# Atmel PCMCIA Wireless Card

## arand

I am trying to get a wireless NIC working with my laptop.  I have been unsuccessful so far and was wondering if there was someone that had done this before and could help.  

General info,

Wireless card:  No name card but does have a FCCID on it of PQP-WP221P-X

Laptop: IBM Thinkpad 600x.

For a little bit of history I first tried to install this card under RH8 but was unsuccesful.  (actually the wireless card would work for 3 or 4 minutes then the keyboard and mouse would lock up but that is another story)  I followed the instructions listed here http://thekelleys.org.uk/actiontec.html.

For several reasons I have put Gentoo 1.4rc4 on my laptop now and still have been unsuccesful in making the wireless NIC work.  

I think it might be one of a couple of reasons that I will be trying out to fix soon but I was wondering if anyone had ideas.

RIght now in the kernel I compiled the drivers for my Lynksys wired PCMCIA card directly into the kernel.  What I have noticed is that when the laptop turns off or trys to go into suspend that the card does not turn off.  What I am going to try next is compile the drivers for that card as a module and have them load at boot up.  I was wondering what other options should compiled in the kernel for this card to work.

Thanks for all your help and your time.  These forums have been very helpful.

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## hertog

I've got my wifi card working, it's one with the atmel chipset in it.

What is the exact nature of your problem... can't get it to work at al?

Or can't configure it.

Please tell, I think I can help  :Wink:  (Am typing this from a laptop WITH the el-cheapo card in it and working...)

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## FlipFlop

Tried this driver ?

http://atmelwlandriver.sourceforge.net

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## arand

 *FlipFlop wrote:*   

> Tried this driver ?
> 
> http://atmelwlandriver.sourceforge.net

 

That is the driver that I used.

Thanks for the reply,

I was able to compile the module for the driver.  I put that module into the modules.autoload file.  When the laptop boots it gives an error saying that it can't bring eth0 or eth1 up.  (I added a net.eth1 to the /etc/init.d, not sure if this is needed.  I have two network cards but they are never in at the same time)  When I log into KDE and I check what PCMCIA cards are loaded it lists the wireless card.  Also checking lsmod says that the module for the wireless card is in the kernel.  The wireless card does not work, the one LED does not come on.

Please let me know if there is other infromation that you need.

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## hertog

i don't think there is a need to put the module in autoload.

You have to edit wlan_ng.conf in /etc/pcmcia and when pcmcia is started it gets autodetected.

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## arand

Thanks for the tip, I will try that tonight or tomorrow.

arand

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## arand

Ok I checked for wlan-ng.conf in my /etc/pcmcia directory and it was not there.  This is because I am not using wlan-ng drivers for linksys wp11 cards.  

While I was fooling around with the wireless card last night I tried putting the wireless card into the laptop while it was running.  This caused everything to lock up.  However when I unplugged the laptop from AC power so that the APM would switch over and say that I was running on batteries the computer would unlock.  

I don't know if this means that there is something wrong with my bios or something like that. 

Any suggestions?

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## arand

Well I finally got it figured out and working.  Here is what I wasically did to get this work.

(1)    First just to make sure I had pcmcia-cs after I installed my new kernel, emerge --fetchonly pcmcia-cs

(2) I had to recompile my kernel.  In the kernel I did not have PCMCIA support compiled in and Wirless tools and network support were compiled in.  For instructions on how to recompile a kernel look here https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=24626.

(3) After booting the kernel with the above options, I emerged pcmcia-cs.

(4) after starting pcmcia card services (not sure how to do this, it was set up previously setup and I removed berfore reinstalling pcmcia-cs).

(5) with the card plugged in run /sbin/dump_cis  (this could be done anytime when the card is inserted).

```

# /sbin/dump_cis

Socket 0:

  attr_dev_info

    fn_specific 100ns, 32kb

  manfid 0x0000, 0x0000

  funcid network_adapter

  vers_1 5.0, "ATMEL", "AT76C502AR_D"

  config base 0x0800 mask 0x0001 last_index 0x02

  cftable_entry 0x01 [default]

    [mwait] [pwrdown]

    Vcc Vnom 3300mV Iavg 250mA Ipeak 250mA Idown 25mA

    timing wait 12us

    io 0x0000-0x001f [lines=5] [16bit]

    irq mask 0xffb8

```

Note the line that has "ATMEL","AT......

Not sure if this is required but I used it later on.

download the drivers from http://atmelwlandriver.sourceforge.net/ and unpack the drivers.  I used vesion 2.1.1.

(6)  in the atmelwlandriver/src/Pcmicia_Pci and etit fastvnet_cs.c and go to lines 711 and 712 and make it look like this,

```

if (serv.Revision != CS_RELEASE_CODE){

      ;

```

In my case the module for the card was not inserted until changed this section of code.  You may want to try making the drivers without making ths change and if it works great.  If you get an error in your log of "CardServices release does not match!" when the kernel attemps to load pcmf502rd driver. Then you should try this fix. 

