Comments on: NetGear WG511 on Linux

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m a newb. What distro do you recommend for this driver, and do you think this driver can be installed on Lindows 4.5.72 laptop edition?

By: Jkx

Jkx — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

You can use this driver with every distro since you build your own kernel. Read this http://www.linuxdocs.org/HOWTOs/Kernel-HOWTO.html for more infos.

By: lar

lar — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

It should also be noted that firmware.agent (found at http://prism54.org/~hvr/firmware.agent) may need to be installed to /etc/hotplug/

By: Roland THOMAS

Roland THOMAS — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hello,

I tried to install a Netgear WG511 Wireless PC Card
like you describe :

I had a Mandrake 2.4.21 kernel, so I downloaded
sources for a 2.4.23 kernel : OK

I applied the path from prism54.org : OK.

I compiled and installed the kernel : OK.

But it seems that there is a problem with devfs
and for example /dev/fb0 does not exist any more,
so I have no X server.

Can you help me, please ?

Thank you very much.

By: Jkx

Jkx — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

You should look on mandrake mailing list, i think. to disable devfs simply remove devfsd and MAKEDEV in /dev/ but this is the wrong way.

By: dm

dm — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

It looks that we can’t download the firmware isl3890 anymore. I tried to use WG511DCB.arm under windows, but it keeps gives me error when I do “modprobe prism54″. By the way, I’m using Debian stable with kernel 2.4.24 on Dell Inspiron8100. I have also downloaded firmware.agent. The error message I got is

—————–

/lib/modules/2.4.24-686/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/prism54/prism54.o: init_module: No such device

Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters

/lib/modules/2.4.24-686/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/prism54/prism54.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.24-686/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/prism54/prism54.o failed

/lib/modules/2.4.24-686/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/prism54/prism54.o: insmod prism54 failed

——————

Is it due to the incorrect firmware? If so, could any send me a copy of the firmware? Thanks a lot!

By: Jkx

Jkx — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hum, it looks like downloading the firmware, break the licence agreement. So you should try the one in the windows driver.

But anyway, it seems that the prism54 module was unable to find the card (loading the firmware is done after the detection). You should really look at the supported device list and compare it to a lspci output. It's the first time, i heard of a prism54g on a Dell (is it a pcmcia card ? )

By: dm

dm — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I'm using Netgear WG511 pccard on inspiron. I did use the firmware from windows (WG511DCB.arm) but renamed to isl3890.

Nothing happened when I insert the card. So I manually load the module

modprobe yenta_socket
modprobe ds
modprobe prism54

Now the card starts blinking. I do dmesg, here is what I got

Yenta IRQ list 0098, PCI irq10
Socket status: 30000006
Yenta IRQ list 0298, PCI irq10
Socket status: 30000020
Loaded prism54 driver, version 1.0.2.2
cs: cb_alloc(bus 7): vendor 0x1260, device 0x3890
PCI: Enabling device 07:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)
Loaded prism54 driver, version 1.0.2.2
eth1: prism54 driver detected card model: Netgear WG511
eth1: islpci_open()
eth1: resetting device...
eth1: uploading firmware...
eth1: firmware uploaded done, now triggering reset...
eth1: mgt_commit has failed. Restart the device
eth1: islpci_close ()
eth1: islpci_open()
eth1: resetting device...
eth1: uploading firmware...
eth1: firmware uploaded done, now triggering reset...
eth1: mgt_commit has failed. Restart the device

The output of lspci -vv

07:00.0 Network controller: Harris Semiconductor: Unknown device 3890 (rev 01)
Subsystem: Netgear: Unknown device 4800
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- SERR- Latency: 80 (2500ns min, 7000ns max)
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 10
Region 0: Memory at 19000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 1
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0+,D1+,D2+,D3hot+,D3cold+)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-

I think it could be problem with firmware.

By: dm

dm — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Download a firmware from internet and it works!

By: thither

thither — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hey dm, where did you get that firmware? I have the same PCMCIA card and I can’t find the firmware anywhere – not on the CD, not on the NetGear site, not anywhere. I’ve installed every driver version I’ve found on NetGear’s site to no avail – no matter what I do, I can’t seem to produce a .arm file which I could copy to linux and rename. I’m running on WinXP (dual boot laptop). Can somebody please point me in the right direction, or possibly email me the file for testing purposes?

Cheers

thither