Significant updates.

This commit is contained in:
solomon 2004-02-02 22:00:46 +00:00
parent fbf21a705e
commit adfaef50ba
1 changed files with 54 additions and 27 deletions

81
FAQ
View File

@ -168,9 +168,6 @@ Q: My prism2.5-based USB adapter won't come up if it's plugged in at boot!
Intersil has released Primary firmware 1.1.2, which seems to
have resolved this problem, at least on our test machines.
Contact your vendor for a firmware update.
To check the firmware version, run: "dmesg |grep ident"
Q: My PC crashes when the USB device is plugged in!
@ -284,24 +281,57 @@ Q: How do I know exactly what prism variant is on my card?
Q: How do I know what firmware my card has?
After the driver is loaded and brought into ifstate=enable, you
will see the following lines in the kernel log:
will see the following lines in the kernel log: (eg dmesg |grep ident)
ident: pri f/w: id=0x15 0.3.0
ident: sta f/w: id=0x1f 1.7.1
In this case, the card has primary firmware 0.3.0 and secondary
firmware 1.7.1.
Q: Where can I download updated firmware for my Prism2/2.5/3-based card?
Ask your vendor. Due to legal reasons, we cannot
provide updated frmware with the driver code.
Or, if you are using 0.2.1-pre17 or newer:
'cat /proc/net/p80211/wlan0/nsd' with the card running.
Q: How can I update my firmware under Linux?
Use the 'prism2dl' utility. Note that it has been removed from
newer revisions of the driver sources due to liability reasons --
too many people fried their cards and blamed AVS for it.
Use the 'prism2dl' utility. While it does its utmost to ensure
you don't fry your card, use it at your own risk. Even the
Intersil-supplied tools fail occasionally.
Q: Where can I download updated firmware for my Prism2/2.5/3-based card?
First, AVS is not licensed to redistribute firmware to the general
public. That said, there are a few things one can do:
1) Check with your hardware vendor
2) extract them from the windows drivers
3) Use the almighty oracle of Google.
A general FAQ on firmware updating is here:
http://linux.junsun.net/intersil-prism
It includes links to some sites with firmware images.
We strongly recommend against flashing a new image, instead one
should use the ram-download images that are loaded when the
driver starts, much like the Windows drivers do.
See the instructions below for getting this to work.
Q: What's this about "ram downloading"?
This means the driver loads up a firmware images directly into
card RAM, instead of using the firmware stored in the card's
flash ROM. This lets us ensure we are using the lastest available
code without risking ruining the hardware due to a bad flashing.
linux-wlan-ng will automatically perform a RAM download if you have
the necessary firmware images.
Q: Okay, I have new ram download firmware images, where do I put them?
copy the *hex files into linux-wlan-ng-XXXX/src/prism2/
then build and install the driver per usual.
Q: Can I use my 802.11b card as an AP under Linux?
@ -473,16 +503,15 @@ Q: When starting the device, I get the following error:
This is just a warning; the intialization sequence will
continue on just fine. linux-wlan-ng supports the ram-download
of firmware images into the card. Due to legal reasons the
actual download utility and firmware files are not included in
the distribution.
of firmware images into the card. Linux-wlan-ng 0.2.1-pre17 or
newer includes the downloader, rendering this moot.
Q: I found a copy of prism2dl on the net, installed it and now I get the
following error on startup:
'prism2dl: Failed to read prism2_XX.hex, exiting.'
If you found prism2dl, the odds are you found a firmware image
or three. As distributed by Intersil (and most vendors) the
This means it didn't find the necessary firmware file to perform
a RAM download. As distributed by Intersil (and most vendors) the
filenames use the following convention: rf010409.hex
'rf' is image name, while '010409' refers to v1.4.9.
copy all the images you have to the src/prism2 directory, and
@ -491,15 +520,13 @@ Q: I found a copy of prism2dl on the net, installed it and now I get the
Note that the filename needs to be lowercase.
Note that the first letter of the firmware needs to be 'r' or
'a'; all others refer to flash loads which are not applied on
startup.
Q: I have a D-Link DWL-650P or a DWL-520E, why doesn't it work?
Note at this time, linux-wlan-ng does not support the RAM
downloading of primary firmware.
These cards are the first generally-available ones that use a
short serial flash, or SSF. In layspeek, it means that there
is no onboard firmware, and thus need the firmware loaded
into the card on startup.
linux-wlan-ng 0.2.1-pre17 supports SSF hardware, though you
will need to obtain the firmware images elsewhere.
And finally, unless you got prism2dl from AVS, it's completely
unsupported. And as of this writing, it isn't part of
linux-wlan-ng, so we disclaim all warranties and implied
merchantability.. we can't guarantee that it won't cause the
planet to spin out of its orbit or cause similar calamaties.