Centrino, firmware, and dual boot?

I recently got a Dell d610 laptop. This has the Intel
2915ABG Centrino card. I want to be able to use the
WiFi under both WinXP and Suse 9.2

On the Windows side, Wifi works just fine. The
Suse side is dead. From what I've been able to
learn, I'll have to install ipw2200, and new
(Intel supplied) firmware.

My question is: Can I install this firmware
to get Wifi up on the Linux side without
breaking the wireless on the Windows side?

If not, is there some other suggested solution?

thanks,

Peter Trei

Peter Trei <(E-Mail Removed)> writes:

>I recently got a Dell d610 laptop. This has the Intel
>2915ABG Centrino card. I want to be able to use the
>WiFi under both WinXP and Suse 9.2

>On the Windows side, Wifi works just fine. The
>Suse side is dead. From what I've been able to
>learn, I'll have to install ipw2200, and new
>(Intel supplied) firmware.

Well, Intel supplies it to both Linux and to Windows. Both systems have to
load the firmware. That is what determines the frequencies the card
operates at, etc. It must be binary only due to FCC regulations, due to
them not wanting you to be able to alter the wireless card to operate on
non-approved frequencies.


>My question is: Can I install this firmware
>to get Wifi up on the Linux side without
>breaking the wireless on the Windows side?

Yes. The firmware is reloaded every time the machine is rebooted, whether
on windows or on Linux.

So ipw2200 works well. It should be included in your SUSE distro already.



>If not, is there some other suggested solution?

Another solution is ndiswrapper which uses the windows firmware and driver
to run the wireless on the Linux side.

On 2005-04-26, Peter Trei <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> to get Wifi up on the Linux side without
> breaking the wireless on the Windows side?

Yes. It works perfectly.
Davide

--
Q: How many Bill Gateses does it take to change a light bulb?
A: One. He puts the bulb in and lets the world revolve around him.
A: None. He declares Darkness(tm) the new industry standard.

Unruh wrote:
> Peter Trei <(E-Mail Removed)> writes:

>
>>My question is: Can I install this firmware
>>to get Wifi up on the Linux side without
>>breaking the wireless on the Windows side?
>
>
> Yes. The firmware is reloaded every time the machine is rebooted, whether
> on windows or on Linux.
>

Thanks! I later found the same info in the INSTALL manual for
ipw2200. Just goes to show that I should RTFM.

thanks again,

Peter trei