 3808 1 ieee80211_crypt_wep
> ipw2200 132268 0
> firmware_class 7584 1 ipw2200
> ieee80211 35556 1 ipw2200
> ieee80211_crypt 5352 2 ieee80211_crypt_wep,ieee80211
>
> All I need to do is modprobe ipw2200 and all this gets done. I need
> these to do wep with my WRT54G BTW. I also had to add support for
> loadable firmware in the kernel. The way I set the essid and wepkey on
> debian is pretty easy. I just set up profiles in /etc/network/interfaces
> that I can use wherever I am. Works very good on debian.
>
> I would check the kernel modules if you are trying to do wep since the
> ipw2200 driver has distinct requirements for doing wep.
> I'll look at the modules loaded tonight when I'm at the site. I assumed
that people who left the default channel, essid, and admin password in
place, and run w/o encryption, pulled units out of the box and plugged
them in.

Windows has not problems connecting, no passwords or anything provided.
I assume that means they are running nothing... I haven't found anyone
who understands the question, so getting answers is hard.

Thanks for all the thoughts.

--
-bill davidsen (davidsen@tmr.com)
"The secret to procrastination is to put things off until the
last possible moment - but no longer" -me