Wireless using W200 on openSUSE 10.3
Update 09/06/2008: Please see Wireless using W200 on openSUSE 11.0 for updated version of this howto.
I have an old Compaq Evo N610c laptop that has built in Compaq Wireless LAN MultiPort W200. For OpenSUSE 10.1 and older I was using drivers built by Øystein Olsen. I have been unable to get W200 to work ever since I upgraded to openSUSE 10.2 and openSUSE 10.3. Last weekend I finally broke through by leveraging Ubuntu W200 instructions.
Disclaimer:
- The instructions below have worked for me and tested on openSUSE 10.3 (2.6.22.17-0.1-default). YMMV. I am not responsible for loss of data or damage to your machine.
- Using KNetwork Manager with W200 causes system to hang up. Use ifup instead.
- Only WEP is supported. WPA/WPA2 do not work.
- You need to repeat these steps after any kernel updates.
Prerequisites
Check your kernel version
uname -r
Using YaST Software Management install the following packages
cpp42
curl
gcc
kernel-source
linux-kernel-headers
subversion
Configure the kernel
Before we proceed further we need to configure the kernel source
cd /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build/ su (root password) cp /boot/config-$(uname -r) .config make oldconfig make prepare
Updated 04/15/2008 – See comment from Gerhard below who had to run alternate commands to configure the Kernel on N800c.
Downlading the driver
Download the suitable revision of the orinoco_usb driver from SVN. For me revision 1297 has worked correctly.
svn co -r 1297 https://orinoco.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/orinoco/branches/usb/
Compile and install the driver
cd usb make sudo make install
Download the firmware
The firmware directory has a script that makes this task easier
cd firmware ./get_ezusb_fw
Copy firmware to appropriate location
sudo cp orinoco_ezusb_fw /lib/firmware
Activating the adapter
Almost there … load driver into the kernel
sudo modprobe -v orinoco_usb
The tiny green light on the side of W200 should come on. Eureka!!! (if it did not come on, try rebooting)
Configure wireless
- Start YaST and select Network Devices->Network Card
- You should see “Compaq WLAN Multiport W200″ listed there with “Not configured” in the IP Address column
- Before we proceed we need to disable use of KNetwork Manager. Click on “Global Options” tab and select “ifup” instead of KNetwork Manager
- Click on “Overview” tab
- Select “Compaq WLAN Multiport W200″ and click the “Configure” button
- Click on “General” tab. Select “At Boot Time” under “Device Activation”
- Click on “Address Tab”. Select “Dynamic Address DHCP” or Statically Assigned IP Address depending on your network setup.
- Click on “Next” button
- On Wireless Device Settings select “Managed” under “Operating Mode” and other options to match your network settings (reminder WPA is not supported)
- Click “Next” button
- Click “Finish” button
Testing
Open Terminal Window and run
/sbin/ifconfig
to see if you have obtained IP address.
Enjoy
Enjoy an ice cold lemonade and surf the internet from your porch 
9 Comments so far
By George, i think that did it. I set it to use ifup, under the global tab. as you suggested in your blog, pushed the Fn-F2 key, and DHCP went out and caught me an address. I already had everything else in place, the driver, the firmware. It just came right up, I’m using it now. I’ve still got quite a bit of testing to do before handing it over to my 12 year old, but this is very, very encouraging.
I had to do the procedure from Øystein Olsen (http://folk.uio.no/oeysteio/orinoco-usb/building.html) for preparing the kernel:
$ cd /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/
$ rm build
$ ln -s source build
$ cd build/
$ su
(root password)
$ make mrproper
$ make cloneconfig
$ make prepare-all
Important: You must change
make prepare-all
to
make prepare scripts
if you get an error similar to:
/bin/sh: scripts/genksyms/genksyms: No such file or directory
Thank you so much for this how-to! I had been trying for months, without luck until I got here! There’s only one problem left. When I use airmon-ng to start monitor mode for the wireless card, the whole system freezes. I think it’s a problem with the orinoco driver version, as described here: http://www.projectiwear.org/~plasmahh/orinoco.html perhaps this how-to downloaded v. 15? I tried installing v.13e but it returned errors. I have no idea how to solve this problem since I am very new to linux. Please help-it’s urgent! Thanks in advance! =]
Jay,
Sorry I have no experience with airmon-ng. Does the without airmon-ng?
Thanks for the tip!
I installed Suse 11 on my Evo N800c last weekend; Everything is fine but my wireless card(W200) is not working. I followed your tip but at the last step “sudo modprobe -v orinoco_usb” I got a FATAL error:
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.25.11-0.1-default/weak-updates/orinoco_usb.ko FATAL: Error inserting orinoco_usb (/lib/modules/2.6.25.11-0.1-default/weak-updates/orinoco_usb.ko): Invalid module format
I tried another revision, say 1300, but didn’t work…what am I supposed to do? Thanks in advance.
Jae,
I upgraded my Evo N610c from OpenSUSE 10.3 to OpenSUSE 11.0 and the wireless card (w200) worked correctly. I am going now going to try a fresh install of OpenSUSE 11.0 on the same Evo N610c and will let you know the findings.
I just did a fresh install of openSuse 11. i also got an error message saying something about unknown symbols. but after i reboot it, the wireless light up. i configured the wifi card, still i couldnt connect to the internet. any ideas?
by the way, i think i know the solution to Jae’s problem. i attempted to do the same thing a week ago, and i got the same error message as Jae’s. it turns out that the module wasnt “maked” for the correct kernel version, perhaps. so try updating the kernel stuff from YAST, reboot, and install again.
Jay,
Please see the updated version of the howto that is more specific to openSUSE 11.0 Please check it out and provide me with your feedback
http://www.lucidtips.com/2008/09/06/wireless-using-w200-on-opensuse-110/
Thanks a million for the above. It also works a treat for Fedora Core 10 on a Compaq Evo N800c.
P.