[CentOS] Can't get ipw2200 to work in CentOS 5 on Dell laptop

[Phil Schaffner]

Andy,

On Mon, 2007-08-13 at 15:14 -0400, andy.allen at virgin.net wrote:
> 
> Original Message:
> -----------------
> From: Phil Schaffner Philip.R.Schaffner at NASA.gov
> Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 10:10:05 -0400
> 
> > > you also need to add the adapter in
> > > system-config-network with "New" on the "Devices" tab.
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> 
> Did you do this?
> 
> When I try to do this, I get these error messages on the command line:
> 
> (system-config-network:3061): libglade-WARNING **: Error loading image:
> Failed to open file
> '/usr/share/system-config-network/netconfpkg/gui/network.xpm': No such file
> or directory
> 
> (system-config-network:3061): libglade-WARNING **: could not convert string
> to type `GdkPixbuf' for property `logo'

You seem to have some problems beyond just configuring the IPW2200.  I
just had occasion to do a fresh install of CentOS 5 on my IBM/Lenovo
T42p laptop today (had been upgraded from C4 to C5beta to C5 for
testing/QA purposes and was a bit of a mess), so I just went through
configuring the IPW2200 from scratch.

There is no /usr/share/system-config-network/netconfpkg/gui/network.xpm
on my system, but I do not see any errors starting system-config-network
from the command line.

[root at hazard2 ~]# rpm -ql system-config-network | fgrep network.xpm
/usr/share/system-config-network/pixmaps/network.xpm

> I don't know how to add the right adapter because it won't allow me to
> select the right one or add a new one of the form Intel Coporation
> PRO/Wireless 2200BG. Also, it seems to have configured eth1 as an ethernet
> device whereas I want it to be a wireless device. So I'm absolutely baffled
> and don't know where to go from here - I may just have to stick with
> Windows XP for my wireless connection.

I simply loaded ipw2200-firmware-3.0-3.nodist.rf from RPMforge, added
"alias eth1 ipw2200" to /etc/modprobe.conf, rebooted, and the device
showed up as eth1/Wireless in system-config-network (both the Devices
and Hardware tabs).  Listed as "Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2915ABG
Network Connection" on the Hardware tab.  (Comments about needing dkms
in an earlier reply were off-base.  That was apparently cobwebs from C4
days.)

If the IPW2200 is showing up as Ethernet rather than Wireless it is
incorrect.  You may have leftovers from earlier attempts to install from
tarballs.  Given that and the other system-level problems noted above,
I'd try a fresh install before going to the Redmond OS.  Only took about
2 hours here from booting for a network install through a fully-updated
and configured Workstation/Development install with additional 3rd-party
packages (including Octave from EPEL, octave-forge, Acrobat Reader, Sun
Java, Adobe Flash, VMware, and WiFi - cheating a bit - I had other
working systems to draw configs from and pre-built local packages for
acroread, octave-forge, and Java).

Sorry you're having such problems.

Phil