We have some crappy old B network stuff from Linksys, and I was wondering if there was any way I could use it with Linux. (If it matters, I have Mandrake v10.1.)

I'm using a WUSB11 ver 2.8 under Xandros 3.0; no problems. Previously I used the same device with Fedora Core2; had to upgrade the kernel and fiddle with files. Xandros found and installed the driver first time.

/D

But uh... 2.6 did nothing for Mandrake... And I'm brand new to Linux and don't even really know how to upgrade the kernel nor how to fiddle with files. I wouldn't even know where to FIND the files, much less what to fiddle with.

I know, it is a silly question, but have you set wireless up in the control panel? In XP that adapter is automatically configured, but not so in Mandrake.

That said, the WUSB11 v2.6 should work right out of the box with Mandrake 10.1 (the proper driver is there), however I believe there may be a bug in the init or hotplug scripts.

Open the konsole and type in "dmesg" (without the quotes). Post the output here, and we'll look it over.

I've been googling all over and haven't found much on this problem, so I am not sure if it is just me or if it actually is more wide-spread.

Hope I can help.

Here's that nice long output for you... :-P

Linux version 2.6.8.1-10mdk (nplanel@n3.mandrakesoft.com) (gcc version 3.4.1 (Mandrakelinux (Alpha 3.4.1-3mdk)) #1 Wed Sep 8 17:00:52 CEST 2004
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000000e0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000001ffe0000 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000001ffe0000 - 000000001fff8000 (ACPI data)
BIOS-e820: 000000001fff8000 - 0000000020000000 (ACPI NVS)
BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 00000000fec01000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000fee00000 - 00000000fee01000 (reserved)
0MB HIGHMEM available.
511MB LOWMEM available.
On node 0 totalpages: 131040
DMA zone: 4096 pages, LIFO batch:1
Normal zone: 126944 pages, LIFO batch:16
HighMem zone: 0 pages, LIFO batch:1
DMI 2.3 present.
ACPI: RSDP (v000 AMI ) @ 0x000ff8f0
ACPI: RSDT (v001 INTEL SOLANO70 0x20010202 IMA 0x00000097) @ 0x1fff0000
ACPI: FADT (v001 INTEL SOLANO70 0x20010202 IMA 0x00000097) @ 0x1fff1000
ACPI: DSDT (v001 0AAUO 0AAUOP07 0x00060100 MSFT 0x0100000c) @ 0x00000000
ACPI: PM-Timer IO Port: 0x408
Built 1 zonelists
Found and enabled local APIC!
Initializing CPU#0
Kernel command line: root=/dev/hde1 devfs=nomount acpi=ht splash=silent vga=785
bootsplash: silent mode.
PID hash table entries: 2048 (order 11: 16384 bytes)
Detected 930.391 MHz processor.
Using pmtmr for high-res timesource
Console: colour dummy device 80x25
Dentry cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Memory: 515268k/524160k available (1860k kernel code, 8136k reserved, 581k data, 200k init, 0k highmem, 0k BadRAM)
Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode... Ok.
Calibrating delay loop... 1847.29 BogoMIPS
Security Scaffold v1.0.0 initialized
SELinux: Disabled at boot.
Capability LSM initialized
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
CPU: After generic identify, caps: 0383fbff 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: After vendor identify, caps: 0383fbff 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: L1 I cache: 16K, L1 D cache: 16K
CPU: L2 cache: 256K
CPU: After all inits, caps: 0383fbff 00000000 00000000 00000040
Intel machine check architecture supported.
Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
CPU: Intel Pentium III (Coppermine) stepping 06
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
init init/main.c:689
init init/main.c:702
init init/main.c:707
do_pre_smp_initcalls init/main.c:653
do_pre_smp_initcalls init/main.c:659
init init/main.c:711
init init/main.c:714
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 930.0136 MHz.
..... host bus clock speed is 132.0876 MHz.
init init/main.c:716
init init/main.c:718
checking if image is initramfs...it isn't (no cpio magic); looks like an initrd
ACPI: Looking for DSDT in initrd ... not found!
Freeing initrd memory: 137k freed
init init/main.c:724
do_basic_setup init/main.c:634
do_basic_setup init/main.c:636
NET: Registered protocol family 16
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfdba1, last bus=2
PCI: Using configuration type 1
mtrr: v2.0 (20020519)
ACPI: Subsystem revision 20040326
ACPI: Interpreter disabled.
Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay
PnPBIOS: Disabled
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
PCI: Transparent bridge - 0000:00:1e.0
PCI: Using IRQ router PIIX/ICH [8086/2410] at 0000:00:1f.0
vesafb: framebuffer at 0xf0000000, mapped to 0xe0800000, size 1200k
vesafb: mode is 640x480x16, linelength=1280, pages=24
vesafb: protected mode interface info at c000:441b
vesafb: scrolling: redraw
vesafb: directcolor: size=0:5:6:5, shift=0:11:5:0
fb0: VESA VGA frame buffer device
apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x0b (Driver version 1.16ac)
audit: initializing netlink socket (disabled)
audit(1105838008.148:0): initialized
VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.1
Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 4096 bytes)
devfs: 2004-01-31 Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
devfs: boot_options: 0x0
Initializing Cryptographic API
isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
bootsplash 3.1.6-2004/03/31: looking for picture... no good signature found.
Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 80x30
Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 8 ports, IRQ sharing enabled
ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
ttyS1 at I/O 0x2f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 32000K size 1024 blocksize
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
ICH: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:1f.1
ICH: chipset revision 2
ICH: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
ide0: BM-DMA at 0xffa0-0xffa7, BIOS settings: hda:pio, hdb:pio
ide1: BM-DMA at 0xffa8-0xffaf, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:DMA
Probing IDE interface ide0...
Probing IDE interface ide1...
