Gentoo and Sony Vaio VGN-FZ180E – part 4: Wireless

The latest kernel 2.6.24-r3 support the Intel Pro Wireless 4965, so it’s not needed to manually built 3rd part modules. Mark the following kernel opts:

Networking --->  Wireless --->
 -*- Improved wireless configuration API
[*]   nl80211 new netlink interface support
-*- Wireless extensions
<*> Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack (mac80211)
[ ]   Enable debugging output
< > Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack

and

Device Drivers ---> [*] Network device support ---> Wireless LAN ---> [*] Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11)
[*]   Intel Wireless WiFi Link Drivers
[*]     Enable full debugging output in iwlwifi drivers
[*]     Enable Sensitivity Calibration in iwlwifi drivers
[*]     Enable Spectrum Measurement in iwlwifi drivers
[*]     Enable Wireless QoS in iwlwifi drivers
<M>     Intel Wireless WiFi 4965AGN

After reboot, “modprobe iwl4965″ and “modules-update”Emerge the packages “wpa_supplicant” and “wireless-tools”.
The wireless network can be discovery by using the command “iwlist wlan0 scan”. To connect to a network, declare it inside/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf. Examples of networks declaration, with and without WEP:

network={
        ssid="home_network"
        key_mgmt=NONE
        wep_key0=fffffffffffffffffffff01111
        wep_tx_keyidx=0
} network={
        ssid="Delle_Province Hotel"
        key_mgmt=NONE
}

To activate wpa_supplicant as the “wireless connections manager”, the file /etc/conf.d/net must contain:

# Use dhcp for the wireless interface
config_wlan0=("dhcp")

# Declare wpa_supplicant module
modules=( "wpa_supplicant" )

# Wpa supplicant command line.
# wext referes to the wireless interface
# -dd enables verbose logging
# -c points to the configuration file
wpa_supplicant_wlan0="-Dwext -iwlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -dd"

Ok, now we have support in the kernel, support in the net scripts. To start/stop wireless network, it’s enough to do a

/etc/init.d/net.wlan0 start

which is a symbolic link to net.lo.