Ambicom Woes

[Asterix]

So, I bought an AmbiCom WL1100C-CF wifi card for my Cacko-running SL-C1000, having read about how great it is. Well, it's great, but the one I got has old firmware so doesn't support WPA-PSK. It works fine with WEP, but I ain't running that with my home network. So, I search the interwebs and find that there are firmware updates! Hooray! Now my hurdle: running hostap_diag wlan0 returns this:

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# hostap_diag wlan0
Host AP driver diagnostics information for 'wlan0'

ioctl[PRISM2_IOCTL_HOSTAP]: Connection timed out
Could not communicate with the kernel driver.
#The same thing happens with wifi0 instead of wlan0.

Cardctl gives me this:

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# cardctl config 0
  Vcc 0.0V  Vpp1 0.0V  Vpp2 0.0V
# cardctl info 0
PRODID_1="AmbiCom"
PRODID_2="WL1100C 802.11b CF-Card"
PRODID_3="2.2"
PRODID_4=""
MANFID=d601,0002
FUNCID=6
# cardctl ident 0
  product info: "AmbiCom", "WL1100C 802.11b CF-Card", "2.2"
  manfid: 0xd601, 0x0002
  function: 6 (network)
# cardctl status 0
  3.3V 16-bit PC Card [suspended]
#If I try to resume the card, it just goes back to suspended.

Trying to reflash:

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# prism2_srec -v wlan0 pk010101.hex sf010802.hex
S3 CRC-16 generation record: start=0x007E17FE len=2 prog=0
[lots of goop about the firmware I'm not going to type]
Start address 0x00000000

ioctl[PRISM2_IOCTL_HOSTAPD]: Connection timed out
Missing wlan component info
Could not read wlan RIDs
#
And ideas about how I can get hostap_diag to see this card so there's hope I can reflash it to a new enough version so it'll support WPA? I've scoured the forums and nobody else seems to have this problem. I've seen hints that the card's firmware can be updated with Windows, but I can't find out how. I have access to a Windows XP laptop that has a PC slot and I have a PC-to-CF adapter, so I'd happily upgrate the firmware with Windows if I could find out how.

When I temporarily reset my network for WEP, the card works great.

Asterix

[Asterix]

Replying to my own post...

I found this site, http://linux.junsun.net/intersil-prism/, which is all full of good info. I'll read it all and try what is suggested there and get back here.

Asterix

[alijames]

Replying to my own post...

I found this site, http://linux.junsun.net/intersil-prism/, which is all full of good info. I'll read it all and try what is suggested there and get back here.

Asterix
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HI, have you installed 'hostapdriver'. Not sure if it is in Cacko, but it was not in pdaXrom and this solved the problem when I was getting the same error.

Also, if you do flash the card, only flash the station firmware, and I would recommend only 1.8.0 as later than this is apparently buggy.

Cheers,

Alistair

[Asterix]

HI, have you installed 'hostapdriver'. Not sure if it is in Cacko, but it was not in pdaXrom and this solved the problem when I was getting the same error.

Alistair
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Cacko seems to have hostap already installed, since the programs are there. However, I tried the update to 0.4.9 I found here: [a href=\"http://ldrolez.free.fr/software/zaurus/]http://ldrolez.free.fr/software/zaurus/[/url] with no different results. Fortunately, it's only some links to change, so it's easy to change back.

I did find, via dmesg, that my card specs are:
NIC: id=0x800c v1.0.0
PRI: id=0x15 v1.0.7
STA: id=0x1f v1.3.6

That's pretty old stuff. I'll try to update it with WinXP on Monday when I get access to the laptop. The junsun.net link had the program to use with Windoze. I'll try 1.7.4 first, and see if it works.

Asterix

[Asterix]

After using Windows to reflash the AmbiCom card with 1.8.2, my WPA-PSK now works just fine. If I didn't have a laptop with a PCMCIA slot, I don't know what I would've done. Sure, the wifi card works now, but "hostap_diag wifi0" still gives me the same error. dmesg can see the card just fine. If anybody has a clue as to why, I'd still like to hear it.

One note I didn't see anywhere else: if you want WPA, you must use 1.8.2 station firmware on the AmbiCom card. Neither 1.7.4 nor 1.8.0 support WPA.

Asterix

[alijames]

After using Windows to reflash the AmbiCom card with 1.8.2, my WPA-PSK now works just fine. If I didn't have a laptop with a PCMCIA slot, I don't know what I would've done. Sure, the wifi card works now, but "hostap_diag wifi0" still gives me the same error. dmesg can see the card just fine. If anybody has a clue as to why, I'd still like to hear it.

Glad you've got the WPA working now. It took me a couple of weeks of playing around...

Have you tried using

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hostap_diag wlan0as that works on mine, although I am running padXrom?

One note I didn't see anywhere else: if you want WPA, you must use 1.8.2 station firmware on the AmbiCom card. Neither 1.7.4 nor 1.8.0 support WPA.

Interesting, I have the same card and mine is running 1.8.0, and WPA works prefectly.

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root-:) hostap_diag wlan0
Host AP driver diagnostics information for 'wlan0'
NICID: id=0x801b v1.0.0 (PRISM III PCMCIA (SST parallel flash))
PRIID: id=0x0015 v1.1.1
STAID: id=0x001f v1.8.0 (station firmware)Where did you find that info on v1.7.4 & 1.8.2?

Cheers,

Alistair

[Asterix]

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hostap_diag wlan0as that works on mine, although I am running padXrom?

Where did you find that info on v1.7.4 & 1.8.2?

Cheers,

Alistair
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The hostap_diag command has always given me an error. Strangely, even after I loaded pdaXii13 (or whatever it's called), it didn't work either. That command has always returned an error for me. I'm back to Cacko 1.23 now.

I used the Windows laptop to load v1.7.4 onto the wifi card, tried it in my Zaurus, and it didn't connect. So, I loaded 1.8.0, and it didn't work again. So, I loaded up 1.8.2 and it connected fine. This is from memory, so I may not be remembering correctly. There's always a chance I didn't try 1.8.0, but at this point, I'm done fooling with it.

Asterix