Hello *.
I am rather new to BSD, have some Linux and some Win experience.
Just installed D-BSD on an old ThinkPad T43. Everything (that I need) seems to be working fine, except wireless. It has an Intel 2915ABG, which is suppose to be supported by the iwi(4) driver. I followed the instructions in 'man iwi', but that still seems no help. When I open the network Configure tool (the globe looking one from the toolbar), I still have "No Carrier" for the wireless card. When I select the Wireless Networks tab, everything is greyed out.
Currently the notebook is a dual boot (Lin - BSD); under Lin I can connect to my wireless just fine - so there is no problem with the hardware. What do I need to do under D-BSD to get it to work?
TIA.

If the built in driver is not working you can always try to generate one with ndisgen using your Windows Wifi wireless drivers.
....These are some instructions I posted in PCBSD
Basically use your Win wifi drivers in this example bcmwl5.inf and bcmwl5.sys.
Code:
su
cd to the drivers directory
ndisgen bcmwl5.inf and bcmwl5.sys

....which should produce BCMWL5_SYS.ko
....which you can place in /boot/kernel I also left a copy in my Home dir (for luck )
Code:
kldload ndis
kldload if_ndis
kldload BCMWL5_SYS

....check all loaded like so
Code:
kldstat

To allow this process to automate on boot place these lines in /boot/loader.conf like so
Code:
kdesu kate /boot/loader.conf
ndis_load="YES"
if_ndis_load="YES"
BCMWL5_SYS_load="YES"

...and save ..
Code:
kdesu kate /etc/rc.conf

....add this line to the end
Code:
ifconfig_ndis0="DHCP ssid default"

....where default is your ssid name
...Anyway really critical if your Wireless Lan is DHCP (Hands IPs out to NICs)
is to enter the name of the ssid (wifi routers given name)
I am accustomed to having the ssid found automatically by Knetworkmanager with LINUX.
However auto scanning does not work well with some ndisgen converted drivers.
You can also do this in network manager.

_________________
Criticism only accepted for Solutions that work. ;^)

Hmmm, I was really hoping for an answer that would not involve Windows. Perhaps something like "the developer is a known crack addict and that module never worked" , or even "you obviously must have forgot the SECRET_SWITCH=true option to activate it".

I did try kldstat, and the iwi module is listed. I assume that means it is loaded. What must I do to actually connect to the Internet?

TIA for any help.

The iwi driver requires you to acknowledge the firmware's license by setting the sysctl legal.intel_iwi.license_ack to "1".

Also, what DesktopBSD release are you using? If it's 1.6, you could try one of the more recent snapshot builds from our FTP server based on FreeBSD 7.x, where this issue might have been fixed.

I got the legal.intel_iwi.license_ack thing from man iwi (first place I looked) and tried it. Same results. I am using 1.6. 1.7 is now in Beta? Is there anything else I could try?

A beta of 1.7 will soon be released, but snapshot builds are already available.