I-Appliance BBS
The Official Source for Internet Appliance Upgrades and Mods

Click Here!
BBS Main List | Sign In | Sign Up | Search | Help | Linux-Hacker.netReply to Thread | Printer |

Home / Other I-Appliances / MSN Companion
Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working
Wireless USB on IA

New MessageLinksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) grega
Profile
I have the Linksys 802.11b USB adapter (WUSB11) working on my IA. Here is the recipe I used (sorry it's a little rough):

1. Build your kernel and modules from source on a separate box and replace the ones in Ramsus’ modified Jailbait image. See debrcmj’s post at http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl?Action=ShowPost&Board=MSNCompanion&Post=254&Idle=0&Sort=0&Order=Descend&Page=0&Session= for good instructions for doing this. Don’t forget to rerun lilo!
2. Grab the drivers from Linksys at ftp://ftp.linksys.com/pub/network/linux-wlan-ng-0.1.11-usbonly.tgz
3. Do a ‘make config’. Say no to all the drivers except the USB one (this is the default). Change the linux source dir to the one you compiled in step #1. Enter an ‘Alternate target install root directory’. This is the directory that the resulting modules and executables will go. (i.e. /tmp/wlan or something). You can accept the defaults for the remaining choices.
4. To get around glibc versioning issues, I created statically linked executables. To do this, edit ‘config.mk’ and change line 22 from:
HOST_CC=$(HOST_COMPILE)gcc
to
HOST_CC=$(HOST_COMPILE)gcc –static
5. Now you can do a ‘make all’ followed by a ‘make install’.
6. The directory you specified as the ‘Alternate target install root directory’ now contains your modules and binaries. For testing purposes, I threw the required stuff onto a CF so I could get at them on the IA. This would be: ‘p80211.o’, ‘prism2_usb.o’, and ‘wlanctl-ng’.
7. Pop the CF in the IA, plug in the WUSB11, and boot.
8. Mount the CF (e.g. mount /dev/hdc1 /mnt). Load the modules as follows:
insmod ./p80211.o
insmod ./prism2_usb.o
You should see ‘prism2_usb: Attempting to claiming device Prism2.x 11Mbps WLAN USB Adapter with devnum x’. Grammar notwithstanding, this is a good message and means the driver has recognized the adapter.
9. ‘ifconfig –a’ should report the existence of an interface ‘wlan0’. Initialize the MAC with ‘ifconfig wlan0 up’
10. Run 'wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_autojoin ssid=<your ssid> authtype=opensystem' to enable the MAC in Infrastructure Station mode.
11. Configure the interface (e.g. ‘ifconfig wlan0 192.168.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0’)
12. ping away

Caveats:
- The readme says it all with: “This release is intended to get the USB support into the hands of those who need it as soon as possible. It is most certainly not complete.” In my experience the module only seems to successfully connect to the adapter “sometimes.” If you get errors or an oops on step 8 above, reboot and try again. However once things are up they seem to stay up.

- I can only seem to get 64-bit WEP working, not 128-bit. Possibly a WUSB11 firmware issue?

- The readme states that there are some known performance issues, and my testing bears this out. ‘bing’ reports about 2 Mbps. For comparison, I get about 4 Mbps out of my D-Link DSB-650TX Ethernet adapter. Personally, I find this bandwidth quite acceptable when using the device as an X client or with Rdesktop.

I initially tried version linux-wlan-ng-0.1.13pre1 with the USB patch (see \ http://macdaddy.lists.linux-wlan.com/pipermail/linux-wlan-devel) and ‘wlanctl-ng’ core dumped every time. Future releases of this driver will most likely add performance and stability.

In the near future I will post an image that supports the WUSB11 (and automates things a bit :) ) once I decide what to delete from Ramsus’ image to make room for the wlan-ng binaries. Being statically linked they are quite large (large for the embedded OS world anyway).

