HOWTO connect your Linux laptop to the UoW Campus-Wide Wireless Network

Setting up the laptop

You need at least the following:

* The latest Linux 2.2 kernel source (2.2.16 at time of writing). You can use older ones, and may even be able to use newer ones, but I know that 2.2.16 works and works well, so probably you want to stick with that. Get it from http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/linux/kernel/v2.2.

* The latest version of the PCMCIA-CS package (3.1.19 at time of writing). It is rumoured that earlier versions will also work (e.g. 3.1.8). Get it from http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net.

* The latest version of the linux-wlan distribution (0.3.4 at time of writing). Get it from http://www.absoval.com/linux-wlan.

1). Compile and install a working Linux kernel. Refer to the Linux-kernel HOWTO for the instructions, but it's pretty straightforward. Persevere until you are happy with the kernel. Normally the source should go in /usr/src/linux, or at least /usr/src/linux should be a symlink to the correct location.

In your Linux configuration, be sure to check the option under "Networking Options" called "Kernel/User netlink socket". None of the other sub-options under this are necessary, but the device drivers for the card require that you have this option in your kernel.

2). Compile and install PCMCIA-CS. If you have installed a Debian .deb or .RedHat rpm package, this is not adequate - you also need the source in order to compile the device driver for the card. If you wish to preserve your existing config scripts, DO NOT do a make install (see later).

First you type "make config" and answer some questions. Specify the path to the Linux source (accept the default standard location /usr/src/linux).

Now you can build the whole package by typing "make all". Finally, either type "make install", or, if you want to avoid over-writing your system binaries and script files, just go into the clients and modules directories and type "make install" there. This will install the kernel modules which are required. Note that it is suggested that if you want to do this you should use the same version of PCMCIA-CS which you already have installed, to avoid any unfortunate problems with version compatibility.

3). Now you need to compile and install the linux-wlan package. This is very similar to compiling and installing the pcmcia-cs package, but you can safely do a "make install" from the toplevel directory.

4). Type "depmod -a" to update all module cross-dependencies.

5). OK - time to test the drivers and pcmcia stuff. Fire up the card manager (under Debian this is done by running "/etc/init.d/pcmcia start", under RedHat this is likely to be done by calling "/etc/rc.d/init.d/pcmcia start"). Now (from the console) insert the card and watch for kernel messages. Hopefully you will hear a high pitched beep indicating that a card was detected, and a low pitch beep indicating that it was not configured. On the console you should see something about the device driver being loaded successfully. At this stage you won't be able to talk to anything, but at least the hardware is working.

Connecting to the University Wireless Networks

General considerations.

PCMCIA-CS under Linux is rather clever about how it deals with network devices. It is possible to set it up so that when you insert a card with a particular MAC (e.g. Ethernet) address, it will adopt a specific configuration for that interface. For example, I have a PCMCIA wired ethernet card, with hardware address 00:20:AF:42:1A:4B. I wish to use this with a wired network, in which the laptop has IP adderss 192.168.1.20 (for a point-to-point link with my desktop machine). In /etc/pcmcia/network.opts, a case statement is used to select a different set of network parameters based on a number of criteria (e.g. PCMCIA slot number, hardware address etc.) so if the case is specified as "*,*,*,00:20:AF:42:1A:4B" rather than "*,*,*,*" then that case will only be activated for my wired Ethernet card. You can copy that block and specify a different hardware address for a different card. You may also specify an arbitrary user-specified parameter which is useful if you need to change to a specific configuration (e.g. work, SNRC, UOW etc).

1). Connecting to the SNRC network

This is the easy bit so it gets covered first. It is easy because

a) there is no IPSec stuff to worry about

b) you start with a real IP address

2). Connecting to the University network.

This is more complicated because you need to undertake a fairly complex connection negotiation before you are up and running.

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