How to manually add a new wifi driver (.ucode)?

[horsetrash]

Hi team- newb network setup question here. Comfortable with Linux but not fluent (as will immediately become obvious), and new to Slackware-based distros.

Running Slacko 6.3.2 64-bit on a Thinkpad T460s (work computer got upgraded and swapping hard drives is no longer a 30-second job).

Everything started up fine, but during network setup no wireless capability was recognized. After trying a few tutorials I learned that this card (Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260) is not yet supported by stock Puppy- luckily Intel provides Linux drivers for their Network adapters. Grabbed the file (iwlwifi-8000C-13.ucode), booted into Puppy... and didn't know where to put it.

After dredging the forums I found this post which describes plopping a .ucode file into /lib/firmware. I tried this, but still Network setup wasn't able to recognize wifi capabilities on my machine. I selected iwlwifi in advanced network setup, but no dice.

Am I barking up the wrong tree with /lib/firmware? Is there an easier way to add a new wifi module or force Puppy to look at my new .ucode file? Most of all, am I missing a clearly posted tutorial?

Thanks in advance for help, Pupsters.

[perdido]

After trying a few tutorials I learned that this card (Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260) is not yet supported
by stock Puppy

How did you determine that the drivers are not available?

The firmware files are not driver files. Firmware is used to communicate with the hardware, drivers are used to
communicate with the kernel.
or

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Firmware is the software that runs on the device. A driver is the software that tells your operating system 
how to communicate with the device.Not all devices have firmware--only devices with some level of intelligence.

So it still needs a compiled driver file for the specific kernel version. Many drivers are pre-compiled in the kernel
but not all, you probably just need a driver now.

You can find kernel version by typing

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uname -r

in a terminal and hitting enter.

After knowing the kernel version then you need to either find a 64-bit driver for your kernel or get the source
files from intel and compile the driver yourself.

Which kernel version is your slacko?

.

[bigpup]

describes plopping a .ucode file into /lib/firmware. I tried this, but still Network setup wasn't able to recognize wifi capabilities on my machine. I selected iwlwifi in advanced network setup, but no dice.

Did you reboot after putting the iwlwifi-8000C-13.ucode in /lib/firmware?
Puppy only loads hardware during the boot process.

I assume Slacko is a frugal install and you made a save file/folder for your change to be added to Slacko.