[SOLVED] Setting up wireless on a new install on a laptop

[FrankO]

Thanks for the suggestions.

[quote]
AlanBartlett wrote:
(1) At the GUI login screen, issue a [b][/b] key-press to obtain a CLI login screen. Now login as an ordinary user and see if the [b][/b] key-press is recognised. (Either [b][/b] or [b][/b] will take you back to the GUI.)[/quote]

I did succeed in accessing the CLI login screen, but unfortunately Fn-F3 was not recognized.

[quote]
(2) Obtain wired (Ethernet) access to the Internet and configure your system so that it is capable of accessing the [url=http://elrepo.org]ELRepo Project[/url] repositories. Now install the the [url=http://elrepo.org/tiki/kernel-ml]kernel-ml[/url] package and re-boot, selecting the [b]kernel-ml[/b] from the [i]Grub[/i] splash screen. Check to see if the [b][/b] key-press is recognised.
[/quote]

I think I succeeded in configuring for ElRepo, but there was a problem in obtaining the kernel-ml package:

[code]
[root@localhost frank]# rpm --import http://elrepo.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-elrepo.org
[root@localhost frank]# rpm -Uvh http://elrepo.org/elrepo-release-6-4.el6.elrepo.noarch.rpm
Retrieving http://elrepo.org/elrepo-release-6-4.el6.elrepo.noarch.rpm
Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
1:elrepo-release ########################################### [100%]
[root@localhost frank]# yum install kernel-ml
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, refresh-packagekit, security
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: yum.phx.singlehop.com
* elrepo: repos.lax-noc.com
* extras: mirrors.arpnetworks.com
* updates: mirror.5ninesolutions.com
base | 3.7 kB 00:00
elrepo | 1.9 kB 00:00
elrepo/primary_db | 436 kB 00:00
extras | 3.0 kB 00:00
updates | 3.5 kB 00:00
Setting up Install Process
No package kernel-ml available.
Error: Nothing to do
[/code]

[AlanBartlett]

[quote]
[root@localhost frank]# yum install kernel-ml
[i][/i]
[/quote]
Ah yes, I can see the reason why. :-)

Please try again, enabling the [b]elrepo-kernel[/b] repository on the [i]yum[/i] command line --

[code]
[b]yum --disablerepo \* --enablerepo elrepo-kernel install kernel-ml[/b]
[/code]

[FrankO]

Hey, how about that! This time kernel-ml installed with no problem. When I select it from the [i]Grub[/i] splash screen, the NetworkManager applet icon now comes up as a set of four reception bars, and the laptop is connected to our home network. In fact I'm posting now via the wireless. So, thanks much for the very successful resolution!

I do have three questions:

1) In newbie-friendly terms, what is kernel-ml, and why do you think it works with my wireless while the regular kernel doesn't?

2) When I start the laptop, three kernels appear on the [i]Grub[/i] screen:

CentOS (3.5.3-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64)
CentOS (2.6.32-279.5.2.el6.x86_64)
CentOS (2.6.32-279.el6.x86_64)

The splash screen is set up to default to the second of these. Is there a way to set it to default to the first, which is the one that works with the wireless? (I assume the third of these was the original kernel that was later superceded when I did a "yum update"?)

3) I assume that as OS updates come along, I should plan on continuing to use kernel-ml. Will it be updated by "yum update"?

Thanks again,

[toracat]

I do have three questions:

I'll keep my answers short.

1) In newbie-friendly terms, what is kernel-ml, and why do you think it works with my wireless while the regular kernel doesn't?

Please see this ELRepo wiki page on kernel-ml. You have just installed the latest version of kernel from kernel.org. It has hardware support that is not available in the current CentOS kernel.

2) When I start the laptop, three kernels appear on the Grub screen:

CentOS (3.5.3-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64)
CentOS (2.6.32-279.5.2.el6.x86_64)
CentOS (2.6.32-279.el6.x86_64)

The splash screen is set up to default to the second of these. Is there a way to set it to default to the first, which is the one that works with the wireless? (I assume the third of these was the original kernel that was later superceded when I did a "yum update"?)

Please see this CentOS wiki on grub, section2 example and its explanations.

3) I assume that as OS updates come along, I should plan on continuing to use kernel-ml. Will it be updated by "yum update"?

Yes, as far as you run the yum command with the elrepo-kernel repository enabled (just you've done).

[FrankO]

[quote]
toracat wrote:
Please see this CentOS wiki on [url=http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/GrubInstallation]grub[/url], section2 example and its explanations.
[/quote]

Thanks, this solved the issue of the default boot order.

