Intel PRO/Wireless 2100, 2200 and 2915 devices for Debian5

Intel PRO/Wireless 2100, 2200 and 2915 devices

 

This page describes how to enable support for WiFi devices based on Intel 2100, 2200 and 2915 chipsets on Debian systems.   

目录

1. Intel PRO/Wireless 2100, 2200 and 2915 devices
   1. Drivers
   2. Installation via Debian Installer (Lenny, Squeeze)
   3. Installation on Established Systems
      1. Lenny, Squeeze
      2. Etch
   4. Supported Devices
      1. ipw2100
      2. ipw2200
   5. See Also
   6. External Links

  

 

Drivers

  

• ipw2100 (supported devices)  

  • Supports the Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 802.11b chipset.  
  • Included in the mainline kernel starting from 2.6.14.  

  • Source previously packaged in ipw2100-source, removed from Debian to resolve bug 441055.  

• ipw2200 (supported devices)  

  • Supports Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 802.11bg and 2915 802.11a/bg chipsets.  
  • Included in the mainline kernel starting from 2.6.15.  

  • Source previously packaged in ipw2200-source, removed from Debian to resolve bug 441057.   

Non-free firmware is required for both drivers, which can be provided by installing the firmware-ipw2x00 package.   

 

Installation via Debian Installer (Lenny, Squeeze)

  

Both drivers are included for use by the Debian installation program (Debian Installer) and are also within the installed kernel image.   

Debian Installer may prompt for the required firmware (ipw2100-1.3.fw or ipw2200-bss.fw). You will have to download, extract and provide the firmware, as explained in section 6.4 (i386, amd64) of the Installation Guide.   

It's now also available in the nonfree-firmware tarball which we build regularly on cdimage.debian.org. Supply this blob on a CD/floppy/USB drive etc. and d-i will do the right thing. -- SteveMcIntyre   

 

Installation on Established Systems

 

The ipw2100 and ipw2200 drivers are included in the mainline Linux kernel since 2.6.14 and 2.6.15 respectively. They are included as modules in Debian kernel images.

Firmware is required to be installed prior to driver operation.

 

Lenny, Squeeze

 

1. Add a "non-free" component to /etc/apt/sources.list for your Debian version, for example:

   # Debian Lenny/5.0
   deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian lenny main contrib non-free

   or

   # Debian Squeeze (testing)
   deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian squeeze main contrib non-free

2. Update the list of available packages and install the firmware-ipw2x00 and wireless-tools packages:

   aptitude update
   aptitude install firmware-ipw2x00 wireless-tools

   You are required to accept the license agreement before the firmware is installed to your system.

3. As the driver may already be loaded, reinsert the relevant driver module to access installed firmware:

   modprobe -r ipw2100 ; modprobe ipw2100

   or

   modprobe -r ipw2200 ; modprobe ipw2200

4. Verify your device has an available interface:

   iwconfig

5. Raise the interface to activate the radio, for example:

   ifconfig eth1 up

6. Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.

 

Troubleshooting

 

• Examine the kernel ring buffer (dmesg(1)) to verify required firmware files are being loaded by the driver. If requested firmware is not available, no wireless interface will be created.

  • Ensure the firmware-ipw2x00 package is installed, then reinsert the relevant driver module as described above.

  • ipw2200: If you receive a "Failed to send TX_POWER: Command timed out." message, add irqpoll to your kernel command line.

• LED control (ipw2200): If the LED does not switch on automatically:

  • echo options ipw2200 led=1 >> /etc/modprobe.d/ipw2200.conf && modprobe -r ipw2200 && modprobe ipw2200

 

Etch

 

1. Install the wireless-tools package:

   aptitude update
   aptitude install wireless-tools

2. Manually acquire the lenny/firmware-ipw2x00 package from http://packages.debian.org/lenny/all/firmware-ipw2x00/download. For example:

   wget http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/non-free/f/firmware-nonfree/firmware-ipw2x00_0.14+lenny2_all.deb

3. Install lenny/firmware-ipw2x00 via dpkg:

   dpkg -i /path/to/firmware-ipw2x00*deb

   You are required to accept the license agreement before the firmware is installed to your system.

4. As the driver may already be loaded, reinsert the relevant driver module to access installed firmware:

   modprobe -r ipw2100 ; modprobe ipw2100

   or

   modprobe -r ipw2200 ; modprobe ipw2200

5. Verify your device has an available interface:

   iwconfig

6. Raise the interface to activate the radio, for example:

   ifconfig eth1 up

7. Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.

 

Troubleshooting

 

• Examine the kernel ring buffer (dmesg(1)) to verify required firmware files are being loaded by the driver. If requested firmware is not available, no wireless interface will be created.

  • Ensure the lenny/firmware-ipw2x00 package is installed, then reinsert the relevant driver module as described above.

  • ipw2200: If you receive a "Failed to send TX_POWER: Command timed out." message, add irqpoll to your kernel command line.

• HP Compaq nx8220 users: The ipw2200 v1.1.2kmq driver (included with Etch/2.6.18) is unable to load firmware v3.0 on this system. Either:

  • Install the ipw2200 v1.2.0mq driver: Add a 'contrib' component to /etc/apt/sources.list, then: modprobe -r ipw2200 && aptitude install ipw2200-modules-$(uname -r) && modprobe ipw2200

  • Install an EtchAndAHalf kernel image (apt-cache search linux-image-2.6.24-etchnhalf and install a package appropriate for your system) then restart your system to boot using this kernel.

• LED control (ipw2200): If the LED does not switch on automatically:

  • echo options ipw2200 led=1 >> /etc/modprobe.d/ipw2200.conf && modprobe -r ipw2200 && modprobe ipw2200

 

Supported Devices

 

 

The page HowToIdentifyADevice/PCI explains how to identify a PCI device.

 

ipw2100

 

The following list is based on the alias fields of  modinfo ipw2100 on Lenny.

• PCI: 8086:1043 Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter

 

ipw2200

 

The following list is based on the alias fields of  modinfo ipw2200 on Lenny.

PCI: 8086:1043 Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter
PCI: 8086:104F Intel Corporation (Device name unknown)
PCI: 8086:4220 Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG [Calexico2] Network Connection
PCI: 8086:4221 Intel Corporation (Device name unknown)
PCI: 8086:4223 Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2915ABG [Calexico2] Network Connection
PCI: 8086:4224 Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2915ABG [Calexico2] Network Connection