Ok, after a while let’s go back posting something about my Dell Inspiron 9400 configuration. Lately, in fact, I managed to properly configure the wireless card inside the laptop.
Let’s start with the hardware found inside the computer with an excerpt of lshw:
*-network
description: Wireless interface
product: PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:0c:00.0
logical name: eth1
version: 02
serial: 00:19:d2:ae:a7:ff
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ipw3945 driverversion=1.2.0dmpr firmware=14.2 1:0 () ip=192.168.1.3 latency=0 link=yes module=ipw3945 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11g
Looks complicated, anyway easier said, lspci gives:
Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02)
So, looking around the net I found that the proper driver must for gentoo is not built in the kernel, but must be emerged separately. Lucky enough, it’s in the portage, so no pain at all in compiling it. The packages needed are:
net-wireless/ipw3945 (Driver for the Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG miniPCI express adapter)
net-wireless/ipw3945-ucode (Microcode for the Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG miniPCI express adapter)
net-wireless/ipw3945d (Regulatory daemon for the Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG miniPCI express adapter)
After emerging this packages, you can easily turn on the wireless connection using the “Fn+F2” key shortcut. The module gets loaded automatically and deamon starts.
In order to use the wireless connection, you must also install wpa_suppliacant (package is net-wireless/wpa_supplicant) and configure it properly.
In order to use it, for example, with Telecom Italia “Alice W-Gate” router modem, I configured my /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf in the following way:
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
network={
key_mgmt=NONE
priority=-9999999
}
network={
ssid="Alice-my alice ssid number"
proto=WPA
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=TKIP
psk="my passkey"
priority=2
}
In this way, as soon as I switch on the wireless connection, I get online!
Easy, isn’t it? Once again, Dell did a great job in putting together a nice laptop with standard compliant parts.
Mitakuye Oyasin!