Author Topic: Ambicom Wl54-cf (Read 31414 times)

theb · « **Reply #30 on:** June 12, 2006, 12:45:03 pm »

Has anyone got this card to work yet?

Hrw · « **Reply #31 on:** June 12, 2006, 01:02:34 pm »

Currently this card can be used only under 2.4 kernel (no drivers for 2.6 kernel).

walts · « **Reply #32 on:** July 08, 2006, 08:39:37 pm »

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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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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

jack · « **Reply #33 on:** July 17, 2006, 03:48:27 pm »

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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/ . Any advice before I start in with it?

--Jack

Da_Blitz · « **Reply #34 on:** July 21, 2006, 08:19:20 am »

is there a more direct link to the driver. i didnt see much there

jack · « **Reply #35 on:** July 28, 2006, 02:47:06 am »

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is there a more direct link to the driver. i didnt see much there
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[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]

Da_Blitz · « **Reply #36 on:** August 02, 2006, 08:50:32 pm »

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

CktRider · « **Reply #37 on:** December 26, 2006, 02:41:21 am »

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!

CktRider · « **Reply #38 on:** December 27, 2006, 07:43:04 pm »

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?

speculatrix · « **Reply #39 on:** December 28, 2006, 01:16:55 pm »

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.

CktRider · « **Reply #40 on:** December 28, 2006, 04:38:00 pm »

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?

Da_Blitz · « **Reply #41 on:** December 28, 2006, 09:20:39 pm »

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

CktRider · « **Reply #42 on:** December 29, 2006, 01:29:35 am »

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.

Da_Blitz · « **Reply #43 on:** December 30, 2006, 02:36:00 am »

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.

speculatrix · « **Reply #44 on:** December 30, 2006, 09:27:41 am »

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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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Author Topic: Ambicom Wl54-cf (Read 31414 times)