LAN

The tg3 driver was autodetected and works like a charm.

WLAN

kernel support

You need the ieee80211-source, ipw2200-source, wireless-tools, and wpasupplicant (if you want to use WPA encryption) packages.

The firmware must be downloaded separately (get the firmware matching your ipw2200 version), unpacked, and installed under /usr/local/lib/firmware.

/!\ WPA encryption does not work with the native ipw2200 driver of 2.6.14 (ipw2200 1.0.0)! I was successful with ieee80211-source_1.1.6-2 and ipw2200-source_1.0.8-1.

building the modules

When building the modules with module-assistant as described in the README, you'll probably hit bug 337619. From there I got the following workaround (works):

$ export VERSION=2.6.14-2-686   # change to whatever you have
$ cd /usr/src/modules/ieee80211/
$ fakeroot debian/rules binary-modules KSRC=/usr/src/linux-headers-$VERSION KVERS=$VERSION
$ sudo cp driver/*.mod /usr/include/ieee80211/ # <=== !!!
$ cd  ../iwp2200/
$ fakeroot debian/rules binary-modules KSRC=/usr/src/kernel-headers-$VERSION KVERS=$VERSION
$ cd ..
$ dpkg -i *$VERSION*.deb

The .mod files generated during compilation of iee80211 must be available when ipw2200 is compiled.

/!\ The original ieee80211 and ipw2200 modules coming with the kernel must be renamed.

wpa_supplicant

eapol_version=1
ap_scan=2      # let wpa_supplicant control scanning & association
fast_reauth=1
network={
        ssid="wifiheaven"
        proto=WPA
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
        pairwise=TKIP
        group=TKIP
        psk="You don't know me"
}
# associate with open networks
network={
        ssid=""
        key_mgmt=NONE
}

In /etc/default/wpasupplicant, set

ENABLED=1
# Use -D ipw for kernels 2.6.12 and earlier (WIRELESS_EXT < 18)
# OPTIONS="-i eth1 -D ipw -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -w"
# Use -D wext for kernels 2.6.14 and later 
OPTIONS="-i eth1 -D wext -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -w"

and add a suitable configuration line for eth1 in /etc/network/interfaces. Start wpa_supplicant and bring the interface up - works.

A more detailed description can be found here (in German).

I get throughput rates of ~2MB/s some meters away from my access point.

Modem

With my 2.6.12 kernel, the ALSA module for the modem device (snd_intel8x0m) was autodetected. The Smart Link modem daemon package sl-modem-daemon must be installed from the non-free repository. After doing that, asl-modem-daemon automatically detected my ALSA modem and created a modem "device" /dev/ttySL0.

The modem connection works and supports a suprisingly high throughput rate of ~8kB/s (I was trying it on my ISDN line with an ISDN-to-analog converter). The CPU load caused by the daemon at these rates is below 1%. The first time I start pppd I often get a NO DIALTONE error. Second time usually works well. I might investigate this problem further later.

Side note: It's not know why sl-modem-daemon is classified as non-free. The license only requires to leave the copyright notice in place and to not "endorse or promote" derived products using Smart Link's name.