how to get hostap driver working in 3.4

**genzo** · 05-09-2004, 08:24 PM

hi,

just burned the new knoppix 3.4 and i wanted to get my prism 3 card working (airvast wn-100, cheap $20 card i thought would work out of the box with knoppix 3.3, but turned out to be prism 3 and not prism 2.5)

i emailed the company for a driver and they pointed me to hostap. i know knoppix 3.4 5/4 has hostap, but it doesn't seem to load automatically when i boot up (kernel 2.4 or 2.6).

i'm not very adept with linux, but i tried to do a

insmod hostap_cs

but got a bunch of unresolved link errors. anyone know how to use the new hostap drivers??

thanks,
george

**genzo** · 05-09-2004, 08:34 PM

i did a "modprobe hostap_cs" then an "lsmod" and it seems to have loaded the module..

however, the cardinfo program still says unsupported card, when i insert this supposed prism 3 airvast wn-100 card.

anyone have any ideas?

thanks,

george

**genzo** · 05-09-2004, 11:36 PM

so i've figured out my own problem.. boy, is linux complicated.. kinda

so i had forgotten that if don't own one of the popular cards, you have to modify the config files for in the /etc/pcmcia directory.

specifically, i modified the wlan-ng.conf

and added the following lines:

Code:

card "Airvast WN-100"
   version "WLAN", "PRISM PCMCIA CARD", "37300P", "Revision B6"
   manfid 0x50c2, 0x7300
   bind "orinoco_cs"

which i got from typing 'cardctl ident' from a shell. actually all the other entries in wlan-ng.conf had the line: bind "prism2_cs" but for some reason, that didn't work for me.
but orinoco_cs did.

to use the hostap driver, you have to modify the hostap_cs.conf

with the same lines as above, except that the last line should be (obviously)

bind "hostap_cs"

apparently, you should only list your card in either the wlan-ng.conf or hostap_cs.conf, but not both, cause it'll try and load both drivers and confuse things. i think i had both files modified at some point and it didn't work. but i'm not really sure cause i was trying so many different things.. i finally decided to just use the orinoco driver since it set my card directly to 'managed' mode instead of 'master' mode for the hostap, since i'm not yet looking to use the other hostap functionality.

after modifying either the wlan-ng.conf or hostap_cs.conf, you have to restart the cardmgr so it reads the new config files and thus recognize your card. that entails:

1. sudo kill -HUP `cat /var/run/cardmgr.pid` (which i got off of another website)
2. re-inserting your card (should be a high pitched tone; if it's a lower pitched tone, it still doesn't recognize your card)
3. then play with iwconfig settings, or use the wlcardconfig / netcardconfig scripts from the knoppix menu

i hope this helps people with cheaper generic prism cards.. i was also pleased to read that most prism 3 cards are backwards compatible with prism 2, 2.5 cards.

i wonder if anyone knows if i could get my Airvast WN-100 card information to be included in the standard wlan-ng.conf, so i won't have to modify this file everytime I have boot to knoppix.

please let me know, and i'll send this info to them.

**genzo** · 05-09-2004, 11:59 PM

i actually think that the lines:

Code:

card "Airvast WN-100"
   version "WLAN", "PRISM PCMCIA CARD", "37300P", "Revision B6"
   manfid 0x50c2, 0x7300
   bind "orinoco_cs"

should be in a file other than the wlan-ng.conf, since it didn't work when i put: bind "prism_cs" on the last line.

it may fit well into the config-2.4 file..

anyone know how to get that file to include my card info??