OESF Portables Forum
Everything Else => Zaurus Distro Support and Discussion => Distros, Development, and Model Specific Forums => Archived Forums => Angstrom & OpenZaurus => Topic started by: trickofperspective on September 27, 2005, 08:45:19 am
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Hey, all!
I'm thinking about picking up a 5500 for use as a handheld wifi scanner... was wondering if anyone had any information/experience using a CF to PCMCIA expander to get an 802.11/a/b/g PCMCIA card running thereon. Would this be supported in the current version of OZ? Any links or advice?
Thanks!
~trick
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The PCMCIA expander should work fine, but you may well have troubles finding a PCMCIA (as opposed to PC-CARD) wifi card.
If you do find one, you'll need to see if it has Linux drivers; if these exist and can be cross-compiled (and will work on the 2.4.18 kernel, or can be back-ported), then you'll be okay.
Si
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I was under the impression that those terms were essentially interchangable... aren't PC cards all PCMCIA compatable? Do I need to be disillusioned of this?
The PCMCIA expander should work fine, but you may well have troubles finding a PCMCIA (as opposed to PC-CARD) wifi card.
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They are different.
On a laptop PC-CARD means PCMCIA will also work (afaik), but the pin outs are different, so a pure PCMCIA slot (which is the same as a CF slot) won't support PC-CARD. You should get the same effect on old laptops (from before the age of PC-CARD cards).
Si
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Ahh... thanks for the clarification. And in fact, looking at several of the products I plan on buying, they do indeed seem to support CF to PC-Card. So, provided I can muster the savvy to compile the linux drivers.... oh what are the odds of that? =) Well, it's not my money, so I'll try anyway.
Thanks again!
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Let us know what they are, and we might be able to tell you how difficult it might be...
Si
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Let us know what they are, and we might be able to tell you how difficult it might be...
Si
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Don't know about -g cards, but I have been able to plug in a 802.11b card and get connected with no additional tweaking. Hentges 3.5.3, OpenZaurus 3.2 and Sharp ROMs all include basic chipset drivers for older cards.
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Well, I'm probably looking at an Orinoco Gold a/b/g if I can get my hands on it, which I'm told works under Linux with the MADWIFI drivers. Any thoughts on my likelyhood of getting that running under OZ?
UPDATE: Although, now that I'm looking at it, it seems to be a 32bit card, which I believe won't work in a CF adapter... right? So I'm going to need to find a 16bit a/b/g card. Which I'm guessing is the holy grail.
Thanks!
Let us know what they are, and we might be able to tell you how difficult it might be...
Si
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You could also just get a CF card... though probably costs much more (that and I'm not sure if there are any a/b/g cards)
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They are different.
On a laptop PC-CARD means PCMCIA will also work (afaik), but the pin outs are different, so a pure PCMCIA slot (which is the same as a CF slot) won't support PC-CARD. You should get the same effect on old laptops (from before the age of PC-CARD cards).
Si
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In addition to that, I also just found out (having never needed anything compact flash before buying my Zaurus) that there are type 1, 2 and 3 CF slots. (The SL-5500 has a type 1, btw.)
You could also just get a CF card... though probably costs much more (that and I'm not sure if there are any a/b/g cards)
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An 802.11g card will not only be more expensive, but more power hungry. I have an Ambicom "b" card, and although I haven't done any proper testing, from empirical evidence, using the wireless card cuts my battery life by 30-50%. I can't see a "g" card doing any better. The other thing is that CF networking cards are getting harder and harder to find. I'm looking for a wired 10/100 card (the Hawking is the only one I have found on eBay or locally), and there is only one place locally (Northern VA) that even sells this type of card.
I would be interested in your results.
Thanks,
--Storm
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Type3 CF? You sure?
type1 and type2 exist for sure. All Zaurus models has type2 slot which is a bit thicker then type1.
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The CompactFlash 2.0 interface is 16-bit. PC Card (aka, PCMCIA) can describe both 16-bit and 32-bit cards. CardBus, which is also a PC Card, is always 32-bit. Unfortunately, the PCMCIA group never coined a term just for the 16-bit cards to differentiate them from the 32-bit CardBus cards.
Additional Info:
http://www.pcmcia.org/ (http://www.pcmcia.org/)
http://www.pcmcia.org/faq.htm (http://www.pcmcia.org/faq.htm)
http://www.compactflash.org/faqs/faq.htm (http://www.compactflash.org/faqs/faq.htm)