Well, the dwl-520 rev.e is not very well supported under linux, but I have heard that it is possible to make it work, so instead of buying a new card, I decided to try. I worked with FC4 for a long time, but could never get all of the required software installed because I was constantly fighting dependencies that I couldn't seem to resolve.

After an update to FC5 I was incredibly excited to see that all the software I needed was already installed! FC5 now sees the card, sees that it has the Prism 2.5 Wavelan chipset, and also sees that it needs to use the hostap_pci drivers. It seemed to get it all right, but now I'm further from getting it online then before because I have no idea whats wrong.

I decided that since it seemed to have the card all ready to go I could just configure it using the Gnome Wireless Configuration utility. I started with just an adhoc network because my home network uses WPA and from what I've heard, that could take a while to get setup. When ever I get the settings entered, and click "activate" the status window gives me these messages:

Cannot activate network device wifi0!
Error for wireless request "Set Frequency" (8B04):
SET failed on device wifi0; Invalid argument.
Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A):
SET failed on device wifi0; Invalid argument.
Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B2A):
SET failed on device wifi0; Invalid argument.
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Success
Failed to bring up wifi0.

So, I'm not sure whats wrong, all I get from the above is that one thing works, and the rest don't. What are these messeges telling me? How do I go about fixing them?

Thanks in advance.

Hi,

I just got this card working under FC5. In order to get it to work, you just need to load firmware into the card. Everything else is already set up by default in FC5.

See www"dot"oakcourt"dot"dyndns"dot"org"slash"~andrew"slash"dwl520e1"dot"html for the general idea, but you don't need to do all of what is there. (sorry for typing out the url like that, as this is my first post here it won't let me link...)

You will need to install hostap-utils, which I installed from atrpms"dot"net"slash"dist"slash"fc5"slash"hostap-utils. That packaged includes hostap_fw_load and prism2_srec.

Then you need to get the firmware from www"dot"red-bean"dot"com"slash"~proski"slash"firmware. Get the files as described in the first link above, unzip them and put pm010102.hex and rf010803.hex in /lib/firmware.

Now you need to edit /usr/sbin/hostap_fw_load and change the lines to tell it where to find those two files and where to find prism2_srec:

PRI=/lib/firmware/pm010102.hex
STA=/lib/firmware/rf010803.hex
PRISM2_SREC=/usr/sbin/prism2_srec

Once you've done that, you can just run (as root) /usr/sbin/hostap_fw_load wlan0

You should see a bunch of output if all goes well. After doing that, you can just make sure it is configured properly and it should work (it does for me). You will want to configure and activate wlan0, not wifi0, by the way.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the response, I'll try this as soon as I can.

One thing I've noticed, though. If I reboot without powering off the computer for about 10 or 15 seconds, the hostap_fw_load script fails. It seems you need to let the card powerdown all the way and come up clean for it to work. Once the firmware is loaded, the card has worked great.

I tried following this procedure step-by-step, made at least once mistake along the way, but I thought I had fixed it, and it still doesn't appear to work. Here are my notes:

1. Installed hostap-utils
   Verify:
   [altjira@localhost ~]$ rpm -qa | grep hostap
   hostap-utils-0.4.7-6.rhfc5.at
   [altjira@localhost ~]$
   
2. Installed firmware in /lib/firmware
   (Required root to write to /lib/firmware)
   Verify:
   [altjira@localhost ~]$ ls -l /lib/firmware
   total 208
   -rw------- 1 altjira altjira 15234 Jan 29 2004 pm010102.hex
   -rwxr-xr-x 1 altjira altjira 182094 May 24 2004 rf010803.hex
   [altjira@localhost ~]$
   
3. Edited /usr/sbin/hostap_fw_load
   (Required root to edit)
   Original Text (including line numbers):
   9 PRI=/etc/pcmcia/PM010102.HEX
   10 STA=/etc/pcmcia/RF010802.HEX
   11 PRISM2_SREC=/usr/local/bin/prism2_srec
   
   As Edited:
   9 PRI=/lib/firmware/pm010102.HEX
   10 STA=/lib/firmware/rf010803.HEX
   11 PRISM2_SREC=/usr/sbin/prism2_srec
   
4. Ran, as root, /usr/sbin/hostap_fw_load wlan0
   Output:
   [root@localhost ~]# /usr/sbin/hostap_fw_load wlan0
   Downloading primary firmware /lib/firmware/pm010102.HEX
   '/lib/firmware/pm010102.HEX' not readable: No such file or directory.
   Parsing '/lib/firmware/pm010102.HEX' failed.
   [root@localhost ~]#
   
