Here is the final version of this short manual. I think it will help
those trying to get WiFi working. At least that was the goal.
How to get WiFi working on your lap-top
It has been hard to get the wifi that works so well on your Windows
XP to work when you select Linux at boot time.This paper will show a
step by step process that will get the modern laptop working.
I: First, in this example, I must learn the name of my WiFi hardware.
This can be done by opening a Terminal, becoming root, and entering
'lspci'.
00:09.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212
802.11abg NIC (rev 01)
00:0a.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI7420 CardBus Controller
00:0f.0 IDE interface: ALi Corporation M5229 IDE (rev c4)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
Notice there are two items called Ethernet controller. But notice the
Atheros says it handles 802.11abg which is what WiFi is, So now we know
this laptop has hardware made by Atheros Communications, Inc.
II: The second step is to find out what Linux software is written for
our hardware. I used a great web page at:
http://linux-wless.passys.nl/
I went to this web page and at the first choice selected Sony. I then
hit Show and in the green band was Atheros and it says I need the
MadWiFi package and directs me to their web page. There you look at the
HowTo page and learn the actual kernel module is called "ath_pci" and
that call will get it working and it will call all the other needed
modules. The next step is to find a kernel with this software in it that
will make my laptop work.
III: Either find a kernel that has the drivers in module form, or
find a kernel modification that has the MadWiFi package. When done test
the kernel. This can be done by opening a Terminal, becoming root, and
entering 'modprobe ath_pci'.
I used "service network reboot" and it came back up with two
Internet sources, eth0 and ath0 listed. It showed no eth0 and ath0 was
not turned on. I told it to turn on ath0 and it did and the WiFi
Internet started working.
IV:
Listed next is four laptop hardware systems I know about.
Hardware Software modprobe
Atheros Comm madwifi ath_pci
Intel old IEEE80211 ipw2200
IntelPro 3945 IEEE80211 ipw3945
Broadcom BCM 4318 MAC80211 bcm43xx
V: There is a network system available in at least Fedora Core 6 and
Fedora 7 called NetworkManager. You will want to set that up at least on
your laptop. I have it on both computers. Caution! Turn off network if
your using NetworkManager. Be aware that not everyone likes this
software and some say that it will not work well with some WiFi systems.
I can only say it works just fine for me.
Open a Terminal, become root, and enter cd /etc/rc.d/init.d/ and you
will see a lot of applications listed. Now do:
chkconfig network off
chkconfig NetworkManager on
chkconfig NetworkManagerDispatcher on.
Look at the two tiny computers near your name on the top edge near
your name and click on them. It will tell you what it is doing. There is
a good way to check overall performance with 'nm-tool'. This can be done
by opening a Terminal, becoming root, and entering 'nm-tool'.
VI: Follow the same steps I did with my laptop and replace mine with
yours. I hope your laptop is using one of the about 50 hardware packages
in the the web page above. And you wind up quickly with a working Linux
laptop. If your laptop is quite old it is possible this method will not
work.
Karl Larsen
Chris Mohler
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