# Prism 3 Chipset Wifi

## tincanstorm

Hi, I bought a pcmcia prism 3 chipset network card and im trying to get it to work but I'm not really sure what to do, is there a user guide to installing hardware or could anyone tell me how to do it pls?

Thanks

Tincanstorm

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## RItalMan

Hi,

I'm not sure, but I read somewhere Prism3 card where directly handled by the official kernel driver. Have you got some wireless modules loaded such as orinoco_cs ? or something similar ? Maybe you should install wlan-ng drivers ?

I found this documentation at the following url : http://www.chronox.de/averatec_linux/linux_on_3156X.html

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> Configuring the WLAN card
> 
> Use the latest driver (at least ftp://ftp.linux-wlan.org/pub/linux-wlan-ng/linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1-pre13.tar.gz or higher ) that contains a patch to make the Prism3 USB card working.
> ...

 

Hope this helps;)

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## tincanstorm

Hi ive tried that and it doesnt seem to work i dont think my system is seeing the card, i have 2 network cards and if i iwconfig or ifconfig it just brings up the hardwire nic and not the wifi 1. do yo have any ideas of what to do?

Thanks

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## RItalMan

Maybe it's just a missing module for your kernel. Ensure you have compiled your kernel to manage prism chipset as described in the documentation. Then try to see if you have any modules loaded relating to the card.

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## tincanstorm

Hi I ran make menuconfig to check and i think it has the module but I'm a bit unsure,

under PCMCIA network device support it doesnt list anything that would strike me as relating to my card, it doesnt list my card under wireless 802.11 pcmcia cards either.

I have a prism 3 chipset, i ran emerge --search prism 3 and all that can up was prism54 is that what i want? when i emerged it it said the kernel already had the driver and to emerge prism54 firmwar wich i did but that didnt help either. i ran modprobe prism54 was i wrong to do that?

what about if i emerge prism_3 would that work?

Thank you for your help i really appriciate it

Tincanstorm

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## RItalMan

To ensure you have prism3 enabled into your kernel, you can, in make menuconfig, under Devices and Drivers > Networking devices > Wireless , ensure you have checked Orinoco, Hermes and Prism54 Duette modules checked.

Prism54 chipsets are 802.11g wireless chipset, and I'm not sure prism3 is a 802.11g one. As described in the pasted url, you should install wlan-ng driver, this could be done by :

```

emerge linux-wlan-ng

```

Then, assuming your card is a PCMCIA/Cardbus one, you should just follow ebuild's tip :

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> /etc/init.d/pcmcia from pcmcia-cs is used to control startup and shutdown of
> 
>  * PCMCIA devices.
> ...

 

Hope you can make it work  :Smile: 

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## tincanstorm

hi do you know how to disable sandbox?

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## RItalMan

Edit /etc/make.globals, find the string :

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> # Default user options
> 
> FEATURES="sandbox distlocks"
> ...

 

and finally replace it by :

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> # Default user options
> 
> FEATURES="distlocks"
> ...

 

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## tincanstorm

sorry to keep asking so many questions, but i did that and now when i run #emerge linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1_pre17 (this is what it told me to use for the 2.6 kernel) i get:

!!! Problem in net-wireless/linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1_pre17 dependencies.

!!! "Specific key requires an operator (net-wireless/linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1_pre17) (try adding an '=')" exceptions.

Thanks

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## RItalMan

Humm really strange, did you synced your portage tree recently ?

Does emerge linux-wlan-ng does not work ? Try emerging by path : 

emerge /usr/portage/net-wireless/linux-wlan-ng/linux-wlan-ng-<latest version>.ebuild

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## tincanstorm

I used emerge --sync last night followed by emerge --update --deep --newuse world.

