Mageia does not detect wireless card without ipw2200 package

[doktor5000]

Hi all. I am a new user of mageia, and I really liked it so far. One problem I had when I installed mageia from DVD (and also the live CD) was that it does not detect some of my hardwares, mainly the wireless card, and the extra keys on the keyboard. I know that this is the problem with some linux distros, but I have two reasons that make me believe it can be solved by the developers. First of all, I am using a laptop with an onboard intel wireless card, which usually is easily detected by other distros (in fact I tried a huge number of distros so far, and all of them detected it). Here is the specs of my card:

Code: Select all

Vendor: ‎Intel Corporation
Description: ‎PRO/Wireless 2200BG [Calexico2] Network Connection
Media class: ‎Network controller
Connection
Bus: ‎PCI
PCI domain: ‎0
Bus PCI #: ‎6
PCI device #: ‎6
PCI function #: ‎0
PCI revision: ‎0x05
Vendor ID: ‎0x8086
Device ID: ‎0x4220
Sub vendor ID: ‎0x103c
Sub device ID: ‎0x12f6
Misc
Module: ‎ipw2200

When I install mageia, I need to use a wired connection to install the package ipw2200 for the card to be detected.

Now, my second reason is, when I boot the system up with ROSA Linux, it detects the card easily. ROSA Linux is a mandriva based linux, and it should be very similar to mageia. (note: I also tried mandriva linux, and surprisingly, mandriva 2011 also does not detect my card).

Now my question is, am I doing something wrong? I almost accept all the defaults of the installer when I am installing mageia.

P.S. ROSA also detects the extra keys on my keboard, while neither of mandriva 2011 and mageia detects them.

Many thanks.

[doktor5000]

If you use the Mageia livecds, it should also work out of the box, as those contain the nonfree firmware required for your card to operate with the driver correctly.
For a free dvd/dualarch cd installation, this only inlcudes free software, so you need to "bootstrap" your wireless setup with the firmware/drivers afterwards.
Maybe you also want to have a look at a proposed feature for Mageia 3 development: https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Feature:Non-free_DVD_iso

[David_Batson]

Interestingly, my Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 wireless worked out of the box after installing Fedora 17 from the install DVD. The Mageia 2 install DVD required drivers that were available once I connected via ethernet.

http://intellinuxwireless.org/

[doktor5000]

Well, Fedora has a policy to include firmwares and nonfree stuff if it makes the system unusable without. This is always under discussion on -dev mailing list ...

[mmutoo]

Thanks guys. I understand now. Actually, I use LXDE desktop environment, so the live cd version was not for me. I will see if I can go with the LXDE installed on top of the Gnome live CD. I took a look at the feature suggestion for a live DVD with non-free drivers. It is a very good idea. I could not find a comment section to support it.

[doktor5000]

Thanks guys. I understand now. Actually, I use LXDE desktop environment, so the live cd version was not for me. I will see if I can go with the LXDE installed on top of the Gnome live CD.

Well, if you installed from the livecd, sure you can add LXDE in the installed system.

You can also add software when booted in live mode directly from CD, but all changes are gone as soon as you reboot.

[doktor5000]

I took a look at the feature suggestion for a live DVD with non-free drivers. It is a very good idea. I could not find a comment section to support it.

For that, you may want to take a look at https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Features_pol ... _a_feature
You should also subscribe to mageia-dev mailing list https://www.mageia.org/mailman/listinfo/mageia-dev and discuss it there and find someone to work on it.

[mmutoo]

Thanks doktor5000! Actually that was what I decided to do (installing Gnome liveCD and then LXDE). I downloaded the cd image, wrote it on a USB stick, and booted the system up with it. However, after the boot screen when I choose to boot the live system, I see mageia logo and then nothing happens after that. The led on the usb stick (showing read/write) is not blinking while the CAPS LOCK LED is blinking! and the system freeze. It might be a problem with the CD image or its integrity. I downloaded it using a download manager, so it must be OK. But may be it is not. I can download it again. But meanwhile, is there any other possible solution?

[timosch]

hi mmuboo
i´ve seen guys who got it working as well with boot from livecd, but ur own /home/<user> , and symlinks to programs on SDHC .10 drives, but you would need to open the image of the live cd and edit all needed path settings manualy Boot the LiveCD, use fdisk -l in a box for drives&mounts, add the description to your workaround document, Chapter: Hacking a LiveCD
i heard it works ^^ just a hint ^^
and by the way, exactly in this way u can add ipw2xxx or whatever and ur needed Wifi and other is working

I´m still waiting for a good Tablet livecd, bootin the good Tux , that would be a fun ^^

[Ken-Bergen]

Thanks doktor5000! Actually that was what I decided to do (installing Gnome liveCD and then LXDE). I downloaded the cd image, wrote it on a USB stick, and booted the system up with it. However, after the boot screen when I choose to boot the live system, I see mageia logo and then nothing happens after that. The led on the usb stick (showing read/write) is not blinking while the CAPS LOCK LED is blinking! and the system freeze. It might be a problem with the CD image or its integrity. I downloaded it using a download manager, so it must be OK. But may be it is not. I can download it again. But meanwhile, is there any other possible solution?

The blinking CAPS LOCK LED usually indicates a kernel panic.
It could be many things but the first thing to do is verify the download then the burn.

[mmutoo]

I used a USB stick and wrote the image on it. So burn is out. I will download the image again, and I will keep you guys up to date.

Many thanks.

[mmutoo]

Guys, I downloaded it again (The Gnome LiveCD), and wrote it on a USB stick. I used imagewriter to do that which uses dd itself. When I boot the system up with the USB, I see the first page with options which I choose boot the live system from. And then, the kernel loads, and I see mageia logo for a few seconds. Then the screen goes blank and no activity is on USB, and that's it. I did not have this problem with the installation DVD. I did not try the install option in the menu (instead of booting the live system).

[doktor5000]

For the livecds, those are rather different than an installed system. You may also want to have a look at the Errata: https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Mageia_2_Errata
in particular maybe https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Mageia_2_Errata#Live_Cds
FWIW, during the splashscreen (Mageia logo) you can press Esc key to see verbose boot messages and what the system is currently doing or where it hangs.

How to modify a Mandriva/Mageia LiveCD: http://www.mandrivauser.de/doku/doku.ph ... madeiso_en

[mmutoo]

Thanks, I will go through the links. By the way, I tried install mageia option in startup. It does not work also.

P.S. I followed your advice, and hit Esc on the logo. After a few log messages, all of a sudden, the screen goes blank just like before. I think I will avoid the live CD for now and stick with the DVD. Does anybody know if there is a plan for an LXDE spin? Installing the LXDE from DVD gave me a slightly slower system than PCLOS LXDE or Lubuntu. I took a look at the services that are running in mageia. I think some of them belong to other DEs like Gnome even if Gnome is not installed.