LOADING THE FIRMWARE
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Before you can load the driver, you need the firmware image. You can find
instructions for obtaining the firmware by going to
http://ipw2100.sf.net/firmware.php.
Once you have the firmware, uncompress the archive (it may be a .zip which
in turn contains a .tgz that you need to uncompress). You should find a file
named ipw2100-1.0.fw.
NOTE: Loading the firmware image will not affect the IPW2100 in any other
operating systems you may boot. The firmware is loaded onto the hardware every
time the card is initialized--regardless of the operating system.
LOADING FIRMWARE VIA HOTPLUG... (new 0.33)
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As of v0.33, the IPW2100 supports loading of firmware via the Linux firmware
hotplug capability. In order to use this, you must enable CONFIG_FW_LOADER in
your kernel configuration. In 2.6.x this option is enabled via:
Device Drivers ->
Generic Driver Options ->
Hotplug firmware loading support
In 2.4.x, it can be found here:
Library Routines ->
Hotplug firmware loading support
In addition, you will need the Linux hotplug scripts dated later than
2003_10_07 (if you do not have /etc/hotplug/firmware.agent then you need to
upgrade).
You will also need to have sysfs mounted. You can do this by adding an entry
to /etc/fstab similar to this:
none /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
If the directory /sys does not already exist, you will need to create it:
# mkdir /sys
You can then mount the sysfs partition via:
# mount -a
You can obtain the latest hotplug scripts via the following link:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=17679
Once set up, you can copy ipw2100-1.0.fw into /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/ (you
may need to create that directory). When the driver requests the firmware,
the hotplug agent will then push the firmware image to it.
LOADING THE LEGACY WAY...
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If, for some reason, you do not wish to use the hotplug system, IPW2100 still
provides a direct mechanism for loading the firmware. To use this, simply
configure your kernel to use the CONFIG_IPW2100_LEGACY_FW_LOAD option.
You can then place a copy of ipw2100-1.0.fw into /etc/firmware. The driver will
then load the firmware directly from the file system.
