ATMEL based wireless cards

[pboddie]

I tried to get this working with the Cd based 05-20 release, but it didn't work. I'm a newbie...
When trying to follow up the thread from patmad and pboddie i encountered some problems and have some questions:
- where can i find the right kernel sources (i'm working CD based...)

I imagine that you're going to have difficulties testing this unless someone can suggest a way of inserting the kernel modules from an arbitrary point in the filesystem - you obviously can't copy them into /lib/modules when that filesystem is probably read-only.

I can't remember if you actually need the kernel sources for the at76c503a driver (although this isn't necessarily relevant for you since you suggest that you're using a PCI-based card). What you do need, however, are the kernel include files. I think Knoppix has both of these things available under /usr/src.

- xvnet needs the libforms... Do in need xvnet?

I've never bothered with it. I can imagine that the at76c503a driver can be configured using any graphical tool that knows about the wireless parameters, which in itself isn't exotic. The atmelwlandriver module can also probably be configured in a similar way, if you ignore the /bin/fastvnet.sh tricks with /etc/modules.conf that are mentioned in the documentation.

- can't the pcifvnet.o file be distributed?
- when will ATMEL based cards be supported direct from knoppix?

In Knoppix? I suppose so, with the usual conformance to the GPL. It's a question of someone building it in, though.

- which tool i need to configure?

First, you need to make sure that the driver you've chosen knows the vendor and product identifers for your network card (usually involving an edit of one of the source files). Then, you need to get the driver build infrastructure to recognise your kernel sources - see earlier posts for some hints, since this can involve a lot of hassle with the atmelwlandriver scripts. Then, you need to install the modules in /lib/modules, although if you're working from CD, you need to find a way of not having to install them in that location, but instead to insert them into the running kernel from another place - I don't know enough about the kernel module system to say whether this is easily done, especially since I've only tried all this on a hard disk installation of Knoppix (and with Red Hat and Mandrake). Then, you need to find out which settings your card requires and to apply them using iwconfig, followed by a test of the network using ifconfig and related tools. Finally, you need to edit some files (/etc/network/interfaces on Knoppix/Debian) to make your settings "stick" and to configure the network side of things (as opposed to the device itself). Since you're working from the CD, you would also need to use various tricks to store the configuration somewhere else.

- is there already support for 802.11g cards based on the broadcom chip?

That's a question which has been addressed in another thread, I believe.