After several unsuccessful attempts to try to configure my system for wireless service, running Knoppix v. 5.3.1, I am looking for help. I believe that I have been reasonably diligent in seeking out information here and elsewhere, including the seminal Wiki article, but have not yet succeeded in achieving connection. This even includes going down the ndiswrapper path with drivers imported from Windows. So.... I hope that I can give you a reasonable picture of how things stand. Tell me what you need to move this along.

Setup:

HP Pavilion dv5220 laptop; Intel Centrino Duo; nic1394
Knoppix 5.3.1 running from a copy of the Live CD (copied to a partition on a USB hd by cheat code “tohd”). A knoppix image (persistent) resides in that same partition. The system is booted with a “fromhd=” cheat code.

Observations:

When I boot following a Windows session in which the wireless switch has been left in the “on” position, wlan0 is detected in the bootup screen and present in the iwconfig report (copy below); wlan0 is absent in both cases when booting from a previous Windows session where the switch was left off.

Issuing a pump -i wlan0 (switch on condition) yields the response “Operation failed.”

I would note a couple of things. One is that the blue wireless indicator light on the laptop is never seen when running Knoppix. On the other hand.... I also have Mepis 7.0 on my system and have managed to accomplish reliable wireless operation (after struggling a bit but succeeding with the help of Wicd) and the blue visual indicator works as well. Obviously, it is possible to use the native wireless chip despite many comments to the contrary as it regards laptops!

Iwconfig report:


wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thr=2346 B
Encryption keyff
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

This leads me to ask:

- Can I hope to achieve reliable connectivity in Knoppix with the native chip?

- If not, should I consider a PCMCIA card or USB wireless plugin?

- Can I gain anything by installing Wicd? (Having only dialup as my alternative it's a pain to get packages but I guess that I can get a valid copy on the system)

I appreciate any help that you might be able to give.

Thanks for your time to read this.

Guy Knickerbocker