# SMC2635W wireless networking in 2.6 kernel

## dpl

I just got an SMC2635W wireless card for my laptop, and I'm having a bit of trouble getting it to work in the 2.6 test8 (mm-sources) kernel. I did get it working in the 2.4 kernel (gentoo-sources), but I would much prefer to use the 2.6.

So here's what I've done so far:

The card uses an ADMTEK 8211 chipset, so I got the driver from admtek.com.tw since it's not in the kernel. No problems there.

Untarred the file, and did "make". This worked for the 2.4, but I'm not so sure with the 2.6. 

For the 2.4 kernel, I could load the module needed without any trouble, with pcmcia-cs installed.

This is where I'm confused: A lot of the posts that I have seen say that pcmcia-cs is not needed for the 2.6 kernel, because it's all built in, but I'm not sure what I have to enable for the 2.6 kernel to use my wireless card. I've seen a few posts that have vendor specific cards enabled in the kernel, but mine is not in the kernel, which brings me to the question: 

Do I need pcmcia-cs installed?

Also, I'm quite new at installing drivers in linux, and I don't quite know if it all went right. Is there a way I could check to see if the modules are where they're supposed to be? Also, and this may be a pretty simple question, but do drivers work for any kernel type? Or does the driver I got from the admtek site only work with the 2.4 kernel?

Any help would be fantastic, since it would be nice to use the wireless card in the 2.6 kernel. Also, I can post any messages/files/whatever if they would be at all useful. 

- dpl

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## Seth

Hi,

I can only commiserate. Wireless with 2.6 can be difficult. I'd guess that what's going on in your case though is that the module for your card will only work in 2.4 kernels. Modules for 2.6 kernels are different.

As for pcmcia-cs, I'm no expert, but I believe that you do need to compile it for 2.6 kernels. What you don't need, and probably can't use anyway, are the kernel modules that come with pcmcia-cs. Compile the yenta_socket module and the module for your card, if available, in the kernel.

Good luck,

Seth

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## Redhatter

dpl: I'm afraid Linux 2.6.x is a no go with this card -- at least not yet.  I also have one of these cards, and when I tried building it against 2.6.0-test6, I get a whole pile of compiller errors.

Interestingly though, under 2.4.22, it works, but only in Ad-hoc mode, if there's an Access Point it's susposed to connect to, it doesn't want to know about it.

Have you  managed to get these cards working in Infrastructure (or Managed) mode at all?  And what steps did you take to achieve this?  Also, how well (if at all) does it work?

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## dpl

What do you mean by "Managed" or "Infrastructure" modes? Also, what's Ad-hoc mode?

I do have the card working (fairly well) with the gentoo sources 2.4.20-r8 kernel.

When I compiled the driver, it worked well when I ran an "insmod 8211.o" from the directory that had the module in it, however, it wouldn't work when I rebooted. What I ended up doing was copying the 8211.o file from the directory it was compiled from, and put it in " /lib/modules/2.4.20-gentoo-r8/kernel/drivers/net/", where you could change the 2.4.20-gentoo-r8 to whatever kernel version you are currently using. Then I put "8211" in /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.4 , and all went well. When I recompile the kernel though, I have to recopy the file.

I have an SMC Barricade wireless network hub which this card connects to easily, but I have not had any luck with the wireless network on campus. I am not sure what this problem is, but I just got the card yesterday, so I havn't had much of a chance to figure that out.

That's about all I've got for now, I'll post again if I get the wireless working on another network.

- dpl

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## Redhatter

dpl:  Ahh okay, basically wireless cards can run in one of two different modes, Ad-Hoc, and Infrastructure (or Managed) mode.  I'm a bit of a n00b when it comes to setting up Wireless, but I'll try and explain it.

Ad-hoc is much like your typical coax ethernet network -- All clients send their packets directly to the other end, with no middle-man.  This works fine if the cards are all able to reach eachother.

Infrastructure mode involves a third party, an Access Point, which allows two clients to communicate, reguardless of whether the two clients would be able to contact eachother directly or not.

You might want to have a look at a few of these sites for more information:

*  Brisbane Mesh FAQ: Cards

* Webopedia: infrastructure mode & ad-hoc mode

Essentially, you're running in Infrastructure mode, with your wireless gateway acting as the Access Point.  I've tried connecting mine up with a HP (Linksys) wireless gateway, and a D-Link DWL-900AP access point, with no success, however, oddly I can statically set the channel, IP, start dhcpd and have a WinXP machine connect to my laptop.... Real strange.

And the card works fine under Win2k.

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## jay

dpl: I have the same problem. The ADMtek drivers won't compile for a 2.6 kernel. I sent an email to ADMtek requesting a 2.6 kernel driver. You should send them a mail too, the more people requesting this, the better our chances are.

