# Setting up Wireless [Solved]

## jsander

I just installed gentoo and now I'm having some problems setting up wireless. From the liveCD I was able to install gentoo without internet access and using most of the GRP packages. Now that I have a system setup though I don't seem to have net-setup and obviously can't emerge it. How do I go about setting up wireless without the basic internet tools? Thanks, JeffLast edited by jsander on Wed Jul 12, 2006 7:59 pm; edited 1 time in total

----------

## nadi

I dont exactly understand your problem: do you hve regular ethernet in addition to your wireless, or is the wireless card your only card? Basically you can do everyhting using the livecd, including setting your wireless setup. you need to set the correct variables in the kernel, emerge for example wpa_supplicant and your wireless driver, and then to configure wep or any other setting in the configuration file (if you emerge wpa_supplicant, it is /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf ).

see the manual and the wiki http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Wireless_Configuration_and_Startup

N

----------

## nixnut

Moved from Installing Gentoo to Networking & Security.

Postinstallation networking question, so moved here.

----------

## jsander

 *nadi wrote:*   

> I dont exactly understand your problem: do you hve regular ethernet in addition to your wireless, or is the wireless card your only card? Basically you can do everyhting using the livecd, including setting your wireless setup. you need to set the correct variables in the kernel, emerge for example wpa_supplicant and your wireless driver, and then to configure wep or any other setting in the configuration file (if you emerge wpa_supplicant, it is /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf ).
> 
> see the manual and the wiki http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Wireless_Configuration_and_Startup
> 
> N

 

I do not have an ethernet connection, only a wireless one and I installed gentoo without an internet connection. Are wpa_supplicant and my wireless driver on the liveCD? How can I find out what wireless driver I need? Thanks.

----------

## kg4ysy

if you are going to use ndiswrapper, I can help you for the most part...

----------

## jsander

 *kg4ysy wrote:*   

> if you are going to use ndiswrapper, I can help you for the most part...

 

can I emerge ndiswrapper without internet access?

----------

## kg4ysy

i don't know if it is on the livecd, but if you have another computer, go to ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net and get the latest .tar.gz  I am pretty sure it is on the livecd though.  Can anyone check me on that?  If not just go to the website and download it and install it manually.

----------

## jsander

Now that you mention it, how do I tell portage to emerge something from the liveCD rather than trying to download it from the internet?

----------

## kg4ysy

uh...not sure...check the gentoo handbook about installing and configuring portage.  Do you have a knoppix disc handy?  I installed gentoo with a knoppix disc up to the point of emerging ndiswrapper.  After I got wireless working I switched to my gentoo install and had wireless.

----------

## jsander

 *kg4ysy wrote:*   

> uh...not sure...check the gentoo handbook about installing and configuring portage.  Do you have a knoppix disc handy?  I installed gentoo with a knoppix disc up to the point of emerging ndiswrapper.  After I got wireless working I switched to my gentoo install and had wireless.

 

Is there a version of knoppix smaller than 650 MB? I've only seen it as ~700 MB and I only have 650 MB CDRs.

----------

## kg4ysy

well i take it the gentoo livecd didnt detect you wireless card.  As for knoppix I don't know if there is a smaller one.  Maybe someone else will post about this...

----------

## agne

What kinda card do you have?

----------

## jsander

 *agne wrote:*   

> What kinda card do you have?

 

Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller

----------

## agne

You will need the net-wireless/bcm43xx I guess and I can't find that on the livecd. Maybe its better to use the ndiswrapper for this wificard as it the net-wireless/bcm43xx seems to be hard masked.

----------

## kg4ysy

I agree.  My card can technically use madwifi, but with what I have done, I just like ndiswrapper so much more.  There are just a few steps to get ndiswrapper working.  Emerge it and let us know from there...

--Jim

----------

## jsander

 *kg4ysy wrote:*   

> I agree.  My card can technically use madwifi, but with what I have done, I just like ndiswrapper so much more.  There are just a few steps to get ndiswrapper working.  Emerge it and let us know from there...
> 
> --Jim

 

Easier said than done. How can I emerge ndiswrapper without an internet connection? Thanks, Jeff

----------

## kg4ysy

If it isn't on the livecd somewhere, then just download it from sourceforge with the link I put a couple posts before.  Just do the make;make install on the source if you download it.

