I have been trying for months to get wireless working on Debian and after reading far and wide and getting help from irc.debian.org, I realized that there really is no Cookbook in getting wireless set up. Thus having just done it I want to commit to 'paper' so that you all can use it and I can refer to it knowing it is safe somewhere. :)
I have gotten a few requests for help on getting the card installed on other distributions. I will try to address the RedHat Installation in this mini-how-to
My girlfriend got the WPC-11 card working on Suse. I am waiting for her to give me her how to
By required I mean, here is what I used to get this to work, and may serve as guide to anyone who wants to know what really works.
BEFW11S4- EtherFast? Wireless AP + Cable/DSL Router w/4-Port Switch. I really really like this WAP (Wireless Access Point). It is OS independent (read, linux friendly) and is configured using a browser so no need to touch Microsoft software at all, even to configure it. And if you don't know what a switch is, let me tell ya, they rock. Essentially they allow the NIC to communicate in both directions at the same time. I highly recommend one.
Link-sys WPC11. I have a version 3.0 and don't recommend any thing less than a version 2.5 Cost about 80 dollars
It is an Inersil Prism 3-based card
Table 1. Debian Software Requirements
| Software | Version | URL link | notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debian Distribution | Stable ("Woody") | www.debian.org | linux-2.4.20.tar, patched with patch-2.4.21-pre3.bz[a] | |
| Absolute Systems | 0.1.16-pre8 | Absolute systems | Make sure you download the 11Mbps version. Works for 0.1.16-pre8 | |
| pcmcia-source | Stable |
| <---type this | |
| pcmcia-cs | stable |
| <---type this | |
| wireless-tools | Stable |
| <--type this | |
| pump | stable |
| Useful to see if card works | |
| kernel-package | stable |
| Good way to build kernel and the one I describe. | |
| Kernel | 2.4.20, patched with patch-2.4.21-pre3.bz2 | www.kernel.org | You must know how to build and patch a kernel to do this. Its not hard and I will show you[b] | |
| Notes: a. This new patched kernel worked amazingly well b. Note to patch a kernel you type
| ||||
You will also need some way to setup you IP address on your wireless card, I recommend either
apt-get install DHCP-client |
Or at least have the pump application, which also will query a DHCP server and get you an IP address from the DHCP server. Note I tend to use pump when I am trying out new hardware to see if there is a connection, since to test a particular device, say eth0 I would type
pump -i eth0 |
pump -i wlan0 |
I also recommend you use the "kernel-package" package when you want to build your new kernel, which I will get to. This tool is very good and you should be using it anyway when you are building new kernel for the Debian distribution. You can install it by typing
apt-get install kernel-package |