Fedora Linux

Jun 29 04:11:57 beige kernel: usb 2-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Jun 29 04:11:57 beige kernel: usb 2-1: Failed to load zd1201.fw firmware file!
Jun 29 04:11:57 beige kernel: usb 2-1: Make sure the hotplug firmware loader is installed.
Jun 29 04:11:57 beige kernel: usb 2-1: Goto http://linux-lc100020.sourceforge.net for more info
Jun 29 04:11:57 beige kernel: usb 2-1: zd1201 firmware upload failed: -2

Notice the message directing you to the driver web site. Visit that web site and download the firmware file provided (in this case, the file was named zd1201-0.14-fw.tar.gz , which was downloaded to the /tmp directory through a web browser). The next step is to unpack this file and then install the firmware by copying the *.fw files to /lib/firmware :

# cd /tmp
# tar xvzf zd1201-0.14-fw.tar.gz
zd1201-0.14-fw/
zd1201-0.14-fw/zd1201.fw
zd1201-0.14-fw/README
zd1201-0.14-fw/makefile
zd1201-0.14-fw/zd1201-ap.fw
# cd zd1201-0.14-fw
# cp *.fw /lib/firmware

You can now use the wireless device after resetting the device driver, which you can do by physically disconnecting and reconnecting the adapter (if it is a removable device, such as a USB or CardBus adapter), rebooting the system, or using modprobe to remove and then reload the device driver.

In this case, the driver name is zd1201 , so the driver can be reloaded with these commands:

# modprobe -r zd1201
# modprobe zd1201

After pausing for a moment to permit the interface to be configured, you can view /var/log/ messages and the output of ifconfig to see whether the driver loaded successfully and brought up the interface:

# tail - 50 /var/log/messages
...(Lines snipped)...
Jun 29 04:25:58 beige kernel: usbcore: deregistering driver zd1201
Jun 29 04:26:04 beige kernel: usb 2-1: wlan0: ZD1201 USB Wireless interface
Jun 29 04:26:04 beige kernel: usbcore: registered new driver zd1201
Jun 29 04:26:05 beige dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
Jun 29 04:26:10 beige dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
Jun 29 04:26:11 beige dhclient: DHCPACK from 172.16.97.254
Jun 29 04:26:11 beige NET[15776]: /sbin/dhclient-script : updated /etc/resolv.conf
Jun 29 04:26:11 beige dhclient: bound to 172.16.97.101 -- renewal in 39113 seconds.
# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0D:56:33:D7:18
       inet addr:172.16.97.100 Bcast:172.16.97.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
       inet6 addr: fe80::20d:56ff:fe33:d718/64 Scope:Link
       UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
       RX packets:18181 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
       TX packets:3263 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
       collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
       RX bytes:2561730 (2.4 MiB) TX bytes:375878 (367.0 KiB)
       Interrupt:177
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
       inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
       inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
       UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
       RX packets:4936 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
       TX packets:4936 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
       collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
       RX bytes:2973825 (2.8 MiB) TX bytes:2973825 (2.8 MiB)
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0C:2D:00:2B:DB
       inet addr:172.16.97.101 Bcast:172.16.97.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
       inet6 addr: fe80::20c:2dff:fe00:2bdb/64 Scope:Link
       UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
       RX packets:10 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
       TX packets:13 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
       collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
       RX bytes:1026 (1.0 KiB) TX bytes:2384 (2.3 KiB)

3.2.1.5. Using private networks

Any IP address that is publicly accessible must be assigned by a central authority in order to prevent address collisions. For private networks, addresses can be freely assigned from pools reserved for this purpose, as listed in Table 3-2 ; these addresses are guaranteed not to conflict with any public IP addresses. Many home and small business gateway products default to assigning addresses in the 192.168.1.x range. If your computer is assigned one of these addresses, it will not normally be accessible from machines that are on different networks (unless you are using the port forwarding feature of your router or wireless access point).

Table 3-2. Private network address pools

Address range	Available IP addresses	Treatment using default netmask