# install wlan without internet connection to start with

## AlgoJerViA

Hi

Could someone guide me to how to get wlan up and running without having a internet connection on the computer to start with. The only way I have to access internet is with my smartphone and then I can connect it to my computer to transfers files. I will then use the phone as a wlan acces point.

//AlgoJerViA

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## mikegpitt

 *AlgoJerViA wrote:*   

> Could someone guide me to how to get wlan up and running without having a internet connection on the computer to start with. The only way I have to access internet is with my smartphone and then I can connect it to my computer to transfers files. I will then use the phone as a wlan acces point.

 This is really dependent on what type of wireless device is in your system.  Can you post the output of lspci here?

If your device isn't included in the kernel you may need to emerge a package or two, which would require you transferring the package to your machine manually.  Chances are the driver is in the kernel, but you may need to install additional firmware or ucode.  Much of this is now in the linux-firmware package, but not everything.  In either case you would need to configure your kernel for the proper driver, and then emerge the correct firmware package, which would again mean manually transferring the package to your machine.

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## AlgoJerViA

[quote="mikegpitt"] *AlgoJerViA wrote:*   

> Can you post the output of lspci here?.

 

Well I guess I could but I think it should be enough to say that it is a common intel card and that the driver already is loaded... it is named iwl3945. Also I should add that I have no need for wlan security, I'm located way out on a island in the archipelago. When I go home I will once again use wired eth instead so all I want is really the absolutely simplest way to connect, it can also be a temporary install and require manual start and so on. The main reason I want some guidance here is that I don't want to pollute the system with stray files.

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## mikegpitt

The iwl3945 drivers are in the kernel, so you should be able to use them easily.  They do require net-wireless/iwl3945-ucode to be installed... so you may want to download this and transfer it to the machine for installation.  I'm not sure if the Gentoo installation disk includes the ucode package.

Alternatively, you could always use another distro's livecd to kick off the Gentoo installation.  I'm sure Ubuntu includes these drivers and firmware on their disk, as does probably many other distro's.

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## AlgoJerViA

Well, the main problem is that I don't know howto use emerge without internet, maybe I'm being to lazy for my own good and should have tried before asking.   :Rolling Eyes: 

But ok, I would need to download a .ebuild file and then the associated files the .ebuild need and place them in /var/portage/.../files/ or something like that? I don't have a install cd here, not gentoo nor ubuntu, I could download it but I have a cap of 10Gb on my cellphone before they cut the speed so that would not be optimal.

But I don't think the driver is the problem and anyway I could not try it without a userspace control program.

Ahhh... and now I'm realizing why I'm a total moron...   :Embarassed:  I don't have KDE or Gnome or any like that but use Xmonad so I don't have any simple tray tool to help me. What I need help with is choosing and installing the simplest program that allow me to initiate the connection to my phone. Maybe something like iwconfig?

So basically, what program should I use assuming the driver is loaded and working and how do I install it. The optimal solution would be if I could have iwconfig binary in my home folder and simply run it in the console to connect.

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## mikegpitt

It really sounds like the ideal solution for you is to download a distro with the 3945 drivers already enabled and kick off the installation from there.  No need to deal with your phone at all... except maybe to download the ISO?

If you wanted to go with the Gentoo ISO, it's quick to throw in the disk and see if the drivers work out of the box.  If they don't, make sure the 3945 drivers are present (checking with `lsmod`).  If yes, this is good... download the firmware on your phone and manually unpack the firmware on your machine.  No need to deal with emerge.

Link to download on your phone: http://intellinuxwireless.org/iwlwifi/downloads/iwlwifi-3945-ucode-15.32.2.9.tgz

Transfer to your machine, then do:

```
tar -xvf iwlwifi-3945-ucode-15.32.2.9.tgz

mv iwlwifi-3945-ucode-15.32.2.9/iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode
```

At this point you can use your phone as your wifi access point as initially planned.

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## AlgoJerViA

OK, thank you but still, what program do I use to actually make the connection?

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## mikegpitt

 *AlgoJerViA wrote:*   

> OK, thank you but still, what program do I use to actually make the connection?

 Ah yes... With no encryption you can make the connection directly with iwconfig (I think iwconfig also works with WEP, but I forgot the syntax):

```
iwconfig wlan0 essid network_name
```

If you use WPA, you will need to emerge wpa_supplicant, and I'm not sure this is on the Gentoo minimal install disk, so you again might be better off with another livecd distro.

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