WLAN

[weizen_42]

Today I deviced to give a RaQ4 something todo. So I looked into my box of WLAN PCI cards and install the first one I found.

Turned out to be the prism54, that's been bugging me before. No difference this time, something to do with IRQ lines, no matter old junk anyway    Log for those interested:

Code:

Jul 30 06:02:44 raqcop kernel: Loaded prism54 driver, version 1.2
Jul 30 06:02:48 raqcop kernel: eth2: no 'reset complete' IRQ seen - retrying
Jul 30 06:02:49 raqcop kernel: eth2: no 'reset complete' IRQ seen - retrying
Jul 30 06:02:49 raqcop kernel: eth2: interface reset failure
Jul 30 06:02:49 raqcop kernel: prism54: Your card/socket may be faulty, or IRQ line too busy :(

On to the next, using rt2500 driver (not included in standard IPCop, but can be grabed here: http://ipcop-addons.ath.cx/misc/CopDrivers/). Now this one does not do AP, but can be WLAN client.

Got it to work using the WLAN AP addon (set to client mode) without any trouble
Does not seem to like WEP nor WPA though 
Will have to check that tomorrow or day after.

BTW looks pretty neat, having a RaQ with a black Antenna on the backside 

[Davesworld]

Oh, I have all the updates uploaded and cf images to get 1.4.21. Of course the nic drivers are the same as any ipcop. Does the access point addon use kernel drivers?

As of 1.4.20, I hijacked the smp part of the build and made it create a Cobalt kernel which is labeled 2.4.36-cobalt and since it is a mono kernel anyway, I made the iptables change during the cobalt kernel build rather than the normal IPCop non smp kernel since the -cobalt kernel is THE kernel that the Raq runs on only.

Because of the different directory in /lib/modules, an ap may need to be custom built. I also can easily crank out a devel version of Raqcop as I had made a special rootfiles for this. It's a much bigger upload and you'd want to use a hard drive because compiling things on a CF card might not be such a great idea. Well, at least we now have SOMETHING to use the old 20GB drives for.

[weizen_42]

Sorry, should have mentioned that above is valid for RaQCop 1.4.18.
The WLAN AP comes with madwifi drivers (for the Atheros WLAN cards), but I currently do not have a Atheros PCI card lying around.

Next step is to replace the HD with a 512 MB DOM with 1.4.20/1.4.21 RaQCop flash image.
Then I probably need to take a peek at your build modifications and rebuild some of the additionial (WLAN) kernel modules. I won't need a devel-RaQCop for that, since most are build using lfs files (so much easier to rebuild after an IPCop kernel upgrade  )

If all of that works, I might just as well repackage the WLAN Addon and add the MadWifi-for-RaQ drivers.

[Davesworld]

I think you'll like the CF, heck I know you will. My build tree tar files are up there.

You should be starting to see some -cobalt kernel versions on coptime now. 

[weizen_42]

OK, standard of the shelf rt2500.o.gz (IPCop kernel 2.4.36) works with RaQCop 1.4.21

No WPA (nor access point) though    IIRC that used to work, then again maybe not...
Ah well, Ralink is more interesting for kernel 2.6 anyways, that's where all the development is going.

Let's go hunting for some Atheros based PCI cards 

[Davesworld]

I'd love to see access point work on these. I hadn't looked at it really hard as of yet. My Nokia N5 with a pair of bose ear buds is nice and handy to stream internet radio on and actually sounds decent but it would be nice to use wifi rather than my EDGE connection.

[weizen_42]

Well something is special with my Atheros based card (heck otherwise we would not be toying around with RaQ's, now would we  )

All seems to work from the SW side, but there are no packets transmitted / received. Card works fine in a standard IPCop.
Rebuilt the kernel drivers for RaQCop, still no go.
Maybe no power to the WiFi radio 
Interrupt problem

[weizen_42]

Good news for a change: a working combination.
A PCI - PCMCIA bridge with a PCMCIA card (again Atheros based), works as AP with WPA.

lspci:
00:14.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c475 (rev 81)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR2413 802.11bg NIC (rev 01)

[Davesworld]

Good news for a change: a working combination.
A PCI - PCMCIA bridge with a PCMCIA card (again Atheros based), works as AP with WPA.

lspci:
00:14.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c475 (rev 81)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR2413 802.11bg NIC (rev 01)

Well, I'm glad something works. The fact that something that normally works in IPCop on a pci bus does not here disturbs me a little.

