OESF Portables Forum
Everything Else => General Support and Discussion => Zaurus General Forums => Archived Forums => Security and Networking => Topic started by: teleute on September 16, 2005, 08:36:06 pm
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Has anyone been able (or has even tried) to get this card working on their Zaurus? I specifically bought the Ambicom because I know people were able to use the 802.11b from Ambicom with no problem, I believe because it was a Prism (2?) driver, which I've worked with a bit before. However, it appears the jerks have switched to TI chipsets without telling anyone. And from what I can tell, the TI drivers are nightmarish. Anyone heard of trying this? I've got an SL-5600, BTW. And it's not even beginning to recognise the card - doesn't even acknowledge that it exists.
Thanks!
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didnt even know that another 802.11g CF card other than the linksys one exsisted. my advice would be to download the drivers, cross compile then try and install. but i would say youre probelly better off with a prism 2 based card
do you know the chipset? the ti stuff is normally somthing along the lines of ACX111, if so you can go and get the drivers at http://acx100.sourceforge.net/ (http://acx100.sourceforge.net/)
and for info on installing: http://www.pcquest.com/content/linux/104010501.asp (http://www.pcquest.com/content/linux/104010501.asp)
keep in mind you will be dealing with the pcmcia and not the pci version. CF is basically pcmcia so in this case they are interchangable
hope that helps, reply back if you get it working as a couple of other people want 802.11g and have had problems getting the linksys driver to work
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didnt even know that another 802.11g CF card other than the linksys one exsisted. my advice would be to download the drivers, cross compile then try and install. but i would say youre probelly better off with a prism 2 based card
Well, that's what I thought I was getting (based on the previous one). I was so choked to find out they'd switched.
do you know the chipset? the ti stuff is normally somthing along the lines of ACX111, if so you can go and get the drivers at http://acx100.sourceforge.net/ (http://acx100.sourceforge.net/)
and for info on installing: http://www.pcquest.com/content/linux/104010501.asp (http://www.pcquest.com/content/linux/104010501.asp)
Well, the incredibly surly tech guy at Ambicom was only able to tell me "TI". From my reading, I would assume it's the TNETW1230, which the sourceforge people seem to believe falls under the ACX111 category.
I downloaded the sourceforge stuff the other day, but I didn't have make, and now I'm having problems getting that to work. (See my other post.) *sigh*
Even though I haven't been able to try the actual install yet, one thing that has been throwing me off on the sourceforge intructions - there's quite the large section on the firmware, which seems written quite specifically for D-link cards.
hope that helps, reply back if you get it working as a couple of other people want 802.11g and have had problems getting the linksys driver to work
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Will do. Thanks!
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i dont think you have to worry that much about it bieng dlink cards, as far as i know they are really the only cards that use the chipset that are redily avalible. firmware should work for all cards.
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i dont think you have to worry that much about it bieng dlink cards, as far as i know they are really the only cards that use the chipset that are redily avalible. firmware should work for all cards.
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*fingers crossed*
So I've now encountered another potential issue installing this driver. According to the README:
In case the build fails, then please make sure that the symbolic link
/lib/modules/`uname -r`/build exists and points to the matching
kernel source directory. Now copy /boot/vmlinuz.version.h to
/lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/include/linux/version.h
The build failed, so I went looking for the aforementioned sym link. Sure enough, it wasn't there. So I went looking for the kernel source directory and can't find it. *sigh* Hopefully this is something I've overlooked as stupidly as my question on my other thread. Any ideas, anyone? Thanks. *sg*
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lol they assume that you build the kernel on your pc for i386, they didnt take into aacout the fact that it might be an emmbeded device that get cross compiled for apps, i am sure there is a work around however, like compiling on the PC?
ethier way i thoght you should know that at least one of the PDA's on handhelds.org uses an ACX chipset, i belve it was the hx4700 so that could be a good place to start
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when the card is installed, what does "cardctl status" and "cardctl ident" say? Can you "cardctl resume" and see if the status changes?
have you got a CF to PCMCIA adaptor, and be able to try the card on a linux box which has the ACX drivers installed? That way you can get an idea of how the card would behave if you had the right drivers on the Z.
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lol they assume that you build the kernel on your pc for i386, they didnt take into aacout the fact that it might be an emmbeded device that get cross compiled for apps, i am sure there is a work around however, like compiling on the PC?
ethier way i thoght you should know that at least one of the PDA's on handhelds.org uses an ACX chipset, i belve it was the hx4700 so that could be a good place to start
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Awesome...I'll check it out. Thanks! It's a bit encouraging, anyway...
