Re: [gentoo-user] Wifi, problem, problem, problem

[Ivan T. Ivanov]

Hi Florian,

On Thu, 2013-12-19 at 09:08 +0100, Florian HEGRON wrote:

>
>
> I found the line !!
>
> I had to enable wireless extension option on Network Support -> Wireless
>
> So I enable my card support, and I reboot (I already emerge
> ipw2200-firmware).
>
> #dmesg | grep 2200
> [    1.180583] ipw2200: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver,
> 1.2.2k
> [    1.180643] ipw2200: Copyright(c) 2003-2006 Intel Corporation
> [    1.182617] ipw2200: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network
> Connection
> [   61.408070] ipw2200: ipw2200-bss.fw request_firmware failed: Reason
> -2

This means that driver can not find ipw2200-bss.fw file (probably 
part  of sys-firmware/ipw2200-firmware) to load it to wireless card
RAM chip. Ensure that you have that file, usually it is localed
in /lib/firmware. 


> [   61.409941] ipw2200: Unable to load firmware: -2
> [   61.411877] ipw2200: probe of 0000:06:04.0 failed with error -5
>
>
> It's not explicit for me. -2, -5, Where are errors descriptions ?
>
>
> Anybody can explain to me the firmware goal ?
>
> For me a firmware is a internal software of a device. So I don't really
> understand.

You can look at wireless card as CPU with just RAM (there are
some other chips of course), so firmware is code which have to be
executed by this specialized CPU in order to control RF stuff. And 
because code is not saved to non-volatile storage it have to be loaded
to RAM every time after card is powered up. Driver itself "just" 
ensure proper communication between networking stack and CPU on 
wireless card.

Regards,
Ivan

>
>
> Thank you !!
>