Hi all,

I am a of linux... i am using Fedora core2 now, i have been sucked by installing the my wireless network card driver for more than one weeks...

My wireless card is compex WLU11A, i have download the linux driver from the site http://www.cpx.com/driver.asp?pp=1&p=WLU11A and i believe that i still need a usb patch for kernel 2.6, so i downlaod the patch from http://atmelwlandriver.sourceforge.net/downloads.html .

but when i followed the instruction "gzip -cd your_download_path/patch-atmel_reset.gz | patch -p1" from the above website, it told me that "patch-atmel_reset.gz" is not in gzip format.....

how should i deal with it?? after gz the patch, should i recompile the kernel?? and after install the patch, should i need to download and install the atmelwlandriver-3.4.0.2, or just use the driver provided from the compex website?

thanks a lot
dejie

It looks like the atmel driver is already in the Fedora Core 2 kernel.

/lib/modules/2.6.5-1.358/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/atmel*

but this is only the driver, you'll also need the firmware.

If you try to do a:
insmod atmel
and check /var/log/messages for errors
or
service kudzu start
and see if Fedora detects the card for you.

you should get a message telling you what named firmware file is required and where to put it, but this is not alway true.

You do not need the kernel patch file. However that problem may be caused by your web brower unziping the file for you but leaving the .gz extension.

I'm a little short on time right now but if you need more direction on this I'd be more than happy to give it.

I should probably be a little clearer here. All wireless network cards PCI, PC, or USB based require a driver and a firmware file to function.

With Windows drivers usually there are separate files for both the driver and the firmware. The Windows driver is obviously only compatible with Windows however the firmware file is not OS specific only network card chipset specific. For most wireless cards the firmware is only available with the Windows drivers because Linux driver developers and distributions are not always allowed to redistribute binary firmware with the Linux drivers.

Hi, mpdavig, thanks for your reply. I really tried lots of time to follow the installation instruction given from compex website, and searched some website for relevant information, but the machine just couldn't detect my wireless card...... I think it's better to leave it for a while. Anyway thank you for all the information provided!