Differences between version 17 and predecessor to the previous major change of WirelessChipsets.
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| Newer page: | version 17 | Last edited on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 2:07:29 pm | by JohnMcPherson | Revert |
| Older page: | version 16 | Last edited on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 1:43:49 pm | by DanielLawson | Revert |
@@ -1,21 +1,21 @@
Although there are many different wireless cards made by many different vendors available for purchase today, there are only a small number of companies that make wireless chipsets. For example almost all 802.11b cards in existence today have either an Intersil Prism or Agere Hermes chipset in them. Chipsets are important because usually wireless drivers work with Chipsets rather than individual cards. Finding out whether your chipset is supported in Linux is the first step in getting your wireless card working.
-!! Lists of Card Chipsets
+!
!! Lists of Card Chipsets supported by Linux
You may be able to find out what chipset your card contains by looking at one of the following lists.
http://www.linux-wlan.org/docs/wlan_adapters.html.gz
!! 802.11b Chipsets
* PrismWirelessChipset by Intersil
* HermesWirelessChipset by Agere
* [RT2x00WirelessChipset] (2400) by RaLink
-* Intel IPW2100
+* Intel [
IPW2100|IPW2x00WirelessChipset]
!! 802.11g Chipsets (Often these support both b and g)
* [PrismGTWirelessChipset] by Intersil
* [RT2x00WirelessChipset] (2500) by RaLink
-* Intel IPW2200
+* Intel [
IPW2200|IPW2x00WirelessChipset]
* AtherosWirelessChipset
!! 802.11a Chipsets (Often these support a, b and g)
Please fill in here
@@ -25,26 +25,23 @@
!! Which Chipset should I use?
An excellent question, it depends on what you want to do.
-The best cards for general 802.11b use are the Proxim Gold cards which contain a HermesWirelessChipset, these are well supported by Linux via a number of drivers. They will work in both AdHoc and Managed modes but they cannot do HostAP. If you want a card that can do HostAP (act as an AccessPoint), then you need to buy a card with a PrismWirelessChipset
.
+The best cards for general 802.11b use are the Proxim Gold cards which contain a HermesWirelessChipset, these are well supported by Linux via a number of drivers. They will work in both AdHoc and Managed modes but they cannot do HostAP.
-DickSmith's sell
a CardBus 802.11g wireless
card (product number XH8225)
that uses an Atheros chipset (AR5212). These
can be made to work under linux, but unfortunately it is fiddly
(see below
) -- it doesn't come with the required linux drivers
, and their website has a snapshot of the driver from CVS but it is too old
to compile against kernel 2.6.9. Unless you are comfortable compiling
a kernel from source and grabbing the module source via [CVS], maybe you shouldn't consider buying one of these cards
.
+If you want
a card that can do HostAP
(act as an AccessPoint
), then you need
to buy
a card with a PrismWirelessChipset
.
-Alternatively, you could run [Ubuntu], and install linux-restricted-modules, and bingo, instant support
. The [MadWIFI|http://sourceforge
.net/projects/madwifi/] project provides distro agnostic support, also. -- GreigMcGill
+DickSmith's sell a CardBus 802
.11g wireless card (product number XH8225) that uses an AtherosWirelessChipset (AR5212)
.
-----
-!
!! Linux Kernel Support
+!! Linux Kernel Support
-The following is
from LinuxKernel 2.6.9, but should be similar for similarly-versioned kernels.
+As well as the module for your chipset, make sure that your kernel has support for loading wireless modules.
+
The default kernel of any recent distro will almost certainly already have this, but if you compile your own kernel, make sure you have the
following support. This
from LinuxKernel 2.6.9, but should be similar for similarly-versioned kernels.
-Check you have
support (modules or built-in) for the following:
+You need
support (modules or built-in) for the following:
* CONFIG_NET_RADIO (Device Drivers -> Networking Support -> Wireless LAN)
* CONFIG_CRYPTO (Cryptographic options -> Cryptographic API)
-# If you have a Hermes chipset-based card or a Prism chipset-based card, then you should enable the relevant option under the same section, carefully choosing the appropriate ISA/PCI or PCMCIA/CardBus
support for your card.
-# If you are using an 'Atheros' chipset-based card, you will need to download and compile an external module (not part
of the vanilla linux kernel) from http://madwifi
.sourceforge.net. But you should still have a kernel with
CONFIG_NET
_RADIO support compiled in. When this module is loaded
, <tt>ifconfig -a</tt> should show a device called "ath0". Note that
this driver also has a binary-only component which will taint your kernel.
-
-Once you have the correct hardware support in your running kernel (dmesg(8) should tell you if the card was detected), go and follow the WirelessSetupNotes to get your wireless machine properly configured and on your network
.
+Some drivers also require additional
support for some
of the crypto algorithms
. You probably want at least
CONFIG_CRYPTO
_AES and CONFIG_CRYPTO_MICHAEL_MIC if you intend to use [WPA] encryption
, although some drivers implement
this themselves
.
----
Part of CategoryWireless
