Re: FC6 Wireless on Thinkpad T43

On Sat, 11 Nov 2006, Sam Varshavchik wrote:

I got my hands on a T43 Thinkpad. I loaded up FC6, and applied all updates, as of now (FC6 is only a few weeks old, and it's already got 100+ updated packages…)

I'm following Bill Moss's page: http://www.ces.clemson.edu/linux/fc2-ipw2200.shtml

I got Livna plugged in, and installed the ipw2200-firmware package. After a reboot, I see all the right messages in syslog, and the firmware gets loaded, and the ipw2200 kernel modules seems to be very happy.

According to Bill Moss's page, I should be able to set various wireless parameters through the Network manager, simply by clicking "Edit" on the wireless network device. However, when I do that, I get the identical "Edit properties" screen that one gets for a wired Ethernet network interface.

Now, in the Network manager, the "Hardware" tab shows the the eth0 interface is the T-43's built-in Broadcom 10/100 Ethernet card, and eth1 is the "Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless" device. eth0's type reads "ethernet", and eth1's type reads "wireless".

That's the story in the Network manager's "Hardware" tab. But, back in the "Devices" tab, both eth0 and eth1's type is shown as "Ethernet", and trying to edit eth1's properties prompts me for the usual ethernet settings, not wireless settings.

I'm think that Anaconda incorrectly set up both interfaces, eth0 and eth1, as Ethernet devices, and the Network manager is confused. It correctly shows eth1 as a wireless interface in the "Hardware" tab, based on whatever data it uses for the "Hardware" tab. I'm guessing that it uses the stuff in /etc/sysconfig to set up the "Devices" tab, and Anaconda incorrectly set both eth0's and eth1's types to "ethernet" in /etc/sysconfig.

I haven't looked at the contents of /etc/sysconfig. Before I begin screwing around and trying to figure out how what I need to do there to get the Network manager to recognize eth1 as a Wireless device, can anyone confirm my suspicions, please. Secondly, is there a general FC-oriented high-level wireless tutorial; that talks about high level configuration details -- i.e. how to set things up so that FC connects to public access points automatically, etc…

P.S. irwconfig happily detects wireless extensions on eth1, and I interpret its output as basically telling me the card is simply unconfigured. So, I think that I'm good kernel-wise, and it's just the Network manager that needs a mild kick in the pants.

--
		Matthew Saltzman

Clemson University Math Sciences
mjs AT clemson DOT edu
http://www.math.clemson.edu/~mjs