WiFi problems Thinkpad T30 on Fedora Core 6 Test 3 (5.92)

[tompabompa]

Hi There,
I'm a Linux beginner who just dared install Fedora Core 6 Test 3 (5.92) on my Thinkpad T30. I have a problem with getting the built in WiFi device to work properly. Could anyone steer me in the right direction please?
Many thanks

[Iron_Mike]

We will probally need to know more about the hardware, is an Intel series, broadcom, etc to be able to help you.

[tompabompa]

Thanks Mike,
Details see below; It's a built in Intel Wireless. As an alternative I also have a D-Link DWL-G650 pc card. I haven't succeded in activating any of these. I'm very greatful for your attention on this.
Kind regards
Tomas

Processor
Dual-mode, high-performance Mobile Intel(R) Mobile Pentium(R) 4 Processor-M at 1.6GHz or 1.8GHz or 1.9GHz or 2.0GHz or 2.2GHz or 2.4GHz
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep(TM) technology
512 KB onboard L2 cache memory
400MHz front side bus

Network
10/100 Ethernet installed on the system board
Selected models will have Intel Wireless and modem Mini PCI combo cards
Selected models will have CISCO Mini PCI card
Selected models will have Bluetooth communication daughter car

PC Card
Conforms to the PC Card Standard 95
The Type III slot can accommodate two Type I or two Type II, or one Type III PC card
Both 16-bit and 32-bit cards are supported.
PCMCIA 2.1 standard
No zoom video support

[barnys]

Hello tompabompa and all,

Maybe my question is the same as yours but if not I can start a new thread to discuss about my installation. I have the same problem but my notebook is a T42 Thinkpad. To my knowledge IBM Thinkpads come with two wifi card flavors, some with Intel based chipset and others (like mine) with an Atheros based chipset.

So Linux didn't recognized automatically my card. I am running FC6T3, kernel 2.6.17-1.2647.fc6. I understa that installing and using madwifi drivers is my alternative (www.madwifi.org) but I haven't even passed the point of building the drivers, because I have encountered several problems and don't know how to overcome them. Almost 4 days into this I am going CRAZY of not having my wifi operational and being stuck to my desk only to network through cable.

Based on http://madwifi.org/ticket/815#preview and http://madwifi.org/ticket/845#preview there is a patch that needs to be run or manually modify some files, but the information is way over my head. I did modify ieee80211_linux.c to include #include <linux/proc_fs.h> but I am still unable to build the driver and I just simply didn't know how to run the patch. After modifying the previous file and trying to make again, I get the following:

[root@FC6T3 madwifi-0.9.2]# make
Checking requirements... ok.
Checking kernel configuration... ok.
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.17-1.2647.fc6/build SUBDIRS=/home/barnys/downloads/madwifi/madwifi-0.9.2 modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.17-1.2647.fc6-i686'
CC [M] /home/barnys/downloads/madwifi/madwifi-0.9.2/ath/ah_osdep.o
In file included from /home/barnys/downloads/madwifi/madwifi-0.9.2/ath/../hal/linux/ah_osdep.c:44,
from /home/barnys/downloads/madwifi/madwifi-0.9.2/ath/ah_osdep.c:2:
include/linux/config.h:6:2: error: #warning Including config.h is deprecated.
make[3]: *** [/home/barnys/downloads/madwifi/madwifi-0.9.2/ath/ah_osdep.o] Error 1
make[2]: *** [/home/barnys/downloads/madwifi/madwifi-0.9.2/ath] Error 2
make[1]: *** [_module_/home/barnys/downloads/madwifi/madwifi-0.9.2] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.17-1.2647.fc6-i686'
make: *** [modules] Error 2
[root@FC6T3 madwifi-0.9.2]#

PLEASE HELP! I am gonna loose all my hair by the time I get this working.

Thanks,

[barnys]

sorry for intervening in your original post. I was hoping you had the same kind of chipset I have in my thinkpad but you have an intel one.

