Nice job Eric. And very timely, for me. Gene On Mon, 06 Sep 2004 13:06:15 -0700, Eric "Shubes wrote: > Hats and Horns! (well, sort of) > I managed to get a pci wireless-g card working (finally), and want to > report my findings. > > First and foremost, the most difficult task by far was finding and > acquiring a card that had any chance of working natively. It turns out, > you often can't tell what's what from the card's model number, as many > vendors use (very) different chipsets in different production runs, then > continue to use the same packaging with the same model number for > distribution. At best the vendor will use a sticker designating a > different part number, but that is of little value since the part number > is rarely used for identification purposes. For example, you can order > an SMC2802W (as I did), but you've no way of knowing whether you'll get > the V1 that works, or the V2 that doesn't (yet?), and in this case they > both even use the PrismGT chip! The only way to accurately tell what a > card actually has is to use the lspci command after it's installed. > Thank you very much (NOT) Mr. card vendor! Now, on with the story. > > I already had a Linksys WMP54G working under W98SE (dual booting w/ > FC2). The lspci command reported this card as having a Broadcom chipset > (Broadcom isn't Linux friendly, to say the least), so the only way to > get that working would be to use NDIS along with the windows drivers. > That 'solution' has several drawbacks, noted at > http://acx100.sourceforge.net/ndis_cludge.html, so I proceeded to find a > card that is supported on Linux. > > The PRISM(R) chipset is reported to have REAL vendor Linux support (the > 2.6.8 kernel even says so in the log!), so I proceeded in that > direction. The table of cards at http://prism54.org/supported_cards.php > was quite helpful, although somewhat outdated (Mar'04). I also referred > to the Wlan-ng table of cards (house of cards?) at > http://www.linux-wlan.org/docs/wlan_adapters.html.gz, a quite extensive > list, although it too is outdated (Feb'04). > > I proceeded to shop stores in the Phoenix area, and was unable to find > ANY pci card containing the prism54 chipset, based on the data in these > tables. I was especially surprised that Fry's didn't have one, although > I must give them credit. They were willing to open every kind of pci > wireless-g card they had, looking for the (becoming mythical) prism54 > chip. (Note, on some cards you can see the chip itself and tell who made > it, providing the vendor hasn't covered it up with a sheet metal cage.) > > Delayed but not discouraged, I went online to shop. After doing some > price comparisons, I decided to purchase from newegg.com, as their > prices were competetively low, and I've had very good experience buying > from them in the past. My first choice was the Hawking HWP54G, as it was > reported to contain the Prism54 chipset, and I've had no problems with > Hawking products (nic, switch) in the past. Unfortunately, that card was > out of stock, so I opted to have them notify me when it came in. As a > second choice, I ordered the the SMC2802W, as it appeared to have a > large degree of success, and all models contained the PrismGT > (1260:3890) chipset. It shipped the same day, and I received it two days > later. In the meantime, the next day I received notice that the HWP54G > was in stock, so I ordered that one too (I could use it if need be). > > The SMC2802W was recognized by kudzu (FC2), so that was encouraging. I > proceeded to follow the directions at > http://mysite.verizon.net/winterz/doc/prism54_fc2.txt while referring to > the wireless tools documentation at > http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Tools.html. First > there was one FC-specific bug (request_firmware() failed for 'isl3890') > that needed fixing (commented out 4 lines containing "hotplug" from > /etc/rc.d/init.d/network script, it was leftover from older hotplug > version). Then I was getting a "set bitrate failed" (Auto) error, so I > removed that configuration setting (letting it default). At that point, > I stumbled across the same bug as the one reported at > http://prism54.org/cgi-bin/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=72. As it turned > out, I had acquired the V2 model, as verified by lspci (same > vendor:device, but different subsystem id). Since this bug's severity is > listed as "enhancement", I decided that this card needed to be returned. > :( > > In the meantime, the HWP54G had arrived, so I proceeded with its > installation (at the same time, removing the SMC2802W V2). This card was > not seen by kudzu the first time up, why I don't know (kudzu did > recognize it on a subsequent boot). I checked lspci to see what chipset > the card contained. Egads, it's a TI ACX111! Not to be dismayed, I went > to http://acx100.sourceforge.net/ to see what was up with that chipset. > "Craig's Acx100 Guide for Linux" at > http://www.houseofcraig.net/acx100_howto.php was extremely helpful in > getting me going. The driver is still extremely experimental (especially > for the ACX111), so I was a bit leery. It is only available as source, > but Craig's Guide is very detailed, so much so that even a newbie could > get it installed. I proceeded to follow the instructions. Everything > went very well, until I got to the point of installing the firmware. > This part of the guide is somewhat sketchy when it comes to the ACX111, > as it was written originally for the ACX100 (wireless-b, I presume). The > driver files mentioned here weren't on the CD that came with the card. > I grep'd through the ACX100 "package" files for the names of the > firmware files I did have, and found it referenced in the README file, > along with some c code. I read the README (should've done that > earlier), and it clarified which firmware file I could use, so I > installed it. At this point, Linux was apparently talking successfully > to the card (iwconfig looked ok), but it wasn't connecting to my access > point (Linksys WRT54G). I proceeded to open up the AP a bit (less > secure, but what the heck) to see if they'd connect. I turned WEP off, > disabled MAC filtering, and enabled both g,b rates. Low and behold, it > connected. Wheee! > > I entered the card's mac address in the AP's mac filter list and turned > mac filtering back on, it still worked (no leechers). I bumped the rate > up to 54M on the card and it still worked, but only when AP is set to > "mixed" (b and g), not G-only (that's odd). Then I tried DHCP > configuration, no go. I think that's because the acx start_net script > doesn't follow FC conventions (device is wlanx instead of ethx). Also, > WEP isn't fully implemented for the ACX111 yet (ACX100 is), so I'll have > to wait a bit (or write the code myself?) before I can use encryption > again, but I can live with that for now. > > BL, I have a bit of tweaking to do to get it working automagically on > startup, but at least it's working and is usable (enough for me). I'll > be reporting bugs and keeping in close contact with the acx developers > for a while! -- Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/ --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss