I formerly installed Mandrake Linux 9.2 on my home PC but I had to format the PC and install WinXP again because I couldnt find the correct driver or method to make my Wireless LAN Card work. I regret this, because I love Linux and I hate to be put down by a technical issue.

The name of the device is TopCom's "Xplorer 3500", a USB card with IEEE802.11b technology. Im a Linux Newbie, and I need help finding either compatible device drivers or some method to achieve connection to my network via the LAN card. Please, Im begging for help.

The first thing you need to is find out what wireless chipset is used (such as Broadcom, Atheros, etc.) and then see if there are drivers. If that turns up nothing then tell me what type it is and I'll check for you as well. Just search on Google for "TopCom Xplorer 3500 chipset" and then search on Google using the chipset name as the keyword.

My Flemish (is that what they speak in Belgium) is not so hot but at

http://www.ccterlinden.com/nieuw2/2dehands.php

there is a picture of this gadget and it says...

Werkt niet op Linux

which doesn't sound too good.

I've identified it as the AMTEL chipset. From what I read, a lot of USB Wireless LAN Devices are based on the AMTEL AT76C503A chipset. I've followed the instructions and I believe the drivers are installed but I cant find the device listed anywhere. Do I have to compile the kernel or something?

Have you checked the output of the 'dmesg' command to see if the device gets installed on startup? You should also run 'lsmod' to see if the driver is listed there. If not you can also try 'modprobe atmel' (or whatever the driver you installed is called) to see if it gets loaded.

What did you have to do to install the driver? I just looked at the 2.6.3 kernel source and there is support in there for some atmel devices already, but maybe not the one you want. Incidentally how did you ID the manufacturer as atmel?

Not sure exactly what you're looking for, so here is a complete result of the dmesg command. Remember that I'm a newbie. Lsmod lists some usb-ohic drivers and one "usbvnet_rfmd" which might mean something? I identified the manufacturer as ATMEL when I was using Windows, under Device Settings or something. To be honest, i'm not sure I did install the drivers or what I did. Anyhow, here's dmesg. I'll note that I have 4 USB ports, where one is USB 2.0. And Im connected to the internet via an ethernet card (eth0).

