Morgan Read wrote: > I have pcmcia wifi card with a prism 3 chipset - Allied Telesyn > AT-WCL452 (Intersil firmware apparently). > > Running fc2 kernel 2.6.6-1.435.2.3 > > I installed this and confidently re-booted following advice that the > prism chipsets were well supported. > > Nothing. > > I went through the set-up process in system-config-network but the card > wasn't there:( > > I googled and found that the driver de jour for prism was the hostap, > not the orinoco that comes installed. > > I installed the 0.1.3 rpm (0.2.4 now stable, but no rpms yet). And, > followed some configuration info I'd found in various places on the net: > inserted lines - > "alias wlan0 hostap_cs" in /etc/modules.conf > "alias wlan0 hostap_cs" in /etc/modprobe.conf > "card "AT-WCL452" > version "Allied Telesyn", "AT-WCL452 Wireless PCMCIA Radio", "Ver. > 1.00" manfid 0xc00f, 0x0000 > bind "hostap_cs"" > in /etc/pcmcia/hostap_cs.conf > > There seemed to be some success (once I'd worked out I needed to > reference hostap_cs rather hostap_pci); iwconfig gave sensible > responses, as did ifconfig. However, system-config-network seemed to be > playing up and freezing the whole system if I tried to change the mode > form "master" to "managed", and just touching the "Wireless Settings" > tab froze the window. > > Then card stopped working altogether. So, I discovered a bug and fixed > it by placing the start script for pcmcia before the network startup. > > The card worked again. But, it kept wanting to be Master and not > Managed (don't we all). > > About then I discovered that Allied Telesyn provide the wlan-ng driver > on their web site, not rpm. And, it didn't compile:( I've successfully > compiled a soft-modem driver. Also, Open1x Xsupplicant from cvs. But, > this didn't sing. Any ideas? Something to do with matched sources? > > After a bit more googleing I discovered that the orinoco driver provided > some support for prism. So, why not put what I've learnt into putting > the systems driver to work: inserted lines - > "alias wlan0 orinoco_cs" in /etc/modules.conf > "alias wlan0 orinoco_cs" in /etc/modprobe.conf > "card "AT-WCL452" > version "Allied Telesyn", "AT-WCL452 Wireless PCMCIA Radio", "Ver. > 1.00" manfid 0xc00f, 0x0000 > bind "hostap_cs"" > in /etc/pcmcia/config > > Success, well some... Seems to give me partially sensible things with > iwconfig and ifconfig, but keeps returning eth1 instead of wlan0? Then > things started getting very strange - loading orinoco_cs for the > ethernet driver instead of the sis900?? Worked out that if I booted > with out the card in and then inserted it, I got the right driver on the > ethernet? But, at some point I have AT-WCL452 under the ethernet and > orinoco_cs under wireless!!! OK, so it wants eth1 not wlan0? It can > have it! I changed "alias wlan0 orinoco_cs" (no "" of course) to "alias > eth1 orinoco_cs". Rebootted, but still the wireless entry in > system-config-network shows wlan0 (where does it get this from!). And, > the mode option has gone back to Master! (Of course, it still freezes > up if I use that Wireless Settings tab.) So, I deleted the wireless > entry in order to set up a new entry. And what to I get when I go > through the add new device dialogue... No wireless entry (where once > the driver or card name showed up thought the wireless dialogue) And! > If I go through the new ethernet dialogue I have the offerings of: "SiS > 900/7016 PCI Fast Ethernet (eth0)" as expected AND "orinoco_cs (eth1)" > AND!!! "AT-WCL452 (eth0)! > > How grey do I have to get? I'm not an expert, but firstly the default WiFi drivers in the kernel use eth*, while the wlan-ng driver (which is not in the kernel) uses wlan*. It sounds to me as though the kernel orinoco_cs driver worked, in which case that would be the simplest thing to use. First run "cardctl ident" to see what the card manager thinks your card is. (It's not clear if you did this.) Assuming it is the one you say, then your file hostap_cs.conf will be used. (If you look at the end of /etc/pcmcia/config you will see that it reads all files *.conf in that directory.) This will determine which driver is used. Alternatively, if there is an entry for the card in /etc/pcmcia/config you can just edit that file and give the driver you want. (That is what I would do, but you'd have to remove your hostap_cs.conf .) Try giving the driver orinoco_cs there. I would comment out the alias line you added in modprobe.conf as it will only confuse matters. Now put in the card, and run iwconfig eth0 or eth1. (Why does it use eth1? Is there an inbuilt eth0 interface? You could probably tell from /var/log/messages .) You could try "service pcmcia restart" (as root) if iwconfig doesn't give a sensible response. If you get to this stage, you could run "service-config-network" as you suggest, or equivalently edit /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 . Also you should look at the settings in /etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts . -- Timothy Murphy e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366 s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