hdc: FX4831T, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
hdd: R/RW 8x4x32, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
Using anticipatory io scheduler
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
PDC20267: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:02:0b.0
PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 0000:02:0b.0
PDC20267: chipset revision 2
PDC20267: ROM enabled at 0xff9d0000
PDC20267: 100% native mode on irq 10
PDC20267: (U)DMA Burst Bit ENABLED Primary PCI Mode Secondary PCI Mode.
ide2: BM-DMA at 0xdf00-0xdf07, BIOS settings: hde:DMA, hdf:pio
ide3: BM-DMA at 0xdf08-0xdf0f, BIOS settings: hdg:pio, hdh:pio
Probing IDE interface ide2...
hde: MAXTOR 6L040J2, ATA DISK drive
ide2 at 0xdff0-0xdff7,0xdfe6 on irq 10
Probing IDE interface ide3...
hdg: LS-120 VER5 00 UHD Floppy, ATAPI FLOPPY drive
ide3 at 0xdfa8-0xdfaf,0xdfe2 on irq 10
hde: max request size: 128KiB
hde: 78177792 sectors (40027 MB) w/1819KiB Cache, CHS=65535/16/63, UDMA(100)
/dev/ide/host2/bus0/target0/lun0: p1 p2 < p5 p6 >
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
input: ImPS/2 Generic Wheel Mouse on isa0060/serio1
serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard on isa0060/serio0
md: md driver 0.90.0 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27
NET: Registered protocol family 2
IP: routing cache hash table of 4096 buckets, 32Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 32768 bind 65536)
NET: Registered protocol family 1
BIOS EDD facility v0.16 2004-Jun-25, 6 devices found
init init/main.c:726
md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
md: autorun ...
md: ... autorun DONE.
RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 200k freed
Generic RTC Driver v1.07
usbcore: registered new driver usbfs
usbcore: registered new driver hub
USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v2.2
PCI: Found IRQ 5 for device 0000:00:1f.2
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1f.2: UHCI Host Controller
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.2 to 64
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1f.2: irq 5, io base 0000ef80
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1f.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 1-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
usb 1-1: new full speed USB device using address 2
3rdparty/at76c503a/usbdfu.c: USB Device Firmware Upgrade (DFU) handler v0.12beta14-cvs20072004 loading
3rdparty/at76c503a/at76c503.c: Generic Atmel at76c503/at76c505 routines v0.12beta14-cvs20072004
3rdparty/at76c503a/at76c503-fw_skel.c: Atmel at76c503 (RFMD) Wireless LAN Driver v0.12beta14-cvs20072004 loading
3rdparty/at76c503a/at76c503-fw_skel.c: using compiled-in firmware
3rdparty/at76c503a/at76c503.c: getting firmware failed with -32, or version is 0
3rdparty/at76c503a/at76c503.c: this probably means that the ext. fw was not loaded correctly
usbcore: registered new driver at76c503-rfmd
EXT3 FS on hde1, internal journal
Adding 511520k swap on /dev/hde5. Priority:-1 extents:1
Linux agpgart interface v0.100 (c) Dave Jones
agpgart: Detected an Intel i815 Chipset.
agpgart: Maximum main memory to use for agp memory: 439M
agpgart: AGP aperture is 64M @ 0xf8000000
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS on hde6, internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Supermount version 2.0.4 for kernel 2.6
loop: loaded (max 8 devices)
hdc: ATAPI 48X CD-ROM drive, 128kB Cache, UDMA(33)
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
hdd: ATAPI 32X CD-ROM CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache, DMA
inserting floppy driver for 2.6.8.1-10mdk
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
hdg: No disk in drive
hdg: 123264kB, 963/8/32 CHS, 533 kBps, 512 sector size, 720 rpm
usbcore: registered new driver hiddev
usbcore: registered new driver usbhid
drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.0:USB HID core driver
NET: Registered protocol family 17
Intel 810 + AC97 Audio, version 1.01, 16:58:44 Sep 8 2004
PCI: Found IRQ 9 for device 0000:00:1f.5
PCI: Sharing IRQ 9 with 0000:00:1f.3
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.5 to 64
i810: Intel ICH 82801AA found at IO 0xef00 and 0xe800, MEM 0x0000 and 0x0000, IRQ 9
i810_audio: Audio Controller supports 2 channels.
i810_audio: Defaulting to base 2 channel mode.
i810_audio: Resetting connection 0
ac97_codec: AC97 Audio codec, id: ADS64 (Analog Devices AD1881)
i810_audio: AC'97 codec 0 Unable to map surround DAC's (or DAC's not present), total channels = 2
NET: Registered protocol family 10
Disabled Privacy Extensions on device c0323b60(lo)
IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling driver
mtrr: 0xf0000000,0x1000000 overlaps existing 0xf0000000,0x100000
mtrr: 0xf0000000,0x1000000 overlaps existing 0xf0000000,0x100000
[drm] Initialized r128 2.5.0 20030725 on minor 0:
mtrr: 0xf0000000,0x1000000 overlaps existing 0xf0000000,0x100000
agpgart: Found an AGP 2.0 compliant device at 0000:00:00.0.
agpgart: Putting AGP V2 device at 0000:00:00.0 into 1x mode
agpgart: Putting AGP V2 device at 0000:01:00.0 into 1x mode
ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 1
ISO 9660 Extensions: IEEE_P1282
cdrom: This disc doesn't have any tracks I recognize!
ide-floppy: hdg: I/O error, pc = 0, key = 2, asc = 3a, ascq = 0
ide-floppy: hdg: I/O error, pc = 1b, key = 2, asc = 3a, ascq = 0
hdg: No disk in drive
ide-floppy: hdg: I/O error, pc = 0, key = 2, asc = 3a, ascq = 0
ide-floppy: hdg: I/O error, pc = 1b, key = 2, asc = 3a, ascq = 0
hdg: No disk in drive
ide-floppy: hdg: I/O error, pc = 0, key = 2, asc = 3a, ascq = 0
ide-floppy: hdg: I/O error, pc = 1b, key = 2, asc = 3a, ascq = 0
hdg: No disk in drive
ide-floppy: hdg: I/O error, pc = 0, key = 2, asc = 3a, ascq = 0
ide-floppy: hdg: I/O error, pc = 1b, key = 2, asc = 3a, ascq = 0
hdg: No disk in drive
VFS: busy inodes on changed media.
hdg: 1440kB, 2880 blocks, 512 sector size
hdg: 1440kB, 80/2/18 CHS, 150 kBps, 512 sector size, 720 rpm
VFS: Can't find ext2 filesystem on dev hdg.
/dev/ide/host2/bus1/target0/lun0:
FAT: utf8 is not a recommended IO charset for FAT filesystems, filesystem will be case sensitive!