01-08-2002 14:09:13

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) thinker
Profile
Just as a tip, run "strip" on your binaries and libraries. It removes the debugging symbols. Since you care more about space than the ability to use gdb, just get rid of the symbols. In some cases, it can shrink your binaries/libraries by over 50%.
01-08-2002 19:52:45

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) jerryn
Profile
Cool! can yo post your static drivers?
Or give a link? I have a WUSB11 Linksys
adapter!
01-10-2002 07:08:29

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) grega
Profile
I could, but I don't think they would do you much good. First, I named my kernel 2.4.17ia-ga, so the modules will complain about kernel versions. Second, I have never had much luck with trying to use precompiled modules. I always get "unresolved symbols." You are better off rolling your own using the above steps.

Which begs the question: Does anyone have a good reference that explains under which circumstances one can move precompiled modules between systems?

01-11-2002 09:18:48

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) jerryn
Profile
Grega,

can you email me your modified image? I have
the same USB wireless modem. I'd like to
have that instaled on my internal flash.

Last night I was using my external 128MB flash as extra space, rmounted root as rw,
created a mountpoint called /opt. modified fstab to mount /opt. moved /home to /opt/home, I started to create additional
apps and move them to /opt/bin...
It was coming toghether, but I too do not like cramfs so I may take anther route.

I may use your internal flash image as an
emergency boot image, I picked up an IDE to CF adpater. I am going to TRY and install
talink on it, www.talinux.org, the base image
is supposed to fit in 65MB, I was going to go that route for now. remove all the applications I do not need in the base install, strip all the binaries, add X support, strip all the binaries and remove what I don't want., I think I'll be going with mozilla as a browser. load up xmms,
setup the imap client to point to my server in the cellar (Linux box too!). And if I need other apps installed I will nfs mount them off my server in the cellar. I'll create
an exported filesystem on that and when I add a package from talinux it will live on the exported filesystem.

I'd like to migrate the debian package manager that use to an exported filesystem that like /export/public/talinux/hostname

01-11-2002 09:22:33

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) grega
Profile
Sorry, not at a point where I can post an image yet. It will be a little bit. I'll let you (and the group) know.
01-11-2002 15:06:53

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) burval
Profile
grega, any chance that you now have an image that includes the WUSB11 drivers? thanks in advance.
03-27-2002 03:21:29

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) xmatt
Profile
Great work! Now that I've been using Midori, I'm not real interested in going back to Jailbait, but I'll have to see if I can use the same technique to get support into Midori. FedEx should be delivering my WUSB11 today so I'm glad to see somebody has it working somewhere somehow :)
03-27-2002 13:58:49

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) RatBastard
Profile
I've got it working on the latest Midori, with the 1.13 wlan drivers.

I think.

It's dicey... you have to insmod the modules in the right order, THEN remove the usb device and re-plug it in.

THEN you can run the two wlanctl commands to initialize the device.

I can't ping anywhere yet, though. These configuration files are the most complicated I've seen since sendmail, so I've got some work to do. And since the midori doesn't even have man, it's kinda tricky getting going

If anyone wants the results of my kernel and wlan compile, let me know. It fits into the build kit nicely. No worries there.

If anyone has any suggestions on what to try next, I'm all ears.

03-27-2002 22:36:28

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) burval
Profile
RatBastard, I would love a copy. Do you have somewhere you can post it or do you wanna upload it? Gratsi.
03-27-2002 23:21:22

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) RatBastard
Profile
Since the kernel + modules is only around a meg, the fastest is probably email.

If that's no good for you, I can post it somewhere.

Either way, I'll prep a package. You'll still have to make your build-kit create an image. I've futzed with mine sufficiently, that it may not be useful. If you want to take your chances, obviously, we can't email that.

You can email me at mjf[at]dalchemy[dot]com

03-28-2002 00:30:47

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) grega
Profile
Sorry, it's been a while since I've read the board.