Linux version 2.4.21-0.13mdk (flepied@bi.mandrakesoft.com) (gcc version 3.2.2 (Mandrake Linux 9.1 3.2.2-3mdk)) #1 Fri Mar 14 15:08:06 EST 2003
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000000f0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 0000000017ff0000 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 0000000017ff0000 - 0000000017ff3000 (ACPI NVS)
BIOS-e820: 0000000017ff3000 - 0000000018000000 (ACPI data)
BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 00000000fec01000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000fee00000 - 00000000fee01000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000ffff0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
383MB LOWMEM available.
ACPI: have wakeup address 0xc0001000
found SMP MP-table at 000f4d50
hm, page 000f4000 reserved twice.
hm, page 000f5000 reserved twice.
hm, page 000f1000 reserved twice.
hm, page 000f2000 reserved twice.
On node 0 totalpages: 98288
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 94192 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Intel MultiProcessor Specification v1.1
Virtual Wire compatibility mode.
OEM ID: OEM00000 Product ID: PROD00000000 APIC at: 0xFEE00000
Processor #0 Pentium 4(tm) XEON(tm) APIC version 17
I/O APIC #2 Version 17 at 0xFEC00000.
Enabling APIC mode: Flat. Using 1 I/O APICs
Processors: 1
Kernel command line: auto BOOT_IMAGE=Linux ro root=301 quiet noapic devfs=mount hdd=ide-scsi acpi=off
ide_setup: hdd=ide-scsi
Initializing CPU#0
Detected 1991.957 MHz processor.
Console: colour dummy device 80x25
Calibrating delay loop... 3971.48 BogoMIPS
Memory: 385428k/393152k available (1410k kernel code, 7336k reserved, 1118k data, 136k init, 0k highmem)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
CPU: Trace cache: 12K uops, L1 D cache: 8K
Intel machine check architecture supported.
Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
CPU: After generic, caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: Common caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.00GHz stepping 07
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
enabled ExtINT on CPU#0
ESR value before enabling vector: 00000000
ESR value after enabling vector: 00000000
Using local APIC timer interrupts.
calibrating APIC timer ...
..... CPU clock speed is 1991.9945 MHz.
..... host bus clock speed is 99.5996 MHz.
cpu: 0, clocks: 995996, slice: 497998
CPU0<T0:995984,T1:497984,D:2,S:497998,C:995996>
mtrr: v1.40 (20010327) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
mtrr: detected mtrr type: Intel
ACPI: Subsystem revision 20030122
ACPI: Disabled via command line (acpi=off)
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfbb60, last bus=1
PCI: Using configuration type 1
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
PCI: ACPI tables contain no PCI IRQ routing entries
PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
PCI: Using IRQ router SIS [1039/0008] at 00:02.0
PCI: Found IRQ 5 for device 00:02.5
isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
Initializing RT netlink socket
apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x07 (Driver version 1.16)
Starting kswapd
VFS: Disk quotas vdquot_6.5.1
devfs: v1.12c (20020818) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
devfs: boot_options: 0x1
vesafb: framebuffer at 0xd8000000, mapped to 0xd8800000, size 65536k
vesafb: mode is 800x600x16, linelength=1600, pages=2
vesafb: protected mode interface info at c000:e520
vesafb: scrolling: redraw
vesafb: directcolor: size=0:5:6:5, shift=0:11:5:0
Looking for splash picture.... found (800x600, 25593 bytes).
Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 80x16
fb0: VESA VGA frame buffer device
pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with HUB-6 MANY_PORTS MULTIPORT SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI ISAPNP enabled
ttyS00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
ttyS01 at 0x02f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 32000K size 1024 blocksize
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta-2.4
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
SIS5513: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:02.5
PCI: Found IRQ 5 for device 00:02.5
SIS5513: chipset revision 0
SIS5513: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
SiS651 ATA 133 controller
ide0: BM-DMA at 0x4000-0x4007, BIOS settings: hdaMA, hdbio
ide1: BM-DMA at 0x4008-0x400f, BIOS settings: hdcMA, hddMA
hda: Maxtor 2F030J0, ATA DISK drive
blk: queue c03cb420, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
hdc: SAMSUNG CD-ROM SC-152L, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
hdd: HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4480B, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hda: host protected area => 1
hda: 60058656 sectors (30750 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=3738/255/63, UDMA(133)
Partition check:
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1 p2 < p5 p6 >
md: md driver 0.90.0 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27
md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
md: autorun ...
md: ... autorun DONE.
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
IP: routing cache hash table of 4096 buckets, 32Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 32768 bind 65536)
Linux IP multicast router 0.06 plus PIM-SM
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
Freeing initrd memory: 109k freed
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
Mounted devfs on /dev
Journalled Block Device driver loaded
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Mounted devfs on /dev
Freeing unused kernel memory: 136k freed
Real Time Clock Driver v1.10e
usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
usb.c: registered new driver hub
SiS router pirq escape (5)
SiS router pirq escape (5)
usb-ohci.c: USB OHCI at membase 0xdc932000, IRQ 11
usb-ohci.c: usb-00:03.0, Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 7001
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
SiS router pirq escape (6)
SiS router pirq escape (6)
usb-ohci.c: USB OHCI at membase 0xdc934000, IRQ 9
usb-ohci.c: usb-00:03.1, Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 7001 (#2)
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
SiS router pirq escape (7)
SiS router pirq escape (7)
usb-ohci.c: USB OHCI at membase 0xdc936000, IRQ 5
usb-ohci.c: usb-00:03.2, Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 7001 (#3)
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
usbdevfs: remount parameter error
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,1), internal journal
Adding Swap: 506008k swap-space (priority -1)
SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
scsi0 : SCSI host adapter emulation for IDE ATAPI devices
Vendor: HL-DT-ST Model: RW/DVD GCC-4480B Rev: 1.00
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
hdc: ATAPI 52X CD-ROM drive, 128kB Cache, DMA
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,6), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.26
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:0d.0
eth0: RealTek RTL8139 Fast Ethernet at 0xdc9b9000, 00:0a:e6:30:64:b9, IRQ 11
eth0: Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8139C'
inserting floppy driver for 2.4.21-0.13mdk
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0 at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 40x/40x writer cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
eth0: Setting 100mbps full-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 41e1.
Installing knfsd (copyright (C) 1996 okir@monad.swb.de).
PCI: Found IRQ 9 for device 00:02.7
intel8x0: clocking to 48000
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778) [PCSPP,TRISTATE]
parport0: irq 7 detected
lp0: using parport0 (polling).
hub.c: new USB device 00:03.2-1, assigned address 2
usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x69a/0x321) is not claimed by any active driver.
usb.c: registered new driver usbvnetr
usb_vnet_probe: usb vendor/product=69a/321
../src/usb/vnet_kernel.c: Reseting Usb Device

