Wireless Networking
The W200 (lid-mounted wireless 802.11b module) works for me, but requires you to compile the source from Savannah. You will need to have the following things:
--Custom kernel, a given since you're running gentoo. I used genkernel cause I'm lazy.
--Hotplug
--cvs
--wget
the latest source is available from: http://savannah.nongnu.org/cvs/?group=orinoco
but you'll want the cvs which has support for the w200.
get the latest by:
cvs -z3 -d:ext:anoncvs@savannah.nongnu.org:/cvsroot/orinoco co orinoco
This will create a folder orinoco where you run the command from, now:
cd orinoco
make
make install
This will install the files orinoco and orinoco_usb to the modules directory for the configured source.
You will see errors like kernel source not configured if you did not boot on your new kernel.
Next you will need to get the firmware files for the usb card, mind you there is no mention of this in the savannah forums nor the savannah page, gripe, groan, moving on!
instructions taken from http://folk.uio.no/oeysteio/orinoco-usb/install.html
wget http://folk.uio.no/oeysteio/orinoco-usb/get_ezusb_fw
and
wget ftp://ftp.avaya.com/incoming/Up1cku9/ts ... SR0201.zip
in the folder you downloaded the files to, type sh get_ezusb_fw it'll say something about sources in, sources out and a file will be made called orinoco_ezusb_fw
Copy orinoco_ezusb_fw (the output file from the script) to /lib/firmware/ on the machine that needs the orinoco-usb driver. (create the folder if it does not exist)
add the lines orinoco_usb and orinoco to /etc/modules.autoload.d/{your kernel vesion}
The loading order of these modules is important, I got wacko errors about unknown symbols in module orinoco_usb when orinoco was loaded, when I doubt, reboot or unload the modules.
The only gotcha is that you need to hit Fn-F2 to power up the wireless module, the green led should turn on, if not check alt+12 or /var/log/messages for errors. Proceed to configure the card as you normally would.
I'm no pro, but this seems to be a popular request, so i humbly submit.
Jason
This is last thing keeping me from removing Windows from my laptop, really need wireless operational... Been googling for the last day trying to find an answer with no results..