5. Corrected error in edit of /usr/sbin/hostap_fw_load
   As Corrected:
   9 PRI=/lib/firmware/pm010102.hex
   10 STA=/lib/firmware/rf010803.hex
   11 PRISM2_SREC=/usr/sbin/prism2_srec
   
6. Ran, as root, /usr/sbin/hostap_fw_load wlan0
   Output:
   [root@localhost ~]# /usr/sbin/hostap_fw_load wlan0
   Downloading primary firmware /lib/firmware/pm010102.hex
   srec summary for pm010102.hex
   Included file name: PM010102.HEX
   Component: 0x0015 1.1.2 (primary firmware)
   
   
   Verifying update compatibility and combining data:
   Plugging PDR 0400 (NIC configuration): ram16=1 pci=1 (07 00)
   OK.
   
   Downloading to volatile memory (RAM).
   OK.
   srec summary for pm010102.hex
   Included file name: PM010102.HEX
   Component: 0x0015 1.1.2 (primary firmware)
   
   ioctl[PRISM2_IOCTL_HOSTAPD]: No data available
   STAID not available (maybe running PRI-only)
   ioctl[PRISM2_IOCTL_HOSTAPD]: No data available
   ioctl[PRISM2_IOCTL_HOSTAPD]: No data available
   Could not read wlan PDA. This requires PRISM2_DOWNLOAD_SUPPORT definition in
   driver/module/hostap_config.h.
   [root@localhost ~]#

Can you see what I've done wrong?

Hmmm... First of all, the file permissions on your rf010803.hex (rwxr-xr-x) look like you might have unzipped it using Windows. Do the md5sums of your firmware match those from Andrew Barr's web site? It should be:
bd866a66d5cd5c268ed071e3879290af rf010803.hex
If it's a dos text format it will be different and that could screw things up.
Aside from that, I got it working on FC5--what distribution/kernel/hostap versions are you using?
Also, are you sure you have a rev. E1 card (lspci -vv)?
Are the hostap modules loaded (lsmod | grep hostap)?

I don't have a lot of experience with this card beyond this one machine where it seems to work. It's an old HP pavilion, PIII, Intel 810 chipset.

Well, I had unzipped one with windows, but the md5sum checked out ok. I replaced the offending file with one unzipped by Linux and there was no difference. As a matter of fact, I actually got it working somehow using both the command line and the GUI for network-system-config and Network Manager, but of course, I can't remember all the little tweaks I tried to get that to happen. While I was up, I used pup to upgrade everything, so of course it didn't work again after a reboot. Rebooting back in 2.6.15 didn't help. I've documented a lot in my blog.

Yes, it's revision E, as confirmed by lspci -v - Intersil Prism 2.5. I'm using FC5/2.6.15 (now 2.6.16)/hostap-utils-0.4.7. lsmod shows hostap and ieee80211_crypt, and sometime shows hostap_pci. I'm using an AMD Duron processor.

This is very frustrating now because I got it to work once, so I know it's possible, but I've tried so many things I'm afraid I've hopelessly screened everything up. Now, I'm not even showing anything active when I iwconfig. Are there some way to backtrack or to figure out all my mistakes, or should I just reinstall fc5 and start fresh?

I reinstalled FC5 and got some different results, but still no joy. I know other people are trying to do the same thing, because I'm getting hits on my blog and out clicks coming here. Is anyone else having any success? Are you running into the same problems, or different ones? Either spread the wealth or share the pain!

What are the different results?

Specifically, if you shut down your computer and power it off all the way for 60 seconds or so, reboot and make sure that Fedora doesn't try to activate the card (turn off activate on boot) and run the firmware load, what messages do you see? My card has been working continuously for weeks now--once it's up it's up. It is quirky if loading the firmware isn't the first thing I do. The hostap modules load on boot. Is there some funky line in your /etc/modeprobe.conf that's screwing things up maybe?
Hmm... looking in my /etc/modeprobe.conf I have:

alias wifi0 orinoco_pci

and nothing about wlan0 or the hostap (I am quite certain about the identity of this card), but indeed both orinoco and hostap modules are loaded...