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when the card is installed, what does "cardctl status" and "cardctl ident" say? Can you "cardctl resume" and see if the status changes?
have you got a CF to PCMCIA adaptor, and be able to try the card on a linux box which has the ACX drivers installed? That way you can get an idea of how the card would behave if you had the right drivers on the Z.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=97391\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]
"cardctl status" says:
Socket 0:
3.3V 16-bit PC Card
function 0: [ready]
Socket 1:
no card
"cardctl ident" says:
Socket 0:
product info: "Marvell", "88W8300 802.11g PC Card", "version 1.1", ""
manfid: 0x02df, 0x8103
function: 6 (network)
Socket 1:
no product info available
"cardctl resume" gives "ioctl(): device or resource busy"
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could this be because you have no ACX drivers on your PDA? so it dosent know how to resume it. im not sure how pcmcia works but it make sense to me.
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could this be because you have no ACX drivers on your PDA? so it dosent know how to resume it. im not sure how pcmcia works but it make sense to me.
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Probably, but I can't figure out how to install the drivers without a kernel source directory, as that figures prominently in the instructions.
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If anyone is willing to send this card to me I could try to build and use the http://lisas.de/~andi/acx100/ (http://lisas.de/~andi/acx100/) driver in Cacko ROM.
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If anyone is willing to send this card to me I could try to build and use the http://lisas.de/~andi/acx100/ (http://lisas.de/~andi/acx100/) driver in Cacko ROM.
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I'd love to advance the progress of science, but I can't afford to buy a new one if anything happened to it. And I really don't trust the post. Not to mention Customs...;-)
I appreciate the offer, and I'll keep an eye here in case anyone takes you up on this. Thanks!
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if you download the testu kernel source code you would have all the headers you need to compile
then you make sure "/lib/modules/`uname -r`/build " is a symlink to wherever you put your source code (prehaps /usr/src/linux-2.4.20-PDA) so you would do
ln -s /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build /usr/src/linux-2.4.20-PDA
on your home computer and you should be able to compile after you stuff around with some command line paramaters for ./configure such as the --HOST=<name of type of computer you want to run program on> (--HOST=<*> should be somthing like xscale iwmmx or arm7 depending on how backwards compatible you want to be ant how your cross compiler was compiled, basically iwmmx for c*k's xscale for everything else and if all fails try arm7)
some one will have to help me fill in the details but thats the basics of it all, one question do you have a cross compiler installed? or are you just using the one that came with your distro?
if you make any progress i think i will get one, do you have a link to where you boaght it from?
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btw acx100 is 802.11g
acx110 is unkown to me (seems like an all in one soulotion)
acx111 is 802.11G
however they are all covered by the one driver
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ok so here is a better guid on how to do it, note this is a guide and a rough one at that, i expect you can do it on your own or report back for slight modifcations also this is how i would do it, i am sure there are better ways and please tell me as i dont like the idea of having to set the CC varible everytime. it also looks long and hard but trust me its not, you may also want to read the thing throgh about 3 times and make sure you understand it all.
first we have to add to your $CC eviromental value, just append " -march=arm5", or " -march=iwmmxt" for the c*k series or " -mcpu=xscale" (recmomended)
next we edit the config.mk file and look for somthing that contains /lib/modules/`uname -r/build and replace it with <path to source>/build, or the better way is to
mkdir /lib/modules/2.4.20-zaurus
ln -s <path to src> /lib/modules/2.4.20-zaurus/build
you will also have to hardcode all values of `uname -r` and change it to 2.4.20-zaurus or else it will install the module for your computer and not put it where we want.
now we do a "make driver" and then "make install" which may or may not complain and cause wierd problems scince it does a depmod, you can get around this if you can work out the name of the file it creates and where it installs it to (might be in that config file but deffinatly ends in *.ko)
then its a simple matter of coping the file to your zaurus and placing it in the right subfolder of /lib/modules/<whatever directory is in here>/<wherever (mabey acx110)> and run a depmod. now all we have to do is figure how to make the pcamcia stuff load the driver on insertion which is not my area so you need to find someone who has had a wifi card that needed a bit of text editing to get working and adapt what they did to load your driver (make sure you keep note of the name)
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ok so here is a better guid on how to do it, note this is a guide and a rough one at that, i expect you can do it on your own or report back for slight modifcations also this is how i would do it, i am sure there are better ways and please tell me as i dont like the idea of having to set the CC varible everytime. it also looks long and hard but trust me its not, you may also want to read the thing throgh about 3 times and make sure you understand it all.
Awesome...thanks so much. (Sorry I didn't respond sooner, BTW - I didn't get a notification this was here, for some reason.) Anyway, I'll give this a try as soon as I can, hopefully later this week. And BTW, I got it on tigerdirect.ca, but it seems to no longer be offered by them. I've written them to find out why...
