DWL 650 - Redhat 8.0

[Tim McAuley]

Dave Dean wrote:

>Hi All,
>
>I feel so bad :( I'm finally going to have to ask about this fscking DWL-650 card. I just can't get 
>the little blighter to work. Ever.
>
>I've had the card for something like two months now, attempting to get it happening, but I gave up a 
>few weeks ago for sanity's sake, and tried again today. No Dice.
>
>Following the usual instructions from mobilix.org:
>
>1. Add some information to /etc/pcmcia/conf: card "D-Link DWL-650" manfid 0x0156, 0x0002 bind 
>"wvlan_cs" 
>2. Run 'netconf' (the network configuration part of linuxconf) and under Basic Host information add 
>an adaptor left otherwise blank but with 'wvlan0' filled in as the interface name.[GNP]
>
>I have already got step one finished, but my card reports 0x0005 as it's manufacturer string thingie 
>- beware, I'm a total newbie, so I may have made some false assumptions/deductions.
>
>Once upon a time I was getting two beeps - one high, one low. Now I just get a low "dud" beep. :( 
>I'm quite stuck, if anyone has recently installed a DWL-650 with redhat 8.0, please do get in touch 
>and let me know how you did it. I'm stumped :(
>
>-Dave
>  
>

Dave,

After a long time of trying, I have recently got my Compaq WL200 card 
working under redhat 8.0. It is a prism2 chipset card, the same I 
believe as the DWL-650.

One of my main stumbling points was the firmware. I had the latest 
version from Compaq, 0.8.0 but needed 0.8.3.

I managed to upgrade the firmware to 1.4.9 by following this post:
http://lists.shmoo.com/pipermail/hostap/2002-October/000083.html

This might help you.

I believe the old firmware I had was the major stumbling block however 
along my travels I made a few other changes:

- Used the latest pcmcia-cs version rather than using the one with Redhat:
i.e. removed the kernel-pcmcia-cs rpm, recompiled the kernel without 
pcmcia support, compiled and installed pcmcia-cs version 3.2.3.

- Used the prism_cs.o driver instead of the orinoco one.
http://www.linux-wlan.com/linux-wlan/

- Followed this post to use a proper CIS for the Compaq card.
http://lists.linux-wlan.com/pipermail/linux-wlan-devel/2002-April/001037.html

These options may/may not help you but I thought I'd mention them in 
case you are having problems and one of them rings a bell.

All the best,

Tim