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linux-wlan-ng/README
solomon 3cb3440a2e Some doc updates for USB stuff.
2002-05-21 18:39:32 +00:00

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* README
*
* Copyright (C) 2001 AbsoluteValue Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
* --------------------------------------------------------------------
*
* linux-wlan
*
* The contents of this file are subject to the Mozilla Public
* License Version 1.1 (the "License"); you may not use this file
* except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of
* the License at http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/
*
* Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS
* IS" basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or
* implied. See the License for the specific language governing
* rights and limitations under the License.
*
* Alternatively, the contents of this file may be used under the
* terms of the GNU Public License version 2 (the "GPL"), in which
* case the provisions of the GPL are applicable instead of the
* above. If you wish to allow the use of your version of this file
* only under the terms of the GPL and not to allow others to use
* your version of this file under the MPL, indicate your decision
* by deleting the provisions above and replace them with the notice
* and other provisions required by the GPL. If you do not delete
* the provisions above, a recipient may use your version of this
* file under either the MPL or the GPL.
*
* --------------------------------------------------------------------
*
* Inquiries regarding the linux-wlan Open Source project can be
* made directly to:
*
* AbsoluteValue Systems Inc.
* info@linux-wlan.com
* http://www.linux-wlan.com
*
* --------------------------------------------------------------------
*
* Portions of the development of this software were funded by
* Intersil Corporation as part of PRISM(R) chipset product development.
*
* --------------------------------------------------------------------
=======================================================================
Description:
The linux-wlan package is a linux device driver and subsystem
package that is intended to provide the full range of IEEE 802.11 MAC
management capabilities for use in user-mode utilities and scripts.
The package currently supports the Intersil 802.11b Prism2, Prism2.5,
and Prism3 reference designs for PCMCIA, PCI, and USB. Additionally,
the package includes support for PLX9052 based PCI to PCMCIA adapter
with a few different PCMCIA cards.
For a list of elements that are still undone, see the TODO file in
this directory
=======================================================================
License:
See the COPYING and LICENSE files.
=======================================================================
Top level directory for linux-wlan-ng:
./add-ons - additional programs that are not build from the
top level make file
./doc - source distribution documentation
./etc - scripts used at run-time
./man - man pages
./scripts - contributed scripts that may do useful things
./src - source code for various components
=======================================================================
Test Configurations:
This release was tested on the following configurations:
Intel:
Kernel | pcmcia_cs | Distribution | Device Types
-------+-----------+--------------+---------------------------------------
2.2.20 | 3.1.29 | Debian woody | Prism2-PCMCIA-PFlash
| | | Prism2.5-PCMCIA-PFlash
| | | Prism2.5-PCI-PFlash
| | | Prism3-PCMCIA-PFlash
-------+-----------+--------------+---------------------------------------
2.4.17 | 3.1.31 | Debian woody | Prism2-PCMCIA-PFlash
| | | Prism2.5-PCMCIA-PFlash
| | | Prism2.5-PCI-PFlash
| | | Prism2.5-USB-PFlash
| | | Prism3-PCMCIA-PFlash
PowerPC:
Kernel | pcmcia_cs | Distribution | Device Types
-------+-----------+--------------+---------------------------------------
2.2.13 | 3.1.10 | Custom | Prism2-PCMCIA-PFlash
| | | Prism2.5-PCMCIA-PFlash
| | | Prism3-PCMCIA-PFlash
=======================================================================
Build Instructions:
NOTE: You may not need to build at all. Check the linux-wlan ftp site
for binary packages built by AVS. At the time of this writing the
following targets were supported:
RedHat 7.1
RedHat 7.2
Mandrake 8.1
NOTE: This release supports building four different drivers:
prism2_cs Driver for Prism2.x & Prism3 PCMCIA cards.
prism2_pci Driver for Prism2.5 (ISL3874) based _native_ PCI cards.
prism2_plx Driver for Prism2.x PCMCIA cards when used with
a PLX9052 PCI/PCMCIA adapter.
prism2_usb Driver for Prism2.x USB adapters.
Prerequisites:
To build linux-wlan-ng you will need:
- Configured kernel source code for the kernel you are running.
Ideally, this will be the resulting tree after building your own
kernel. Configured means that you have at least run 'make config',
'make menuconfig', or 'make xconfig'. If you are trying to build
linux-wlan-ng for a previously existing kernel binary (one you did
not build yourself), look for help on the mailing lists because it
can be tricky. I always run against kernels I've built myself, so I'm
not much help in this area.