I will discontinue my thread here and open a new one. Sorry again.

[tompabompa]

Oh, and according to Fedora Core, it's an "Intersil Corporation Prism 2.5 chipset"

[tompabompa]

No prob barnys - Actually I have a friend who just successfully installed on his T40. I'm not sure what chipset he uses though
Cheers

[barnys]

maybe you should ask him and invite him to post! ;o) I tell-ya, I've never suffer so much with the installation of anything in my life.

[drunkahol]

Guys,

I have a T40. FC5 is installed perfectly and wireless runs perfectly. Not got round to installing FC6 T3 yet, that's tomorrow's job.

The T40 I have uses the Cisco Aironet Mini-PCI card. I've never had to do any funny configuration to get it working. It was detected right from the install.

I have a Sony VAIO with an atheros based Netgear PC-Card. I use the madwifi drivers to get that working - and it works like a treat too. No funny config - just install and run.

I'll post back on this thread with results of the FC6T3 install on my Thinkpad.

Cheers

Duncan

[drunkahol]

Update:

I forgot my power cable today. Not keen on attempting an install on battery power alone :S

Cheers

Duncan

[drunkahol]

Right - Can confirm that the Cisco Aironet card is recognised and works perfectly under FC6T3. Sorry if that's not the card you use.

Do have an issue with X though - resolution reverts to 640x480 every time I log out or reboot . . . hmmm.

Cheers

Duncan

[rwseid]

I just finished installing the final version of Fedora Core 6 now. I have a Thinkpad T40 which has the Intel wireless card. I have been running Fedora on this box since Core 3. The ATrpms site has rpms of the firmware and drivers for the intel (ipw2100 for mine and there is an ipw2200) as well as the latest drivers and kernel modules for each of the fedora versions. The first version of Fedora that didn't require any kernel modules or drivers was Fedora Core 5. All that was needed was the firmware that can be found as I mentioned above (http://www.atrpms.net/dist/common/ipw2100-firmware/). It looks like Fedora Core 6 has not focused enough on these cards and we need to install the latest firmware as well as the latest drivers and modules (http://www.atrpms.net/dist/fc6/). All I did was install the ieee80211 driver and the ipw2100-test driver with their matching kernel module (obviously the kernel module matched my kernel as well). Hope this helps.

[kungalm]

Have anyone been able to get Wifi working on a t30 with fedora core 6?

[rhricik]

Been running with Atheros Chipset on T30 (replaced the mini-PCI 802.11b Cisco card with an Atheros 802.11b/g mini-PCI card) and core 6 by adding the Livna repo and adding the madwifi drivers. Make sure kmod-wifi gets installed along with it.

I replaced a Cisco wireless card (802.11b only) that I didn't have to do a thing for - FC6 automatically recognised it. I would recommend updating everything with 'yum update' as root - been a LOT of updates since FC6 came out - and, at least in my opinion, has made it better.

Now if we could just convince Redhat that including MP3/DVD will not end the free world as we know it...

[kungalm]

Originally Posted by kungalm

Have anyone been able to get Wifi working on a t30 with fedora core 6?

Well, to answer my own question: I have. I finally got it working. I'm not entirely sure how , but here are some steps that I followed.
My T30 has a Intersil Prism 2.5 wifi pci card.
After failing to activate the card through system-config-network several times I installed WIFI Radar. I'm not sure if this has anything at all to do with my later success, but anyways it didn't solve the problem.
Second Attempt yesterday.
I then did a yum-update of fedora core 6. After the update I changed my Wifi settings via system-config-network to be managed, but in my network id and key. I also added a profile with the same settings under wireless in KDE config center(I'm not on my Linux box right now so I'm not sure about the name). And then switched back to system-config-network and activated eth1(wireless) and it worked like a charm.

Hope it gives some help to someone.

Cheers,
Tobbe