Here (http://www.digitalinfo.net/ia/ia-wusb-0.1.12.tgz ) is a tarball that includes my kernel, modules, wlan binaries and config files. Version 0.1.12 is much more stable than 0.1.11, but I can no longer get WEP to work at all. However with WEP disabled everything works fine for me. The way that I am brining up the network is using the "wlan" script in /etc/init.d, and linking to it from /etc/rc2.d. Should you be interested in using these files, all you should need to do is modify /etc/wlan.conf to supply your SSID, and edit /sbin/wlan0-network for your IP address settings.

I am using the jailbait image, not midori so I don't know if that will cause any issues for folks using that distro. And I put this tarball togther somewhat quickly, so if anyone uses it and finds that I forgot something let me know.

03-28-2002 11:39:06

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) dataguru
Profile
grega:

Any chance in getting a flash image of your build with the Wireless Linksys drivers!??? All I've got is Micro$loth and Sun/ No RedHat workstation to "roll my own" .....yet..........


##dataguru6
04-03-2002 08:44:32

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 1 times) RatBastard
Profile
I've got a similar situation to you... on Midori, with the 0.1.13 wlan, though.

It works, but no WEP (as far as I can tell).

I'm also having a weird problem... I have to insmod the p80211 FIRST then the prism2_usb, and THEN I have to remove the USB NIC device and re-insert it, or the other init commands don't see wlan0.

The docs mention putting an alias in modules.conf, but they don't get any more specific than that. Midori doesn't have a modules.conf, and I don't really have the know-how to do something analogous.

Also, the init scripts don't seem to work after a first try (or in restart for example), because it tries to re-insert the p80211 module, and it takes the return message of "module already inserted" as an error and stops.

Did you work around that?

04-03-2002 10:20:19

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) grega
Profile
I had problems similar to that with v 0.1.11, but 0.1.12 has been very consistant on startup. With v11, I noticed that inserting a delay before p80211 and prism2_usb seemed to help with recognizing the adapter on initial boot. So I had something like this in /etc/init.d/wlan in the "start" section:

sleep 5
insmod /boot/modules/p80211.o
insmod /boot/modules/prism2_usb.o prism2_doreset=1

Now I just list the modules in /etc/modules with v12 rather than starting them from wlan. I have not yet looked at v13, so I don't know features / bug fixes it gives you over v12, but if it is nothing critical you may want to try moving back a rev.

Re-init'ing the interface has never worked well for me, but a simple way of avoiding your error would be to comment out the section of /etc/init.d/wlan that checks to see if p80211 is loaded. e.g.:

#if ! modprobe p80211; then
# echo "Failed to load p80211.o."
# exit 1
#fi

04-05-2002 06:20:16

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) burval
Profile
RatBastard,

Thanks again for your Midori WUSB11 kernel, drivers, and wlan support files.

The prism2_usb.o driver is claiming the v 2.5 WUSB11 device, '# ifconfig -a' shows devices lo and wlan0, but when I try to do a '# ifconfig wlan0 up' I get "SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such device".

This also looks odd for the wlan0 when doing a '# ifconfig -a' I get a result of:

HWaddr 00:00:00:00:00:00

I would expect to see a non-zero hardware address.

> Try pulling the usb plug and sticking it back in... I've
> noticed that I have
> to do that.

Tried that a few times no go I am afraid. I know the WUSB11 works, I have it running on a modified Jailbait image.

> I have seen the behavior you're describing, but the ifconfig
> -a doesn't get
> me wlan0.

Odd. I am stumped.

By the by, I assume the correct place to stick the /etc/ stuff from your Midori WUSB11 "patch" is in the /root/config/etc dir of the build kit? It shows up in /etc on the image on my ia-1 so I assume I am good to go there.

Is wlan0 the only item you have in init.d? Does the stock Midori image not have an /etc/init.d dir? I am still trying to figure out where the startup scripts are too (have not looked very far though. I expected to see rc.d and init.d stuff which is what I am used to.