- The good David Leffler identified that if you are having difficulty
with *_netlink_* symbols, you may have a problem with 'make clean' in
the kernel tree. Do a 'make mrproper' followed by 'make config'
and the rest of the kernel build process. 'make mrproper' does
a more thorough cleaning of the kernel tree. For more info, look
for David's comments in the linux-wlan-user mailing list.
- If you are building a driver for a PCMCIA card, you will also need
the configured PCMCIA source code for the pcmcia_cs subsystem you
are currently running.
- Note that AVS does not test with the kernel pcmcia support code,
we _always_ use the pcmcia-cs package with kernel pcmcia
completely disabled. CAREFUL: it is very easy to accidentally
enable the kernel pcmcia code, if you select _any_ of the
individual pcmcia devices in the various kernel config submenus,
kernel pcmcia will be selected.
Building linux-wlan-ng:
1) untar the package using the command:
tar zxvf linux-wlan-ng-X.Y.Z.tar.gz
2) Make sure you have configured kernel and (optionally) pcmcia sources on
your system. Note that if you are _only_ building the prism2_pci,
prism2_plx, or prism2_usb drivers you don't need the pcmcia-cs
source tree.
3) To clean up any unwanted files accidentally included in the tar package,
run 'make clean'. If make clean behaves badly (infinite loop, for
example), you may have a date/time mismatch. Run the command:
find . -type f -exec touch {} \;
to fix the date&time stamps, then run 'make clean' again.
4) To configure the linux-wlan-ng package, run 'make config'. The
following set of questions will be asked. The default answer is in
braces (e.g. []). Just press <Enter> to select the default answer:
- "Build Prism2.x PCMCIA Card Services (_cs) driver? (y/n) [y]: "
Select "y" if you want to build the Prism PCMCIA driver.
If you select "n", the PCMCIA related questions below
will not be asked.
- Build Prism2 PLX9052 based PCI (_plx) adapter driver? (y/n) [y]:
Select "y" if you want to build the Prism driver for
PLX PCI9052 PCI/PCMCIA adapter based solutions.
- Build Prism2.5 native PCI (_pci) driver? (y/n) [y]:
Select "y" if you want to build the Prism driver for
Prism2.5 ISL3874 based native PCI cards. This includes
PCI add-in cards and the mini-pci modules included in some
notebook computers (but not all, some use internal USB modules).
- Build Prism2.5 USB (_usb) driver? (y/n) [y]:
Select "y" if you want to build the Prism driver for
Prism2.5 ISL3873 based USB adapters. This includes
USB add-on modules and the internal modules included in some
notebook computers.
- Linux source directory [/usr/src/linux]:
The config script will attempt to automagically find your kernel
source directory. If found, the kernel source source directory
will be presented as the default selection. If the default
selection is wrong, you may correct it here.
- pcmcia-cs source dir [/usr/src/pcmcia-cs-3.1.29]:
If the "_cs" driver is selected above, the configure script will
attempt to present a reasonable default for the pcmcia source
directory. If the presented directory is incorrect, you may
change it here. If the "_cs" driver is not selected, this
prompt will not appear.
- Build for Kernel PCMCIA? (y/n) [n]:
If the "_cs" driver is selected, we need to know if you are
intending to use the kernel pcmcia code rather than pcmcia_cs.
This prompt will not appear if the "_cs" driver is not selected.
NOTE: AVS in-house testing is done almost exclusively using the
pcmcia_cs package with kernel pcmcia disabled. Therefore,
your results with kernel pcmcia may vary.
- PCMCIA script directory [/etc/pcmcia]:
If the "_cs" driver is selected, this prompt allows you to
change the location where the pcmcia scripts will be installed.
Only do this if you have installed the rest of the pcmcia_cs
scripts to a non-default location.
- Alternate target install root directory on host []:
This prompt allows you to specify an alternative root directory
for the install process.
- Module install directory [/lib/modules/2.2.20]:
Select where you want the driver modules to be installed. The
script constructs a default location using the output of uname.
If you have not yet installed the kernel you will run linux-wlan
with, and the new kernel has a different version string, you will
need to change this value.
- Target Architecture? (i386, ppc, or alpha) [i386]:
On some targets, we can't identify the target processor from
compiler settings or predefined symbols. Therefore, we need an
explicit setting that identifies the target CPU.
- Prefix for build host compiler? (rarely needed) []:
When cross-compiling or using different compilers for kernel and
user-mode software, it is sometimes (but rarely) necessary to
specify a different compiler prefix to use when compiling the
_tools_ that are built to run on the build host during the
linux-wlan-ng build process.
