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dishkuvek
9th December 2005, 11:31 PM
Here is a guide to getting your airport extreme card working in Fedora Core 4

These are experimental drivers, following these instructions could lead to an unusable system

NOTE: I have a powerbook g4 1.5ghz 12", these instructions worked for me, however, development sources are needed so I have no idea if these instructions will work for everyone else.

First you need to install some packages with yum:

yum install mercurial subversion

You will also need a copy of the Airport Extreme firmware, this can be found on your OSX partition under: /System/Library/Extensions/AppleAirport2.kext/Contents/MacOS/AppleAirport2
or you can extract it from this package: http://softmac.sipsolutions.net/source/?cmd=archive;node=2167883c86e8ea1917999cafcd9854e3 f6494b31;type=gz

Now go to kernel.org (http://www.kernel.org) and download the latest development kernel, it cannot be any older than 2.6.15-rc1, I used 2.6.15-rc5.

Once you have the kernel, configure and build it:

bzip2 -cd linux-2.6.15-rc5.tar.bz2 | tar xvf - -C /usr/src/
cp /boot/config-2.6.[your kernel version] /usr/src/linux-2.6.15-rc5/.config
cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.15-rc5/
make oldconfig
make
make modules_install
cp vmlinux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-rc5
cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.15-rc5
mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.6.15-rc5.img 2.6.15-rc5

Now you need to edit and update your yaboot.conf. First open up /etc/yaboot.conf and add the following:

image=/vmlinuz-2.6.15-rc5

label=linux-dev
read-only
initrd=/initrd-2.6.15-rc5.img
root=/dev/[your root device]
append="rhgb quite"

Ok, now restart and boot into your new kernel, as an added bonus, the trackpad driver for the new iBooks and Powerbooks has slightly improved. At least, it seems that way.

Once you have successfully booted into your new kernel, you need to create the airport drivers. Before doing this you need to make sure the ieee80211 module is loaded, if it is not, simple issue a:


modprobe ieee80211

First download and build the softmac module:

hg clone http://softmac.sipsolutions.net/source
cd source
make
insmod ieee80211softmac.ko

Ok, now download the firmware cutter and airport extreme drivers, still in the softmac dir:

svn checkout svn://svn.berlios.de/bcm43xx/trunk
cd trunk/fwcutter
make
cp /location/of/AppleAirport2 .
fwcutter AppleAirport2
make installfw

cd ../driver
SOFTMAC_DIR=/full/path/to/softmac/source make
insmod bcm43xx.ko

Hopefully that worked, if it did then we need to move on to the final step, bringing the interface up:

ifconfig eth# up
iwlist eth# scan
iwconfig eth# channel #
iwconfig eth# rate #M
iwconfig eth# essid "AP_ESSID"


Ok, from here you can either dhcp your interface or assign a static ip to it. Some people have reported problems with dhcp, so you might want to try setting it to a static ip anyhow.

If all goes well, you should be ready to go! Finally you can use your airport extreme card!!!!

We should all recognize the greatness of the hard working folks that brought us these drivers. Thank you!

dishkuvek
10th December 2005, 05:46 AM
It appears one must compile a kernel that is no older than 2.6.15-rc1. I will give it a shot later and report my findings.

Finalzone
10th December 2005, 09:20 AM
Can't wait to see if Airport Extreme issue will be resolved. In a future, I am planning to replace OS X Panther with Fedora on my sister's IBook.

dishkuvek
12th December 2005, 08:38 AM
It is working for me, instructions are placed above. Please let me know your results as well.

fedoraforme123
16th December 2005, 08:51 PM
Wow, it worked thanks. I will continue reading this forum and see what other people get as results.

dishkuvek
19th December 2005, 08:15 AM
Wow, it worked thanks. I will continue reading this forum and see what other people get as results.

Glad to know that someone else got it working. It freezes the system sometimes, have you experienced this?

hslab
24th February 2006, 01:33 PM
--------------------
Ok, now download the firmware cutter and airport extreme drivers, still in the softmac dir:

svn checkout svn://svn.berlios.de/bcm43xx/trunk
cd trunk/fwcutter
make
cp /location/of/AppleAirport2 .
fwcutter AppleAirport2
make installfw

cd ../driver
SOFTMAC_DIR=/full/path/to/softmac/source make
insmod bcm43xx.ko
-----------------------------------

I'm having some real problems with this last bit.
I just can't seem to be able to find a "driver" directory, and when I want on the assumption that you meant "the-directory-in-which-the-Apple-Airport-2-driver-resides", the
SOFTMAC_DIR=/full/path/to/softmac/source make command you mention, I don't get a bcm43xx.ko file produced anywhere.

Any help/thoughts?

Snow_Shelter
12th March 2006, 05:04 PM
--------------------
Ok, now download the firmware cutter and airport extreme drivers, still in the softmac dir:

svn checkout svn://svn.berlios.de/bcm43xx/trunk
cd trunk/fwcutter
make
cp /location/of/AppleAirport2 .
fwcutter AppleAirport2
make installfw

cd ../driver
SOFTMAC_DIR=/full/path/to/softmac/source make
insmod bcm43xx.ko
-----------------------------------

I'm having some real problems with this last bit.
I just can't seem to be able to find a "driver" directory, and when I want on the assumption that you meant "the-directory-in-which-the-Apple-Airport-2-driver-resides", the
SOFTMAC_DIR=/full/path/to/softmac/source make command you mention, I don't get a bcm43xx.ko file produced anywhere.

Any help/thoughts?


I'm having the same problem. Does anyone have more detailed/newer instructions?

umbulale
12th March 2006, 08:19 PM
Cool...it works.
Thank you!

Actually just download the fwcutter bcm43xx as described:

svn checkout svn://svn.berlios.de/bcm43xx/trunk
cd trunk/fwcutter
make install
cp /location/of/AppleAirport2 .
bcm43xx-fwcutter AppleAirport2
make installfw

thats how it worked for me. (without the part with the driver folder)
running fedora ppc on powerbook g3

Snow_Shelter
15th March 2006, 03:06 AM
Cool...it works.
Thank you!

Actually just download the fwcutter bcm43xx as described:

svn checkout svn://svn.berlios.de/bcm43xx/trunk
cd trunk/fwcutter
make install
cp /location/of/AppleAirport2 .
bcm43xx-fwcutter AppleAirport2
make installfw

thats how it worked for me. (without the part with the driver folder)
running fedora ppc on powerbook g3


Where and how is the bcm43xx.ko made?

Please submit complete instructions.

EDIT:

There has been no reply. I assume you either don't care, or don't really know how.

dishkuvek
23rd March 2006, 11:19 PM
I can no longer update these instructions, as I sold my Powerbook G4. Sorry to anyone having problems, there is a similar guide over in the Gentoo forums, you will of course have to adopt them to a Fedora environment, but it should not be too difficult: http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-409194.html

bogwire
29th March 2006, 10:54 PM
I would suggest to use FC5 with a 2.6.16 kernel if you want to get the AirPort Extreme card working.