:: CoffMan WebLog ::

D-link has announced that Linux drivers for the + generation of 802.11b cards that produces would be published in early January 2003.
Such thing did not happened as yet. The chip that ships with DWL-650+ is acx100 by Texas Instruments, and the driver we will use is the acx100_pci from http://acx100.sourceforge.net ...

Due to the problems i find when i am looking for a HOWTO to these setup i decided to make one when i
finish configure the DWL-650+ under linux


Tested under :

I use Redhat 9.0 , and Debian 3.0 , the Laptop is a DELL inspiron 8200, the wireless PCMCIA
card was a D-Link DWL-650+ (the + is the key ;) ) and the access point is a US Robotics 2249.

the steps taken here is completly independient from the linux distro version

Follow up:

To install this card on linux we need :

1. the kernel sources , I will use 2.4.22
2. Wireless configuration tools (http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Tools.html)

3. the driver acx100_pci for linux , download it from CVS (or latest version) on http://acx100.sourceforge.net
4. install CD of DWL-650+ or windows files for this wireless card

Steps to make the driver works:

• 1. Compile a new kernel with at least :
  CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL=y
  CONFIG_MODULES=y
  CONFIG_KMOD=y
  CONFIG_NET_RADIO=y
  
  
• 2. install tools from http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Tools.html
  iwconfig, iwspy and iwpriv must be installed from the deb or rpm package .or if
  you prefer from tarball sources.
  
  
• 3. Configure and compile acx100_pci drivers
  # tar xzvf acx100-0.1h.tar.gz on /root
  
  put the next windows files (or from DWL-650+ install CD) on the directory acx100/firmware :
  RADIO00.BIN
  RADIO11.BIN
  WBLAN.BIN
  (it may be on uppercase)
  
  #make
  
  
• 4. install the driver :
  copy recent compiled driver acx100/src/acx100_pci.o to /lib/modules/2.4.22/kernel/drivers/net
  modify modules.conf (add these 2 lines) :configure parameters to install modules with insmod
  alias wlan0 acx100_pci
  options wlan0 debug=0xb firmware_dir=/root/acx100/firmware
  
  
• 5. test the driver
  # insmod acx100_pci
  
  it must show a little debug information about the driver and the firmware .
  Be sure the directory /root/acx100/firmware contains the 3 files of Windows install or from
  install CD.
  
  lsmod must show :
  # lsmod
  Module Size Used by Not tainted
  acx100_pci 181952 0
  
  
• 6.Configure parameters and network:
  # ifconfig wlan0 192.168.0.10 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
  # iwconfig wlan0 essid myapessid mode managed channel 6 key off rate 22M
  
  essid is the ESSID name of my AP
  mode must be managed for wireless-ap or Ad-Hoc to use without AP
  KEY off is to use wireless without encryption
  rate 22M is working for me , if troubles use rate 11M
  
  # ping 192.168.0.202
  PING 192.168.0.202 (192.168.0.202): 1024 data bytes
  1032 bytes from 192.168.0.202: icmp_seq=0 ttl=128 time=2.4 ms
  1032 bytes from 192.168.0.202: icmp_seq=1 ttl=128 time=2.1 ms
  ..snip..
  
  

Dont forget to use logs : /var/log/messages

That's all Folks




CoffMan