Have a look at this website:
http://stevenvi.zendurl.com/docs/gen..._mx8711.html#6
6 Wireless Adapter
There are two ways you can configure your wireless card. Both are quite simple once you know what you are doing, but you'll pull your hair out otherwise. You can use ndiswrapper or you can use wpa_supplicant. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Using wpa_supplicant, you use a native kernel driver which supports monitor mode, but the signal strenth is weak. Using ndiswrapper, your signal should be stronger. You can decide which is more important to you. Hopefully in the future the kernel driver will be fully operational and ndiswrapper will be unnecessary.
[B]6.1 ndiswrapper
If you choose to use ndiswrapper, then do NOT also use my wpa_supplicant instructions. First, we must obtain a couple packages:
Code:
# emerge ndiswrapper wifi-radar
Now you probably already have drivers for Windows Vista. Good. Too bad you can't use those. Finding a valid Windows XP driver for this particular chipset is a nightmare. At the time of the writing of this, you can obtain drivers at
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp33001-33500/sp33008.exe. To simplify things, you can execute the following at a shell:
Code:
# emerge cabextract
# mkdir wifi_temp
# cd wifi_temp
# wget ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp33001-33500/sp33008.exe
# cabextract sp33008.exe
# ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
# ndiswrapper -l
The last command should tell you that the driver is installed and that ``device (14E4:4311) present.'' If this is not the case, then something has gone wrong. Assuming everything is okay, we can now delete that stuff we just downloaded:
Code:
# cd..
# rm -r ./wifi_temp
Almost there. Now we need to let Gentoo know about the card. This is accomplished by making a new symlink:
Code:
# ln -s /etc/init.d/net.lo /etc/init.d/net.eth1
# modprobe ndiswrapper
# /etc/init.d/net.eth1 start
And optionally, if you want this to start each time you boot,
Code:
# ndiswrapper -m
# rc-update add net.eth1 default
You can scan for wireless networks with the wifi-radar program.
6.2 wpa_supplicant
If you choose to use wpa_supplicant, then do NOT also use my ndiswrapper instructions. First, we must obtain the package:
Code:
# emerge wpa_supplicant
Now before anything will work, we must install the kernel driver:
Code:
Device Drivers
Network device support
[*] Network device support
Wireless LAN
[*] Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11)
<*> Broadcom BCM43xx wireless support
Next we want to modify /etc/conf.d/net. Add the following lines to that file:
Code:
modules=( "wpa_supplicant" )
wpa_supplicant_eth1="-Dwext -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf"
wpa_timeout_eth1=60
And finally, create a symlink so that Gentoo knows about the device
Code:
# ln -s /etc/init.d/net.lo /etc/init.d/net.eth1
and if you want it to automatically start at boot, execute
Code:
# rc-update add net.eth1 default
You can use the wpa_gui program to set up your connections.