I had to do a 'vidmode bzImage 771' to get your kernel to run correctly on the unit's screen. I assume this would not have screwed anything up.

-Brent

04-07-2002 12:34:15

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) dataguru
Profile
ratbastard, grega, et al:

I would be truly greatful if someone could either post or provide a link to either a midori or jailbait image with linksys wireless drivers. I just don't have a Linux box to get my own kernal compiled...... : (

...............please? [reduced to groveling!!] ; )


##dataguru6
04-07-2002 15:33:56

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) RatBastard
Profile
> By the by, I assume the correct place to stick the /etc/ stuff from your Midori WUSB11 "patch" is in the /root/config/etc dir of the build kit? It shows up in /etc

I think so, yes. It doesn't get called by midori, so you can probably move it anywhere, but the init script is pretty hosed anyway.


> I had to do a 'vidmode bzImage 771' to get your kernel to run correctly on the unit's

Oops. Sorry about that.

04-07-2002 19:19:41

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) RatBastard
Profile
Ok, I've done another kernel compile, this time with the Linksys USB 100M driver (it works! yay!).

The wifi driver doesn't work at all anymore. I get unresolved symbols... argh.

I'm trying to get a small tarball of a good 2.4.18 kernel with the linksys usb 100m driver, the wifi drivers, and the preemptiple kernel patch. I'm most of the way there.

If anyone can help me address these unresolved symbol errors, I'm set.

04-07-2002 19:22:23

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) RatBastard
Profile
Ok, I've solved that problem.

The wifi stuff works, but it won't be recognized on startup... I have to unplug it and plug it in.

I can send a tarball of the kernel/modules/wlan stuff, if anyone wants it. You can just drop it into your build kit and ./build.

04-08-2002 17:50:36

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) dataguru
Profile
RatBastard:

It looks like you've got a solid build with linksys wireless inside -- any chance of posting a 16MB compressed image somewhere? I will pay this forum back with some effort once I get a Linux workstation up and running... Unless someone wants to start an advanced RDBMS tuning forum or perhaps Solaris tuning!>>>????? ; )

Cheers,

##dataguru6

04-08-2002 18:28:40

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) RatBastard
Profile
I probably could, but it has some flaws:

- the wifi doesn't work without the pull-n-plug dance
- the wifi doesn't automatically connect (the init script doesn't even work)
- there are all kinds of spurious menu entries that don't correspond to present binaries (games, mostly)

I was hoping to address the above, get the backlight working on a timeout, and then I'd share with everyone.

The problem with sharing the images is that nobody can do anything with them. At least with the build kit stuff, people can improve on it and we can make collective progress.

If people would like my image to fiddle with, I can probably find a way to post it someplace. If you're still interested given the above caveats, let me know on here or at mjf[at]dalchemy[dot][com].

And, careful; I may just take you up on some database expertise.

04-08-2002 22:47:31

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) dataguru
Profile
RB:

You are a saint -- I understand the caveats, but when one has zero connectivity, buggy connectivity seems like the Holy Grail -- I and probably others would greatly appreciate a link/mirror to your image! As for database, no problem -- I'd be happy to share some knowledge in exchange for your hard work with this IA-1 image. For database, though, probably contact me directly as I would not want to dilute the purpose of this forum -- my email is: dataguru6[at]hotmail[dot][com]

Cheers!

##dataguru6

04-09-2002 08:55:10

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) dataguru
Profile
burval:

Did you ever get your linksys WUSB11 working? I had the same error as you did [zero'd MAC address], but RatBastard pointed me in the right direction -- all I had to do was RTFM!!! ; )

Here's the relevant excerpt that fixed my problem:

D) Run 'wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_ifstate ifstate=enable' to initialize the
driver+MAC functions.
E) Run 'wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_autojoin ssid=<your ssid> authtype=opensystem'
to enable the MAC in Infrastructure Station mode.
F) Run 'ifconfig wlan0 <your IP address>'

rememeber to add your default gw and nameservers, and you should be on the 'net in no time!

