Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

baslinux - Re: [BL] wi-fi card for laptop

baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Baslinux mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: 3aoo-cvfd AT dea.spamcon.org
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [BL] wi-fi card for laptop
  • Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 08:55:19 +1200

Sheldon Isaac wrote:
>
> I bought a WaveBuddy PCMCIA card,
> Worked in Windows98 with the supplied driver
> Now I've put BL 3.21 on that laptop, and have
> not been able to have it work with that card.

Two problems:

The kernel
^^^^^^^^^^
In order to keep the BL3 kernel small, many capabilities
were were left out. If you look in the BL3 kernel config
(on the homepage), you will see that "NET_RADIO" and
"Wan interfaces" are not in the BL3 kernel. I know little
about wireless networking, but I suspect those have something
to do with it. If you look in the config for the bare.i
kernel in Slackware 7.1, you will see that it has both
"NET_RADIO" and the "Wan interfaces". Using that kernel
might help.

The module for the pcmcia card
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In order for cardmgr to load the correct module for a
pcmcia card, it must be listed in /etc/pcmcia/config
and the module must be in /lib/modules/2.2.16/pcmcia.
BL3 comes with only one network module, pcnet_cs
(which is compatible with most older pcmcia network
cards). For other cards, like yours, you will have
to add the module from Slackware 7.1 (or compile a
2.2.16 version yourself) and record the module details
in /et/pcmcia/config.

> cardmgr says:
> -------------
> initializing socket 1
> unsupported card in socket 1
> product info: "11WAVE", ""11WP611AL-E"
> function: 6 (network)
> -------------

cardmgr reads the product info directly from the
pcmcia card and uses it to find the appropriate
module in /etc/pcmcia/config. What the above
message means is it can't match the product info
with an entry in /etc/pcmcia/config

> The instructions in
> Z:\WLAN Card & Adapter\Drivers\Linux\ReadMe.pdf
> say to add some stuff to a /scripts/atmel.conf
> -----------------
> card "bla bla"
> version "bla", "blah"
> bind "pcmf502re"
> -----------------

That's approximately what the entry in /etc/pcmcia/config
should look like.

> Can I just get a ready to use module from somewhere!!???

Hopefully, Slackware 7.1 will have a module for it.
However, it depends on the age of your pcmcia card.
New cards are unlikely to be compatible (unless they
use a long-established standard).

> That also requires compiling or some such activity.

If the sourcecode for the module is available, it might
be possible to create a workable module using the BL3
compiler. At the same time you could compile a new
version of the kernel (with wireless capabilities added).

Cheers,
Steven






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page