Details about setting up Wifi

As promised ...

In order to get the wifi working I got the driver provided by Kohjinsha and
searched in it, and found that it was compiled in a Fedora Core 4 environment,
so I decided to install that (I have no real preference for any particular
distribution), so I'm happy with that one.

After installation of Fedora I tried to insmod the module, but it complains
with:

[root@kohji ~]# insmod /home/angelv/kohji_drivers/wifi/w89c35-wpa37_Linux26/w35und.ko
insmod: error inserting '/home/angelv/kohji_drivers/wifi/w89c35-wpa37_Linux26/w35und.ko': -1 Invalid module format
[root@kohji ~]#

It turns out that cannot load it because the "version magic" in the driver is
different to what is expected, so I just opened the binary file with an editor
and changed one number

I get this in /var/log/messages:
kohji kernel: w35und: version magic '2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 686 REGPARM 4KSTACKS gcc-4.0' should be '2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 586 REGPARM 4KSTACKS gcc-4.0'

So I have to change the 686 in the driver file to 586. (Is this dangerous? Well,
I don't know for sure, but let's continue).

With the changed file, we can now do:

[root@kohji ~]# insmod /home/angelv/kohji_drivers/wifi/w89c35-wpa37_Linux26/w35und_test.ko
[root@kohji ~]#

And in /var/log/messages I get:

Apr 29 19:11:53 kohji kernel: Adapter =d0240280
Apr 29 19:11:53 kohji kernel: WbWLanInitialize(1)
Apr 29 19:11:53 kohji kernel: ******BB3c is 00000000
Apr 29 19:11:54 kohji kernel: WbWLanInitialize(2)
Apr 29 19:11:54 kohji kernel: usbcore: registered new driver w35und
Apr 29 19:11:54 kohji kernel: SIOCSIWESSID test

So all looks fine.

For the moment I have one problem. If I do this when the WIFI option (Fn+F4) is
off, and then I try to switch it on, then I cannot get it to work, but that's
easy. After switching it on, I just remove the module and load it again and all
is good:

[root@kohji ~]# rmmod w35und
[root@kohji ~]# insmod /home/angelv/kohji_drivers/wifi/w89c35-wpa37_Linux26/w35und_test.ko

in /var/log/messages:

Apr 29 19:16:19 kohji kernel: Adapter =d06b0280
Apr 29 19:16:19 kohji kernel: WbWLanInitialize(1)
Apr 29 19:16:19 kohji kernel: ******BB3c is 00000000
Apr 29 19:16:20 kohji kernel: WbWLanInitialize(2)
Apr 29 19:16:20 kohji kernel: usbcore: registered new driver w35und
Apr 29 19:16:20 kohji kernel: SIOCSIWESSID test
Apr 29 19:16:25 kohji dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
Apr 29 19:16:32 kohji dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
Apr 29 19:16:32 kohji dhclient: DHCPACK from 192.168.0.1
Apr 29 19:16:32 kohji NET[3270]: /sbin/dhclient-script : updated /etc/resolv.conf
Apr 29 19:16:32 kohji dhclient: bound to 192.168.0.130 -- renewal in 38903 seconds.

[root@kohji ~]# ifconfig wlan0
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0D:F0:2D:DF:8C
inet addr:192.168.0.130 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::20d:f0ff:fe2d:df8c/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:44 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:42 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:7770 (7.5 KiB) TX bytes:4970 (4.8 KiB)

If someone is curious, the wlan0 configuration file reads:
[root@kohji ~]# cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0
DEVICE=wlan0
USERCTL=yes
BOOTPROTO=dhcp

TYPE=Wireless
MODE=Managed
ESSID=SpeedTouch0CEAA4
RATE=54Mb/s

NETMASK=
DHCP_HOSTNAME=
IPADDR=
DOMAIN=
HWADDR=
PEERDNS=yes
GATEWAY=
IPV6INIT=no
ONBOOT=no
CHANNEL=1
[root@kohji ~]#

Perhaps this info is too verbose, but I hope it helps someone.

Cheers,
Angel