When i emerge linux-wlan-ng this is what i get:

```
root # emerge linux-wlan-ng

Calculating dependencies ...done!

>>> emerge (1 of 1) net-wireless/linux-wlan-ng-0.2.0-r3 to /

>>> md5 src_uri ;-) pcmcia-cs-3.2.5.tar.gz

>>> md5 src_uri ;-) pcmcia-cs-3.2.5-module-init-tools.diff.gz

>>> md5 src_uri ;-) pcmcia-cs-3.2.5-SMP-fix.diff.gz

>>> md5 src_uri ;-) pcmcia-cs-3.2.5-3.2.6.diff.gz

>>> md5 src_uri ;-) pcmcia-cs-3.2.5-3.2.7.diff.gz

>>> md5 src_uri ;-) linux-wlan-ng-0.2.0.tar.gz

>>> md5 src_uri ;-) linux-wlan-ng-gentoo-init.gz

>>> Unpacking source...

 * This version of linux-wlan-ng will NOT work with 2.6 kernels

 * Please use linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1_pre17 for 2.6 kernels.

 * For now, you will need to disable sandbox to get this to merge.

 * See bug #32737 for info on work being done to fix this.

 Any ideas?

!!! ERROR: net-wireless/linux-wlan-ng-0.2.0-r3 failed.

!!! Function src_unpack, Line 39, Exitcode 0

!!! This version of linux-wlan-ng does not support 2.6 kernels

!!! If you need support, post the topmost build error, NOT this status message.
```

I disabled sandbox like u said and then tried this:

```
root # emerge linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1_pre17

Calculating dependencies

!!! Problem in net-wireless/linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1_pre17 dependencies.

!!! "Specific key requires an operator (net-wireless/linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1_pre17) (try adding an '=')" exceptions
```

then i tried this, but got:

```
root # emerge /usr/portage/net-wireless/linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1_pre17.ebuild

Calculating dependencies

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "/usr/bin/emerge", line 2998, in ?

    retval,favorites=mydepgraph.select_files(myfiles)

  File "/usr/bin/emerge", line 1019, in select_files

    if os.path.realpath(portage.db["/"]["porttree"].dbapi.findname(mykey)) != x:

  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/posixpath.py", line 406, in realpath

    filename = abspath(filename)

  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/posixpath.py", line 395, in abspath

    if not isabs(path):

  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/posixpath.py", line 49, in isabs

    return s.startswith('/')

AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'startswith'
```

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## xkalibur1554

i definately have the same problem.  i have a prism 2.5 wavelan card built into my laptop.  when i used a 2.4 kernel linux-wlan-ng worked fine, but now that i am using the 2.6 kernel, it wont emerge, and I tried the linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1_pre17 and it wont emerge.  is there any way to get this to load.  i have the network, card, but when i try and iwconfig, it says there are no wireless extensions.  all i need i guess is a driver or to load a module, but i have no clue how to do this.  if anyone can help i would be very appreciative.  thank you.

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## tincanstorm

Hi, I havent actually got mine working yet but I did put a post at linux.org about it http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/topic-41346.html

They said to try the hoastap + utils for the drivers to see if that works, unfortunatly I havent had time to try it yet but check out the link it might be useful, hope it helps

oh, if you type:

emerge --search hoastap it'll will tell you the things to emerge

Hope it helps, let me know if it does

!!!!!!!!!ok ignore this step and try the next one it worked for me!!!!!!

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## tincanstorm

have a look at this, it worked for me

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-202297-highlight-linuxwlanng.html

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## xkalibur1554

thank you, i have linux-wlan-ng emerged, but i do not know the module i need to load for a prism 2.5 wavelan.  do you know what module it is?

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## tincanstorm

I'm using modprobe prism2_cs

My card is a prism3 chipset so it should work for you to.

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## xkalibur1554

so the whole i type, "modprobe prism2_cs" in the module.d file?  im not sure what modprobe is.  thank you for your help.

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## xkalibur1554

hello i did everything....except i do not have the prism2_cs driver.  i installed the linux-wlan-ng drivers the pre 17 ones, but all i have is the prism2_pci.  my card is built into the laptop, and i thought this would work, but i get the following:

Kamelot root # modprobe prism2_pci

FATAL: Error inserting prism2_pci (/lib/modules/2.6.11-gentoo-r6/linux-wlan-ng/prism2_pci.ko): No such device

Can anyone help me?  I feel I am close.  The linux-wlan-ng worked fine when i had a 2.4 kernel and the card was fine.  Now that I have a 2.6 kernel it isnt working.  

Thank you

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## Kuhndog86

There is a bug regarding the linux-wlan-ng driver not working on newer kernels.  There is a patched ebuild there that worked for me.  Sorry I do not have time to dig up the url for you, but I hope this helps.

Ben

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