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any joy?
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any joy?
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Between moving into a new house and the extended business trip I'm currently on, there just hasn't been time to play with this at all. :-( I'll certainly update when I get a chance to try it.
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The Ambicom WL54-CF uses a Marvell chipset, not TI. See the FCC listing (https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/cf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout=500&calledFromFrame=N&application_id=671072&fcc_id='P5T-WL54CF') for internal photos (https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/forms/blobs/retrieve.cgi?attachment_id=567270&native_or_pdf=pdf).
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The Ambicom WL54-CF uses a Marvell chipset, not TI. See the FCC listing (https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/cf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout=500&calledFromFrame=N&application_id=671072&fcc_id='P5T-WL54CF') for internal photos (https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/forms/blobs/retrieve.cgi?attachment_id=567270&native_or_pdf=pdf).
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Dammit!! None of the docs I had said anything, and their site didn't say anything, so I called tech support and TI is what they told me. Grrr.....I'll call them back and see what the hell is going on.
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Sorry to bring you more bad news, but after a bit of Googling it appears that there are no open source drivers for the Marvell chips. This is made even more apparent by the existence of Linux wrappers for Windows NDIS drivers
I did find this entry (http://www.saillard.org/news/2005-10-04_libertas.php) in somone's blog, though, so maybe there is hope for the WL54-CF.
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Sorry to bring you more bad news, but after a bit of Googling it appears that there are no open source drivers for the Marvell chips. This is made even more apparent by the existence of Linux wrappers for Windows NDIS drivers
I did find this entry (http://www.saillard.org/news/2005-10-04_libertas.php) in somone's blog, though, so maybe there is hope for the WL54-CF.
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Grrr...if I could ever get ahold of someone at Ambicom, I'd give them a piece of my mind. Anyway, thanks again for the info and the link - I'll keep an eye on the blog and see what he comes up with.
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How sad ! I should have googled more before buying TWO WL54-CF card from Ambicon myself for those old Zaurus we have here.
I did a few research myself since i'm a totally new when it comes to configuring drivers/cards for linux.
At first, I would enter the card in the Zaurus and I would'nt have any card detected. So I added the entry to the wlan-ng.conf file. Now, when I insert the card in it, it's detected has a "prism2_cs" type card since i didn't knew it was a Marvell type.
My entry looks like that btw :
card "Ambicom WL54-CF 54Mbps 802.11g WLAN Card"
manfid 0x02df, 0x8103
bind "prism2_cs"
I was kinda disapointed to see that no one managed to make that thing work on linux.
However, I cam across this : http://verens.com/archives/2005/02/21/inst...ipset-in-linux/ (http://verens.com/archives/2005/02/21/installing-a-netgear-wg511-v2-marvell-chipset-in-linux/)
I'm looking into NdisWrapper right now and see if I can compile it and install it on my zaurus ( if you have any guidelines for that, I would appreciate naturally).
Other question is about the wlan-ng.conf file. I'll obviously have to add a new entry for the Marvell driver types.
Any clues on that too ?
Back to my NdisWrapper thing. Hope someone can help me and that Teleute didn't abandonned the idea of making the card work on the Zaurus.
*edit*
Ho noes .....
https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=16420 (https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=16420)
Still trying to find something however.
*/edit*
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ndis wrappers work by taking a Windows driver (for x86 architecture) - which is a DLL, and wrapping it in a linux driver, so that linux can use it.
whilst you might be able to get ndiswrapper to work on zaurus, the windows DLL driver ain't gonna work 'cos it's not an arm binary, nor is the Z hardware anything like an X86 to allow a binary runtime translation layer (like qemu or bochs) to do anything.
what we need is wrapper for WinCE drivers from pocket pc since pocket pcs are pretty much all arm based. or even a palmOs wrapper.
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I am supprised at how many manufacturers tout "linux compatability" wehn they realse the devices, they say it more often and louder than for the windows couterparts however when it comes down to getting these mythical drivers the manufactere dosent want to know you unless you are buying 100k+ chips
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<rant>
I am supprised at how many manufacturers tout "linux compatability" wehn they realse the devices, they say it more often and louder than for the windows couterparts however when it comes down to getting these mythical drivers the manufactere dosent want to know you unless you are buying 100k+ chips
and if you do get the drivers then its for a specific kernel version that is known to be buggy which is made worse by thier incoplete drivers that require a sacrifice every blue moon to get the thing running
why cant they release the specs and get someone to do the hard work for them for free and get it done properly, then turn around and reimbersee the pearson for thier time scince they delivered a faster more relibale driver in less time than someone who has never even heard of linux but was given the job of writing the driver
</rant>
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well, actually, the WL54-CF comes with 2 types of installation driver...
ppc2003 AND Windows.
