On this page I will try to describe how to use the Compaq Wireless LAN W200 interface with the Linux Redhat 9.0 distribution. This should work with other distributions as well but name and location of configuration scripts may slightly differ.

# grub.conf generated by anaconda

#

# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file

# NOTICE:  You do not have a /boot partition.  This means that

#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.

#          root (hd0,1)

#          kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda2

#          initrd /boot/initrd-version.img

#boot=/dev/hda

default=0

timeout=10

splashimage=(hd0,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-20.9)

            root (hd0,1)

            kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-20.9 ro root=LABEL=/  acpi=off hdc=ide-scsi

            initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.20-20.9.img

Step 1 : Download the necessary modules from Manuel Estrada Sainz who maintains the Orinoco-USB version of the Orinoco driver. This code should work for the following wireless lan cards :

 

            Agere/Lucent ORiNOCO USB Client (0x047e/0x0300)

            Agere Wireless USB Card Model 0801 (0x0d4e/0x1000)

            HP/Compaq WL215 (0x049f/0x001f)

            HP/Compaq W200 (0x049f/0x0076)

            HP Wireless USB WL215 (0x049f/0x0082)

            IBM Internal High Rate Wireless LAN PC Card 26P8030 (0x0d4e/0x047a)

            Melco, Inc. BUFFALO WLI-USB-L11G-WR (0x0411/0x000b)

            Thomson SpeedTouch 120 Wireless Lan USB Adaptor (0x0d4e/0x1000)

 

On this page you will also find the RPM's for Redhat 9.0 provided by Øystein Olsen.

If you don't use Redhat (or Debian) you have to download the source files.

 

You should now have an wlan0 network device ready for use and your green LED on the W200 should be turned on (use Fn-F2 in order to enable/disable the W200).

 

[root@xyz root]# iwconfig wlan0

wlan0     IEEE 802.11-DS  ESSID:""  Nickname:"HERMES I"

          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.422GHz  Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00

          Bit Rate:11Mb/s   Tx-Power=15 dBm   Sensitivity:1/3

          Retry limit:4   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off

          Encryption key:off

          Power Management:off

          Link Quality:0/92  Signal level:134/153  Noise level:134/153

          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0

          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

 

[root@xyz root]# lsmod | grep ori

orinoco_usb            21916   0  (unused)

orinoco                43604   0  [orinoco_usb]

firmware_class          5204   0  [orinoco_usb]

hermes                  6340   0  [orinoco_usb]

usbcore                79040   1  [orinoco_usb hid ehci-hcd usb-ohci]

Step 2: Unfortunately you still won't see the new device within 'redhat-config-network'.

 

Now you have to configure the necessary options in order to access your wireless router.

Here is one example for my specific configuration (man pages for 'iwconfig' will explain

every possible option).

 

iwconfig wlan0 essid any

iwconfig wlan0 nickname "xyz"

iwconfig wlan0 key s:abcdefghijklm

ifconfig wlan0 dynamic up

 

 

[root@xyz root]# iwconfig wlan0

wlan0     IEEE 802.11-DS  ESSID:"default"  Nickname:"xyz"

          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437GHz  Access Point: 00:30:07:CA:76:71

          Bit Rate:11Mb/s   Tx-Power=15 dBm   Sensitivity:1/3

          Retry limit:4   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off

          Encryption key:6162-6364-6566-6768-696A-6B6C-6D

          Power Management:off

          Link Quality:21/92  Signal level:-67 dBm  Noise level:-88 dBm

          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0

          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

Step 3 :test your configuration with '/sbin/dhclient'. If you see something like this

you are almost done because someone answered your DHCP request !

 

[root@xyz root]# /sbin/dhclient wlan0

Internet Software Consortium DHCP Client V3.0pl1

Copyright 1995-2001 Internet Software Consortium.

All rights reserved.

For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/products/DHCP

 

Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:09:01:f3:80:1b

Sending on   LPF/wlan0/00:09:01:f3:80:1b

Sending on   Socket/fallback

DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5

DHCPOFFER from 192.168.0.1

DHCPREQUEST on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67

DHCPACK from 192.168.0.1

bound to 192.168.0.100 -- renewal in 230007 seconds.

Step 4 : create a file called ifcfg-wlan0 in '/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts' and add your specific configuration (see step 2). This file will be read during network startup.

 

Here is my example :

 

root@xyz root]# cat ifcfg-wlan0

# Please read /usr/share/doc/initscripts-*/sysconfig.txt

# for the documentation of these parameters.

USERCTL=no

PEERDNS=yes

GATEWAY=

ONBOOT=yes

TYPE=Wireless

DHCP_HOSTNAME=

IPADDR=

DEVICE=wlan0

HWADDR=00:09:01:F3:80:1B

BOOTPROTO=dhcp

DOMAIN=

NETMASK=

ESSID=

CHANNEL=1

MODE=Managed

KEY=s:abcdefghijklm

RATE=11Mb/s

Step 5 : for the first time now your are able to use the config user interface within Redhat.

Cool stuff :)

 

Start 'redhat-config-network' and you will be able to see your new wlan0 device. You now can use the activate/deactivate option to request eg. a new IP address from your router.

 

Ifconfig should now show your assigned IP address :

 

[root@xyz root]# ifconfig wlan0

wlan0     Protokoll:Ethernet  Hardware Adresse 00:09:01:F3:80:1B

          inet Adresse:192.168.0.100  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Maske:255.255.255.0

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:11 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          Kollisionen:0 Sendewarteschlangenlänge:100

          RX bytes:3662 (3.5 Kb)  TX bytes:704 (704.0 b)

 

Restart your network with '/sbin/service network restart'. You should now see the startup of your two network interfaces (eg. eth0 and wlan0).