
		Wednesday February 22, 2012 19:56:40 UTC

Lenovo Thinkpad T61p: Configuring the Intel 4956AGN wireless support with WPA support via Slackware

Introduction

This document will cover how to setup the Intel 4956AGN wireless support via Slackware and the Lenovo Thinkpad T61p. The configuration will also cover enabling WPA support.

Configuration

The first item is to make sure that the Intel wireless driver is enabled in the kernel. If you use the T61p custom kernel configuration howto found on the home page, support for the wireless is already enabled. Otherwise, in the 2.6.30 kernel, here is the location of the option:

Device Drivers --->
Network device support --->
Wireless LAN --->
[*]     Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11)
...
     Intel Wireless WiFi Next Gen AGN (iwlagn)
[*]     Intel Wireless Wifi 4965AGN

You will need two packages to run wireless with wpa support. The packages are wireless-tools and wpa_supplicant, both found in the n-series on the first Slackware install CD.

To start with, we need to make the rc.wireless file executable.

chmod 755 /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless

Next, edit the /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf file and add the following configuration below the line DEBUG_ETH_UP="no".

IFNAME[4]="wlan0"
IPADDR[4]=""
NETMASK[4]=""
USE_DHCP[4]="yes"
DHCP_HOSTNAME[4]=""

WLAN_WPA[4]="wpa_supplicant"
WLAN_WPADRIVER[4]="wext"

You can also set a IP address instead of using DHCP.

Static IP configuration:

GATEWAY="10.0.0.1"

IPADDR[4]="10.0.0.100"
NETMASK[4]="255.255.255.0"
USE_DHCP[4]=""

The next step is to edit /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf. Here is a sample configuration to enable WPA support for a wireless router:

# See /usr/doc/wpa_supplicant-0.5.10/wpa_supplicant.conf.sample
# for many more options that you can use in this file.

# This line enables the use of wpa_cli which is used by rc.wireless
# if possible (to check for successful association)
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
# By default, only root (group 0) may use wpa_cli
ctrl_interface_group=0
eapol_version=1
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1

# WPA protected network, supply your own ESSID and WPAPSK here:
network={
  scan_ssid=0
  ssid="Enter SSID here"
  proto=WPA2 # Change to WPA if using WPA rather than WPA2
  key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
  group=CCMP TKIP WEP104 WEP40
  psk="Enter WPA Passphrase here"
}

# Plaintext connection (no WPA, no IEEE 802.1X),
# nice for hotel/airport types of WiFi network.
network={
  key_mgmt=NONE
  priority=0
}

On bootup, Slackware should automatically load the necessary modules for the wireless support and also automatically connect to the wireless router provided it is in range. To enable the wireless manually, execute the following command:

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 restart

That should be everything necessary to enable wireless support via this laptop and wireless card.