Suse100ipw2200

When I tried to install Linux on my Dell Inspiron 6000, I ran into some big problems trying to get wireless networking working. Mandriva had all sorts of crazy bugs, so I decided to try Suse 10.0. It didn't work out of the box, but it was relatively easy to get ipw2200 installed and my wireless network up and running:

1. The first step is to plug your laptop into a regular ethernet jack and update Suse. The kernel that comes with Suse 10.0 does not have the modules for ipw2200 installed. When you update Suse, Yast will install a new kernel with the modules for ipw2200.

2. If you are using LILO you will need to run [code]/sbin/lilo[/code] or your computer won't be able to boot.

3. You need a copy of the ipw-firmware. It wasn't in my distribution, I had to download it from rpmfind.net

4. Reboot your computer. (Since you've made changes to the kernel, you unfortunately *have* to do this step for changes to take effect.)

5. Go into Yast, and configure your network card. I recommend just leaving a Managed network and the fields blank under ESSID.

6. If you followed my advice on step 5, open up a screen and run netapplet. This will give you a nice taskbar icon to let you choose what network you want to use.