[gPXE] Wi-FI connectivity from CDROM

[Joshua Oreman]

On Thu, Dec 31, 2009 at 11:04 AM, Doug Glenn <doug at foruminfosystems.com> wrote:
> Greetings Joshua,
>
> Thank you for the prompt reply.  I was afraid of that :(  Output from the lspci)
>
> 0e:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless WiFi Link 5100
>
> iwlagn is the module to load for it, my apologies as I had not looked
> beyond the google information beyond flashing the BIOS and finding it
> worked, I assumed the post I read was correct.... and thus relearned
> all about assume....

Ok, Intel Wi-Fi is similar to Broadcom in that it requires a firmware
file, but it's a rather less complex driver. gPXE does not implement
it yet.

> Do you know if anyone has done anything like this where I could find a
> set of procedures on how to create the CD and then boot from LTSP? The
> other option would be to boot from the OpenSuse L-i-f-e dvd so the
> same set of applications are available and enable wireless
> connectivity.

Sorry, I don't know of a tutorial to point you to; perhaps someone
else on the list might?

> Thank you again for your input and if you can point me in the right
> direction on where to start.  Also, if you have an ETA on when WiFi
> might become more mainstream in gpxe, I will make a point of coming
> back and trying again.

Try again after this summer; we often get new drivers written for
Google Summer of Code.

> I would really like to get these laptops
> running as a thin client when it is possible so people can access
> their home dir and apps from the server which has more power than the
> laptops do.  I had read the Linux Journal article on wireless booting
> from LTSP previously and had purchased a N type router in order to
> improve on the initial boot time frames.

I understand :-) Keep in mind that even with gPXE support for your
wireless chipset, you'll still probably need to do some manual
hacking; I don't believe LTSP natively supports wireless booting,
though I may be mistaken. Before September of this year there was
simply no way to PXE-boot wirelessly, so it's quite a bleeding-edge
feature and the OS support might not be there yet. (The hacking you'd
need would likely amount to including some wireless drivers and the
iwconfig application on the initrd, and modifying an init script to
run iwconfig with appropriate parameters.)

> If I can get this up and running that way, I will get it written up
> and posted either on the OpenSuse EDU wiki, or send it to you as an
> addendum to the current wiki article on wireless.

Thank you - that'll be very useful. Best of luck!

-- Josh