I am running SuSE 8.0 Kernel 2.4.18-4GB
The card (an SMC2632W EZ Connect Wireless) did not come with linux driver=s.
However the SMC site has drivers for download which are older than the
ones installed on my system (with the standard SuSE 8.0 install)
I have installed the PCMCIA extensions and tools, as well as the wireless
tools

Running cardctl insert/eject works to power the card on/off.
When I insert the card and run "cardctl ident" I get the following:

Socket 0:
product info: "SMC", "SMC2632W", "Version 01.02", ""
manfid: 0x0156, 0x0002
function: 6 (network)
Socket 1:
no product info available

so... i believe at a basic pcmcia level it can see the card
I saw nothing using ifconfig or iwconfig

next..., after fishing around in the HOWTO I found a file
/etc/sysconfig/pcmcia where you can choose to use the "kernel" installed
drivers or the "external" drivers for pcmcia. After looking at the
/var/log/messages file it was obvious that the "kernel" option was not
working so, I set the PCMCIA_SYSTEM variable to "external" and rebooted.

At this point the external pcmcia drivers come up and from ifconfig
I get the following:

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:04:E2:08:20:8B
inet6 addr: fe80::204:e2ff:fe08:208b/10 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:3 Base address:0x140

which is good but it still won't go out and pull a DHCP address or let me
modify the /etc/pcmcia/network.ops file to setup a static address...

I also get the following information out of iwconfig:

wlan0 IEEE 802.11-b ESSID:"non-spec"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462GHz Access Point: 44:44:44:44:44:44
Link Quality:0 Signal level:27 Noise level:27
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

so these two things tell me that it sees some portion of the card but maybe
not all....

Also i get the following information from the /var/log/messages file

Aug 28 13:22:01 suzlt1 cardmgr[652]: executing: './wlan-ng check wlan0'
Aug 28 13:22:01 suzlt1 cardmgr[652]: + usage: ./network [action] [devicename]
Aug 28 13:22:01 suzlt1 cardmgr[652]: + actions: start check stop suspend
resume
Aug 28 13:22:01 suzlt1 cardmgr[652]: + Device <wlan0> not found in stab
Aug 28 13:22:01 suzlt1 cardmgr[652]: executing: './wlan-ng stop wlan0'
Aug 28 13:22:01 suzlt1 cardmgr[652]: + usage: ./network [action] [devicename]
Aug 28 13:22:01 suzlt1 cardmgr[652]: + actions: start check stop suspend resume
Aug 28 13:22:01 suzlt1 cardmgr[652]: + Device <wlan0> not found in stab
Aug 28 13:22:01 suzlt1 cardmgr[652]: executing: 'rmmod prism2_cs'
Aug 28 13:22:01 suzlt1 kernel: hfa384x_docmd_wait: hfa384x_cmd timeout(1),reg=3D0xffff.
Aug 28 13:22:01 suzlt1 kernel: hfa384x_drvr_shutdown: hfa384x_drvr_shutdown:cmd_initialize failed, result=3D-110
Aug 28 13:22:01 suzlt1 kernel: prism2_cs.o: 0.1.13-devel1 Unloaded
Aug 28 13:22:09 suzlt1 /etc/hotplug/net.agent[1294]: No HW description found=E.. exiting

which tells me that there isnt a stab entry for this interface/card but..

cat /var/lib/pcmcia/stab
Socket 0: Intersil PRISM2 Reference Design 11Mb/s WLAN Card
0 wlan-ng prism2_cs 0 wlan0
Socket 1: empty

..tells me that there is an entry in the "stab" file...

it is entirely probable that I have missed something VERY
basic since I am quite new to linux.

No man, you're ontop of this... Okay weird, quick breakdown:

Up until kernel 2.4.2, about a year ago, all of the pcmcia drivers were external to the kernel in a nifty package called pcmcia-cs. Finally (!!!), they were moved into the kernel, but the pcmcia-cs package was still necessary for the program called cardmgr, all of the /etc/pcmcia configuration files, etc.

Also, about 2 years ago there started a driver project called the linux-wlan-ng project that wanted to put together the best driver for the prism2 series cards that dog+world+Linksys and Dlink started selling cheaper than candy bars. They started with their original prism1 code and sort of more or less ignored the kernel API wireless extensions when they came around... so iwconfig and iwpriv and all of those coolio toys of Jean's don't work. I find it rather surprising that SuSe started shipping them... but hopefully since there is a patched config file for prism2 drivers in pcmcia-cs now that'll change shortly... gergh...

I just checked Jean's library and most likely your card is just another prism2 card, see for yourself:

http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_...WavelanIEEEbin

Er... page down to entry 10 or so.

There are 3 drivers for your card as far as I can tell, but your cards ident info hasn't wandered its way into any of the .conf files as it isn't all that common.

First off... you can take a look at /etc/pcmcia/config, page down until you see all of the wireless idents, and make an entry for your card, based on the info you got from "cardctl ident" with a bind line to orinoco_cs... see if it horks. That little driver just does such a good little job when it works. iwconfig and the rest of the tools will work with it just fine.

Second, run with what you've got, in order to change settings though, you're going to have to change the script /etc/pcmcia/wlan-ng.opts for your settings and give pcmcia a hard restart:

/etc/init.d/pcmcia restart

Third... its on Jean's page, this nifty little hobbiest driver I got to be the "only" thing to work once with a bizarre OEM'ed 3com once. Nifty driver, still kinda beta.

Cheers,

Finegan