[Solved] Intel Wifi firmware missing AntiX 13.1

SamK · posted: 2013-07-13 17:57

A short while ago I built an antiX-12 live USB stick for someone wanting to see about moving from XP. Now they have asked for antiX-13 to be installed to hard disk.

In antiX-12 the wireless worked OK once configured via WICD.

In antiX-13 the same device cannot be configured via WICD or Ceni. Neither of them can see the device, nor can Hardinfo (System Information). However, inxi can as shown below.

Laptop
Dell Inspiron 630m

WIFI working in
antix-12-Full 3.5.0-antix.2-486-smp
Booted live USB flash drive

WIFI not working in
antix-13.1-Full
Booted via CD-ROM to install to internal hard disk

The WIFI adaptor

Code: Select all

inxi -n
Network:   Card-1: Broadcom BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX driver: b44 
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: 00:14:22:89:f8:ce
           Card-2: Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG [Calexico2] Network Connection driver: ipw2200 
           IF: eth1 state: up mac: 00:13:ce:b9:90:bb

After some research it seems that ipw2200 is all that is required, but lsmod shows it to be loaded. An lsmod listing from both antiX-12 & 13.1 is attached.

So the question is what has changed between antiX-12 & 13 to cause the failure? Next is how to resolve it?

BitJam · posted: 2013-07-13 18:13

SamK, take a look at
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"antix.freeforu ms.org/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=4470"
linktext was:"this recent thread"
====================================
. It has several suggestions for getting ipw2200 to work.

rokytnji · posted: 2013-07-13 21:27

Throwing this in this thread in case it is relevant. Different Kernel and Distro and Network Manager thread I was in at Mint Forums.

========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=138150"
linktext was:"http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=138150"
====================================

Mint 15 has been pretty buggy overall over there.

SamK · posted: 2013-07-15 06:12

BitJam wrote:SamK, take a look at
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"antix.freeforu ms.org/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=4470"
linktext was:"this recent thread"
====================================
. It has several suggestions for getting ipw2200 to work.

Re: the link to Sourceforge to download the firmware. All links seem to be broken. It might be worth amending the post to prevent future readers trying them. See below for a working alternative.

@ rokytnji
In the link referred to by BitJam,your link to m-11-wireless-a-disappointment-t3622.html led to the answer via
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://wiki.debian.org/ipw2200"
linktext was:"http://wiki.debian.org/ipw2200"
====================================
.

Diagnosis results obtained when booted from the antiX-13.1-Full ISO
Verify the network devices known to the system, their interface id and state

Code: Select all

inxi -n
Network:   Card-1: Broadcom BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX driver: b44 
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: 00:14:22:89:f8:ce
           Card-2: Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG [Calexico2] Network Connection 
           IF: N/A state: N/A mac: N/A

Note: interface=N/A state=N/A mac=N/A. In this condition the wireless device cannot be configured via Ceni or WICD.

Verify the wireless device driver (ipw2200) is loaded by the stock antiX-13.1 kernel

Code: Select all

lsmod | grep ipw
ipw2200            110156    0
libipw             17373    1 ipw2200
cfg80211        123731    2 libipw,ipw2200
lib80211          2526    2 libipw,ipw2200

Indicates the driver is loaded.

Verify whether the wireless-tools package is installed

Code: Select all

apt-cache policy wireless-tools
wireless-tools:
  Installed: 30~pre9-8
  Candidate: 30~pre9-8
  Version table:
 *** 30~pre9-8 0
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Indicates the most current version in the repo is installed.

Verify whether wireless device firmware (firmware-ipw2x00) is installed

Code: Select all

apt-cache policy firmware-ipw2x00
N: Unable to locate package firmware-ipw2x00
apt-get update
apt-cache policy firmware-ipw2x00
firmware-ipw2x00:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 0.36+wheezy.1
  Version table:
 *** 0.36+wheezy.1
        500 http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ wheezy/non-free i386 Packages

Indicates the firmware package is not installed.

firmware-ipw2x00, in antiX-12-Full is included in the stock ISO, in antiX-13.1 it is missing in the stock ISO.

To get the WIFI working
Install firmware-ipw2x00

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install firmware-ipw2x00

Remove the currently loaded ipw2200

Code: Select all

sudo modprobe -r ipw2200

Reload ipw2200

Code: Select all

sudo modprobe ipw2200

Verify the network devices known to the system, their interface id and state

Code: Select all

inxi -n
Network:   Card-1: Broadcom BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX driver: b44 
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: 00:14:22:89:f8:ce
           Card-2: Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG [Calexico2] Network Connection driver: ipw2200 
           IF: eth1 state: down mac: 00:13:ce:b9:90:bb

Note: interface=eth1 state=down. In this condition the wireless device can be configured via Ceni or WICD.

Configure and connect via WICD
1. Control Center-->Network-->Connect Wirelessly (wicd)
2. Drop-down arrow-->Preferences
3. Wireless interface=eth1 (as previously reported by inxi -n)
4. WICD main display-->Refresh
5. Select desired WIFI network-->Properties
6. Select encryption type and enter key password
7. Connect

Verify the network devices known to the system, their interface id and state

Code: Select all

inxi -n
Network:   Card-1: Broadcom BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX driver: b44 
           IF: eth0 state: down speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: 00:14:22:89:f8:ce
           Card-2: Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG [Calexico2] Network Connection driver: ipw2200 
           IF: eth1 state: up mac: 00:13:ce:b9:90:bb

Note: interface=eth1 state=up

The above is rather involved for newcomers to antiX who are using the live ISO to evaluate whether antiX is for them or not. The omission of the firmware gives the impression that antiX is complicated and difficult to set up.

Suggestion:
As firmware-ipw2x00 was included in the ISO of antiX-12-Full, it should also be included in the ISO of antiX-13.x-Full.