FC6 Wireless on Thinkpad T43

[Matthew Saltzman]

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.

I had no trouble with my T41 Centrino and FC6, but I did see this behavior 
when I installed FC5.  I deleted both devices and hardware entries from 
system-config-network and the corresponding aliases from 
/etc/modprobe.conf, then rebooted.  The hardware detection worked properly 
at that point.

-- 
 		Matthew Saltzman

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