Eliminated a bunch of completely obselete questions, and added one about

obtaining the latest release and -devel code.
This commit is contained in:
pizza 2006-08-03 14:09:08 +00:00
parent f678a2559c
commit eab9db6529
1 changed files with 18 additions and 123 deletions

141
FAQ
View File

@ -3,6 +3,22 @@ For additions, corrections, and clarifications, send mail to
solomon@linux-wlan.com with FAQ in the subject.
*******************************************************************
Q: It doesn't work/compile/sing/dance!
First, make sure you're using the latest linux-wlan-ng release
from http://www.linux-wlan-ng.org. New releases are infrequent,
but tthey happen for a reason.
If you are using the latest release, you may want to obtain the
latest development sources via subversion:
svn co svn://svn.shaftnet.org/linux-wlan-ng/trunk
Questions and problems with the developement code should be sent
to the development mailing list, at:
linux-wlan-devel@lists.linux-wlan.com
Q: What devices does the linux-wlan-ng driver support?
Currently, the linux-wlan-ng driver supports the Intersil
@ -130,23 +146,6 @@ Q: I have a XXX USB 802.11b device, will it work with this driver?
ATMEL chipsets. Another supported USB device is the Actiontec
802UI3.
Q: The wlan-ng driver says my ATMEL AT76C503A device is unsupported!
Atmel has placed the source code of the Linux driver for the
AT76C503A (and 501 or 502 - the PCMCIA variant) under the GPL
in July 2002. The project can be found under
http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/atmelwlandriver
http://at76c503a.berlios.de/devices.html
and it is in a rather usable state. The mailing list
http://iprserv.jura.uni-leipzig.de/mailman/listinfo/atmel-wlan-usb
still has many useful postings.
Q: My prism2.5-based USB adapter won't work!
An excellent guide can be found at:
@ -185,28 +184,6 @@ Q: My PC crashes when the USB device is plugged in!
http://lists.linux-wlan.com/pipermail/linux-wlan-devel/2003-May/002369.html
Q: My PC crashes when the USB device is unplugged!
0.1.16-pre3 included some fixes that should eliminate the race
condition that caused the oops-on-unload.
Q: What's with these "Called from within soft interrupt context" messages?
This is the result of a workaround to avoid a kernel oops in
the USB driver code. You can ignore them.
As of 0.1.15-pre5, a different workaround is in place.
Q: Why doesn't promiscuous mode or monitor mode work under USB?
Promiscuous mode works just fine, as of 0.1.15-pre5.
Monitor mode also works, as of 0.1.15-pre6.
Both modes are likely to be quite unreliable, especially under
higher loads thanks to fundamental bandwidth limitations of the
USB interface.
Q: How come I can't transmit when in monitor mode?
You can't. It's a fundamental "feature" of the hardware.
@ -335,57 +312,6 @@ Q: Can I use my 802.11b card as an AP under Linux?
b) The Prism2 HostAP driver uses the special HostAP mode of the
prism chipsets. http://people.ssh.com/jkm/Prism2/
Q: After a few minutes of use, my card stops responding! I'm using WEP.
There seems to be card lockup problems with newer cards (new
DWL-650 cards, linksys WPC11v3) when WEP is turned on. Since
WEP is done in hardware, there is nothing the driver can do to
resolve this. We suggest you pester your vendor for a firmware
update.
Prism2.5 boards are also known to lock up under heavy use; this
is due to bugs in the WEP engine. Even if you perform a card
reset, the WEP engine remains stuck.
As an alternative, you can try out the host-based WEP present in
0.1.15-pre1 and newer. It is still considered experimental,
but the person typing this uses it on a daily basis.
Intersil claims to have fixed this in firmware 1.4.0:
"Fixed a hang condidion seen on certian hardware designs when
using firmware WEP"
Note there are other bugs in the firmware; as recently as 1.4.5
Intersil included a fix that would "Correct an error that could
cause the driver to no longer be able to communicate with the
firmware"
Contact your vendor and ask them to release updated firmware.
Q: When using host-based WEP I get these strange intermittent connection
lockups.
This should be fixed in 0.1.15-pre3. If you are sill having
problems, send a detailed message to the linux-wlan-devel
mailing list.
Q: When using the wlan-ng driver on a multiprocessor machine, I get
packet corruption or random crashes/lockups.
0.1.15-pre2 is the culmination of a major restructuring of
internal driver locking.. Please give it (or newer) a shot
if you're using a SMP system; we expect it to be much improved
even on uniprocessor systems as we lock out system interrupts for
far less time now.
0.1.16-pre3 included a fix for a subtle SMP deadlock that was
missed in 0.1.15-pre2 and earlier.
0.1.16-pre4 included workarounds for PrismPCI hardware errata
that would also manfest themselves as SMP problems, but could
also affect uniprocessor machines in rare circumstanes.
Q: I have a PCI adapter, and upon resuming from a suspend, the device is not
responsive.
@ -445,7 +371,8 @@ Q: What other resources are there for Wireless LANs under Linux?
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Linux.Wireless.drivers.html
Q: I'm using RedHat 8.x, and I get this error when trying to ifup wlan0:
Q: I'm using RedHat 8.x+ (or Fedora Core), and I get this error when
trying to ifup wlan0:
Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A) :
SET failed on device wlan0 ; Function not implemented.
@ -485,35 +412,3 @@ Q: After installing linux-wlan-ng on my RedHat 9 system, pcmcia no
/sbin/modprobe ds
else
Q: When starting the device, I get the following error:
'/sbin/prism2dl not found'
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. 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.'
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
run 'make install'. the images will be renamed and copied to
the appropriate place and everything will be happy.
Note that the filename needs to be lowercase.
Q: I have a D-Link DWL-650P or a DWL-520E, why doesn't it work?
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, and -pre21
includes firmware files with it.