This is the part of the output that talks about the adapter.

As you can see, the correct driver is there (at76c503-rfmd), but on the line where it says "the ext. fw was not loaded correctly" it is talking about the firmware that must be loaded into flash on the adapter.

Looks like you have the same problem as I do.

If your machine is dual-boot, then you can boot windows and activate the adapter (which loads the firmware) and then reboot to Linux. If you do that then you should find that the adapter suddenly works!

Now for my question (or two)....
I have tried thekelleys.org.uk firmware loader, but their documentation seems lacking and I couldn't get it to work.

I have also tried some debugging of the hotplug scripts, but I am new to that. Does anyone know much about the hotplug firmware agent? Would I be right to expect it to be doing the firmware loading, or might some other part of the system also be able to load firmware?

On my machine the hotplug firmware agent is *not* called. The usb agent is, but not the firmware agent.

On second thought, yes thekelleys was quite clear that the firmware agent is supposed to do the loading. So now I guess I have to figure out why it isn't called. Bother.

If it is very important to you, Mandrake 10 didn't have this problem. You could downgrade .

I'm not sure how much time I will have to work on it, so don't expect immediate results from here, but if someone else wanted to help I would be grateful.

1) I don't dual-boot. I wanted to, but a) I had WinME (self-explanatory), and b) whenever I tried to make a drive partition for Windows, the installer froze, so finally I just gave up and wiped the whole thing with Linux.

2) I wouldn't even know HOW to switch to 10. And are you sure that that would work?

3) Actually, come to think of it, I could go back and re-partition it right now if I can find that **** annoying Windows CD...

"That said, the WUSB11 v2.6 should work right out of the box with Mandrake 10.1 (the proper driver is there),..."

What driver would that be?

I may be wrong but might some type of wardriving app help make the device easy to configure on the fly?

The driver is the atmel at76c503-rfmd (as shown by dmesg).

Which installer froze when trying to partition? Windows or Mandrake? I've never had a freeze like that before with a Mandrake installer.

To switch to Mdk 10 you would have to wipe the drive again and start over.

What is a wardriving app? I have not heard of that.

Hello collective linux dudes,

You will find much advice and reports on using that adapter at the much-undervalued HCL on this site. Here is the direct link because I'm nice like that.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/sh...php?product=71
Regards
Chris