Howto Sweex Wirelss Usb Adapter on Linux?
 

Hi,

has anyone ever got a Sweex Wirelss Usb Adapter (LC100020, www-sweex-nl/product.asp?pid=120) working on Linux (Mandrake 9.1)?

They have a Linux driver on their site for it but it don't seem to work for me.

Does somebody have some more info on this Adapter?
Like which chipset, which driver, configuration or maybe a little howto?

Any help is welcome.

Ronald

Welcome to LQ.

I haven't come accros this product myslef but if it has an official linux driver there sbould be a way to do it. At what part of the install/configuration did you run into problems.

Thanks Dave,

If have tried the two main wireless driver (wlan & prism) but in both cases the device is not recognised.

Meanwhile I asked the manufacter about the device. His reply:
"I am sorry to say this wireless USB adapter does not have Linux Drivers. It uses the Zydan chipset."

Any hints to get this working?
Ever heard of a driver for this chipset?

Ronald

Did you download the driver from their site?

Yes,

I did. But it is an old version of the prism driver. So I took the latest one of this driver but that did not work.

Well, any way, if Sweex support says it an Zydan chipset then the prism driver won't work, I think.

Ronald

Is it an older version or a modified version? Perhaps they modified the driver to support their chipset. Why would they say it works if it doesn't (other than to make you buy it)?

It works for me
 

It works for me, only in ifrastructure mode an wihout WEP. I could no make WEP working.

1 Compiled the driver an install it with a rpm packet made with checkinstall. I use a RH 8 an a kernel 2.4.20-18-8.

2 Compiled usbcore with the patch they provided

3 in /etc/modules.con
alias wlan0 prism2_usb

4 Then
export ACTION=add
export TYPE=ff/0/0
export PRODUCT=ace/1201/101

hotplug usb

5 in cat /lib/modules/2.4.20-18.8/modules.usbmap
add a line:
prism2_usb 0x0003 0x0ace 0x1201 0x0000 0x0000 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x0000c320


The problems:
Unplugging the device is dirty.
I could not make it working in ad-hoc mode.
I could not make it work with WEP

Ok, thanks.

Things are improving. I actually _read_ the readme that comes with the driver adn found some interesting things:

1. I patched my usbcore with the patch that is included in the download. This got rid of my "device is not accepting new address" error.

2. The driver is a modified wlan-ng copy. Meaning the original wlan-ng will never work for this chipset. ;-) So installed the Sweex version of the driver.

I also followed all your steps as described.

However it still gives me errors.

- ifconfig does not show any wlan0 device
- wlanctl-ng wlan0 <something> gives "wlanctl-ng: no such device"
- in de kernel log it says "USB device is not claimed by any driver". After this it still loads the (correct) prism2_usb driver. lsmod looks OK as well.

Any hints?
How do I get wlan0 to show when running ifconfig?

Thanks, Ronald

Well:

I must plug the stick after booting the machine.
Try to reset all the usb system

rmmod usbcore and then insmod usbcore (and all the usb devices)

I do /etc/hostplug/usb.rc stop for removing usbcore.

then plug the stick

If it doesn't work try
service wlan start

What says /var/log/messages when you do:
export ACTION=add
export TYPE=ff/0/0
export PRODUCT=ace/1201/101
hotplug usb


Excuse my english
Pedrop

Hi,

finally got it working.

I noticed that after I plugged in the adapter, Linux loaded the original usbcore and the original prism2_usb as supplied by the distribution. (I had compiled a new usbcore to get ride of the "device not accepting address" message).

I had renamed these drivers by means of back up but it worked out this does not fool Linux. It still recognized them as being valid drivers. So after I removed this drivers from the Linux driver directory and rebooted, the proper drivers loaded when I plugged in the adapter.

And after running wlanctl-nf ..... and ifconfig (as described in the readme) the wlan0 device is created and showing when I run ifconfig.

Happy boy now!

Also found out for sure now: the Sweex Usb Adapter (ZyDAS 1201 chipset) only works with the Sweex-driver (www.sweex.com). The standard wlan-ng driver does not work for it.

Thanks for all the help, Ronald

ad-hoc ???
 

Actualy, does ad-hoc mode work ?
I do not have an AP and I want to use 2 usb adapters. Do you have a solution ?

Hi,

don't really know since I only have one adapter. ;-)

But then again, when you use ad-hoc mode with static ip-addresses it should not be different from accessing an AP with static IP (and this works for me). Ad hoc mode with dynamic IP could be more difficult but maybe this is simply impossible under the Wifi protocol, I don't know.

I would set the ip-addresses of your to adapters to say 192.168.0.1 and .2. Make sure your netmask is 255.255.255.0 and then do a ping. Should work.

Hope this helps, Ronald

I tried this but ...
 

In ad-hoc mode, the two adapters do not even detect themselves. The led blinks and that's all.
When I start wlan, it says that this mode is unsupported but ad-hoc is supported since a while in the standard linux-wlan.

Hrllo

I'm frensh and I have the same problem but I don't find the driver on her site.
Could you give me the URL ?
thanks

Hi,

drivers were on this url:

http://www.sweex.com/product.asp?dlid=120

but now they are gone. :-(
Even the windows drivers don't show anymore.

Maybe contact sweex-support for this.

Good luck, Ronald