- Compiling with a cross compiler? (y/n) [n]:
If you are cross compiling, we need to enable the building of
the linux-wlan-ng build-time tools using the local host compiler
rather than the cross-compiler.
- Build for debugging (see doc/config.debug) (y/n) [y]:
This option enables the inclusion of debug output generating
statements in the driver code. Note that enabling those statements
requires the inclusion of insmod/modprobe command line arguments
when loading the modules. See the document doc/config.debug
for more information.
5) To build the package, run 'make all'
6) To install the package, run 'make install' (as root).
=======================================================================
Configuring:
------------------------------
FOR PCMCIA USERS:
A) Edit the /etc/pcmcia/wlan-ng.opts file to configure. These options are
set every time you insert a card. If you want to change an option
after the initial configuration, a) pop your card out, b) alter the
file, c) insert your card. For more information see the file(s)
linux-wlan-ng*/doc/config.*
B) Edit your network.opts file to set up your IP settings. Note: for a
station, the SSID you're connecting to will be appended to the
current pcmcia scheme name. You can use this to have different
IP setups for different wireless LANs you connect to (e.g. home vs. work).
C) Restart pcmcia-cs with the command:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/pcmcia restart
D) Insert the card. For most cards, a solid LED indicates that the
SSID you specified was found, a bss was joined, and the firmware
completed the authenticate and associate processes.
E) Run ifconfig and route to determine if your IP and route settings are
listed as you wanted them. It's also a good idea to look at the file
/etc/resolv.conf to see if your nameserver address has been set up
correctly.
------------------------------
FOR PCI, PLX, OR USB USERS:
A) You must make sure that the drivers get loaded at boot time and that the
necessary initialization takes place. The simplest way to do this is
to add the following commands to your rc.local file:
modprobe prism2_pci [or prism2_usb/prism2_plx]
wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_ifstate ifstate=enable
wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_autojoin ssid=<your APs SSID> authtype=opensystem
ifconfig wlan0 <yourIP> netmask <yourNetmask> broadcast <yourBroadcast>
route add default gw <yourGateway>
Also, don't forget to set up your resolv.conf to point at your DNS server.
B) If you are daring, you can try out the rc.wlan and wlan.conf scripts.
They do work, and they are installed into your */init.d directory
and /etc directory. We don't currently create the soft-link from
the runlevel directory to the wlan startup script because the
distributions vary too much in this respect. You'll need to create
the soft-link yourself. Just make sure it is early in the process,
namely, before the the network interfaces are brought up. The
actual setup of the SSID and such is in the file /etc/wlan.conf.
Note that you'll also need to add an modules.conf alias statement
for the driver that you wish to load (pci or plx), we don't
explicitly load a module in init.d/wlan because we don't know which
one you want. ;-)
------------------------------
FOR USB USERS:
A) Make sure your kernel usb support is running
B) Plug in the Prism2.x USB device
C) Run 'modprobe prism2_usb prism2_doreset=1' to load the driver into memory.
D) Run 'wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_ifstate ifstate=enable' to initialize the
driver+MAC functions.
E) Run 'wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_autojoin ssid=<your ssid> authtype=opensystem'
to enable the MAC in Infrastructure Station mode.
F) Run 'ifconfig wlan0 <your IP address>'
NOTE: USB devices can use the /etc/init.d/wlan script for initialization.
Integration with usbmgr/hotplug is still a TODO item.
NOTE: Monitor mode and promiscious operation are not currently supported
on USB adapters.
IMPORTANT: Due to an issue with the current firmware in Prism USB
devices, the driver must usually do a port reset (which is normally
handled by usbcore).
Some usb low-level drivers don't like this, they see the reset as a
new device connect (of something that's _already_ in the connected
state). When that happens things go very awry, possibly crashing
and/or hanging the machine.
Some low-level drivers handle it just fine.
Since it appears to be a combination of the underlying USB host hardware
_and_ the usb low-level driver _and_ the linux usb version, I haven't been able
to put together a description of precisely which hardware/software will work.
Some of my hardware here in the lab works, some hardware (with exactly the
same software) does not.
You will have to experiment on your own.
Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about it until new firmware
becomes available. The good news is that the firmware developers are aware
of the problem, they have a fix, and the new firmware is coming, we just
don't know precisely when it will be available. It all depends on how quickly
they can get it through their QA process. When it does become available,
install it in your device using the Windows firmware update utility,
remove the "prism2_doreset" on the modprobe command line above and everything
will work just peachy.
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