(7)  Get into the atmelwlandriver directory and run the make config

```

atmelwlandriver$ make config

Build all (y/n) : n

Kernel Version Running 2.4.20

Found Kernel Source Directory (/lib/modules/2.4.20/build)

Build Debug version (y/n) : n

Set extra module version information (y/n) : y

Build USB Drivers (y/n) : n

Build PCMCIA Drivers (y/n) : y

Build PCMCIA rfmd Driver (y/n) : n

Build PCMCIA 3COM Driver (y/n) : n

Build PCMCIA rfmd revision d Driver (y/n) : y

Build PCMCIA rfmd revision e Driver (y/n) : n

Build PCMCIA 504 Driver (y/n) : n

Build miniPCI Driver (y/n) : n

Build applications (y/n) : n

```

These are the options that I used with my card.  

(8 )  Next run make clean && make all && make install  

(9) now you need to edit /etc/pcmcia/config.opts  Add the following options.

```

card "Actiontec wireless"

   version "ATMEL", "AT76C502AR_D"

   bind "pcmf502rd"

```

Notice I used the values that I got from the dump_cis command.

(10) some people say to etdit /etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts, I find that those changes don't do anything.

Finally restart pcmcia services (reboot or enter some nifty command line option:) and insert the wireless card.

To change options for the card such as ssid and the like I find iwconfig which requires wireless-tools.  I have not tested this out alot but it seems to work. 

Special thanks to these websites which helped me find the answers needed to install this card.

http://thekelleys.org.uk/actiontec.html

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=32357&highlight=atmel

Thanks again for the help,

arandLast edited by arand on Thu May 08, 2003 12:46 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## hertog

Nice to see you got it to work!

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## reaz82

i'd like to make some amendments to that clear and concise description.

i had to specify the manfid (manufacturer id) in the /etc/pcmcia/atmel.conf file..

i would also advice users to not delete the declarations at the beginning of this file.. they should delete all entries except the ones for the pcmf502rd.. 

they should keep the declaration for pcmf502rd or else they might get an "unknown device" when they run the pcmcia init script..

also the user should insert the card and wait for the lights to turn on and the beep.. and then on doing lsmod the pcmf502rd module should come up by itself..

then you know you are doing it right!

take care

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## de4d

im having a quite stange problem with a 3com atmel wlan card:

```

PRODID_1="3Com"

PRODID_2="3CRSHPW_96 Wireless LAN PC Card"

PRODID_3=""

PRODID_4=""

MANFID=0101,0696

FUNCID=6

```

quite perfectly running with gentoo2420-r2 on lifebook e7010 with atmelwlandriver.

after booting r5 (used similar/same .config as r2) inserting the card just *hangs* the system. recompiling pcmcia-cs with /usr/src/linux linked to r5 doesnt help neither (but still works with r2). same problem with recent gs-sources.

first i thougt driver might not work (which could be helped by just waiting) with r5, but I tested stuff on 2 other notebooks. one travelmate 800 running r5 worked immediately, another gs-running <somenoname> notebook logged some error but at least didnt crash.

i just cant imagine what i should have done wrong, since the same driver worked out on the other machines - maybe an idea on how to find out what exactly causes the system to hang?

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## arand

I am not sure what the problem is.  My card will cause my keyboard and mouse to freeze sometimes.  What I found works for that is to put the laptop into suspend mode and then bring it out.  Then restart pcmcia and I can get the card back up.  

What version of the atmel driver are you using?  When I was at the atmelwlandriver site last I saw that they had a new version up but no references to it like a news item that it had been released or something like that.  You might want to try thatn new driver?

Hope this helps some,

arand

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## de4d

just read through the .config file of the kernel that worked on the acer notebook. he actually compiled with arch=p3. since i dint find any other differences, i switched to p3 myself - and eventually it even seems to work now (after some IRQ assignment problem solving) with r5 kernel....

maybe your keyboard/mouse problem also is related to a compile glitch... give it a shot (if possible).

and yes - i AM using the newest drivers, also tried CVS....

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## arand

I will give it a shot next time I recompile my kernel.  I am kind of hesitant just for the amount of work it took me to get this working in the first place.  At somepoint I will check this out.

arand

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## tdb

Just in case anyone is still following this thread, you might want to try saying no to the "set extra module version information." I used to get tons of unresolved symbols and errors with both the pcmcia and the usb versions. After reinstalling all of gentoo from scratch on my laptop, I tried saying no to it, (on a whim) and 99.9% of my problems disappeared. Everything loads perfectly now. I don't even have to edit the source files anymore.

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## tdb

I wrote more on this here:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=65737

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## tdb

I wrote more on this here:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=65737

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