Bug 77812 – Wireless (WLAN, Wifi) Guide (doc request)

• Product: [OLD] Docs-user
• Status: RESOLVED FIXED

[Description Dennis Nienhüser (RETIRED) 2005-01-13 04:13:43 UTC]

The new version of baselayout (as of today marked unstable) comes with an improved support for wireless cards. As the usage of laptops as well as desktop computers equipped with wireless cards is steadily increasing, many people could benefit from a guide on setting up wlan in gentoo. This guide should at least discuss the following topics:
* identifying the card (determining the used chipset)
* configuring kernel
* installing drivers
* connecting to an access point
* use in different environments with multiple access points

Usage in a LiveCD and usage in desktop environments (i.e. tools for kde, gnome etc) would be nice as well.

See also http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=122435

[Comment 1 Charlie Sheppard 2005-02-27 10:31:19 UTC]

I'm not sure how to vote and the "my votes" help link seems to be dead so I apologize if this comment isn't appropriate. Just wanted to chime in with "me too", I'd like to see this as well.

[Comment 2 Sven Vermeulen (RETIRED) 2005-03-25 08:02:03 UTC]

Marking as LATER. It is taken in the list of requested documents for future reference.

[Comment 3 Jeff Davidson 2005-06-22 21:27:34 UTC]

Created attachment 61751 [details]
Wireless guide skeleton and start

This is a stab at getting started with this guide.  It's my first experience
with GuideXML and pretty much with writing guides, so I think it might be a bit
wordy, but I wanted to throw what I have so far out there before I get too far
into it only to see that I'm either doing things completely wrong or it's just
not what's desired.  Please let me know what you think and if I should
continue.  Also, I don't have Wireless B cards or know a lot about them, so I
can't write that section.  I know a lot more about G and can discuss many cards
and solutions there.

For a quicker glance, the XML has been converted to html here:
http://www.monkzone.net/docs/wireless-guide.html

[Comment 4 Jonathan Smith (RETIRED) 2005-06-23 04:22:08 UTC]

jeff: we already have a wireless guide written by one of the developers of the
new baselayout, we just haven't made it "live" yet

[Comment 5 Shyam Mani (RETIRED) 2005-06-23 04:29:12 UTC]

(In reply to comment #4)
> jeff: we already have a wireless guide written by one of the developers of the
> new baselayout, we just haven't made it "live" yet

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=4&chap=4

Is that the one you were referring to?

[Comment 6 Jonathan Smith (RETIRED) 2005-06-23 04:39:53 UTC]

(In reply to comment #5)
> (In reply to comment #4)
> > jeff: we already have a wireless guide written by one of the developers of the
> > new baselayout, we just haven't made it "live" yet
> 
> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=4&chap=4
> 
> Is that the one you were referring to?

thats it! somehow it totally slipped by me. i remember reading it when it was
beta...

bah

btw, i'm changing the resolution from later to fixed so others don't get confused

[Comment 7 Jonathan Smith (RETIRED) 2005-06-23 04:40:22 UTC]

fixed (see above)

[Comment 8 Jeff Davidson 2005-06-23 06:57:52 UTC]

Looks great. :)

But do you think there should be a section on determining the chipset and
installing a proper driver?

And also, this project is still on the TODO list (also why I got started with it):

http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/gdp/roadmap.xml

Just glad I didn't do more work on it.

[Comment 9 Dennis Nienhüser (RETIRED) 2005-06-23 07:04:26 UTC]

(In reply to comment #8)
> Looks great. :)
> 
> But do you think there should be a section on determining the chipset and
> installing a proper driver?
> 
> And also, this project is still on the TODO list (also why I got started with it):
> 
> http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/gdp/roadmap.xml
> 
> Just glad I didn't do more work on it.


I'd like to see both guides merged. Some basic information about how to
determine chipset etc. like Jeff began working on are missing and would really
improve the current wireless section IMHO.