# Newbie: activating Intel/Pro 2915 wireless



## keval (May 19, 2010)

Greetings.
I've loaded FreeBSD 8 on my IBM Thinkpad (T43), which uses the Intel/Pro 2915 abg wireless card.  So far, everything runs well, and it recognizes the card (I've added if_iwi_load="YES", wlan_load="YES" and firmward_load="YES" to /boot/loader.conf).  However, when I run [cmd=]ifconfig iwi0 up scan[/cmd], I get the following messages:


```
iwi0: timeout waiting for (null) firmware initialization to complete
iwi0: could not load boot firmware (null)
```
Any suggestions?


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## SirDice (May 19, 2010)

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/network-wireless.html


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## xguru (May 19, 2010)

I'm having the same issue.  I'm having no luck with the information SirDice posted.  If you find any helpful information or figure the problem out please post the results.


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## SirDice (May 19, 2010)

If you have problems reading and understanding English the handbook is also available is a number of other languages.

If you are having problems understanding what's explained in the handbook please specify exactly what you don't understand. The handbook is quite good but you do have to put some effort into it. Read, learn, make mistakes, read more, learn more, make more mistakes. That's how it works. Nobody learns anything by being spoon fed.


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## DutchDaemon (May 19, 2010)

Sticky: Important wireless networking change in FreeBSD 8


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## SirDice (May 19, 2010)

I skimmed through the wireless chapter and it looks like it now reflects the 8.0 syntax. The 'old' 7.x syntax is mentioned in hints.


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## DutchDaemon (May 19, 2010)

I know  It's just becoming a Pavlov reaction for me to post that link whenever people fail to issue commands for wlan ... (not drooling).


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## bschmidt (May 19, 2010)

iwi also requires the license ACK afaik, 
	
	



```
legal.intel_iwi.license_ack=1
```
`$ man iwi` should be more clear about that.


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## xguru (May 25, 2010)

I managed to get the wireless card loaded, but i end up with a flashing card and no connection.  I also get a error at boot time saying that iwi0 needs multicast support.  Here is my rc.conf, loader.conf

loader.conf 
	
	



```
snd_ich_load="YES"
sem_load="YES"
radeon_load="YES"
legal.intel_iwi.license_ack=1
if_iwi_load="YES"
if_iwifw_load="YES"
wlan_wep_load="YES"
wlan_ccmp_load="YES"
wlan_tkip_load="YES"
```

rc.conf  
	
	



```
hostname="bsd.laptop.home"
ifconfig_bge0="DHCP"
ipv6_enable="YES"
moused_enable="YES"
sshd_enable="YES"
dbus_enable="YES"
hald_enable="YES"
kdm4_enable="YES"
wlans_iwi0="wlan0"
ifconfig_wlan0="DHCP"
```

Here is the steps i take to bring up wireless
1. ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev iwi0
2. ifconfig wlan0 ssid XXXX wepmode on weptxkey 1 wepkey XXXXX

Here is what ifconfig says:


```
iwi0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 2290
        ether 00:12:f0:f0:8b:a8
        media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect mode 11g
        status: associated

wlan0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
        ether 00:12:f0:f0:8b:a8
        inet6 fe80::212:f0ff:fef0:8ba8%wlan0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x5 
        inet 64.158.56.38 netmask 0xff000000 broadcast 64.158.56.38
        inet 0.0.0.0 netmask 0xff000000 broadcast 255.255.255.255
        media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect mode 11g
        status: associated
        ssid Chatterjee channel 11 (2462 Mhz 11g) bssid 00:1b:2f:46:f9:1c
        country US authmode OPEN privacy ON deftxkey 1 wepkey 1:104-bit
        txpower 0 bmiss 24 scanvalid 60 protmode CTS wme
```

If anyone can help with this it would be appreciated! 

Thanks in advance!


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## xguru (May 25, 2010)

sorry about the smileys that showed up.  How do i keep this happening in the future?  putting it all in "code"?


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## DutchDaemon (May 25, 2010)

```
should be used for [b]all[/b] system output (including contents of configuration files, etc.).
```


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## bschmidt (May 27, 2010)

According to the ifconfig output your card is working fine. Are you sure you want to run DHCP on 2 interfaces at the same time?

Ignore the multicast support messages, it's just a noticed for the devs that the driver is missing a functions/feature.


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## xguru (May 30, 2010)

Thanks for all of the info.  I finally have it up and running.  I did not start the thread so I can't make it "Solved"


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