Toshiba Tecra M3 laptop - How to use Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915?

[dcung]

Visiting a relo. Thought I revived old laptops there.
Found 2 unused old laptops. Toshiba Tecra M5 & Tecra M3.

I erased everything on the HDD, and created a single ext4 partition on both of the lappy.

No prob with the M5 - I have worked on this model before. Loaded both Bullseye and Bookworm DDOG amd64. All smooth here.

The M3 has a 32 bit CPU. Really...really old laptop.
My latest bullseye & bookworm i386 build load w/o problem. 'Except' wifi not working.

#Bookworm - dmesg

Code: Select all

root@live:~# dmesg |grep irmware
[   14.550318] platform regulatory.0: firmware: failed to load regulatory.db (-2)
[   14.550327] firmware_class: See https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware for information about missing firmware
[   14.550366] platform regulatory.0: firmware: failed to load regulatory.db (-2)
[   14.550370] platform regulatory.0: Direct firmware load for regulatory.db failed with error -2
[   14.853999] ipw2200 0000:05:05.0: firmware: direct-loading firmware ipw2200-bss.fw
root@live:~# 

#Bullseye - dmesg

Code: Select all

[   15.756021] platform regulatory.0: firmware: failed to load regulatory.db (-2)
[   15.756031] firmware_class: See https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware for information about missing firmware
[   15.756074] platform regulatory.0: firmware: failed to load regulatory.db (-2)
[   15.756079] platform regulatory.0: Direct firmware load for regulatory.db failed with error -2
[   16.137974] ipw2200 0000:05:05.0: firmware: failed to load ipw2200-bss.fw (-2)
[   16.138102] ipw2200 0000:05:05.0: firmware: failed to load ipw2200-bss.fw (-2)
[   16.138107] ipw2200 0000:05:05.0: Direct firmware load for ipw2200-bss.fw failed with error -2
[   16.138117] ipw2200: Unable to load firmware: -2

A little googling took me here (with the revived M5 ). And I downloaded it.
https://packages.debian.org/bookworm/al ... 0/download

Well, after installing the deb - PeasyWifi shows wifi interface 'eth1'. No interface before installing this. Trying to connect and failed. Still have the error shown above though.

I only bring a USB stick with me, and the 'oldest' DDOG I have in the stick is BusterDog i386. I tried it with BusterDog.
Same, no wifi interface before installing the .deb.
And 'eth1' available after installing the driver.
the difference is...it works!

## From BusterDog - works

Code: Select all

[   14.605418] ipw2200: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver, 1.2.2kmprq
[   14.605421] ipw2200: Copyright(c) 2003-2006 Intel Corporation
[   14.605698] ipw2200: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Network Connection
[   14.755100] ipw2200 0000:05:05.0: firmware: direct-loading firmware ipw2200-bss.fw

I checked /lib/firmware after installing .deb, The firmware files that exists/added in all Bullseye/Bookworm/BusterDog after installation.

So, is there any hope to use 'non-outdated' DDOG for this M3?
Anyone use this WiFi card with newish Debian?

[rcrsn51]

In the PWF config, can I assume that you are setting INTERFACE=eth1

Try setting DRIVER=wext

Did you reboot after installing the firmware package?

[dcung]

In the PWF config, can I assume that you are setting INTERFACE=eth1

Yes, I did.

Did you reboot after installing the firmware package?

Yes, I did.

Try setting DRIVER=wext

Well, when I read this, I immediately check BusterDog.
Sure enough, it has DRIVER=wext
While both bullseye & bookworm have DRIVER=nl80211
And, both also works after changing it to wext

I guess this is how you can tell a 'Pro' vs 'Amateur' @rcrsn51
The M3 is also 'revived' now...Thank you.

[rcrsn51]

Excellent. I guess that the maintainers of the old ipw2200 driver didn't want to bother upgrading it from the original (and now deprecated) wext wireless protocol to the modern nl80211 protocol. But as long as your wifi connection software is backwards compatible, you're OK.

This is the only driver I have seen that still needs wext.

[dcung]

I modified all config to use PWF in my marathon mklive builds (ie. replaced @fredx181 default frisbee in some configs).
But sometimes, I still use frisbee.

...But as long as your wifi connection software is backwards compatible, you're OK.

This got me curious. And want answer while I have access to the M3.
So, I installed frisbee on the M3 (i.e. now that it can connect to internet with PWF).

Code: Select all

apt install frisbee

It removed/replaced PWF as expected, installed successfully. Still got connectivity to the net.
But, once rebooted - no more connectivity. It picked up eth1 as WiFi interface correctly (I guess since ipw2200 driver installed already). But showed no available WiFi networks.

I guess now, I have to figure out how to specify wext in frisbee.
I looked in /etc/frisbee/frisbee.conf, nothing obvious what to change - ie. I saw no DRIVER=nl80211.

So, I got on the net, start googling how to do that...then...I suddenly remember.
This is a 'holiday'....not a 'tech support' visit.
So, I stopped searching, wrote this instead...and continue my 'holiday'...

[rcrsn51]

Search through the frisbee code and find the line where wpa_supplicant is called. Add the option "-D wext".

[dcung]

Turns out that frisbee is backward compatible.
I was looking for wpa_supplicant stuff, and found it in /etc/frisbee/wpa_supplicant.conf
And while I was doing so, I saw the networks list got populated.
I should have allowed more time last time. After all, this is a >20 years old laptop (saw a sticker with 2004 on it).

So, I didn't have to do anything. Just need a little patience.

That was on Bookworm. I repeated it again with Bullseye. Also works. Again just more time to get the list populated.

So, both PWF and frisbee work with this older ipw2200 driver.

Well - learnt something while on 'holiday'...
Thanks @rcrsn51

[rcrsn51]

I looked at frisbee in a recent Puppy and it uses: -D nl80211,wext

So it would try to connect with the modern protocol first, then fall back to the original. That might explain the time lag.