FreeBSD and Intel 2200BG

syphon · 01-21-2005

I have an Intel 2200BG WLAN card. I want to install FreeBSD and try it out. I see on sourceforge that they have linux drivers for this card. Has anyone tried it out on the Centrino laptops? I'm hoping the WLAN card will work so I can run FreeBSD with KDE on my laptop. I know this isn't really a wifi question but I know some of you fellas run *nix so I figured I could ask.

Anthem · 01-21-2005

The sourceforge drivers work perfectly on my Slackware'd Vaio, but I did need to recompile with a 2.6 kernel as indicated on the ipw2200.sourceforge.net pages.

For the centrino and frequency scaling goodness I followed the helpful instructions written by an "Eric" (www.adventure-today.com/vaio) to whom I am very grateful. The centrino bits should still apply but I don't know how well it will all translate to BSD ...but that's what you're here for.

Dutch · 01-21-2005

Moved to the appropriate forum.

Dutch

syphon · 01-21-2005

See thats my problem is that I do not know how to recompile a kernel. This card is just being a pain in the ass. It makes me wanna just buy an Orinoco card and say screw it. I am going to be using FreeBSD 5.3. Hopefully I won't have any issues but I guess I'll just burn the drivers onto a disc and figure out how to install them. I read that guide you provided and it doesn't seem easy for someone who is somewhat new to unix to do :/. That's why unix can be a pain. It's always somewhat difficult to get something accomplished

It can be somewhat frustrating because I bought this laptop for wireless use and maybe a little wardriving. Aircrack, airsnort etc don't support this wireless card. Hopefully in the future devine and put it in

syphon · 01-21-2005

Do you recommend I maybe start off with Fedora since it is more user friendly and might not cause a hickup with my network cards and new laptop?

Dutch · 01-21-2005

Don't take this the wrong way... With technical matters, one must learn to crawl, before walking, and running.
Get your feet wet with the distro of your choice. Read the how-too's that are available on the net, and in the documentation directory of most good distro's. Test the stuff you read, and then when you feel secure enough, do a complete reinstall of the distro, with the procedures you taught yourself.

*nix is not a Pointy'clickkety operating system. *nix rewards you by teaching you how the system is put together. That experience you gather in this manner, is applicable to other systems, if you are able to evaluate and relate the knowledge you gathered..

Dutch

syphon · 01-21-2005

Thank you. I understand that I will have to put more effort into *nix. Just wanted to maybe save some money. I am also worried that I will get thru the whole install and my Intel 2200BG card wont work. Will I have to use Ndiswrapper which I have been reading about on the net a little?

RedSector · 01-21-2005

Odds are no mater what if you want to use your intel card in a *nix platform you will have to be compiling some driver. If you want to use FreeBSD you will have to use Project Evil (like ndis wrapper). FreeBSD supports almost any B card with the wi driver which I believe is already compiled into the kernel. It also supports the atheros chipset with the ath driver which I also believe is compiled into the kernel.

Dutch · 01-21-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by syphon

Thank you. I understand that I will have to put more effort into *nix. Just wanted to maybe save some money. I am also worried that I will get thru the whole install and my Intel 2200BG card wont work. Will I have to use Ndiswrapper which I have been reading about on the net a little?

If the sourceforge drivers indicate that they work on a FreeBSD installation then the card should work. If they say tested on this_or_that distro, then I'd use that distro, and not FreeBSD.

As all good PC techs do :

A) Define the task (Get the card working in *nix)
B) Research the available options (Drivers available for distro 1, 2, 3)
C) Decide the best tools to accomplish task according to allocated budget (Which distro is the best according to my specs, i.e userfriendlyness, hardware requirements etc)

Ndiswrapper works for some, but remember that such things as monitor mode won't work = No kismet. If it's for general network use, and Ndiswrapper supports your card (i.e. the Windows drivers for your card are NDIS 5.1 compliant) then go ahead and use Ndiswrapper.. See point A) above

Dutch

my_haz · 01-31-2005

I have the same card and it works with no porblem. Make sure you have the src distribution installed before do the following (you can install src distro using sysinstall)

this borrows hevaly from http://www.freebsddiary.org/ibm-thinkpad-t41.php

Code:

    cd /usr/src/sys/modules/ndis
    make clean
    make
    make install

    cd /usr/src/usr.sbin/ndiscvt
    make clean
    make
    make install

    cd /usr/src/sys/modules/if_ndis
    make clean
    # COPY WINDOWS DRIVERS the will be something like W70N5*.INF W70N5*.SYS 

    /usr/sbin/ndiscvt -i W70N50.INF -s W70N51.SYS -o ndis_driver_data.h
    make
    make install

to test assuming you are connecting to open AP with DHCP support

Code:

      killall dhclient
      ifconfig ndis0 ssid <SOME SSID>
      dhclient ndis0

Furthermore if you have Python2.3 and wxPython installed you can send me an email if you would like to try my "netstumbler-ish" app bimonwificon (yet to get on sourceforge, but hopefully soon!)

I am often on efnet irc channel #freebsdhelp under the namy my_haz and have dished out some scripts to the needy for this problem, so don't hesitate to stop by

good luck!

RedSector · 01-31-2005

Yeah, that is exactly what I said previously...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Red

If you want to use FreeBSD you will have to use Project Evil (like ndis wrapper).

Quote:

Originally Posted by my_haz

//edit double post

...and why not just delete your fisrt post

localhost · 02-06-2005

i have an intel 2100 in my laptop, and i've been running freebsd 5.3 on it since it was in beta 3.

http://damien.bergamini.free.fr/ipw/ <--that might help you out. works flawlessly (infact it works better than the intel drivers for windows xp).