[quote][quote]In newbie-friendly terms, what is kernel-ml, and why do you think it works with my wireless while the regular kernel doesn't?[/quote]
Please see this ELRepo wiki page on [url=http://elrepo.org/tiki/kernel-ml]kernel-ml[/url]. You have just installed the [i]latest[/i] version of kernel from kernel.org. It has hardware support that is not available in the current CentOS kernel.[/quote]

Thanks. I'd looked at that wiki page, but was interested in more specifics about the network hardware support that kernel-ml offers. Is there more documentation anywhere?

[AlanBartlett]

[quote]
FrankO wrote:

Thanks. I'd looked at that wiki page, but was interested in more specifics about the network hardware support that kernel-ml offers. Is there more documentation anywhere?
[/quote]
Yes, certainly. It is actually on your laptop computer. Pictorially --

[code]
[ajb@Duo2 ~]$ cd /boot
[ajb@Duo2 boot]$ ll config-*
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 100948 Jun 12 16:36 config-2.6.32-220.23.1.el6.x86_64
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 101976 Aug 14 16:53 config-2.6.32-279.5.2.el6.x86_64
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 130080 Aug 26 19:33 config-3.5.3-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64
[ajb@Duo2 boot]$ sdiff config-2.6.32-279.5.2.el6.x86_64 config-3.5.3-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64 | less
# #
# Automatically generated make config: don't edit | # Automatically generated file; DO NOT EDIT.
# Linux kernel version: 2.6.32-279.5.2.el6.x86_64 | # Linux/x86_64 3.5.3 Kernel Configuration
# Tue Aug 14 11:33:08 2012 <
# #
CONFIG_64BIT=y CONFIG_64BIT=y
# CONFIG_X86_32 is not set # CONFIG_X86_32 is not set
CONFIG_X86_64=y CONFIG_X86_64=y
CONFIG_X86=y CONFIG_X86=y
> CONFIG_INSTRUCTION_DECODER=y
CONFIG_OUTPUT_FORMAT="elf64-x86-64" CONFIG_OUTPUT_FORMAT="elf64-x86-64"
CONFIG_ARCH_DEFCONFIG="arch/x86/configs/x86_64_defconfig" CONFIG_ARCH_DEFCONFIG="arch/x86/configs/x86_64_defconfig"
[i]<snip>[/i]
[/code]
:-D

[AlanBartlett]

[quote]
FrankO wrote:
[quote]
toracat wrote:
Please see this CentOS wiki on [url=http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/GrubInstallation]grub[/url], section2 example and its explanations.
[/quote]

Thanks, this solved the issue of the default boot order.
[/quote]
You may also care to consider the file [b]/etc/sysconfig/kernel[/b], in particular its last line and the significance of having it set as either [b]DEFAULTKERNEL=kernel[/b] or [b]DEFAULTKERNEL=kernel-ml[/b].

[FrankO]

Right, of course. :-)

Thanks again for the help in resolving the issue.

[RagManX]

I had the same problem as the thread creator and going to kernel-ml also solved my problem. Apologies for a thread-necro, but I wanted to get additional confirmation in here in case anyone else finds this thread via searching and isn't sure whether or not to try changing kernels.

[ojp]

Hi,

In my case was my wlan recognized after the installation of the OS with the correct driver:

Code: Select all

[root@ojp network-scripts]# lsmod | grep ath
ath9k                 136983  0 
ath9k_common           25638  1 ath9k
ath9k_hw              450617  2 ath9k_common,ath9k
ath                    29006  3 ath9k_common,ath9k,ath9k_hw
mac80211              569655  1 ath9k
cfg80211              514740  4 ath,ath9k_common,ath9k,mac80211

And even with the command ip:

Code: Select all

[root@ojp network-scripts]# ip addr
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN 
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp3s0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state DOWN qlen 1000
    link/ether 04:7d:7b:ae:ea:3e brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
4: wlp4s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP qlen 1000
    link/ether 44:6d:57:a3:46:3a brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.127.40/24 brd 192.168.127.255 scope global dynamic wlp4s0
       valid_lft 690937sec preferred_lft 690937sec
    inet6 fe80::466d:57ff:fea3:463a/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

But I couldn't started but only manually using the ifcfg-xxx files on /etc/network-scripts/

So, the easiest way to solve it (and more comfortable) was installing only one package:

yum install NetworkManager-wifi

And DONE!!! After that have I the extra network options on the system tray to configure my wifi as desired