Linux WiFi Manual

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

 



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


--
fedora-list mailing list
fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx
To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
[Index of Archives]     [Older Fedora Users]     [Fedora Announce]     [Fedora Package Announce]     [EPEL Announce]     [Fedora Magazine]     [Fedora News]     [Fedora Summer Coding]     [Fedora Laptop]     [Fedora Cloud]     [Fedora Advisory Board]     [Fedora Education]     [Fedora Security]     [Fedora Scitech]     [Fedora Robotics]     [Fedora Maintainers]     [Fedora Infrastructure]     [Fedora Websites]     [Anaconda Devel]     [Fedora Devel Java]     [Fedora Legacy]     [Fedora Desktop]     [Fedora Fonts]     [ATA RAID]     [Fedora Marketing]     [Fedora Management Tools]     [Fedora Mentors]     [SSH]     [Fedora Package Review]     [Fedora R Devel]     [Fedora PHP Devel]     [Kickstart]     [Fedora Music]     [Fedora Packaging]     [Centos]     [Fedora SELinux]     [Fedora Legal]     [Fedora Kernel]     [Fedora OCaml]     [Coolkey]     [Virtualization Tools]     [ET Management Tools]     [Yum Users]     [Tux]     [Yosemite News]     [Gnome Users]     [KDE Users]     [Fedora Art]     [Fedora Docs]     [Asterisk PBX]     [Fedora Sparc]     [Fedora Universal Network Connector]     [Libvirt Users]     [Fedora ARM]

  Powered by Linux