If i look at the user manual, it looks like I have to install those "drivers" on the PDA itsefl if I have a WinCe based pda.
So I guess we actually have some drivers that are Arm based. I'll investigate this but I see some hope and a nice project for the holidays perhaps
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well, actually, the WL54-CF comes with 2 types of installation driver...
ppc2003 AND Windows.
If i look at the user manual, it looks like I have to install those "drivers" on the PDA itsefl if I have a WinCe based pda.
So I guess we actually have some drivers that are Arm based. I'll investigate this but I see some hope and a nice project for the holidays perhaps
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the windows x86 drivers will be for when you use a CF to PCMCIA adaptor
winceWrapper would be a really cool project and will earn you lots of kudos and improve your sex life... maybe.
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From what i remeber about wince devices (shudders) the api is effectivly the same with slight modifcations and trimmed down slightly, however i dont thnik anyone knows about how the drivers are done, still an adaptation of the ndis wrapper might be posible.
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Has anyone got this card to work yet?
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Currently this card can be used only under 2.4 kernel (no drivers for 2.6 kernel).
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Currently this card can be used only under 2.4 kernel (no drivers for 2.6 kernel).
[div align=\"right\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div] (http://index.php?act=findpost&pid=130868\")
I tried getting this card to work first on Opie 3.5.4.1, and then flashed cacko 1.23 to try using the older kernel. Details are [a href=\"https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=11082&st=30]here[/url].
The result is the same - the card is recognized (based on the text I supplied in hostap_cs.conf) and the power light goes on, but no further activity until it gives up with "Network offline".
I wrote device drivers for CP/M a quarter century ago, and they were not too hard to do. I get the idea from these threads that to do a device driver for Linux requires a complete bebuild of the kernel - something that I am definitely not up for.
I will go back to CompUSA and beg them to take the card back on Monday. Then I still need a new card to replace my WCF12 that died. It looks like people are generally having trouble with all of the 802.11g cards, and I can't find any place to buy an 802.11b card, apart from used on ebay. I don't want to get involved with that.
So, is there a card that will work "out of the box" with either cacko or Opie? Or should I try to learn how to write device drivers for this Ambicom card? Or maybe I should go back to an iPaq? (just kidding!)
Seriously frustrated,
Walt
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Or should I try to learn how to write device drivers for this Ambicom card?
There appears to be a driver at http://www.saillard.org/linux/mrv8k/ (http://www.saillard.org/linux/mrv8k/) . Any advice before I start in with it?
--Jack
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is there a more direct link to the driver. i didnt see much there
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is there a more direct link to the driver. i didnt see much there
[div align=\"right\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div] (http://index.php?act=findpost&pid=135976\")
[a href=\"http://www.saillard.org/linux/mrv8k/files/mrv8k-0.0.2.tar.bz2]http://www.saillard.org/linux/mrv8k/files/...k-0.0.2.tar.bz2[/url]
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wow, that driver looks fairly complete
anyone have the hardware and the time to test this, you will need a 2.6 bassed kernel with a kernel version greater than 2.6.15, so an OZ or pdaXrom, cakco and sharp are out of luck
as far as i can tell its a complete driver with all functionallity incluuded, however all its refrences are to pci chipsets so i am unsure if will work out of the box
give it a go, it seems like a good starting point
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Add me to the (hopefully short) list of Zaurus SL-CX000 users who has purchased an Ambicom WL54-CF card without doing proper homework. It seems as though the prior work on creating a driver for this card has stalled.
I have very rudimentary C coding experience and not much experience with the kernel at all. I don't mind trying new things and learning as I go. It would be good to generate a driver for this card. Is there enough interest out there for an inexperienced person like me to try to push that kind of project forward? I would need lots of help.
Or perhaps some progress has been made by others recently.
Thanks!
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A followup. Initial contact with Ambicom regarding some kind of support for an effort to build a Zaurus driver for the WL54-CF is positive. I've written a followup email, we'll see what happens.
Any volunteers out there to work on this driver?
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I'd be happy to jump on board with testing; as soon as there were signs of progress being made I'd be happy to buy one... or even to buy and loan one to a developer. Lack of 11g mode has hampered me a few times.
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Thanks, speculatrix. Let's see how things unfold. As a newbie, I don't know what I'm doing. It seems like the components of a solution, however, are a) vendor support, b) an understanding of any existing development work on this or related drivers, c) a hw/sw target (I'd personally need pdaXrom compatibility, if that level of software is even an issue), d) a developer or team to write the driver, and e) testing. Have I missed anything, anyone?