01-21-2005	#1 (permalink)
syphon What is a yute? Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: USA Posts: 20	FreeBSD and Intel 2200BG I have an Intel 2200BG WLAN card. I want to install FreeBSD and try it out. I see on sourceforge that they have linux drivers for this card. Has anyone tried it out on the Centrino laptops? I'm hoping the WLAN card will work so I can run FreeBSD with KDE on my laptop. I know this isn't really a wifi question but I know some of you fellas run *nix so I figured I could ask.

01-21-2005	#3 (permalink)
Dutch Humourless EuroMod. Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: City of Mermaids, Denmark Posts: 6,813	Moved to the appropriate forum. Dutch __________________ All your answers are belong to Google. SEARCH DAMMIT! Warning. Warning. Low C8H10N4O2 level detected. Operator halted....

01-21-2005	#4 (permalink)
syphon What is a yute? Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: USA Posts: 20	See thats my problem is that I do not know how to recompile a kernel. This card is just being a pain in the ass. It makes me wanna just buy an Orinoco card and say screw it. I am going to be using FreeBSD 5.3. Hopefully I won't have any issues but I guess I'll just burn the drivers onto a disc and figure out how to install them. I read that guide you provided and it doesn't seem easy for someone who is somewhat new to unix to do :/. That's why unix can be a pain. It's always somewhat difficult to get something accomplished It can be somewhat frustrating because I bought this laptop for wireless use and maybe a little wardriving. Aircrack, airsnort etc don't support this wireless card. Hopefully in the future devine and put it in Last edited by syphon : 01-21-2005 at 01:16 PM.

01-21-2005	#6 (permalink)
Dutch Humourless EuroMod. Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: City of Mermaids, Denmark Posts: 6,813	Don't take this the wrong way... With technical matters, one must learn to crawl, before walking, and running. Get your feet wet with the distro of your choice. Read the how-too's that are available on the net, and in the documentation directory of most good distro's. Test the stuff you read, and then when you feel secure enough, do a complete reinstall of the distro, with the procedures you taught yourself. nix is not a Pointy'clickkety operating system. nix rewards you by teaching you how the system is put together. That experience you gather in this manner, is applicable to other systems, if you are able to evaluate and relate the knowledge you gathered.. Dutch __________________ All your answers are belong to Google. SEARCH DAMMIT! Warning. Warning. Low C8H10N4O2 level detected. Operator halted....

01-21-2005	#8 (permalink)
RedSector Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Illinois Posts: 673	Odds are no mater what if you want to use your intel card in a *nix platform you will have to be compiling some driver. If you want to use FreeBSD you will have to use Project Evil (like ndis wrapper). FreeBSD supports almost any B card with the wi driver which I believe is already compiled into the kernel. It also supports the atheros chipset with the ath driver which I also believe is compiled into the kernel. __________________ Get thine ass into the Church The Church of Wifi

01-21-2005	#2 (permalink)
Anthem Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Montreal Posts: 2	The sourceforge drivers work perfectly on my Slackware'd Vaio, but I did need to recompile with a 2.6 kernel as indicated on the ipw2200.sourceforge.net pages. For the centrino and frequency scaling goodness I followed the helpful instructions written by an "Eric" (www.adventure-today.com/vaio) to whom I am very grateful. The centrino bits should still apply but I don't know how well it will all translate to BSD ...but that's what you're here for.

01-21-2005	#5 (permalink)
syphon What is a yute? Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: USA Posts: 20	Do you recommend I maybe start off with Fedora since it is more user friendly and might not cause a hickup with my network cards and new laptop?

01-21-2005	#7 (permalink)
syphon What is a yute? Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: USA Posts: 20	Thank you. I understand that I will have to put more effort into *nix. Just wanted to maybe save some money. I am also worried that I will get thru the whole install and my Intel 2200BG card wont work. Will I have to use Ndiswrapper which I have been reading about on the net a little?

01-31-2005	#10 (permalink)
my_haz Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 3	i have same card and am running r5.3 I have the same card and it works with no porblem. Make sure you have the src distribution installed before do the following (you can install src distro using sysinstall) this borrows hevaly from http://www.freebsddiary.org/ibm-thinkpad-t41.php Code: cd /usr/src/sys/modules/ndis make clean make make install cd /usr/src/usr.sbin/ndiscvt make clean make make install cd /usr/src/sys/modules/if_ndis make clean # COPY WINDOWS DRIVERS the will be something like W70N5.INF W70N5.SYS /usr/sbin/ndiscvt -i W70N50.INF -s W70N51.SYS -o ndis_driver_data.h make make install to test assuming you are connecting to open AP with DHCP support Code: killall dhclient ifconfig ndis0 ssid <SOME SSID> dhclient ndis0 Furthermore if you have Python2.3 and wxPython installed you can send me an email if you would like to try my "netstumbler-ish" app bimonwificon (yet to get on sourceforge, but hopefully soon!) I am often on efnet irc channel #freebsdhelp under the namy my_haz and have dished out some scripts to the needy for this problem, so don't hesitate to stop by good luck!

02-06-2005	#12 (permalink)
localhost I'm always at 127.0.0.1 Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 26	i have an intel 2100 in my laptop, and i've been running freebsd 5.3 on it since it was in beta 3. http://damien.bergamini.free.fr/ipw/ <--that might help you out. works flawlessly (infact it works better than the intel drivers for windows xp). __________________ Secure-Wifi.net - personalized statistics and resources. http://secure-wifi.net/userstats/1.jpg

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