WiFi setup & FC2

[Morgan Read]

Can someone please bring me some sanity...

I have pcmcia wifi card with a prism 3 chipset - Allied Telesyn
AT-WCL452 (Intersil firmware apparently).

Running fc2 kernel 2.6.6-1.435.2.3

I installed this and confidently re-booted following advice that the
prism chipsets were well supported.

Nothing.

I went through the set-up process in system-config-network but the card
wasn't there:(

I googled and found that the driver de jour for prism was the hostap,
not the orinoco that comes installed.

I installed the 0.1.3 rpm (0.2.4 now stable, but no rpms yet).  And,
followed some configuration info I'd found in various places on the net:
inserted lines -
"alias wlan0 hostap_cs" in /etc/modules.conf
"alias wlan0 hostap_cs" in /etc/modprobe.conf
"card "AT-WCL452"
    version "Allied Telesyn", "AT-WCL452 Wireless PCMCIA Radio", "Ver. 1.00"
    manfid 0xc00f, 0x0000
    bind "hostap_cs""
in /etc/pcmcia/hostap_cs.conf

There seemed to be some success (once I'd worked out I needed to
reference hostap_cs rather hostap_pci); iwconfig gave sensible
responses, as did ifconfig.  However, system-config-network seemed to be
playing up and freezing the whole system if I tried to change the mode
form "master" to "managed", and just touching the "Wireless Settings"
tab froze the window.

Then card stopped working altogether.  So, I discovered a bug and fixed
it by placing the start script for pcmcia before the network startup.

The card worked again.  But, it kept wanting to be Master and not
Managed (don't we all).

About then I discovered that Allied Telesyn provide the wlan-ng driver
on their web site, not rpm.  And, it didn't compile:(  I've successfully
compiled a soft-modem driver.  Also, Open1x Xsupplicant from cvs.  But,
this didn't sing.  Any ideas?  Something to do with matched sources?

After a bit more googleing I discovered that the orinoco driver provided
some support for prism.  So, why not put what I've learnt into putting
the systems driver to work: inserted lines -
"alias wlan0 orinoco_cs" in /etc/modules.conf
"alias wlan0 orinoco_cs" in /etc/modprobe.conf
"card "AT-WCL452"
    version "Allied Telesyn", "AT-WCL452 Wireless PCMCIA Radio", "Ver. 1.00"
    manfid 0xc00f, 0x0000
    bind "hostap_cs""
in /etc/pcmcia/config

Success, well some...  Seems to give me partially sensible things with
iwconfig and ifconfig, but keeps returning eth1 instead of wlan0?  Then
things started getting very strange - loading orinoco_cs for the
ethernet driver instead of the sis900??  Worked out that if I booted
with out the card in and then inserted it, I got the right driver on the
ethernet?  But, at some point I have AT-WCL452 under the ethernet and
orinoco_cs under wireless!!!  OK, so it wants eth1 not wlan0?  It can
have it!  I changed "alias wlan0 orinoco_cs" (no "" of course) to "alias
eth1 orinoco_cs".  Rebootted, but still the wireless entry in
system-config-network shows wlan0 (where does it get this from!).  And,
the mode option has gone back to Master!  (Of course, it still freezes
up if I use that Wireless Settings tab.)  So, I deleted the wireless
entry in order to set up a new entry.  And what to I get when I go
through the add new device dialogue...  No wireless entry (where once
the driver or card name showed up thought the wireless dialogue)  And!
If I go through the new ethernet dialogue I have the offerings of: "SiS
900/7016 PCI Fast Ethernet (eth0)" as expected AND "orinoco_cs (eth1)"
AND!!! "AT-WCL452 (eth0)!

How grey do I have to get?

Can someone help, please?

Thanks all for listening.
Regards,
Morgan.

-- 
Morgan Read
<mailto:mstuffATplDOTnet>