../src/usb/vnet_kernel.c: Reset completed.
Reg Domain
usbvnetr: driver version 1.0.1, compiled Mar 14 2003 15:27:53 (dbg_mask x0)
MAC addr 00:90:96:50:5F:BA firmware 0.90.2.140
Multicast is enabled
../src/usb/vnetusba.c: usb eth1 initialized and registered
eth0: Setting 100mbps full-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 41e1.
../src/usb/vnetusba.c: Device eth1 closed
eth0: Setting 100mbps full-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 41e1.
eth0: Setting 100mbps full-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 41e1.
zcip uses obsolete (PF_INET,SOCK_PACKET)
eth0: Promiscuous mode enabled.
device eth0 entered promiscuous mode
device eth0 left promiscuous mode
device eth1 entered promiscuous mode
../src/usb/vnetusba.c: Device eth1 closed
device eth1 left promiscuous mode
device eth1 entered promiscuous mode
eth0: Setting 100mbps full-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 41e1.
eth0: Setting 100mbps full-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 41e1.
device eth1 left promiscuous mode
../src/usb/vnetusba.c: Device eth1 closed
device eth1 entered promiscuous mode
eth0: Setting 100mbps full-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 41e1.
../src/usb/vnetusba.c: Device eth1 closed
usb.c: USB disconnect on device 00:03.2-1 address 2
../src/usb/vnetusba.c: device disconnected
hub.c: new USB device 00:03.2-1, assigned address 3
usb_vnet_probe: usb vendor/product=69a/321
../src/usb/vnet_kernel.c: Reseting Usb Device

eth0: Setting 100mbps full-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 41e1.
udf: registering filesystem
UDF-fs DEBUG lowlevel.c:57:udf_get_last_session: XA disk: no, vol_desc_start=0
UDF-fs DEBUG super.c:1426:udf_read_super: Multi-session=0
UDF-fs DEBUG super.c:415:udf_vrs: Starting at sector 16 (2048 byte sectors)
UDF-fs DEBUG super.c:442:udf_vrs: ISO9660 Primary Volume Descriptor found
UDF-fs DEBUG super.c:439:udf_vrs: ISO9660 Boot Record found
UDF-fs DEBUG super.c:445:udf_vrs: ISO9660 Supplementary Volume Descriptor found
UDF-fs DEBUG super.c:451:udf_vrs: ISO9660 Volume Descriptor Set Terminator found
UDF-fs: No VRS found
ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A
UDF-fs DEBUG lowlevel.c:57:udf_get_last_session: XA disk: no, vol_desc_start=0
UDF-fs DEBUG super.c:1426:udf_read_super: Multi-session=0
UDF-fs DEBUG super.c:415:udf_vrs: Starting at sector 16 (2048 byte sectors)
UDF-fs DEBUG super.c:442:udf_vrs: ISO9660 Primary Volume Descriptor found
UDF-fs DEBUG super.c:439:udf_vrs: ISO9660 Boot Record found
UDF-fs DEBUG super.c:445:udf_vrs: ISO9660 Supplementary Volume Descriptor found
UDF-fs DEBUG super.c:451:udf_vrs: ISO9660 Volume Descriptor Set Terminator found
UDF-fs: No VRS found
ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A
UDF-fs DEBUG lowlevel.c:57:udf_get_last_session: XA disk: no, vol_desc_start=0
UDF-fs DEBUG super.c:1426:udf_read_super: Multi-session=0
UDF-fs DEBUG super.c:415:udf_vrs: Starting at sector 16 (2048 byte sectors)
UDF-fs DEBUG super.c:442:udf_vrs: ISO9660 Primary Volume Descriptor found
UDF-fs DEBUG super.c:445:udf_vrs: ISO9660 Supplementary Volume Descriptor found
UDF-fs DEBUG super.c:451:udf_vrs: ISO9660 Volume Descriptor Set Terminator found
UDF-fs: No VRS found
ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A

I don't know if this is trivial or not but USBView doesnt register the device. It's listed, but it appears as an UNKNOWN device. Let me know if you want the details it gives.

You can try downloading VMware trial edition. Then use wireless lan through VMware. VMware has the ability to use USB devices.

Why not get a Wireless to Wired bridge. It will make setting up real easy. No, drivers required to setup the bridge.

Just looking through that dmesg output, it doesn't look very promising. There seem to be repeated attempts to set up the device as eth1 using the atmel usb driver (usbvnetr apparently). I would have thought the first wireless device would be wlan0.

I suppose it is possible you have the right driver but wrong configuration somewhere, but I am clueless what to do about it. Maybe check through whatever documentation comes with the driver for advice??? I could not even find this thing on Topcoms web site. A plug-in wlan adapter would be great, if it worked.

Electro's suggestion sounds like a good one, although I have never seen or used that piece of kit. Pity to junk your usb gadget, but there is always a risk with linux and new hardware

Thats what I feared. Thanks anyway. I've used VMWare before, in Windows. How exactly would you do it though, it doesn't mean I'd have to have a VMWare window open all the time, does it?

It seems i'll have to purchase a cheap PCI wireless card. Oh well. One last attempt is by doing it through WINE... do you think it's possible to run the network-connection via the Win32 drivers in WINE? Just a suggestion.

Don't really know the answer to that one. There are a couple more options to look at along those lines in the form of wrappers for the Win32 driver. One is commercial http://www.linuxant.com (free trial) and the other is open http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net . I had my own problems with a wireless card and tried ndiswrapper (needs kernel source to compile). Haven't got it to work yet. Again I think these solutions maybe only work with certain hardware.

If you buy another card be very careful it is the exact model you need. Manufacturers are selling quite different hardware under very similar names.