Arch Linux

qwxyplxl

Member

Registered: 2007-07-16

Posts: 2

Configuring w/l without lan connection / installing pkgs w/o pacman

Hi,

I have a difficult problem. I've hunted around google/the forums for the answer, but haven't found anything satisfactory yet. Basically, I would like to configure wireless in arch linux without having a wired connection. I have an Intel 3945ABG card.

Here's what I've tried so far (via copying to an external usb device):
1) Intel's new iwlwifi (includes iwlwifi, ucode, and daemon)
2) the ipw3945 driver components that you can download from the packages listing
3) beating my head against the wall

So far, only number 3 has been successful.

Basically, I think, the biggest problem I'm having is difficulty performing the raw compiles. Each of these "packages" that I'm dowloading require me to do some sort of configure/make/makeinstall combo (plus a hundred other things). I never get far doing this, though, before I begin seeing build errors, due to missing directories or makefiles, such as kernel makefiles.

From all I understand about Archlinux, there should be a way for me to use pacman to do all this installation stuff for me. However, pacman required .pkg.tar.gz files, and all the drivers and patches I've downloaded (including the ones I get from the archlinux packages listing) are just .tar.gz or just .tar or .gz or some variant. Thus, when I run pacman, it fails due to some missing header file or something that I presume a real package would have.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

Thanks for any help. I'm looking forward to getting started with Archlinux!

ndlarsen

Member

From: Denmark

Registered: 2005-11-02

Posts: 157

Re: Configuring w/l without lan connection / installing pkgs w/o pacman

Take a look at this wiki category: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Cat … English%29. I suggest the following from it: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Makepkg, http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ABS … ild_System, http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arc … _Standards

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I made it long
as I lacked the time to make it short...

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: Configuring w/l without lan connection / installing pkgs w/o pacman

Assuming you installed from the most recent ISO, you can download the Arch packages and install them with pacman - no compiling required. In other words, option 2, but done correctly.

Look for the addons/ subdirectory on whatever mirror you downloaded the iso from. If addons/ is not there, get a new iso from <mirror>/iso/2007.05-Linuxtag2007/i686/, and then get the wifi packages from the addons/ subdir.

Subsitute x86_64 for i686 above if required.

qwxyplxl

Member

Registered: 2007-07-16

Posts: 2

Re: Configuring w/l without lan connection / installing pkgs w/o pacman

Just thought I'd drop by the forum to say thank you. I've got Arch Linux "fully" up and running now, with wifi working correctly. Granted, I'm using w3m to access the web, but everything all in good time.

Thanks!