The one thing that I recently learned is that the current four year old flashrom does not release 16MB of the ram but lies to the system. Not sure if what you describe as an irq or radio power issue may be an unavailable memory address for hardware.

On a side note about the rom, I have been in touch with the fellow Chris who is working on a new 2.6 kernel based flashrom that does not have the 16MB unreleased memory  problem and will also allow booting from usb. The 3000 series Qube/Raqs rom is actually done but he wants to complete the 5000 series (Raq550 and Raq XTR) roms before he releases it. Currently, with the four year old rom, we are limited to hard drive and nfs boot. The nfs boot is the only way to currently install without opening. When you boot ANY Linux system on a raq, the system kernel is actually stage 2. The usb boot capability alone will ease installation but as Brian pointed out, the new rom has to be installed in the first place. With an original Cobalt os, the rom image and flashtool can be uploaded via ftp and you can use the serial console as root to flash it. The original Cobalt os has no sftp capability. It is possible to upload and flash via serial as well but trickier.

[weizen_42]

Not sure if what you describe as an irq or radio power issue may be an unavailable memory address for hardware.

Possibly.

Tried this: http://madwifi.org/wiki/UserDocs/MiniPCI but no joy.
Originally I suspected the card to malfunction, but since it works in another PC, that should not be it.
These cards are tricky stuff though, might just be something with this particular chip. Funny thing is that there are absolutely no error messages.

I won't give up, got to get this working. A RaQ with a nice antenna at the rear looks awesome 
Remind me to make some pictures soon ...



Booting from USB would be nice, shouldn't be to hard to make IPCop install from USB stick.

[Davesworld]

Not sure if what you describe as an irq or radio power issue may be an unavailable memory address for hardware.

Possibly.

Tried this: http://madwifi.org/wiki/UserDocs/MiniPCI but no joy.
Originally I suspected the card to malfunction, but since it works in another PC, that should not be it.
These cards are tricky stuff though, might just be something with this particular chip. Funny thing is that there are absolutely no error messages.

I won't give up, got to get this working. A RaQ with a nice antenna at the rear looks awesome 
Remind me to make some pictures soon ...



Booting from USB would be nice, shouldn't be to hard to make IPCop install from USB stick.

Yes, posting a pic in the gallery section would be great. Your Raq2 is on there even as I am not clear what you are running on it since it IS mips.

When I get my daily Raq fitted with one of my VFD displays with rose filter to create white text, I'll post as well. BTW, the VFD displays use less current than the lcd/backlight combo that comes with a RAQ, the only negative is the cost of the VFD display itself.

I'm going to try a few wifi cards myself. I'll pick a local store that has a generous return policy yet a wide selection.  If I read at your site correctly, the Prism54 cards are the only native IPCop drivers that Access Point will work with?

[weizen_42]

There are also the airo and orinoci drivers that come with a stock IPCop. But all of these cards (including prism54) are probably only found 2nd hand.
IIRC airo and orinoco are 802.11b only.

This site has some great (though slightly outdated) info regarding WLAN cards: http://linux-wless.passys.nl/

Careful with the prism, there is also prism2/2.5/3 variety, covered by this driver: http://hostap.epitest.fi/
I have not rebuild that for kernel 2.4.36 yet. 2.4.34 version is here: http://www.ban-solms.de/t/IPCop-lostfound.html

[Davesworld]

I think I found a few prism54 chipped ones, an SMC and a Hawking. They were both cheap on Ebay so I thought I'd give them a try. The latter you have to look out for the rev R which is ralink and will likely work with an addon driver and rev T which is Ti chipped and not well supported. The SMC model as near as I can tell, that part number only came with prism54 chips. The REV madness with wifi cards and chipset changes is out of control it seems. If they bother to change the board to accommodate a new chip why not a new model?

I did find a few sources for Aironet cards, none are used, they are either new old stock or refurbished. They are not inexpensive either, the cheapest was 35 dollars US.

[weizen_42]

TI should work with acx100 driver. Done that once, but put it aside since neither WPA nor Access Point would work / are supported.
All that could change with kernel 2.6 though.

Perhaps we should stop tinkering with the old stuff and concentrate on getting newer versions out 

[Davesworld]

Yes, I have 1.9.2 running on a CF card on one of my test raqs. The wlan driver support in the 2.6 kernel is much much more. Zydas drivers even.