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## Redhatter

I did some time ago (send an email reguarding Linux 2.6), as at the time, I couldn't get my soundcard (Yamaha OPL3-SA3) to work with Linux 2.4 (I got it going using ALSA, but the OSS driver under 2.6 worked).  I'm yet to hear a reply from ADMtek reguarding this matter.

Personally though, if there were an opensourced driver out there, I'd be more inclined to use that, rather than tainting my kernel with their binaries.

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## zfc-tinkerer

we won't see completely binary-free drivers for some of these cards ever due to FCC rules (we could otherwise use radio bands other than the approved ones), however you can often find drivers with a thin binary layer and open source other than that.  

In 2.6 have you tried compiling your kernel without SMP support?  I'm not familiar with this particular card, but I do know that others have said that with various cards and drivers this can be necessary in 2.6 kernels.

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## Redhatter

zfc-tinkerer:

Interesting points you bring up there -- in other words, they're using the software driver to dictate what frequencies the card is capable of transmitting on -- which points to poor tuner design (There are ways of reducing the bandwidth using firmware/hardware -- software shouldn't have to inforce it.).  In my view -- if someone were to hack a driver such to allow it to transmit on illegal frequencies -- that's their choice, and their problem if they get caught -- not the manufacturer.  On these grounds -- I see no reason they can't make their drivers opensource.

</soapbox>  :Wink: 

Anyways, back onto the problem at hand... It was some time ago when I tried compilling the ADMtek driver.  I don't recall what the errors were.  The laptop has a single Pentium II 300MHz CPU -- so there's no point in me enabling SMP, I leave it off.

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## jay

I wouldn't call this poor tuner design, its rather a type of FCC regulations which says the user shouldn't able to mess with the frequenices. This however doesn't make sense, since not all of the 2.4 Ghz channel frequenices are open in Europe. For example I believe Channel 12 is forbidden in France and Spain.  So even the binary drivers allow the users to send on "illegal" frequencies.

It's just another company that doesn't understand Open Source. I gave back the card today and bought a orinoco instead.

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## malloc

I'm sorry to bump this up but has anyone got the module working with a 2.6 kern or what?

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## jay

It's a binary driver. Thats exactly _THE_ reason why I avoid closed source drivers whenever possible.  Write them a mail, since there is still no 2.6

driver on their homepage:

http://www.admtek.com.tw/download/ADM8211.htm

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## malloc

they provide the source for 1.05. I already send them a mail asking for a 2.6 driver. But from what some people said they'll probably just give me the finger

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## Redhatter

Sorry to tell you this...

```

(15:38) stuartl@beast decompressed $ tar -xzvf ../ADM8211_src_105.tar.gz

ADM8211/

ADM8211/ADM_Prv.o <-- That ain't source ?!!

ADM8211/Wlan_Mac.h

ADM8211/STA_Module.h

ADM8211/lm.h

ADM8211/adm8201.h

ADM8211/Makefile

ADM8211/README

ADM8211/adm8211.c

```

The .o file is a precompiled binary -- the rest is just a wrapper to allow the code to include the kernel headers of your system.  Otherwise you'd have to use the exact same version of the kernel that was used to create the binary module.

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## jay

 *malloc wrote:*   

> they provide the source for 1.05. 

 

Thats just the version number of the driver. Both versions 1.03 and 1.05 work only with 2.4 kernels.

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## novmode

To all of you guys who sent emails regarding a 2.6 driver, have any of you received any emails in response to the issue?  or come up with an alternative to get this damn thing working?

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## Redhatter

I sent an email some time ago, can't recall the exact date -- to date I have not received a reply.

My solution: Bought a second hand Cabletron Systems Roamabout wireless card.  The alternative only has 40-bit WEP (I don't use encryption anyways -- I maintain security by restricting the RF coverage & MAC address filtering) and doesn't have a very good transmit power (about 35mW) -- but it can take an external antenna using a Lucent pigtail.  Also, it's fully supported by the orinoco_cs driver.

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## jay

 *novmode wrote:*   

> To all of you guys who sent emails regarding a 2.6 driver, have any of you received any emails in response to the issue?  or come up with an alternative to get this damn thing working?

 

Sent a mail two months ago. No reply so far.

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## gtbX

I don't know if this will help, but i found this page:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/history/143652

that seems to cover a solution.  I tried it, but iwconfig locks whenever i try to use it(using kernel gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.1).  I'm a bit of a pcmcia / wireless n00b anyway.

t'is a shame i bought this card on ebay.. maybe i can trade it in at one of the local comp. recycling centers

[edit]

actually i just rebooted now, and checking dmesg, the driver appears to be working (a few pages of channel changing, followed by a crash when i removed the card) and iwconfig doesn't crash!

i will have to test this when i'm back on campus and within range of an access point

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