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hahah, i always laugh when i see people talk about compatability for diffrent distros, just get the driver in the kernel and 90% of your problems go away. not that simple of course but then i think most people (mainly comercial) that talk about "too many distros" are just telling windows programers to write the program that dont know how to do proper dev work under linux or are not aware tha linux works diffrentlly which even pros seem to forget every now and again (with some going on slashdot rants like i just did
a = not as important as you think, it helps but i feel thatthis is only a fallback move
b = there have been mentions of this but i dont think anyone has gone ahead
c = once again not important, do the work to get it running and let the distro guys fit it into thier ecosystem, better yet get it in the mainline kernel and then more people benifit
d = this is the most important point
e = comes with the devs. olse not as important as most of the hardware we use is the same
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Thanks for the good answers. What do you think, Da_Blitz (and others)--can a newbie like me champion this task and help make it succeed? If so, what's your advice on how to do so?
I appreciate the help.
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if you can program or get developers then yes
embedded hardware programing or driver devlopment isnt "hard" its "diffrent". actually some things can be hard but normally there is a diffrent way to do it that works better
for a quick rundown
there are some supposed dirvers for this card, i havent been able to confirm it but if there are alot of the work has been done and things get easier
if you cant program find a dev, free hardware helps. its like scratching an itch, once you have it you just want to get it done
after reading up the top i bit there is a 2.4 driver so there is a good chance that most of the work has been done.
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there is a 2.4 driver so there is a good chance that most of the work has been done.
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can you post a URL?
I think that, from memory of the ralink driver, that part of the problem is that often the drivers are written for x86 and need a little bit of effort to port to arm, but I would imagine it's not too difficult (I used to be an embedded software engineer doing pagers and trunked radio systems) - a working example with clean code is the best documenation you can have!
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This sounds hopeful. I did get a reply from Ambicom, but only to say their engineers are on vacation and that they'll get back to me later. I understand vendor support is a second-tier component, but perhaps they have some leads as well as support.
Sounds like a significant first objective is to find that 2.4 driver.
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there should be a link on the earlier paces somwhere, its actually your best bet but if they are willing to put you in touch with engineers then thats a small win
keep in mind that the code they give you for the kernel will still most likly need some hacking as the vendors tend to like making a closed source user space control deamon that does some of the heavy lifting, or they come up with somthing that only does exacttly what the client wants and nothing else
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Well, Ambicom got back to me, with a doubtless business-wise but somewhat disappointing reply. They indicate that the WL54-CF uses the Marvell 8385, and that's all they can provide in the way of help.
I've also searched the forum and googled quite a bit, without hitting on the 2.4 driver.
At this point, unless there's a path forward along the lines of a) finding the 2.4 driver, locating help to create the driver, or c) potentially contactin Marvell for help, I'll need to return my card and look for another solution.
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could have sworn it has been posted, dont forget that this isnt the only thread refrencing an 802.11g card so try looking for others
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Rather late in this thread, but is it true that any card with the same manfid is essentially the same card? I've got an I-O Data WN-G54/CF with the same manfid 0x02df, 0x8103.
Promisingly, I've found this page which seems to be an effort to write drivers:
http://projects.linuxtogo.org/projects/marvell8385/ (http://projects.linuxtogo.org/projects/marvell8385/)
Then there's this:
http://verens.com/archives/2005/02/21/inst...ipset-in-linux/ (http://verens.com/archives/2005/02/21/installing-a-netgear-wg511-v2-marvell-chipset-in-linux/)
I just haven't had time yet to figure out how to put all this together under pdaxrom.
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not exacttly, some manufacturers do wierd things, however there is a very good chance that it will work
perhpas to start you should ethire locate the fcc pdf files or pop the thing open (easy o do) and snap off some pics
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Promisingly, I've found this page which seems to be an effort to write drivers:
http://projects.linuxtogo.org/projects/marvell8385/ (http://projects.linuxtogo.org/projects/marvell8385/)
Then there's this:
http://verens.com/archives/2005/02/21/inst...ipset-in-linux/ (http://verens.com/archives/2005/02/21/installing-a-netgear-wg511-v2-marvell-chipset-in-linux/)
I just haven't had time yet to figure out how to put all this together under pdaxrom.
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good research!
looking a the linuxtogo project it seems the driver is partly working, looks as if user "hrw" is on the case, so I am now hopeful of success!
the second link about netgear is, I'm afraid, bad news as it uses windows driver with ndis wrapper.