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  • From: "Sheldon Isaac" <sisaac AT netaxs.com>
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [BL] wi-fi card for laptop
  • Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2004 19:32:45 -0400

On 20 Sep 2004 at 8:55, 3aoo-cvfd AT dea.spamcon.org wrote:
> 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.

Oh, sorry, Steven, I realized after I sent it that I should've said that
I already am using bzimage .

> 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.

I couldn't find pcmf502re in the Slackware 7.1 pcmcia.tgz (614,979
bytes)

Not knowing squat about this, I don't know which of the modules might
work.

> > 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.

Plus a device statement in the top part?

> > 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).

Unfortunately, this cheapo card apparently uses one of the several
modules of the "Atmel" kind - I see that people are still developing
them, finding some fault with the existing ones. As I said, I didn't see
in in Slackware 7.1. That doesn't mean none of those modules will work.
Dunno.

> > 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).

Thank you, Steven, but I am not up to such a task.


Sheldon Isaac








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