Cheers,

##dataguru6

04-17-2002 16:41:14

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) RatBastard
Profile
Even better than ifconfig, do a pump -i wlan0 if you've got dhcp running.
04-17-2002 23:17:53

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) ballyn
Profile
Well, I got pretty much everything built for midori_3 without creating an entire image by getting the build kit and the linux-wlan 0.1.14pre3 sources. I moved the midori config into my 2.4.18 tree and built the kernel (just so I could get modversions.h, apparently required under RH7 for the wlan files) and then configed and built wlan using that kernel and an alternate location for the install dir.

Then I used my wired ethernet to copy the drivers and whatnot to the tmp directory and insmoded them successfully. At that point, I noticed that I have the wusb11 ver. 2.6 of the device, which apparently has the atmel chip in it. So, this wasn't working.

I swapped out for the 2.5 version today, so hopefully I'll have more luck this eve. On that note, though, how difficult will it be to get the utilities and the modules into the right places? I remounted / as rw and had access to /etc for the config files, but I didn't get around to the /sbin directory or the modules directory. Is there a trick to doing this? I can't find any info about modifying the filesystem, and I don't get cramfs enough to understand how it's working. Any pointers on this would be great--and would make it much easier for me to simply grab the image for distribution instead of trying to build it.

TIA!

05-22-2002 10:37:02

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) ballyn
Profile
Okay, scratch all that--I finally got into the build kit and realized how easy Wes has made it for us... Thanks!

So I've got the wusb11 working great. The only thing still to do is get past the unplug/replug after loading the modules. I'm running in ad-hoc mode, talking to my server box with an ISA to pcmcia adapter with a linksys v.3 card. I'm using the newest code, 0.1.14-pre3 and it seems really stable (much more stable than the pcmcia version on my SMP box...).

I've also realized it's MUCH faster to run mozilla from the server box, even over ssh, than it is to run opera from the ipaq.

I wrote a couple of short scripts to get the ad-hoc stuff going, so I might spend some time tweaking with the actual wlan scripts and config files to get the thing more robust--it's a pretty manual process right now. If you're interested in the image, lemme know.

05-22-2002 23:08:17

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) mj01nir
Profile
>So I've got the wusb11 working great.
<...>
>I wrote a couple of short scripts to get the ad-hoc stuff going, so I might spend some time tweaking with the actual wlan scripts and config files to get
>the thing more robust--it's a pretty manual process right now. If you're interested in the image, lemme know.

I'd love to get ahold of that image, as well as your build kit (or at least a diff from Wes'). I'm going to be moving into an old home soon and running Cat5 through plaster and lath just doesn't excite me :^).

Joe

05-23-2002 07:21:06

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) iderdik
Profile
Would qDOT mind hosting the image with working wireless LAN? It woul dbe a great help for those of us that are to dumb to do all this "tweaking" /
05-23-2002 07:32:47

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) shadowsunrise
Profile
So... is there any chance of getting the atmel drivers working?
Or does anybody know where i can find a trade for the WUSB11 v2.6 to a WUSB11 v2.5?
dont panic
03-16-2003 20:40:01

New MessageRE:Linksys 802.11b USB (WUSB11) working (modified 0 times) geo_fr
Profile
try EBAY ... there is some of 2.5 wusb11 ...
--== Geo ==--
04-02-2003 03:29:09

Reply to Thread | Printer |
All times are PSTPowered by UltraBoard v1.62



Copyright © 2000, Netmake Inc. All Rights Reserved.
See Terms and Conditions for more information.




i-opener opener laptop notebook computer help drivers dll free windows dos repair fix linux mac macintosh 2000 95 98 nt pc configure hardware software sound video netscape explorer network networking lan wan software cmos fat bios printer card mouse modem ide scsi cd rom controllers scanner tape hard drive cgi scripts source code mp3