# netgear wg511 (prism54) not working with kernel 2.6.17

## jazty

My wireless Netgear WG511 PCMCIA card won't work with any 2.6.17 kernel i've tried. Has anyone else experienced this? I've checked dmesg and it shows the module being loaded without errors, but i can't do a normal '/etc/init.d/net.eth0 start' and NetworkManager wont manage it. has something changed in the new release that would require further modules or something?

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## jazty

huh... nothing eh?

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## hullabaluh

Hi man,

I have the problem that the driver is loaded normally but iwconfig shows "NOT READY!". The problem is that the firmware cannot be uploaded. I don't know why, because the same firmware worked for about 2 years. Nos it suddenly stops working.

Please check the ouptup of dmesg | tail after haveing removed and loaded the module prism54.

Or have you found the solution for your problem?

Kind regards,

Aurel

P.S. Kernel 2.6.17.6

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## dlight

Me too!

Yep, I dropped in to see WTF I was missing---I knew it had to be something newish, or just plain stupid.  Well it seems I'm not being stupid....

2.6.17 fails in the same respects. The module is loaded, and properly identifies the card and makes a device for the card as well. However iwconfig, and ifconfig will both fail when trying to send commands to the card. 

ifconfig $wlan_iface up 

Causes a very long (10-12 second) delay, and then the command returns without bringing the iface up and with the error: SIOCSIFFLAGS: No Suck file or directory.

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## jazty

Yeh... nothing yet. I haven't tried any more recent releases, but I wasn't able to get 2.6.17 working from the last time i posted (it doesn't help that i've been without a stable internet connection).

2.6.16 is working well, though

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## dlight

Hrmph, well as I finished posting that "me too", I went back to my previous build on 2.6.15-r1 and thought I would be golden.....

WRONG

I had tried upgrading hotplug in a blind attempt at solving the problem previously.... I thought this might have been my problem, however I see I have the same error back in 2.6.15-r1.

Bah... 

So, I went to remove the newer hotplug version.... When I realized that I forgot to READ the new build message for hotplug when it was done. After re-emerging the hotplug package I read "all firmware should be kept in /lib/firmware as this is where it is expected to be" or some such message.

Well my previous version always ready the FW from /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/.

Created the /lib/firmware directory, copied isl3890 over to the new dir. Rebooted into 2.6.17-r8 and BAM. Worked like a charm.

Hope it goes as well for everyone else... I suspect it will.

Dave

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## dlight

 *dlight wrote:*   

> SIOCSIFFLAGS: No Suck file or directory.

 

As a side note-- That was a good typo.

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## hullabaluh

Hi guys,

I read somewhere in this forum that the problem occurs only with udev higher than 070. I downgraded my udev and the wireless worked again. Now, unfortunately udev 07 is not in the portage tree anymore  :Sad: 

And again, my wireless does not work anymore.

How is it, are there only PrismGT based cards with this problem or also other chipsets? (Well I have a prismGT card...)

Greets,

Aurel

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## makenoob

which firmware-version are you using? i downloaded version 1.0.4.3 from the prism54.org website, but it didn't work with my card

```

Oct  6 20:07:25 lappi Loaded prism54 driver, version 1.2

Oct  6 20:07:25 lappi PCI: Enabling device 0000:0d:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)

Oct  6 20:07:25 lappi ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:0d:00.0[A] -> Link [LNKD] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10

Oct  6 20:07:26 lappi eth1: resetting device...

Oct  6 20:07:26 lappi eth1: uploading firmware...

Oct  6 20:07:26 lappi eth1: firmware version: 1.0.4.3

Oct  6 20:07:26 lappi eth1: firmware upload complete

Oct  6 20:07:27 lappi eth1: no 'reset complete' IRQ seen - retrying

Oct  6 20:07:28 lappi eth1: no 'reset complete' IRQ seen - retrying

Oct  6 20:07:28 lappi eth1: interface reset failure

Oct  6 20:07:28 lappi prism54: Your card/socket may be faulty, or IRQ line too busy :(

Oct  6 20:07:28 lappi eth1: resetting device...

Oct  6 20:07:28 lappi eth1: uploading firmware...

Oct  6 20:07:28 lappi eth1: firmware version: 1.0.4.3

Oct  6 20:07:28 lappi eth1: firmware upload complete

Oct  6 20:07:29 lappi eth1: no 'reset complete' IRQ seen - retrying

Oct  6 20:07:30 lappi eth1: no 'reset complete' IRQ seen - retrying

Oct  6 20:07:30 lappi eth1: interface reset failure

Oct  6 20:07:30 lappi prism54: Your card/socket may be faulty, or IRQ line too busy :(

Oct  6 20:07:30 lappi eth1: prism54_set_txpower() auto power will be implemented later.

Oct  6 20:07:30 lappi rc-scripts: Looks like there was a probem loading the firmware for eth1
```

it's the netgear wg511 v3.0.

```

lspci:

0d:00.0 Network controller: Intersil Corporation ISL3890 [Prism GT/Prism Duette]/ISL3886 [Prism Javelin/Prism Xbow] (rev 01)
```

any ideas, anyone?

TIA,

marc

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## hullabaluh

Hi Marc,

I found in the german wiki the information that the v3 does not work with the prism54-driver. It isn't the right chipset (perhaps it is like the SMC2802 v2 the javelin/xbow chipset). Instead of prism54 you should use ndiswrapper.

In don't know if there exists a prism54-driver for your chipset (you have to look on prism54.org, the provide two versions of prism54, the old one and "SoftMAC").

As a start I would try to use ndiswrapper. It is in the stable portage tree an should work perfectly for the most purposes (network connection/internet).

Good luck!

Aurel

P.S. do you know gentoo-wiki.com? Everytime a great help!

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