Bugzilla – Bug 144403
package ipw-firmware is missing
Last modified: 2006-03-24 16:11:28 UTC
package ipw-firmware is not available. Thus Intel WLAN devices do not work.
Thorsten? How is valid for the package list?
I have nothing to do with the package list for SL10.1. That's autobuild or the responsible TPM.
Well, I'm neither TPM nor autobuild...
The package is part of the extra tree, from my announcement: We've created on ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/10.1/SUSE-Linux10.1-Beta1-Extra (and on the mirrors of it) a repository with some non-OSS software. The firmware is not Open Source software, so not part of the distributed media.
I stumbled over this in Beta8 as well - this is very confusing. Andreas, can you please make sure that this is documented in the release notes or that YaST will indicate this with a popup window or something? I fear that many users will be very confused that the previously working Intel Centrino WLAN cards are not functional anymore. See BUG#155306 and BUG#157439 for more people that ran into this already (there are many more bugreport about this). It should be made very clear, that additional firmware is required. Currently YaST happily claims to have configured the interface and there is no hint that the firmware is missing. I really wonder why the Intel Firmware was dropped. To my knowledge Intel was very liberal when it came to distributing the firmware as part of a Linux distribution. They actually encouraged it! Why was this changed?
The firmware is distributed and will be on CD6. Karl, please mention the binary Add-On CD in the release notes.
This is good news. Thanks for the info!
If I should mention more programs I need to check the medium. Shall I add more usage info? Or will ask YaST on its own for this CD if hwinfo detects such a card? <sect3 status="2006-03-21" id="binary-add-on-cdrom"> <title>Add-On CD-ROM with Binary-Only Software</title> <para>&suselinux; comes with an add-on CD-ROM (CD6) that contains binary-only software. On this CD-ROM, for example, find the firmware for WLAN cards such as Intel Centrino. </para> </sect3>
CD6 will be shipped with the retail product and used by default there. It's optional for the ftp server. I can give you access to one version of it.
Karl, what exactly do you need from me?
As long as it is used by default, we do not need to add more info. I assume, if the user installs from the FTP server, and YaST detects hardware such as Intel Centrino cards, YaST will prompt the user to download and insert CD6 (or something similar).
No, it will not prompt for ftp users.
Under those circumstances I'd like to do some test with CD6.
To comment 9: Does it inform the user about missing firmware?
Christian Zoz <zoz@suse.de> asks: "To comment 9: Does it inform the user about missing firmware?"
Not that I'm aware of :-(
-> /work: Add-On CD-ROM with Binary-Only Software SUSE Linux comes with an add-on CD-ROM (CD6) that contains binary-only software. On this CD-ROM, find, for example, the firmware for WLAN cards such as Intel Centrino. Include the add-on medium by activating the "Include Add-On Products from Separate Media" option in the YaST installation type dialog at the beginning of the installation or update.