3Com 11g Wireless LAN working!

[HedRat]

Just this very minute got the 3CRWE154G72 802.11g card working - writing this now from the latest Knoppix on my laptop over my new wlan kit.

If anyone wants to know how to get this going, some hero has started the following project ISL3890 Linux Device Driver, but needs some careful customising for Knoppix. I'll add my own notes later, but it's taken three days for me to work it out (don't laugh if you've done this already, I'm no guru).

HedRat

[HedRat]

Here's how I got the PCMCIA WLAN card going. I'm no expert - so please correct any bits that could be improved. This was done on a fresh hdd install of the 26/7/3 knoppix. The Access Point was fresh out the box, all default. WEP is extra configuring, see the original source for this set of instructions in the link in the post above.

These instructions include the necessary knoppix kernel patch, xfs patch and debian method of inserting a newly recompiled kernel. Basically it is just the knoppix kernel with PCMCIA taken out.

Everything done as root (that's not a recommendation), starting from / ...

start a shell
#mkdir ISL
#cd ISL
#wget http://ruslug.rutgers.edu/~mcgrof/80...0-0.1.0.tar.gz
#wget http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v...2.4.21.tar.bz2
#tar -zxvf ISL3890-0.1.0.tar.gz
#tar -jxvf linux-2.4.21.tar.bz2
#ln -s /ISL/linux-2.4.21 linux
#cp /usr/src/knoppix-kernel.patch .
#patch -p0 < knoppix-kernel.patch

download latest xfs patch from ftp://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/downl...napshot-patch/
#bunzip2 -c linux-2.4.21-xfs-2003-06-13.patch.bz2 | patch -d linux-2.4.21 -p1

#cd linux-2.4.21
#patch -p1 < ../ISL3890-0.1.0/patches/kernel-intersil.patch
#cp ../ISL3890-0.1.0/patches/isil_netlink.h include/linux/

#make mrproper
#make xconfig
--- load config from /usr/src/linux-2.4.21-xfs/.config
--- in general setup, pcmcia/cardbus support, say no to PCMCIA
--- in networking options, say yes to 802.1d ethernet bridging
--- save and exit xconfig
edit file ISL3890-0.1.0/pcmcia-cs-3.2.4-intersil/wireless/intersil/islpci_mgt.h
--- to set the channel for the wlan (default is 6 in driver, 11 on AP)
--- to change #define CARD_DEFAULT_MODE from INL_MODE_CLIENT to INL_MODE_AP only if Access Point mode is needed

#cd ..
#wget http://ruslug.rutgers.edu/~mcgrof/80...re/1.0.4.3.arm
#cp 1.0.4.3.arm ISL3890-0.1.0/pcmcia-cs-3.2.4-intersil/wireless/intersil/isl3890.arm
#cd linux
#make-kpkg clean
#make-kpkg --revision=custom.1.0 kernel_image

I also did #make modules at this point, but believe this is redundant with previous command (someone confirm this!)

#cd ..
#dpkg -i kernel-image-2.4.21-xfs_custom.1.0_i386.deb [replace when prompted, all other defaults, is also a chance to make a new boot floppy]

reboot and hold tight!

start a shell
#cd /ISL/ISL3890-0.1.0/pcmcia-cs-3.2.4-intersil
#./Configure
--- source tree is /ISL/linux
--- y to cardbus and pnp bios (n to wireless events) and all other defaults (2 for linux source tree)
--- asks for modules directory, used default

#make all
#make install

edit /etc/default/pcmcia
--- '#' out PCIC line and enter PCIC=i82365

plug in the card, if nothing happens, reboot again with the card inserted (should see link light). WARNING: unplugging the card may hang the system!

the following I have to do each time I start the laptop... (someone can improve upon this)
#ifconfig eth1 down
#setoid eth1 10000002 ssid 3Com [or whatever your SSID is]
#ifconfig eth1 192.168.0.88 netmask 255.255.255.0 up [set your own IP's]
#route add default gw 192.168.0.99 [your gateway address here]

My AP says the card is running in 24mbps mode - someone else may advise on this, or a driver update may fix this. A final note is that I already have another NIC built-in to the laptop, knoppix normally configures this on bootup (eth0).

All kudos to Luis R. Rodriguez for the driver project and original version of these steps.

[aay]

(don't laugh if you've done this already, I'm no guru).

Hey man none of us are laughing...well at least I'm certainly not since I still believed that 11g was as yet unsupported. Does this card uset the Broadcom chipset? I don't yet have 11g, myself, but I'm thrilled to hear you've gotten it to work. What sort of throughput are you getting?

Hopefully someone will pass this along to Klaus though he may regard it as yet too experimental for inclusion into Knoppix.

Again, great job and thanks for sharing the info.

Adam

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[edit] Ok I see that this driver is for the Atheros. People who are looking to use 11g should make sure they get cards with the Atheros chipset as I believe there are no linux drivers for the Broadcom stuff [/edit]