Looking for in depth install procedure for hostap.
 

Hi All.

I have a desire to create a AP for my wireless system using Fedora Core3 and a SMC2802 54G wireless card.

I have moved to the SMC2802 as the last card, which worked was a ACX100 driver so didnt support the AP firmware in the Prism Chipset.

I have the downloads and have done the make and make install on the driver but then got a bit stuck.

can anyone point me at a good document to guide me through setting this up.

Many thanks.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start...dnt-429&e=7168
http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start...r.shtml&e=7168
http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start.../Linux/&e=7168
http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start...ssnoap/&e=7168
http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start...TO.html&e=7168

or YOu could use google

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&c...+linux&spell=1

Thanks for the prompt response.

Maybe I didnt explain what I was looking for. The AP side I am happy with for now. The issue is the SMC 2802w and getting the hostap driver installed.

All the articles I have read are a bit vaugue and dont comply with the dist I am using. Being a newbie I am a bit reluctant to start trying commands for the hell of it and I dont fully understand the Kernel compliling side fully. So I was looking either for a doc ref the SMC card and hostap or I suppose someone who has done it.

Regards

i'm not familiar with hostap, what is it?

Driver for the Prism chipset to enable the use of the switches in the firmware to allow the TX of the beacon signal and broadcast the SSID. No other chipset allows you into this hence why APs use it.

Basically it is a driver.

Regards

Dave

Just to clarify you're not using it as an AP? what are you trying to accomplish?

If the card you're tryin gto make work with hostap is a wireless G card it won't work, if what you just said is accurate. there are 3 wireless G cards, and I'm pretty sure that SMC uses the broadcom chip, I'd have to do a little more research, put it's definitely not a Prism Card

The idea is to use it as an AP at a later stage.

First I need the driver installed. Fedora picks the card up as an Intersil Prism chipset but I cannot get it to activate. The iwconfig says the card is incorrectly configured.

The SMC2802W is a 54G card and is supported on Prsim54.org.

The issue I am having being a newb is the compiling the kernal to include the hostap driver. I feel a bit dounted and get a bit confused over the kernel path etc.

The make file for the hostap driver seems to go through fine and then the make install command also seems to work. Thats when I get stuck.

is it possible I would need to compile the kernel without the fedora 3 prism driver in order to get the hostap driver in and working.

I researched the card and and certain of the prism chipset. I am starting to think maybe I should have gone for a b card as there seems to be articles out there.

dave

Here's the thing. Either the hostap driver is being compiled as a module and has to be loaded:
you can also modify a file (will edit later and add) and it will atoload at boot, but before you permantently auto load the module you'll need to get it to load. If the hostap module compiled correctly the there should be a .ko or a .o file.

BTW: what are you using this system for?

FC3 may not be the best distribution for you. I would totally explore that further. Especially if you're using this systme as a server, I wuold woithout hesitation switch to a different distro.

Debian, Gentoo, and vairants, or RHEL depending on your specific needs.

If it's a workstation, Try not to mix in servers (apache / mysql / even dhcp). Sharing like that can lead to problems.