----------

## jsander

 *kg4ysy wrote:*   

> If it isn't on the livecd somewhere, then just download it from sourceforge with the link I put a couple posts before.  Just do the make;make install on the source if you download it.

 

Ok, I downloaded ndiswrapper from sourceforge, burned it on a cd, booted from gentoo, copied the files onto my harddrive and ran 'make' from the directory. I get an error something like "Can't find kernel build at /lib/modules/<gentoo version>/build"

[edit]it also says something about setting KBUILD to the build directory[/edit]

----------

## jaymode

you need to make a link:

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/Installation

----------

## jsander

I have nothing in the /usr/src/ directory. I assume I need to install the kernel source, if so what's the easiest way to do this without internet access?

----------

## kg4ysy

i would say go to kernel.org and download the kernel source to the kernel you have...anyone else have a different idea?...this would be so much easier if you had an internet connection...:-P

----------

## jaymode

 *jsander wrote:*   

> I have nothing in the /usr/src/ directory. I assume I need to install the kernel source, if so what's the easiest way to do this without internet access?

 

Check out the answer I got:

 *NeddySeagoon wrote:*   

> jaymode,
> 
> What kernel did you install ?
> 
> If you selected the liveCD kernel, you have no kernel sources to build the ndiswrapper kernel moodule against.
> ...

 

----------

## jsander

 *jaymode wrote:*   

>  *jsander wrote:*   I have nothing in the /usr/src/ directory. I assume I need to install the kernel source, if so what's the easiest way to do this without internet access? 
> 
> Check out the answer I got:
> 
>  *NeddySeagoon wrote:*   jaymode,
> ...

 

the problem is that I don't have internet access from linux so I can't emerge anything from the internet.

----------

## jaymode

the -fp command will give you the url to get the file from. Download on another comp and copy to the directoy in my post on the computer without internet. /usr/portage/distfiles

then run the emerge command without the -fp on the end

Looks like we are trying to do the same thing, get ndiswrapper working.

----------

## jsander

I downloaded the gentoo sources manually and emerged them. I still can't make ndiswrapper though. It gives me a very long list of generic errors which I have no way of listing. Once again my plan is foiled.

----------

## jaymode

I had the same problem too. You need to manually compile a new kernel and make sure to put in wireless support. The guide is in the handbook link in my post. Then you need to edit the grub.conf file and put the new kernel in there and boot from it and then install ndiswrapper. I succesfully did this last night. I probably had the same errors as you.

----------

## jsander

 *jaymode wrote:*   

> I had the same problem too. You need to manually compile a new kernel and make sure to put in wireless support. The guide is in the handbook link in my post. Then you need to edit the grub.conf file and put the new kernel in there and boot from it and then install ndiswrapper. I succesfully did this last night. I probably had the same errors as you.

 

How do I know what settings I need to set when I make menuconfig? I compiled my own kernel with make && make modules_install and copied the bzImage to /boot and added it to grub. I now get an error when trying to emerge ndiswrapper that says CONFIG_NET_RADIO is not set when it should be. Also in grub what do I set initrd to for the new kernel?

----------

## jsander

I tried adding CONFIG_NET_RADIO=y in the .config file and then emerging ndiswrapper and it seems to have worked. Anyhow, assuming everything I did was legit what should I do now to setup my wireless card?? Thanks.

----------

## jaymode

 *jsander wrote:*   

> I tried adding CONFIG_NET_RADIO=y in the .config file and then emerging ndiswrapper and it seems to have worked. Anyhow, assuming everything I did was legit what should I do now to setup my wireless card?? Thanks.

 

I used the latest ndiswrapper for best support etc.

If you want to use the latest, (ver 1.19) get it from ndiswrapper.sourcefourge.net, and also get the files necessary for dhcpcd.

Find the necessary files for dhcpcd by:

```
#emerge dhcpcd -fp
```

Then you want to unmerge the ndiswrapper you installed(ver 1.2):

```
#emerge -Ca ndiswrapper
```

Ok now after that I followed this guide:

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/Installation

edit: you will also need to emerge dhcpcd after copying files to /usr/portage/distfiles

```
#emerge dhcpcd
```

----------

## jsander

hahahahahha, I can't believe it but somehow I actually got my wireless internet connection to work. Thanks to all of you guys for helping me, I couldn't have done it without you. If anyone else is still having trouble getting this to work message me with your problem because I've encountered so many errors and problems that chances are yours is among them.

----------

