noorul@laptop:~$ lspci | grep Wireless
04:02.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG [Calexico2] Network Connection (rev 05)


The installer keeps on looking for this firmware in /dev/fd0 (i.e floppy disk) which my machine don’t have and it loops. See below.


Feb 6 11:18:09 kernel: [ 210.472933] FAT: utf8 is not a recommended IO charset for FAT filesystems, filesystem will be case sensitive!
Feb 6 11:18:13 kernel: [ 214.710322] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Feb 6 11:18:26 kernel: [ 227.758197] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Feb 6 11:18:26 kernel: [ 227.758207] FAT: utf8 is not a recommended IO charset for FAT filesystems, filesystem will be case sensitive!
Feb 6 11:18:30 kernel: [ 231.454131] kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
Feb 6 11:18:30 kernel: [ 231.454335] EXT3 FS on sda9, internal journal
Feb 6 11:18:30 kernel: [ 231.454338] EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Feb 6 11:18:39 kernel: [ 240.810198] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Feb 6 11:18:39 kernel: [ 240.810207] FAT: unable to read boot sector
Feb 6 11:18:52 kernel: [ 253.874008] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Feb 6 11:19:05 kernel: [ 266.933613] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Feb 6 11:19:05 kernel: [ 266.933630] attempt to access beyond end of device
Feb 6 11:19:05 kernel: [ 266.933633] fd0: rw=0, want=66, limit=8
Feb 6 11:19:05 kernel: [ 266.933636] isofs_fill_super: bread failed, dev=fd0, iso_blknum=16, block=32


As a solution, I choose “expert mode” installation and before setting Network devices, I switched over to another virtual terminal (Alt-F2) and got a shell. I ran “ethdetect” command there so that this runs as a separate process independent of the installer. This step will not block the installer and you can continue with setting up network from the menu skipping detecting network devices.

I got the following error when I compiled ipw2200 on my laptop.

/home/noorul/software/ipw2200/ipw2200-1.2.2/ipw2200.c: In function ‘ipw_pci_probe’:
/home/noorul/software/ipw2200/ipw2200-1.2.2/ipw2200.c:11937: error: implicit declaration of function ‘SET_MODULE_OWNER’

In my case I was able to find out a solution from some other project. But there is a patch in the bug database. Here is the link http://www.intellinuxwireless.org/bugzilla/attachment.cgi?id=1378

But in the case of iee80211, I couldn’t find a straight forward solution. But the following steps helped me. There were several errors across multiple files.

1. I had to make changes to ieee80211_module.c. Here is the patched file.

ieee80211_module.c

2. Then the files ieee80211_crypt_wep.c, ieee80211_crypt_tkip.c

ieee80211_crypt_wep.c
ieee80211_crypt_tkip.c

Once I made the above changes, I followed the normal compilation procedure and everything worked fine. Posting this one through wireless internet connection.

I assume that you have subscribed to Airtel Mobile Office and you are able to browse internet using phone.

You need cdc_acm module in order to make your phone act as a modem. I hope you have this compiled as a module. Just plugin the USB cable into your computers USB port and use the command dmesg to see the following messages at the bottom.

usb 2-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
usb 2-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
cdc_acm 2-2:1.1: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
cdc_acm 2-2:1.3: ttyACM1: USB ACM device
usbcore: registered new interface driver cdc_acm
drivers/usb/class/cdc-acm.c: v0.25:USB Abstract Control Model driver for USB modems and ISDN adapters

If you see something similar, that means your device has been detected as a modem. You can access this device using the file /dev/ttyACM0. You can even use minicom or other communication programs to use this device as a modem.

Also you need ppp to connect to the internet. Install ppp daemon for your distribution. Debian users can just do the following to install ppp.

sudo apt-get install ppp

This will install both pppd and chat programs. I won’t get into much detail about these commands here.

Steps
1. Create a file /etc/ppp/peers/w810i with the following contents.

/dev/ttyACM0
connect '/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/ppp/peers/chat-w810i'
debug
crtscts
noipdefault
ipcp-accept-local
defaultroute
novj
nobsdcomp
novjccomp
nopcomp
noaccomp
usepeerdns
noauth

2. Now create another file /etc/ppp/peers/chat-w810i with the following contents.

ECHO ON
''          'AT'
'OK\r'      'AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","airtelgprs.com","0.0.0.0",0,0'
'OK\r'      'ATD*99***1#'
'CONNECT'

Now you are ready to connect to the internet. Just type in the following command.

sudo pppd call w810i

You must be sudoer for the sudo command to work. It will ask for your password. If you don’t use sudo then you can log in as root and run the same command without sudo in the beginning. Now you will see a message “Connecting” on your mobile phone. If you look at the file /var/log/messages at the bottom you can see something similar to below lines, this means you are connected to the internet.

Jul 30 20:22:18 xxxxxx pppd[4652]: Serial connection established.
Jul 30 20:22:18 xxxxxx pppd[4652]: Using interface ppp0
Jul 30 20:22:18 xxxxxx pppd[4652]: Connect: ppp0  /dev/ttyACM0
Jul 30 20:22:19 xxxxxx pppd[4652]: Remote message: Congratulations!
Jul 30 20:22:19 xxxxxx pppd[4652]: PAP authentication succeeded
Jul 30 20:22:19 xxxxxx kernel: PPP Deflate Compression module registered
Jul 30 20:22:20 xxxxxx pppd[4652]: local  IP address 117.97.49.57
Jul 30 20:22:20 xxxxxx pppd[4652]: remote IP address 61.95.248.66
Jul 30 20:22:20 xxxxxx pppd[4652]: primary   DNS address 202.56.250.5
Jul 30 20:22:20 xxxxxx pppd[4652]: secondary DNS address 202.56.250.6

Open your favourite browser, mine is firefox, and have fun.