Frankly, I don't know what the hell that means, but if I cold reboot, run the hostap_fw_load and then activate the card it works. If I don't do things in that order (e.g. try to activate the card before loading the firmware or do a warm reboot), it doesn't.

If you had it working once, I think it's just a matter of figuring out what the correct initiating sequence is.

Good luck!

My /etc/modprobe.conf reads

alias wifi0 hostap_pci

Which is what it is supposed to be, near as I can tell. If I shut everything off, go root, and run hostap_fw_load I get the following:

[root@localhost ~]# /usr/sbin/hostap_fw_load wlan0
Downloading primary firmware /lib/firmware/pm010102.hex
srec summary for pm010102.hex
Included file name: PM010102.HEX
Component: 0x0015 1.1.2 (primary firmware)


Verifying update compatibility and combining data:
Plugging PDR 0400 (NIC configuration): ram16=1 pci=1 (07 00)
OK.

Downloading to volatile memory (RAM).
OK.
srec summary for pm010102.hex
Included file name: PM010102.HEX
Component: 0x0015 1.1.2 (primary firmware)

ioctl[PRISM2_IOCTL_HOSTAPD]: No data available
STAID not available (maybe running PRI-only)
ioctl[PRISM2_IOCTL_HOSTAPD]: No data available
ioctl[PRISM2_IOCTL_HOSTAPD]: No data available
Could not read wlan PDA. This requires PRISM2_DOWNLOAD_SUPPORT definition in
driver/module/hostap_config.h.

Notice all those ioctl errors? It looks like the primary loaded, but then things went all to hell. Since I've been reading a lot of README files lately, I found hostap_diag. Running that, I get:

[root@localhost ~]# hostap_diag -a wlan0
Host AP driver diagnostics information for 'wlan0'

NICID: id=0x8000 v0.0.1 (EVB2 (HFA3841EVAL1) with PRISM I (3860B) Radio)
PRIID: id=0x0015 v1.1.2
ioctl[PRISM2_IOCTL_HOSTAPD]: No data available

Known RIDs (Resource IDentifiers)

FCE0=TICKTIME=10
FD00=MAXLOADTIME=60000
FD01=DOWNLOADBUFFER=<60><00><00><00><00><08>
FD02=PRIID=0x15 v1.1.2
FD03=PRISUPRANGE=0 0x03 1 4-4
FD04=CFIACTRANGES=1 0x02 2 1-1
FD0A=NICSERNUM=SA01000000I&
FD0B=NICID=0x8000 v0.0.1
FD0C=MFISUPRANGE=0 0x01 0 1-1
FD0D=CFISUPRANGE=0 0x02 0 1-1
FD24=PRODUCTNAME=
FFFE=BUILDSEQ=<00><00>
FFFF=FWID=010102.HEX<00><00><00><00>

Unknown RIDs (Resource IDentifiers)

Baseband proccessor (BBP) Configuration Registers

ioctl[PRISM2_IOCTL_READMIF]: Operation not supported (56 times!)

Production Data Area (PDA)

Could not read wlan PDA. This requires PRISM2_DOWNLOAD_SUPPORT definition for the kernel driver.
[root@localhost ~]#

The only thing I understand about the above output is that this "ioctl" is showing up again, and then the dreaded "Could not read wlan PDA".

-Oh, almost forgot to mention - I'm using an AMD Duron. I've seen reports of funky things happening with AMD devices, but it worked once... I'm studying up on ioctl.

My card was working great using the instructions here, and then out of no where I'm getting the same errors you are. I agree that it looks like its getting the primary firmware loaded and then things break down. Did you ever make any progress in finding out what is happening?

I think this output:

Could not read wlan PDA. This requires PRISM2_DOWNLOAD_SUPPORT definition for the kernel driver.

may be the crucial information. According to this site (which distributes hostap):

http://hostap.epitest.fi/cgi-bin/vie...ype=text/plain

"Please note, that
the downloading support is disabled in the default Host AP driver
build. You will need to change this by defining
PRISM2_DOWNLOAD_SUPPORT (and PRISM2_NON_VOLATILE_DOWNLOAD if you want
to update flash); see driver/modules/hostap_config.h for more details.

Jun Sun has written a mini-howto on flashing Intersil Prism
Chipsets. This is available at http://linux.junsun.net/intersil-prism/."

I believe this means your existing hostap driver module was compiled with firmware download disabled - a safety feature. You'll have to recompile and re-modprobe it with this enabled to get past this point.

Good luck,
Jeff