Arch Linux

drum

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2007-04-06

Posts: 128

wifi on thinkpad t61 help please

I've had Arch Duke on my box for a few months and love it but now I bought a Thinkpad t61 and installed Arch "Don't Panic" on it, with Gnome. After a lot of reading I understand that the 3 main problems with the T61 and Linux are the 4965 AGN wireless card, installing the new Nvidia card driver and getting Alsa to work.
The first thing I'm tackling is the wireless connection and being a newbie I've pacman'd
extra/wpa-supplicant-gui:
current/wpa-supplicant
iwlwifi-4965-ucode
extra/iwlwifi

iwconfig gives me this, which wasn't there before I downloaded the above.

]# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wmaster0  no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"" 
          Mode:Managed  Channel:0  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2346 B   
          Encryption key:off
          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

As I said, I'm new to all this and wonder where and how I can enter my essid to get things working? Assuming I'm on the right track? I have had wireless working before with an older laptop and my router.
Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks

Last edited by drum (2007-08-07 12:27:57)

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FUBAR

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2004-12-08

Posts: 1,029

Website

Re: wifi on thinkpad t61 help please

I have no clue how WiFi actually works on Linux. I always use wifi-radar to hold my hand and make it work. After installing it, run it as root. If you get an error about X, run "xhost +" as your normal user first, then su to root and start wifi-radar.

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A train station is where a train stops.
On my desk I have a workstation.

drum

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2007-04-06

Posts: 128

Re: wifi on thinkpad t61 help please

Hi FUBAR,
thanks, I got wifi-radar running and it found my essid and connected to the Netgear router address but I still wasn't actually on the net. I ping'd www.yahoo.com with no luck.

here is new:

# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wmaster0  no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"Netgear" 
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: 00:18:4D:49:8C:20   
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2346 B   
          Encryption key:off
          Link Quality=89/100  Signal level=-24 dBm  Noise level=-127 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

So you can see the difference from the first iwconfig in my previous post.
I think it's almost there but needs some more tweaks?
Any ideas?
Thanks again
drum:)

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Shemeta

Member

Registered: 2004-02-11

Posts: 117

Re: wifi on thinkpad t61 help please

you can use wifi-radar, wicd (available in AUR) and gnome-network-manager. i personally am using wicd with my Thinkpad R60 and been very happy with it. i think wifi-radar & wicd are the easiest ways to get your wireless working.

good luck

drum

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2007-04-06

Posts: 128

Re: wifi on thinkpad t61 help please

thanks shemeta,
I'll give it another try in the morning.
wish me luck

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bebop lives